This work was adapted from articles by Elizabeth Boatman and Emily C. Dooley. Research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL),  and UC Davis sheds new light on how to access the sugars locked up in plants to produce petroleum-free fuels, chemicals, and medicines.  Using microbes to convert grasses, weeds, wood, and other plant residues into sustainable products will be key to achieving carbon neutrality and could even help eliminate drug shortages. But cellulose, the tough tissue that makes up a large proportion of herbaceous and woody plant ...

Lin X. Chen, a chemist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, has received the Senior Prize as part of the two 2023 Mildred Dresselhaus Guest Professorship Awards from the University of Hamburg, Germany. The award recognizes outstanding international women scientists and offers an opportunity for awardees to conduct research at the Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging Cluster of Excellence. Chen has held a joint appointment as professor of chemistry at Northwestern University since 2007. “I am very honored ...

Hart Receives Funding For Boot Camp David M. Hart, Professor, Schar School of Policy and Government, received funding for: "2024 Climate-Tech Innovation Policy 'Boot Camp' for Early Career Researchers." Via this effort, Hart will build interpersonal bridges across the gap that separates the policy and research communities, sensitize researchers to the practical considerations that shape energy and climate innovation policy, and create new inter-disciplinary linkages among early-career researchers.  His long-term objective is to shape the research agendas of the participating scholars, so that they contribute as fully as ...

The Max Planck Institute for Informatics and Google deepen their strategic research partnership. With additional financial support from the U.S. IT company, the “Saarbrücken Research Center for Visual Computing, Interaction and Artificial Intelligence (VIA)”, which was only launched in November 2022 at the MPI in Saarbrücken, is establishing a new research area “Vision and Language Models (VLMs)”, led by Professor Bernt Schiele. This was presented by the Max Planck Directors Bernt Schiele and Christian Theobalt together with Google representatives to Saarland ...

New research is shedding light on food and beverage products linked to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and suggesting potential solutions for protecting the public. PFAS are known to be harmful to health: They can disrupt hormones, weaken bones and increase disease risk. Sometimes called “forever chemicals” because they take so long to break down, PFAS are used in fabrics, furniture and other household items—but they are also hard to get rid of. Recent tests now trace the chemicals to livestock, drinking water and food packaging, but little is known about the extent of that contamination. A new study, funded in part ...

SAN ANTONIO — February 5, 2024 - Southwest Research Institute has launched the latest phase of the transportation industry’s longest running commercial vehicle research consortium. Building on more than 33 years of research and development, the Clean Highly Efficient Decarbonized Engines 9 (CHEDE-9) consortium has expanded its scope from diesel-engine-focused research to a range of internal combustion engines and hybrid solutions. Formerly known as the Clean High-Efficiency Diesel Engine consortium, CHEDE-9 focuses on research of low- and net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) transportation technologies for light-duty passenger vehicles, heavy-duty commercial vehicles and large ...

They published their work on Feb. 2 in Energy Material Advances.   "The development of thin sulfide solid electrolyte layers is imperative" said paper author Xiayin Yao, a professor at the Laboratory of All-solid-state rechargeable battery, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). "Although sulfide solid electrolyte is easy densified through cold pressing method, the freestanding membrane generally show a thickness greater than 500 μm. The thick and heavy layer of sulfide electrolyte results in less than ...

The production of aluminium generates around 180 million tonnes of toxic red mud every year. Scientists at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, a centre for iron research, have now shown how green steel can be produced from aluminium production waste in a relatively simple way. In an electric arc furnace similar to those used in the steel industry for decades, they convert the iron oxide contained in the red mud into iron using hydrogen plasma. With this process, almost 700 million tonnes of CO2-free steel could be produced from the four billion tonnes of red ...

Sleep apnea, which involves recurring, temporary interruptions of breathing during sleep, can disturb regulation of blood lipid levels, a key factor in the development of cardiovascular disease. A University of Ottawa research team has shown that the impact of sleep apnea on the metabolism of blood lipids differs by sex, with women regulating their blood lipids better than men. The study was conducted by Nicholas Goulet, Caroline Marcoux, Renée Morin, Jean-François Mauger and Vincent Bourgon, under the supervision of Pascal ...

About The Study: This study found that in older adults, a healthy lifestyle may provide a cognitive reserve to maintain cognitive abilities independently of common neuropathologies of dementia. Authors: Klodian Dhana, M.D., Ph.D., of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2023.5491) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, ...

About The Study: Sleep duration among Black survey respondents worsened after exposure to officer-involved killings of unarmed Black individuals in their area of residence. The findings were specific to officer involved killings of unarmed Black people, and no adverse outcomes on sleep health were found for white respondents. These findings underscore the role of structural racism in shaping racial disparities in sleep health.  Authors: Atheendar S. Venkataramani, M.D., Ph.D., of the University ...

About The Study: This study of emergency department visits for physical injuries from use of conducted energy devices, such as TASERs, by police departments found that most visits involved young Black and white males from low-income areas. Black individuals were overrepresented in the sample versus the U.S. population, consistent with research demonstrating increased risk of police violence in Black populations.  Authors: Kevin N. Griffith, Ph.D., of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center ...

PHILADELPHIA – Black adults across the United States suffer from sleep problems following exposure to news about unarmed Black individuals killed by police during police encounters, according to new findings published today in JAMA Internal Medicine from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. The issue, researchers said, may compound the risk factors that poor sleep already poses for many chronic and mental health conditions, from depression to post traumatic stress disorder. Researchers conducted two separate analyses examining changes in sleep duration in the U.S. non-Hispanic Black population before and after exposure to such deaths ...

