The vision system, evolved over millions of years, is highly complex. To make vision sensitive throughout the whole range of visible wavelengths, Nature employs a supramolecular chemistry approach. The visual pigment, cis-retinal, changes its shape upon capturing a photon. This shape transformation is accompanied by changes in the supramolecular organization of the surrounding proteins, subsequently triggering a cascade of chemical signaling events that get amplified and eventually lead to visual perception in the brain. “Some deep-sea fish have evolved antenna-like ...

The remarkable proton and oxide-ion (dual-ion) conductivities of hexagonal perovskite-related oxide Ba7Nb3.8Mo1.2O20.1 are promising for next-generation electrochemical devices, as reported by scientists at Tokyo Tech. The unique ion-transport mechanisms they unveiled will hopefully pave the way for better dual-ion conductors, which could play an essential role in tomorrow’s clean energy technologies. Clean energy technologies are the cornerstone of sustainable societies, and solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and proton ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) are among the most promising types of electrochemical devices for green power generation. These devices, however, still ...

MOREHEAD, Ky. (Nov. 17, 2023) — In celebration of National Rural Health Day, yesterday the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Medicaid in Kentucky announced new scholarship opportunities for UK’s Rural Physician Leadership Program (RPLP). The Anthem Rural Medicine Scholarships will provide $100,000 to offset the cost of medical school for students in the RPLP. In a state that suffers from high rates for many chronic, ...

Unlike humans, zebrafish can completely regenerate their hearts after injury. They owe this ability to the interaction between their nervous and immune systems, as researchers led by Suphansa Sawamiphak from the Max Delbrück Center now report in the journal Developmental Cell.  Each year, more than 300,000 people in Germany have a myocardial infarction – the technical term for heart attack. The number of people surviving a heart attack has increased significantly, but this severe cardiac event causes irreparable damage to their hearts. A heart attack ...

(Boston)—CITE-seq (cellular indexing of transcriptomes and epitopes) is an RNA sequencing-based method that simultaneously quantifies cell surface protein and transcriptomic data within a single cell readout. The ability to study cells concurrently offers unprecedented insights into new cell types, disease states or other conditions.   While CITE-seq solves the problem of detecting a limited number of proteins while using single-cell sequencing in an unbiased way, one of its limitations is the high levels of background noise that can hinder analysis.   To rectify ...

5.2% of the global population carry hemoglobin abnormalities, resulting in 300,000 to 400,000 children born with severe hemoglobinopathies annually. Thalassemia, a hereditary hemoglobinopathy, occurs in 4.4 out of every 10,000 live births, and is prevalent in Mediterranean coastal areas, Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and southern China.   To facilitate greater understanding of thalassemia, a hereditary hemoglobinopathy, BGI Genomics today released its State of Thalassemia Awareness Report. This report assesses the level of knowledge and attitudes related to the associated health risks, thalassemia carrier ...

The Alliance Bioversity International and CIAT signed an agreement with the World Economic Forum that enables the Alliance to manage initiatives under the Food Action Alliance, a movement led by the World Economic Forum for transforming sustainable food systems.  The Alliance would establish and manage initiatives in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions under the Food Action Alliance to boost the transformation of food systems, facilitating and scaling up multi-stakeholder flagship initiatives in specific countries mostly with multi-national companies such as Bayer, Microsoft, PepsiCo, AB InBev; among others. The Food Action Alliance will continue to grow initiatives ...

WASHINGTON, November 17, 2023 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released today the National Strategic Germplasm and Cultivar Collection Assessment and Utilization Plan in support of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) U.S. National Plant Germplasm System’s (NPGS) mission. The USDA-ARS NPGS is confident that implementing this plan will address current operational and research challenges. The collection is vital for maintaining the nation’s food supply by providing breeders and researchers the germplasm they need to furnish U. S. consumers with abundant, ...

Proteins misfolding and clumping together, a process known as aggregation, is a key feature seen in several neurological conditions, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. These disorders involve the formation of small, potentially harmful structures called oligomers, which could serve as valuable indicators for early diagnosis. They are incredibly small, however, and much rarer than the healthy non-aggregated proteins. This makes it hard to detect and measure them accurately. In collaboration with UCB Biopharma, researchers from the University of Edinburgh’s  ...

  Researchers in Japan and Mongolia have carried out the world's first instance of incorporating satellite-based CO2 emission estimates into a GHG emission report as the verification on the Second Biennial Update Report (BUR2) of Mongolia submitted to the UNFCCC on 15 November 2023, resulting in high accuracy match with actual reported values, reports a new study published online in Scientific Reports in 2023.   Countries have reported their CO2 emissions to the UNFCCC, primarily from human activities and a significant contributor to climate change. ...

Approximately one-fifth of the world's electric energy is dedicated to refrigeration, and the International Energy Agency anticipates a twofold increase in the number of air conditioning units by 2040. Despite a century of advancements, existing refrigeration systems, relying on vapour compression, have hit their thermodynamic threshold. These systems not only emit greenhouse gases, contributing to environmental issues, but also produce significant noise. Prioritizing the development of energy-efficient and eco-friendly systems is thus paramount to address global warming ...

Growth is a fundamental biological process and a prerequisite for living organisms to develop and reproduce. The processes of cell growth (i.e. the production of new biomass) and of cell division must be coordinated with each other. In multicellular organisms such as humans, the growth of cells must also be coordinated with their environment so that cells are present in the right number and size to form functional tissue or organs. Cell growth is therefore strictly regulated and takes place only when certain growth signals are present. But cancer cells are different. They grow unchecked, they divide ...

