In a study recently published in Nature Nanotechnology, a research group led by Prof. Du Haifeng and Dr. Tang Jin from High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), reported a scientific breakthrough after they found skyrmion bundles, a new family member of topological magnetic structures. With the help of Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (Lorentz-TEM), the research group clarified, for the first time, a type of magnetic quasiparticles with arbitrary topological charges Q, and then further realized current driven dynamic motion…
Ice is omnipresent and profoundly impacts our daily life, influencing areas such as climate change, transportation, and energy consumption. Understanding the process of ice formation can decelerate the rate at which glaciers melt and sea levels rise and alleviate other major environmental concerns. Since ice formation is mainly governed by ice nucleation followed by the growth of the nuclei, scientists have put in a great effort to understand the thermodynamics and kinetics behind the nucleation processes. Ice nucleation can occur…
With precise mass measurements and highly accurate calculations, a team led by MPI for Nuclear Physics has now succeeded in independently testing the accuracy of an important method of neutrino physics, cryogenic microcalorimetry. The most precise measurements are required to determine the properties of neutrinos – those extremely light ghost particles that penetrate matter almost unhindered. How heavy are neutrinos? According to the standard model of elementary particle physics, they are massless, but since the discovery of neutrino oscillations (Nobel…
New research published in Scientific Reports has revealed that a simple but robust algorithm can help engineers to improve the design of cellular materials that are used in a variety of diverse applications ranging from defence, bio-medical to smart structures and the aerospace sector. The way in which cellular materials will perform can be uncertain and so calculations to help engineers predict how they will react for a particular design, for a given set of loads, conditions and constraints, can…
Our electrical infrastructure has remained largely unchanged since World War II, but advances in technology — specifically materials — opened doors we never would have thought possible in the past. These advances have set the stage to redesign our electrical infrastructure for the next 100 years and beyond. The redesign is critical because every day we put more stress on the electrical grid, demand faster computer processing, and push toward electrical transportation. The advanced and miniaturized semi-conductors powering these devices…
Scientists engineer materials’ electrical and optical properties with plasmon engineering. The Science Researchers have developed an innovative technique for creating nanomaterials. These are materials only atoms wide. They draw on nanoscience to allow scientists to control their construction and behavior. The new electron beam nanofabrication technique is called plasmon engineering. It achieves unprecedented near-atomic scale control of patterning in silicon. Structures built using this approach produce record-high tuning of electro-optical properties. The Impact In this research, scientists used plasmon engineering to control…
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are emerging assistive devices that may one day help people with brain or spinal injuries to move or communicate. BCI systems depend on implantable sensors that record electrical signals in the brain and use those signals to drive external devices like computers or robotic prosthetics. Most current BCI systems use one or two sensors to sample up to a few hundred neurons, but neuroscientists are interested in systems that are able to gather data from much larger…
Ultimate control of stereochemistry and conjugation length. Polyacetylene (PA) is one-dimensional carbon chain with alternating single and double carbon-carbon bonds, which is also the first synthesized conductive polymer. Although the structural unit is simple, the control on molecular weight and stereochemistry of PA chains are challenging via conventional acetylene polymerization pathway. Interestingly, normal alkanes (n-alkanes) present the same carbon skeleton as all-trans PA. Direct alkane dehydrogenation has been intensively explored in petrochemical processes to produce industrial chemicals like mono-olefins and…
A study of microbial populations under a prolonged period of starvation by Indiana University professor Jay T. Lennon and his laboratory could help researchers answer questions pertaining to chronic infections, the functioning of bacteria in the environment and the persistence of life itself. In a paper published online Aug. 12 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Lennon and his colleagues explain their study of about 100 populations of different bacteria in closed systems, which had…
Treating corals with a probiotic cocktail of beneficial bacteria increases survival after a bleaching event, according to new research. This approach could be administered in advance of a predicted heat wave to help corals recover from high sea temperatures. Climate change is increasing the temperatures of the oceans, which disrupts the relationship between corals and their symbiotic photosynthetic algae and causes corals to bleach, in some cases eventually leading to their death. KAUST researchers have proposed that manipulating the coral…
Advanced imaging technique shows how cholesterol regulates production of Alzheimer’s-associated amyloid beta protein in a type of brain cell. A team co-led by scientists at Scripps Research has used advanced imaging methods to reveal how the production of the Alzheimer’s-associated protein amyloid beta (Aβ) in the brain is tightly regulated by cholesterol. Appearing on line Thursday ahead of print in the Aug. 17 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the scientists’ work advances understanding of…
Today, human sources are responsible for 60% of global methane emissions, coming primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, decomposition in landfills and the agriculture sector. Nearly a quarter of methane emissions can be attributed to agriculture, much of which is from raising livestock. Rice cultivation and food waste are also important sources of agricultural methane, as nearly a third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. At NASA, scientists study the global methane budget to better understand the…
Despite tremendous advances in medicine, tumors are challenging to cure because they are made up of heterogeneous cells. Like human families, the individual cells of a tumor share some common traits and characteristics, but as the tumor expands, the cells also develop their own identities. And, as a result, some cells are more resistant to therapy than others and quicker to adapt and change. A team of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin developed a new way to…
There is an urgent need for reporting of biomedical research on mammalian cells to be more standardized and detailed and for greater control and measurement of the environmental conditions of cell cultures. This will make the modeling of human physiology more precise and contribute to the reproducibility of the research. A team of KAUST scientists and colleagues in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. analyzed 810 randomly selected papers on mammalian cell lines. Fewer than 700 of those, involving 1,749 individual…
University of Michigan researchers use Frontera supercomputer to improve space weather forecasting system, avoid worst effects of extreme events. “There are only two natural disasters that could impact the entire U.S.,” according to Gabor Toth, professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan. “One is a pandemic and the other is an extreme space weather event.” We’re currently seeing the effects of the first in real-time. The last major space weather event struck the Earth in…
As COVID-19 vaccinations are well underway, people await a return to normal life. However, fears also grow due to unforeseen side effects like the rare thrombosis. In the body, life is maintained by the movement of substances or energy. Chemical reactions are regulated by the presence of organelles or core structures of cells that accommodate specific enzymes or cofactors. A nanoreactor with both the activity of a synthetic catalyst, such as an artificial organelle that mimics a cell, and the…
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