LA JOLLA, CA—A San Diego team, led by scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), has won the top prizes in the Nucleate Activator competition. Out of 1,000 initial competitors, the LJI team advanced to the final four teams and swept all the prizes they entered for. Their winning research proposal outlines how scientists could stop dengue virus and Zika virus by developing sophisticated vaccines that activate both B cells and T cells. Nucleate is a student-led, non-profit organization dedicated to empowering early-stage, ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The quest to develop hydrogen as a clean energy source that could curb our dependence on fossil fuels may lead to an unexpected place — coal. A team of Penn State scientists found that coal may represent a potential way to store hydrogen gas, much like batteries store energy for future use, addressing a major hurdle in developing a clean energy supply chain. “We found that coal can be this geological hydrogen battery,” said Shimin Liu, associate professor of energy and mineral engineering at Penn State. “You could inject and store the hydrogen energy and have it there when you need to use it.” Hydrogen ...

In two new studies, North Carolina State University researchers designed and tested a series of textile fibers that can change shape and generate force like a muscle. In the first study, the researchers focused on the materials’ influence on artificial muscles’ strength and contraction length. The findings could help researchers tailor the fibers for different applications. In the second, proof-of-concept study, the researchers tested their fibers as scaffolds for live cells. Their findings suggest the fibers – known as “fiber robots” ...

Twenty startups will present their technologies for a clean energy future at this year’s Lab-Embedded Entrepreneur Program (LEEP) Demo Day, June 7, in Chicago. LEEP connects entrepreneurs with resources and innovation ecosystems at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national labs.  In addition to demos from companies currently participating in LEEP, the event at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk will also feature a panel discussion where program graduates share insights and advice about successful entrepreneurship. The technologies on display span renewable energy, materials for clean energy and water, batteries, ...

Research on virtual reality is expanding as the technology grows, but too much of that research is being conducted with participants who don’t reflect the general population. The Virtual Experience Research Accelerator (VERA), a $5 million National Science Foundation-funded project, is creating a system to provide researchers with access to large, reliable, diverse groups of participants for an array of research projects on and using VR. “A lot of research in this area suffers from using participant samples ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — While age-related brain disorders like Alzheimer’s disease often develop slowly across an individual’s lifetime, they usually aren’t detected until symptoms have already started. With that in mind, teams of biomedical researchers led by Brown University scientists have been exploring for years whether devastating neurodegenerative diseases could be caught decades earlier — perhaps through something as simple as a routine eye exam instead of a battery of diagnostic tests. In a new study, one of the Brown-led ...

Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology used deep learning to develop a new framework for super-resolution ultrasound. Traditional super-resolution ultrasound techniques use microbubbles: tiny spheres of gas encased in a protein or lipid shell. Microbubbles are considered to be a contrast agent, which means they can be injected into a blood vessel to increase the clarity of an ultrasound image. Conventional ultrasound has been commonplace for over 50 years. The development of super-resolution technology in the last decade has introduced new challenges. Super-resolution ultrasound provides a much clearer picture than the traditional method. ...

Responding to a growing need for training in automation systems in Canada and globally, Siemens and Simon Fraser University (SFU) have announced that SFU is the first and only training facility for instructors delivering the globally recognized Level 3 Siemens Mechatronic Systems Certification program (SMSCP). Instructors, upon completion of the two-week long training will be qualified to deliver the Level 3 certification mechatronics training, vital for providing students with real-world technical skills, and helping prepare them to thrive in a high-tech world of work. Level 1 and Level 2 ...

Dr. Shuiwang Ji, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, is part of a collaborative research community that recently had its paper titled “BigNeuron: a resource to benchmark and predict performance of algorithms for automated tracing of neurons in light microscopy datasets” published in the April issue of the journal Nature Methods. Initiated in 2015 and led by the Allen Institute for Brain Science, BigNeuron is an international initiative that brings together computer scientists and neuroscientists from a dozen institutions. ...

Word choice matters—a lot— when it comes to research. That’s the main takeaway from a new article co-authored by Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation Assistant Professor Angel Algarin and published in Health Communication. “Researchers in any field should be cognizant of the language they’re using to describe the people they study so they don’t inadvertently add to the use of stigmatizing language,” said Algarin. For the article, Algarin and his co-authors performed a content ...

WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a quantum key distribution (QKD) system based on integrated photonics that can transmit secure keys at unprecedented speeds. The proof-of-principle experiments represent an important step toward real-world application of this highly secure communication method. QKD is a well-established method of providing secret keys for secure communication between distant parties. By using the quantum properties of light to generate secure random keys for encrypting and ...

Darwin’s theory of evolution highlighted the importance of adaption and diversity in the natural world. Inside a biological cell, can proteins also perform new functions in new contexts? The answer seems to be yes for the brain’s primary protein-degradation machine, especially when it is placed at synapses, revealing a hitherto unknown mechanism that allows synapses to change in response to different circumstances. The role of the regulatory (19S) proteasome particle has always been exclusively linked to its functioning in the proteasome complex, where it collaborates with the catalytic (20S) particle to recognize ...

