Translating electrochemical performance of large format batteries to microscale power sources has been a long-standing technological challenge, limiting the ability of batteries to power microdevices, microrobots and implantable medical devices. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers have created a high-voltage microbattery (> 9 V), with high-energy and -power density, unparalleled by any existing battery design. Material Science and Engineering Professor Paul Braun (Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering, Materials Research Laboratory Director), Dr. Sungbong Kim (Postdoc, MatSE, current assistant professor at Korea…
Scientists unveil a unified theory for rocky planet formation. A new theory for how rocky planets form could explain the origin of so-called “super-Earths”—a class of exoplanets a few times more massive than the Earth that are the most abundant type of planet in the galaxy. Further, it could explain why super-Earths within a single planetary system often wind up looking strangely similar in size, as though each system were only capable of producing a single kind of planet. “As…
It’s complicated … Planetary nebulae form when red giant stars expel their outermost layers as they run out of helium fuel — becoming hot, dense white dwarf stars that are roughly the size of Earth. The material that was shed, enriched in carbon, forms dazzling patterns as it is blown gently into the interstellar medium. Most planetary nebulae are roughly circular, but a few have an hourglass or wing-like shape, like the aptly named “Butterfly Nebula.” These shapes are likely…
After several years of operation, the STEREO collaboration published the final results of their antineutrino studies. With their data, the researchers excluded hints for the existence of sterile neutrinos, an additional neutrino state expected in many theories. The result which will appear in the January 11 issue of Nature has important implications for many areas of fundamental physics. In modern particle physics all known elementary particles and their interactions are described in the so-called Standard Model of Particle Physics. The…
Mechanical recycling today to ensure a diverse range. How can high-quality recyclates be produced from printed packaging? Can analytical fingerprints advance a circular plastics economy? These are just some of the questions that will be addressed at the fifth “Forum Plastic Recyclates” event to be held on March 29 and 30, 2023. Addressing topics such as the “recycling market and recycling standards”, “improved quality thanks to additives” and “applications for recycled plastics”, this year’s forum will focus once again on…
A novel technique called Underground Gravity Energy Storage turns decommissioned mines into long-term energy storage solutions, thereby supporting the sustainable energy transition. Renewable energy sources are central to the energy transition toward a more sustainable future. However, as sources like sunshine and wind are inherently variable and inconsistent, finding ways to store energy in an accessible and efficient way is crucial. While there are many effective solutions for daily energy storage, the most common being batteries, a cost-effective long-term solution…
Researchers at the University of Freiburg discover how the “Zona Incerta” communicates with the neocortex. The neocortex is the largest and most complex part of the brain and has long been considered the ultimate storage site for long-term memories. But how are traces of past events and experiences laid down there? Researchers at the University of Freiburg Medical School led by Prof. Dr. Johannes Letzkus and the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research have discovered that a little-studied area of…
Researchers from Japan and Germany develop a new sustainable way to upconvert blue LED light to UVB. An international team of researchers from Japan and Germany has developed a new system that upconverts blue LED light into high-energy Ultraviolet B, or UVB, light. As the system does not require any of the toxic and inefficient materials that are traditionally used for UVB production, it opens the door for applications using UVB that are more sustainable and eco-friendly. The results were…
Researchers have observed steric effects—the interactions of molecules depending on their spatial orientation (not just between their electrons involved in bonding)—in a chemical reaction involving non-polar molecules for the first time. The breakthrough opens the door to an entirely new way to control the products of chemical reactions. A paper describing the research team’s findings was published in the journal Science on Jan. 12. One of the central goals of chemistry is to develop new methods of controlling chemical reactions….
Tiny motor one day could drive innovations in materials science and medicine. Electric vehicles, powered by macroscopic electric motors, are increasingly prevalent on our streets and highways. These quiet and eco-friendly machines got their start nearly 200 years ago when physicists took the first tiny steps to bring electric motors into the world. Now a multidisciplinary team led by Northwestern University has made an electric motor you can’t see with the naked eye: an electric motor on the molecular scale….
Sometimes friction is good, such as the friction between a road and a car’s tires to prevent the vehicle from skidding. But sometimes friction is bad — if you did not put oil in that very same car, there would be so much friction in the bearings of the engine that the car could not operate. A material state known as super-lubricity, where friction between two contacting surfaces nearly vanishes, is a phenomenon that materials researchers have studied for years…
Astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) have unveiled a first-of-its-kind map that could help answer decades-old questions about the origins of stars and the influences of magnetic fields in the cosmos. The map reveals the likely magnetic field structure of the Local Bubble — a giant, 1,000-light-year-wide hollow in space surrounding our Sun. Like a hunk of Swiss cheese, our galaxy is full of these so-called superbubbles. The explosive supernova deaths of massive stars blow up these bubbles,…
At the Atelier Natália Gromicho in Lisbon, objects by an artist who donates a large number of his unique pieces to non-profit campaigns for the benefit of selected nature conservation projects can be purchased for the first time in an art exhibition from 4 to 11 February 2023. The artist, Bruno Wilbert, born in Germany in the year 1956, has been living on the island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean for 4 years. The impressive nature on this island…
New OHSU, OSU research uses lipid nanoparticles to target light-sensitive cells in the eye. Using nanotechnology that enabled mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, a new approach to gene therapy may improve how physicians treat inherited forms of blindness. A collaborative team of researchers with Oregon Health & Science University and Oregon State University have developed an approach that uses lipid nanoparticles — tiny, lab-made balls of fat — to deliver strands of messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, inside the eye. To treat blindness, the…
Researchers confirmed an exoplanet, a planet that orbits another star, using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope for the first time. Formally classified as LHS 475 b, the planet is almost exactly the same size as our own, clocking in at 99% of Earth’s diameter. The research team is led by Kevin Stevenson and Jacob Lustig-Yaeger, both of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. The team chose to observe this target with Webb after carefully reviewing targets…
… for efficient one-pot chemoenzymatic reactions. The merging of different types of catalysis including enzymatic, homogeneous, and heterogeneous catalysis is fundamentally important for both understanding catalysis at the atom level and the design of novel hybrid catalysts. The latter points to a direction toward the ideal catalyst that can drive complex tandem reactions efficiently in one-pot manner, and simplify the whole chemical production and separation process. Artificial enzymes that merge enzymatic, homogeneous, and heterogeneous catalysis provide such a promising platform…
Feedback