Researchers from University of California San Diego, as part of a large collaboration with scientists around the world, have developed a new search tool to help researchers better understand the metabolism of microorganisms. Microbes are key players in virtually all biological and environmental systems, yet limitations in current techniques used to study microbial metabolism make it difficult to decode their interactions and activities. The new research, published February 5, 2023 in Nature Microbiology, directly addresses these limitations, which could ultimately transform our understanding of both human health and the environment. “Humans are walking ecosystems in which microbes vastly ...

New Haven, Conn. — Pulmonary rehabilitation, an essential component of care for patients with chronic respiratory conditions, is difficult for millions of Americans to access, a new Yale-led study reveals. The findings, researchers say, reveal geographic regions where this type of care is most lacking and illustrate the potential for telemedicine in helping to bridge this gap. The study was published Feb. 5 in JAMA Network Open. Pulmonary rehabilitation is a multidisciplinary program that incorporates exercise and strategic techniques to improve quality of life and overall health for patients with respiratory conditions like chronic ...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell food scientists show that a standard quality test used for raw, organic milk is insufficient for distinguishing between specific groups of bacteria, suggesting that the criteria for determining milk quality at processing plants needs to be updated. Their work was published Jan. 20 in the Journal of Dairy Science. “Testing milk should not be one size fits all,” as tests should be used appropriately to give the best feedback to dairy producers, said lead author Renee Lee ’21, ...

A gelatinous animal with a diameter of about 10 cm and a red stomach resembling the Cross of St George when seen from above. This is Santjordia pagesi, a newly described species of medusa. Medusae are a type of free-swimming, umbrella-shaped jellyfish with a reduced stalk. The new species is described in an article published in the journal Zootaxa. The study was conducted by an international group of researchers that included a Brazilian scientist supported by FAPESP.  The scientist in question is André Morandini, last author ...

Tiny plankton – measuring less than 20µm (or 0.02mm) in diameter – make up the majority of plankton in the ocean and play a critical role in the planet’s health, according to new research. However, scientists say challenges in identifying them have led to them becoming a silent majority that is currently being overlooked when it comes to global ocean policy. The study is one of the first to explore the abundance and importance of these tiny ocean inhabitants around the UK coastline, with the technology capable of monitoring them only having been introduced in around 2010. However, ...

Researchers have found that adolescents being bullied by their peers are at greater risk of the early stages of psychotic episodes and in turn experience lower levels of a key neurotransmitter in a part of the brain involved in regulating emotions. The finding suggests that this neurotransmitter — a chemical messenger that transmits nerve impulses for communication by a nerve cell — may be a potential target for pharmaceutical interventions aimed at reducing the risk of psychotic disorders. Psychosis is a mental state characterized by loss of contact with reality, incoherent speech and behavior, and typically hallucinations and delusions seen in psychiatric disorders ...

The prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), encompassing ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), is rapidly increasing worldwide, affecting an estimated 6.8 million people. This surge brings significant economic burdens, with annual healthcare costs exceeding $12,000 and $7,000 for CD and UC patients, respectively. Tailored drug selection based on individual factors can potentially reduce these costs and improve patient outcomes. Factors associated with a Western lifestyle such as urbanization, high animal protein intake, ultra-processed foods, and reduced fiber ...

Utilizing crude glycerol for the synthesis of high-value products offers a promising solution to counter the adverse effects of declining glycerol prices in the biodiesel sector. The prevalence of crude glycerol, a by-product of biodiesel production, across agriculture, biofuel, and industrial sectors is steadily rising. Recent advancements have demonstrated the effectiveness of both wild-type and mutant yeast strains as microbial cell factories capable of converting glycerol into a diverse array of valuable compounds, including microbial oils, sugar-alcohols (polyols), and organic acids. With the projected increase in biodiesel production, there is a need to explore integrated ...

Using a simple solvent sieve method, researchers from the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have taken the lead in developing highly efficient and stable perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) with record performance. The study was published in Nature Photonics. Perovskites are one of the most promising optoelectronic materials due to their excellent optoelectronic performance and low preparation cost. Compared with traditional organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), PeLEDs have a narrower light-emitting spectrum and superior color ...

(WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2024) – Combination treatments with two or more blood pressure drugs can significantly reduce blood pressure in patients taking ibrutinib, according to a new study published in Blood Advances. Targeted drugs such as ibrutinib have improved outcomes for patients with cancers of the lymphatic system, but patients treated with ibrutinib and other drugs in its class often develop new or worsening high blood pressure (or hypertension or HTN). Few studies have examined how best to treat this potentially serious side effect, nor do any formal guidelines exist to steer doctors toward the most effective treatments. “To ...

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed an ultra-sensitive sensor made with graphene that can detect extraordinarily low concentrations of lead ions in water. The device achieves a record limit of detection of lead down to the femtomolar range, which is one million times more sensitive than previous sensing technologies. “With the extremely high sensitivity of our device, we ultimately hope to detect even the presence of one lead ion in a reasonable volume of water,” said Prabhakar Bandaru, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. “Lead exposure is a serious health concern, ...

The world’s largest brain study of childhood trauma has revealed how it affects development and rewires vital pathways.     The University of Essex study – led by the Department of Psychology’s Dr Megan Klabunde – uncovered a disruption in neural networks involved in self-focus and problem-solving.    This means under-18s who experienced abuse will likely struggle with emotions, empathy and understanding their bodies.     Difficulties in school caused by memory, hard mental tasks and decision making may also emerge.    Dr ...