Surface effect of electrodes revealed by operando surface science methodology
Surface and interface play critical roles in energy storage devices, thus calling for in-situ/operando methods to probe the electrified surface/interface. However, the commonly used in-situ/operando characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray spectroscopy and topography, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) are based on the structural,...
Imaging the first moments of a body plan emerging in the embryo
Egg cells start out as round blobs. After fertilization, they begin transforming into people, dogs, fish, or other animals by orienting head to tail, back to belly, and left to right. Exactly what sets these body orientation directions has been guessed at but not seen. Now researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have imaged the very beginning of this cellular rearrangement, and their...
Experimental vaccine blunts the deadliest of synthetic opioids
As the opioid epidemic raged on with an even greater force during COVID-19, the Scripps Research laboratory of chemist Kim Janda, Ph.D., has been working on new therapeutic interventions that may be able to prevent the bulk of deaths from opioid overdose.
Imaging technique provides link to innovative products
When we think about the links to the future—the global transition to solar and wind energy, tactile virtual reality or synthetic neurons—there's no shortage of big ideas. It's the materials to execute the big ideas—the ability to manufacture the lithium-ion batteries, opto-electronics and hydrogen fuel cells—that stand between concept and reality.
The strange impact of the first consumer review
If you're about to buy something online and its only customer review is negative, you'd probably reconsider the purchase, right? It turns out a product's first review can have an outsized effect on the item's future—it can even cause the product to fail.
Mysterious organic scum boosts chemical reaction efficiency, may reduce chemical waste
Chemical manufacturers frequently use toxic solvents such as alcohols and benzene to make products like pharmaceuticals and plastics. Researchers are examining a previously overlooked and misunderstood phenomenon in the chemical reactions used to make these products. This discovery brings a new fundamental understanding of catalytic chemistry and a steppingstone to practical applications that...
Switching nanolight on and off
A team of researchers led by Columbia University has developed a unique platform to program a layered crystal, producing imaging capabilities beyond common limits on demand.
In symbiosis: Plants control the genetics of microbes
Researchers from the University of Ottawa have discovered that plants may be able to control the genetics of their intimate root symbionts—the organism with which they live in symbiosis—thereby providing a better understanding of their growth.
An optical coating like no other
For more than a century, optical coatings have been used to better reflect certain wavelengths of light from lenses and other devices or, conversely, to better transmit certain wavelengths through them. For example, the coatings on tinted eyeglasses reflect, or "block out," harmful blue light and ultraviolet rays.
Under the sea, humans have changed ocean sounds
Not only are humans changing the surface and temperature of the planet, but also its sounds – and those shifts are detectable even in the open ocean, according to research published Thursday.
Molecule from nature provides fully recyclable polymers
Plastics are among the most successful materials of modern times. However, they also create a huge waste problem. Scientists from the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) and the East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) in Shanghai produced different polymers from lipoic acid, a natural molecule. These polymers are easily depolymerized under mild conditions. Some 87 percent of...
Ultimately, beneficial fungi could be more effective than pesticides against nematodes
Over the past 30 years, the use of soil fumigants and nematicides used to protect cole crops, such as broccoli and Brussel sprouts, against cyst nematode pathogens in coastal California fields has decreased dramatically. A survey of field samples in 2016 indicated the nematode population has also decreased, suggesting the existence of a natural cyst nematode controlling process in these fields.
Scientists find a way to accelerate DNA surface hybridization
Scientists globally aim to control chemical reactions—an ambitious goal that requires identifying the steps taken by initial reactants to arrive at the final products as the reaction takes place. While this dream remains to be realized, techniques for probing chemical reactions have become sufficiently advanced to render it possible. In fact, chemical reactions can now be monitored based on the...
DNA-based technique allows researchers to determine age of living beluga whales in Alaska
Researchers can now determine the age and sex of living beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet thanks to a new DNA-based technique that uses information from small samples of skin tissue.
Human-elephant conflict in Kenya heightens with increase in crop-raiding
A new study led by the University of Kent's Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) has found that elephants living around the world-famous Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, are crop-raiding closer to the protected area, more frequently and throughout the year but are causing less damage when doing so.
Scientists use trilayer graphene to observe more robust superconductivity
In 2018, the physics world was set ablaze with the discovery that when an ultrathin layer of carbon, called graphene, is stacked and twisted to a "magic angle," that new double layered structure converts into a superconductor, allowing electricity to flow without resistance or energy waste. Now, in a literal twist, Harvard scientists have expanded on that superconducting system by adding a third...
Some sperms poison their competitors
Competition among sperm cells is fierce—they all want to reach the egg cell first to fertilize it. A research team from Berlin now shows in mice that the ability of sperm to move progressively depends on the protein RAC1. Optimal amounts of active protein improve the competitiveness of individual sperm, whereas aberrant activity can cause male infertility.
In a desert seared by climate change, burrowers fare better than birds
In the arid Mojave Desert, small burrowing mammals like the cactus mouse, the kangaroo rat and the white-tailed antelope squirrel are weathering the hotter, drier conditions triggered by climate change much better than their winged counterparts, finds a new study published today in Science.
Tamed Gabonese monkeys face long journey back to the wild
The talks had failed and there were downcast faces in the car, which was all set to drive off.
How elephants evolved to become big and cancer-resistant
All things being equal, large, long-lived animals should have the highest risk of cancer.
Video: Why banana candy doesn't taste like banana
Have you ever eaten a Laffy Taffy and thought, "Wow, that tastes just like a banana!" We didn't think so. But apparently, there's one variety of banana that's not far off from its candy counterpart.
Songbirds exposed to lead-contaminated water show telltale signs about human impacts
Humans, wildlife, and the environment are all interconnected and play a role in one another's health and well-being. Sentinel species, such as birds, are good indicators of environmental health, and they can send subtle warning signs that humans may be in danger next.
'Stealthy' stem cells better for treating tendon injuries in horses
Treating equine donor stem cells with a growth factor called TGF-β2 may allow them to avoid 'tripping' the immune response in recipients, according to new research from North Carolina State University. The work could simplify the stem cell treatment process for ligament and tendon injuries in horses, and may also have implications for human stem cell therapies.
In Ethiopia, mother's wealth more protective against child marriage than father's
For a girl in Ethiopia, her mother's wealth can protect her from becoming a child bride—but if a father prefers child marriage, his own wealth may increase the likelihood that she will be married before 18, according to a Rutgers University-New Brunswick study.
Time management can work but in unexpected ways, according to new research
If you have a second, try typing "time management" into your favorite search engine.