Polar fish experience lower mortality than tropical fish, allowing them to delay reproduction until later in life when they are larger and can produce more eggs, according to a study by Mariana Álvarez-Noriega at Monash University in Australia and colleagues, publishing May 25th in the open access journal PLOS Biology. This may have implications for the effects of climate change on the sustainability of fish populations. Organisms face a trade-off around when is the best time to reproduce. Fish continue to grow throughout life and larger fish tend to produce disproportionately more eggs than smaller fish, so it ...

Arctic ground squirrels are unique among mammals. Their ability to keep from freezing even when body temperatures dip below that mark on the thermometer enables them to survive extreme winter climates. New research published in Science analyzes more than 25 years of climate and biological data. The findings include shorter hibernation periods and differences between male and female hibernation periods. Spoiler alert - the girls “rise and shine” a little earlier in response to warming, which could have both positive and negative ripple effects throughout the food web in these ecosystems.    Senior ...

As Alaskan permafrost warms, hibernating arctic ground squirrels generate less heat, causing females to emerge from hibernation up to 10 days before their male counterparts – a mismatch that could have large, cascading ecological impacts. The findings of the related study reveal both direct and indirect impacts of a warming world. Winter temperatures play a fundamental role in fitness and population dynamics for many species that live in higher latitudes. However, in the Arctic, where warming is occurring more rapidly than most other places on ...

Soil microbiota transplanted from more stressful environmental conditions – drought or excessive heat or cold, for example – can enhance tree tolerance to changing climates, researchers report. The findings suggest that management of soil microbiota, especially during forest restorations, could be a valuable strategy for increasing forest resilience to climate change. Climate change is forcing many species outside of their evolved range of environmental tolerances, forcing them to acclimate, adapt, or migrate to avoid extinction. For long-lived ...

Combining a comprehensive dataset – including marriage documents – compiled from more than 4 million Catholic parish records with genotype data for more than 22,000 French and French Canadian individuals, researchers have conducted a novel analysis of French Canadian ancestry in Quebec, Canada, since the 17th Century. While most other population genetic models provide only coarse representations of a region’s real-world ancestry, this new approach reveals detailed insights into historic European colonization, migration, and settlement patterns, reflecting intricate French Canadian population structures within geographic constraints. ...

In a Policy Forum, Mark Eccleston-Turner and colleagues argue that upcoming negotiations surrounding the World Health Organization (WHO) international pandemic treaty need not be overly focused on formal compliance mechanisms and sanctions. Instead, Eccleston-Turner et al. suggest that any efforts to ensure compliance should be part of broader efforts to ensure effective and equitable implementation across all member states. Member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) are preparing for ambitious ...

If we could rewind the tape of species evolution around the world and play it forward over hundreds of millions of years to the present day, we would see biodiversity clustering around regions of tectonic turmoil. Tectonically active regions such as the Himalayan and Andean mountains are especially rich in flora and fauna due to their shifting landscapes, which act to divide and diversify species over time.  But biodiversity can also flourish in some geologically quieter regions, where tectonics hasn’t shaken up the land for millennia. The Appalachian Mountains are a prime example: The range ...

New Haven, Conn. — The gradual erosion of layers of rock by rivers flowing through the Appalachian Mountains generates biodiversity of freshwater fish species, suggests a new Yale-led study that offers insight into the causes of species richness in the ancient mountain range. Researchers have previously associated high biodiversity in mountain ranges, including the Andes and Himalaya, with tectonic uplift — the shifting of plates in the Earth’s crust that forms mountains, plateaus, and other geologic structures — triggering environmental changes that create conditions ripe for species diversification. ...

Researchers at the University of Warsaw's Faculty of Physics have developed a new, highly efficient technique that makes quantum information transmission dozens of times faster. The results of the research, published in the prestigious journal Nature Photonics, may in the near future contribute to the development of superfast quantum Internet connections. Light is a key carrier of information. It enables high-speed data transmission around the world via fiber-optic telecommunication networks. This information-carrying capability can be extended to transmitting quantum information by encoding ...

Images  //  Video  Cage structures made with nanoparticles could be a route toward making organized nanostructures with mixed materials, and researchers at the University of Michigan have shown how to achieve this through computer simulations.   The finding could open new avenues for photonic materials that manipulate light in ways that natural crystals can't. It also showcased an unusual effect that the team is calling entropy compartmentalization.   "We are developing new ways to structure ...

Large study provides scientists with deeper insight into long COVID symptoms NIH-funded research effort identifies most common symptoms, potential subgroups, and initial symptom-based scoring system – with aim of improving future diagnostics and treatment Initial findings from a study of nearly 10,000 Americans, many of whom had COVID-19, have uncovered new details about long COVID, the post-infection set of conditions that can affect nearly every tissue and organ in the body. Clinical symptoms can vary and include fatigue, brain fog, and dizziness, and last for months or years after ...

May 25, 2023 – For patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA), a combination of intravenous and periarticular corticosteroids does not improve pain control – but, may improve key indicators of functional recovery in the days after surgery, reports a trial in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer. Intravenous (IV) plus periarticular (PA) steroids "yielded more significant improvements in the rehabilitation parameters," ...

May 25, 2023 – A combination of emerging and alternative techniques – microneedling to induce collagen and cupping to increase tissue perfusion – may have a synergistic effect in producing skin rejuvenation, according to an experimental study in the June issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "Cupping therapy can be added to microneedling therapy and used to increase certain desired effects on skin," comments lead author Burak Pasinlioğlu, MD, of Kecioren Research ...