Manufacturing and metrology considerations are key when designing with freeform optics Close communication between optics designers and manufacturers can help prevent problems Québec City, Canada -- Although optical components such as lenses are traditionally spherical in shape, freeform optical components, which have little to no symmetry around the optical axis, are becoming more common. Freeform optical components are attractive because they can be designed to behave in ways traditional optics cannot, offering optical design flexibility ...

A team of scientists from the Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory have developed a way to collect terahertz imaging data on materials under extreme magnetic and cryogenic conditions. They accomplished their work with a new scanning probe microscope. This microscope was recently developed at Ames Lab. The team used the ultralow temperature terahertz microscope to take measurements on superconductors and topological semimetals. These materials were were exposed to high magnetic fields and temperatures below liquid helium (below 4.2 ...

A new study led by physicist Sascha Kempf at the University of Colorado Boulder has delivered the strongest evidence yet that Saturn’s rings are remarkably young—potentially answering a question that has boggled scientists for well over a century.  The research, to be published May 12 in the journal Science Advances, pegs the age of Saturn’s rings at no more than 400 million years old. That makes the rings much younger than Saturn itself, which is about 4.5 billion years old. “In ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, May 12, 2023 Contact: Gina DiGravio, 617-358-7838, ginad@bu.edu Researchers Identify a Brain Marker Indicating Future Suicide Risk Changing the connectivity in this brain circuit with stimulation or pharmacotherapies could represent new treatments to reduce suicide risk. (Boston)—Identifying people at high risk for suicide is critical for applying lifesaving interventions and treatments. However, it is very difficult to identify who is at greatest risk and only modest improvements has been made in identifying high risk people over the last 50 years. One novel way to identify people at high risk of suicide is by investigating and identifying brain markers. VA ...

The spiral-shaped bacteria Helicobacter pylori are common and troublesome. More than 13 percent of Americans have an H. pylori infection, although rates vary with age, race and socioeconomic status. The microorganism uses its corkscrew-like tail to power forward through viscous fluids such as stomach mucus. When it arrives at the epithelium of the stomach wall, it can cause everything from ulcers to cancer. In a new study published by Physical Review Letters, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering researchers created a 3D model of this bacteria to better understand its movement, hoping to crack the code governing the organism’s motility ...

Meeting the world’s energy demands is reaching a critical point. Powering the technological age has caused issues globally. It is increasingly important to create superconductors that can operate at ambient pressure and temperature. This would go a long way toward solving the energy crisis.  Advancements with superconductivity hinge on advances in quantum materials.  When electrons inside of quantum materials undergo a phase transition, the electrons can form intricate patterns, such as fractals. A fractal is a never-ending pattern. When zooming in on a fractal, the image looks the same. Commonly seen fractals can be a tree or frost on a windowpane ...

The plastic era has begun, and for sure, it will last for decades or even longer. Polymer-based materials are almost everywhere, reaching even the deepest regions of the oceans, and their global production is larger than recycling, leading to the generation of tremendous amounts of water pollution with microplastics. These tiny polymer particles not only release chemicals but also reduce the number of bacteriophages. Recently, researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, led by Prof. Jan Paczesny, explored ...

Researchers from the Organoid group (Hubrecht Institute) and UMC Utrecht have developed a biobank with organoids derived from patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). They used this biobank to validate known HNC biomarkers and found that treatment responses in the organoids matched those seen in patients. The results of the study will be published in Med on 12 May 2023 and could aid treatment decisions and discovery of novel therapies for HCN patients in the future. Head and neck cancer (HNC) is an overarching term used for several types of cancer, including the most ...

The bacteria present in the intestine provide information about the quantities of fungi of the potentially disease-causing Candida genus. Among them, and surprisingly, are lactic acid bacteria that are known for their protective effect against fungal infections. The findings of researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI) and their collaborative partners from Denmark and Hungary add another piece to the puzzle of understanding the human gut microbiome. The ...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting tens of millions of people worldwide, and it is the most common cause of dementia. Early-onset AD is typically associated with mutations in the genes APP, PSEN1, and PSEN2, leading to a more aggressive form of the disease with atypical symptoms. In contrast, the newly discovered "Shanghai APP" mutation has been linked to LOAD, which affects a larger population of AD patients. In a study published in Genes & ...

The adverse effects of excess nitrate in water on human productivity and lives have received increasing attention due to the discharge of industrial wastewater and the overuse of farmland fertilizers. An international team of researchers has conducted an in-depth study of the significant need and challenge of efficient nitrate removal. Several techniques have been used to eliminate nitrate from water, such as biological denitrification is technologically mature, cost-effective, and widely used. However, biological processes are often sluggish and ...

□ DGIST (President Yang Kook) (the following three science and technology institutions) will establish a "Semiconductor Contracting Department" with Samsung Electronics for fostering technical staff specialized in semiconductor manufacturing processes.   □ DGIST closed a business agreement on the 27th (Mon) at DGIST University Center Convention Hall for establishing and operating the Semiconductor Contracting Department, which was attended by Samsung Electronics President Seokwoo Nam and Wanpyo Kim, DGIST President Yang Kook, and other major stakeholders.   □ Owing to the recently increasing global semiconductor demand, safeguarding national competitiveness ...

