303 articles from MONDAY 22.2.2021

Polymer film protects from electromagnetic radiation, signal interference

As electronic devices saturate all corners of public and personal life, engineers are scrambling to find lightweight, mechanically stable, flexible, and easily manufactured materials that can shield humans from excessive electromagnetic radiation as well as prevent electronic devices from interfering with each other.

Graphene oxide membranes could reduce paper industry energy costs

The U.S. pulp and paper industry uses large quantities of water to produce cellulose pulp from trees. The water leaving the pulping process contains a number of organic byproducts and inorganic chemicals. To reuse the water and the chemicals, paper mills rely on steam-fed evaporators that boil up the water and separate it from the chemicals.

How outdoor pollution affects indoor air quality

Just when you thought you could head indoors to be safe from the air pollution that plagues the Salt Lake Valley, new research shows that elevated air pollution events, like horror movie villains, claw their way into indoor spaces. The research, conducted in conjunction with the Utah Division of Facilities Construction and Management, is published in Science of the Total Environment.

Stem cells provide hope for dwindling wildlife populations

A paper recently published in the scientific journal Stem Cells and Development shares an important advancement in conservation—one that may make the difference between survival and extinction for wildlife species that have been reduced to very small population sizes. Using fibroblast cells that have been preserved in San Diego Zoo Global's Frozen Zoo, scientists have been able to generate...

Lack of symmetry in qubits can't fix errors in quantum computing, might explain matter/antimatter

A team of quantum theorists seeking to cure a basic problem with quantum annealing computers—they have to run at a relatively slow pace to operate properly—found something intriguing instead. While probing how quantum annealers perform when operated faster than desired, the team unexpectedly discovered a new effect that may account for the imbalanced distribution of matter and antimatter in...

Depressed and out of work? Therapy may help you find a job

If depression is making it more difficult for some unemployed people to land a job, one type of therapy may help, research suggests. In a new study, 41% of unemployed or underemployed people undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) found a new job or went from part- to full-time work by the end of the 16-week treatment for depression.

For Black Americans, Covid-19 is a reminder of the racism of US healthcare | Keon L Gilbert, Ruqaiijah Yearby, Amber Johnson and Kira Banks

A disproportionate number of the 500,000 Americans who have died of coronavirus are people of colorFor Black Americans, Covid-19 is another brutal reminder of the racist legacy of the American healthcare system. A disproportionate number of the 500,000 Americans who have died of coronavirus are Black. Yet African Americans and other people of color have struggled to access vaccines.Racism corrupts...