A research project led by Professor Mingxin Huang at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has made a brand-new breakthrough over conventional stainless steel and the development of stainless steel for hydrogen (SS-H2). This marks another major achievement by Professor Huang’s team in its ‘Super Steel’ Project, following the development of the anti-COVID-19 stainless steel in 2021, and ultra-strong and ultra-tough Super Steel in 2017 and 2020 respectively. The new steel developed by the team exhibits high corrosion ...

NYC Media Lab (NYCML) and Bertelsmann unveiled  the latest cohort joining the AI & the Creative Industries Challenge, a nine-week program in which teams explore new ways to use artificial intelligence (AI) to create digital content and reach new audiences for three Bertelsmann companies: Fremantle, Penguin Random House, and BMG. The teams are tasked with addressing how AI will impact these important creative industries.  This ongoing partnership, NYCML’s third project with Bertelsmann, will continue to build on new business frontiers enabled by technology. The four selected teams, from around the globe, come from various multidisciplinary ...

Actuators are common machine components that convert energy into movement, like the muscles in the human body, vibrators in mobile phones or electric motors.  Ideal actuator materials need good electrochemical properties to repeatedly conduct electrical currents made of flowing electrons.  In addition, actuator materials require excellent mechanical properties to withstand the physical stress associated with continual movement.  Nanoporous platinum (np-Pt), a platinum matrix containing tiny pores to increase energy conduction, was recently created in large quantities and in a cost-efficient manner, making np-Pt an ideal and more practical actuator material.   A ...

Crystalline materials are made up of atoms, ions, or molecules arranged in an ordered, three-dimensional structure. They are widely used for the development of semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, photovoltaics, and catalysts. The type of structures that fall into the category of crystalline materials continues to expand as scientists design novel materials to address emerging challenges pertaining to energy storage, carbon capture, and advanced electronics. However, the development of such materials necessitates precise ways of identifying ...

Bethesda, MD (Nov. 17, 2023) — The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) released a new evidence-based guideline recommending the use of blood and stool-based biomarkers to help manage Crohn’s disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD is estimated to affect 2.74 million people in the U.S. The guideline was published today in Gastroenterology.  Biomarkers are blood or stool tests that can give more information on an underlying disease process. In the context of IBD, biomarkers such as C-reactive protein (CRP) in blood and fecal calprotectin ...

Why should supply chains matter to you? The products on your store shelves, the packages arriving at your doorstep, and even the food on your table all rely on these intricate networks. Imagine a world where these lifelines are disrupted, where shelves sit empty, and essential goods remain out of reach. In Supply Chain 5.0: The Next Generation of Business Success Through Customer Centricity, Sustainability & Human Rights and Digitalization, we unveil the critical factors shaping the future of supply chains and how they impact your everyday life. This book holds a crucial revelation about the future of our supply chains. It ...

The discovery that chimpanzees use tools to fish for termites revolutionized our understanding of their abilities — but we still don’t have crucial context to help us understand termite fishing and chimpanzee minds. Are chimpanzees fishing for a seasonal treat or trying their luck? Researchers based at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) and University College London (UCL) investigated the relationship between termite availability and chimpanzee fishing. They found that termites are most available early in the wet season. Although other ...

Time spent watching television or playing computer games has measurable and long-term effects on children’s brain function, according to a review of 23 years of neuroimaging research, which while showing negative impacts also demonstrates some positive effects. However, the researchers stop short of advocating limits on screen time, which they say can lead to confrontation. Instead, they urge policymakers to help parents navigate the digital world by promoting programs which support positive brain development. The evidence review, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Early Education ...

Philadelphia, November 17, 2023 – Researchers have shown for the first time that hemoglobin, a protein found in red blood cells where it binds oxygen, is also present in the epidermis, our skin's outermost body tissue. The study, which appears in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, published by Elsevier, provides important insights into the properties of our skin's protective external layer. This research was driven by a curiosity about how the epidermis protects our delicate body from the environment and what unexpected ...

Open-shell singlet (OS) diradicals are important building blocks for functional molecular materials，with a large number of pioneering works by researchers advancing their development and applications across various fields. Despite this progress, there remains a lack of research regarding luminescent OS diradicals, hindering their potential use in optoelectronic applications. In fact, the luminescent diradicals are rare chemical species, there are only a few reports to date.   Magnetic field effects (MFE) on the luminescence, i.e., magnetoluminescence (ML) of radicals, hold great promise for developing novel exciton spin manipulation ...

A new study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Neurotrauma shows that children with persistent symptoms following mild traumatic brain injury had evidence of ongoing cerebral microstructural changes. Click here to read the article now. Athena Stein, from The University of Queensland, and coauthors, used brain MRI-based orientation dispersion index (ODI) metrics to study the microstructural damage in the brains of pediatric patients following “mild” TBI. The investigators studied children with persistent symptoms after injury and children displaying clinical recovery at 1 and 2-3 months post-TBI compared to healthy controls. Whole-brain ODI was significantly ...

Tropical cyclones in the western North Pacific (WNP) stand as formidable natural forces, wreaking havoc on Earth and posing significant challenges to disaster preparedness. As we grapple with the uncertainties of future projections for WNP tropical cyclone activities, a recent study published in Environmental Research Letters sheds light on the crucial need to enhance identification and simulation techniques in climate models. Led by Dr. Xin Huang from the Shanghai Typhoon Institute of China Meteorological Administration and Professor Tianjun Zhou from the Institute ...

In a world where digital innovation reigns supreme, Singapore's ascent to FinTech prominence is nothing short of extraordinary. With a reputation for integrity, a conducive business environment, and unwavering support for financial innovation, this small island nation has defied all odds, to emerge as The FinTech Nation. Embark on an exhilarating journey through the dynamic world of FinTech in the heart of Asia with The FinTech Nation: Excellence Unlocked in Singapore. This captivating book unveils the secrets behind Singapore's meteoric rise as a global financial powerhouse, offering an intricate tapestry of ...