□ DGIST (President Yang Kook) Professor Minseok Kim of the Department of Neurobiology and his team developed lossless immunocytochemistry technology, which facilitates analysis of rare cells that present in trace amounts in clinical specimens. The corresponding technology developed together with CTCELLS, Inc. involves the use of an ultra-thin film hydrogel to facilitate fluid exchange while inhibiting cell loss, and a higher preservation rate and reproducibility were achieved compared to existing cell ...

Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST; President Kuk Young) and Seoul National University (President Ryu Hong-lim) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Wednesday, April 26 to develop an open innovation business model. Under this MOU, Senior Researcher Yun Jin-hyo at the Division of Electronics & Information Systems, DGIST provides consulting services required to develop an open business model to students in the Engineering Project Management Program at the Graduate School of Engineering Practice, Seoul National University. The first seminar was held on the day of the MOU.   □ Senior Researcher ...

A research team from the University of Lisbon and University of Oporto (Portugal) participate in the development of METIS (Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph). This powerful instrument will equip the largest telescope in the world - the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) - under construction by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Armazones, Chile. At this critical acceptance stage of the complete and final METIS design, ESO is presenting an illustrative film demonstrating the exceptional capabilities of the instrument. The presentation will take place on May 12, at 4:00pm (CEST). METIS will detect ...

About The Study: Among 14,400 febrile infants ages 8 to 60 days, the prevalence of urinary tract infection (UTI), bacteremia, and bacterial meningitis was lower for infants who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, particularly infants ages 29 to 60 days and those with normal inflammatory markers. These findings may help inform management of certain febrile infants who test positive for SARS-CoV-2.  Authors: Paul L. Aronson, M.D., M.H.S., of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, 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/jamanetworkopen.2023.13354) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The findings of this study of 2,165 adolescents from the Netherlands general population suggest that global brain volumetric measures did not differ between adolescents who reported gender diversity and those who did not. However, these findings further suggest that gender diversity in the general population correlates with specific brain morphologic features in the inferior temporal gyrus among youths who are assigned male at birth. Replication of these findings is necessary to elucidate ...

About The Study: In this study of 307,000 neonates with very low birth weight, adoption of routine use of probiotics in neonatal intensive care units increased slowly from 2012 to 2019 and was associated with lower necrotizing enterocolitis risk but not with sepsis or mortality rates.  Authors: Leila Agha, Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School in Boston, 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/jamahealthforum.2023.0960) Editor’s Note: Please ...

Organelles – the bits and pieces of RNA and protein within a cell – play important roles in human health and disease, such as maintaining homeostasis, regulating growth and aging, and generating energy. Organelle diversity in cells not only exists between cell types but also individual cells. Studying these differences helps researchers better understand cell function, leading to improved therapeutics to treat various diseases. In two papers out of the lab of Ahmet F. Coskun, a Bernie Marcus Early Career professor in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, researchers examined a specific ...

All cells in an organism contain identical DNA sequence. What determines the identity and function of individual cells and tissues, is the set of genes that will be active in a given place, at a given time. These active genes are transcribed from the DNA template into distinct messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules and will encode the proteins the cell needs to function. At specific places called promoters, a complex molecular machinery starts transcribing DNA sequences into mRNA. Interestingly, most genes contain multiple possible sites where transcription ...

Every year, plant diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, and fungi contribute to major economic losses. The prompt detection of these diseases is necessary to curb their spread and mitigate agricultural damage, but represents a major challenge, especially in areas of high-scale production. Smart agriculture systems use camera surveillance equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) models to detect features of plant diseases, which often manifest as changes in leaf morphology and appearance. However, conventional methods ...

The rigidity, transparency and hardness of PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) make it one of the most valuable plastics for the manufacture of plastic bottles, packaging and other single-use products. However, these characteristics make it highly persistent in the environment, to the point that a plastic PET bottle may take several hundred years to degrade in the ocean.   At the molecular level, PET, and all plastics, have a polymeric structure made up of tens of thousands of repetitions of small subunits called monomers. In the last decades, the degradation ...

WESTMINSTER, Colorado – 9 May, 2023 – Buffelgrass is a highly invasive perennial found in arid regions around the globe. It is known to reduce the biodiversity of native ecosystems and to increase the frequency and intensity of wildfires. A team of researchers recently took a close look at efforts to control buffelgrass in Arizona’s Saguaro National Park, located in the Sonoran Desert. An article featured in volume 16, issue 1 of the journal Invasive Plant Science and Management describes what that investigation can tell us about effective control strategies. ...

The difficult-to-treat brain cancer glioblastoma steals a person’s mental faculties as it spreads, yet the tumor’s insidious ability to infiltrate neighboring networks in the brain could also prove its undoing. Scientists at UC San Francisco have discovered that neural activity in these deadly tumors can restructure connections in surrounding brain tissue, causing the cognitive decline associated with the disease, and that the drug gabapentin, commonly used to prevent seizures, could block this growth-causing ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Gene editing is a powerful method for both research and therapy. Since the advent of the Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR/Cas9 technology, a quick and accurate tool for genome editing discovered in 2012, scientists have been working to explore its capabilities and boost its performance.  Researchers in UC Santa Barbara biologist Chris Richardson’s lab have added to that growing toolbox, with a method that increases the efficiency of CRISPR/Cas9 editing without the use of viral material to deliver the genetic template used to edit the target genetic sequence. According to their new paper ...