352 articles from TUESDAY 12.1.2021

More than half of COVID-19 health care workers at risk for mental health problems

A new study suggests more than half of doctors, nurses, and emergency responders involved in COVID-19 care could be at risk for one or more mental health problems, including acute traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, problematic alcohol use, and insomnia. The researchers found that the risk of these mental health conditions was comparable to rates observed during natural disasters, such as 9/11...

Method to find toxic chemicals in drinking water

Most consumers of drinking water in the United States know that chemicals are used in the treatment processes to ensure the water is safe to drink. But they might not know that the use of some of these chemicals, such as chlorine, can also lead to the formation of unregulated toxic byproducts.

NASA Missions Help Investigate an ‘Old Faithful’ Active Galaxy

Portal origin URL: NASA Missions Help Investigate an ‘Old Faithful’ Active GalaxyPortal origin nid: 467498Published: Tuesday, January 12, 2021 - 12:15Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: Yellowstone National Park's Old Faithful geyser regularly blasts a jet of boiling water high in the air. Now, an international team of astronomers has discovered...

Most distant quasar discovered sheds light on how black holes grow

A team of astronomers led by the University of Arizona has observed a luminous quasar 13.03 billion light-years from Earth—the most distant quasar discovered to date. Dating back to 670 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only 5% its current age, the quasar hosts a supermassive black hole equivalent to the combined mass of 1.6 billion suns.

Study of flowers with two types of anthers solves mystery that baffled Darwin

Most flowering plants depend on pollinators such as bees to transfer pollen from the male anthers of one flower to the female stigma of another flower, enabling fertilization and the production of fruits and seeds. Bee pollination, however, involves an inherent conflict of interest, because bees are only interested in pollen as a food source.

Making hydrogen energy with the common nickel

To resolve the energy crisis and environmental issues, research to move away from fossil fuels and convert to eco-friendly and sustainable hydrogen energy is well underway around the world. Recently, a team of researchers at POSTECH has proposed a way to efficiently produce hydrogen fuel via water-electrolysis using inexpensive and readily available nickel as an electrocatalyst, greenlighting the...

UK nuclear spacecraft could halve time of journey to Mars

Rolls-Royce and UK Space Agency hope to ‘revolutionise space travel’ with deal to build nuclear propulsion engines British spacecraft could travel to Mars in half the time it now takes by using nuclear propulsion engines built by Rolls-Royce under a new deal with the UK Space Agency.The aerospace company hopes nuclear-powered engines could help astronauts make it to Mars in three to four...

No disassembly required: Non-destructive method to measure carrier lifetime in SiC

Silicon carbide (SiC), a versatile and resistant material that exists in multiple crystalline forms, has attracted much attention thanks to its unique electronic properties. From its use in the first LED devices, to its applications in high-voltage devices with low power losses, SiC displays exceptional semiconductor behavior. So far, the operating voltages for unipolar SiC devices are below 3.3...

Artificial intelligence puts focus on the life of insects

Scientists are combining artificial intelligence and advanced computer technology with biological know how to identify insects with supernatural speed. This opens up new possibilities for describing unknown species and for tracking the life of insects across space and time

A bucket of water can reveal climate change impacts on marine life in the Arctic

Climate change prompts many important questions, not least how it affects animals and plants: Do they adapts, gradually migrate to different areas or become extinct? And what is the role played by human activities? This applies not least to Greenland and the rest of the Artic, which are expected to face the greatest effects of climate changes.