Advances in electrochromic coatings may bring us closer to environmentally friendly ways to keep inside spaces cool. Like eyeglasses that darken to provide sun protection, the optical properties of these transparent films can be tuned with electricity to block out solar heat and light. Now, researchers in ACS Energy Letters report demonstrating a new electrochromic film design based on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that quickly and reliably switch from transparent to glare-diminishing green to thermal-insulating red. Hongbo Xu and colleagues used MOFs in their electrochromic film because of the crystalline substances’ abilities to form thin ...

What makes chocolate taste and smell so delicious? Chemistry, of course! A variety of molecules work together to create that unmistakable aroma, but those same molecules might carry some unwanted health effects if there are too many around. According to research published in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, while many of the compounds appeared in chocolate in low enough concentrations to be safe, higher amounts were found in some baked sweet treats. When making chocolate, cocoa beans are roasted to help their chocolatey flavors shine. During this process, new molecules ...

New York, NY, May 29, 2024 — The New York Academy of Sciences and the Leon Levy Foundation announced today the 2024 cohort of Leon Levy Scholars in Neuroscience, continuing a program initiated by the Foundation in 2009 that has supported 170 fellows in neuroscience. This highly regarded postdoctoral program supports exceptional young researchers across the five boroughs of New York City as they pursue innovative neuroscience research and advance their careers toward becoming independent principal investigators. Nine scholars were competitively selected for a three-year term from a broad pool of applications from more than a dozen ...

The number of refugees has sharply increased in recent decades, reaching 37.8 million in 2022. Amidst this surge, host communities—locals residing in areas where refugee camps are situated—are also positively and negatively impacted by the refugee influxes. The negative impacts include competition over scarce resources and in the unskilled labor market. While the international media and aid organizations put the spotlight on assisting refugees, the challenges faced by host communities are frequently sidelined.   In 2017, over ...

If we want cleaner air, fewer forest fires, and less severe climate change, a new UC Riverside study shows we must reduce aerosol pollution and greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide at the same time.  The study found that boreal forests in the northern hemisphere are particularly vulnerable to negative effects of cleaning up aerosol pollution. This includes forests in Canada, Alaska, northern Europe, and northern Russia.  Aerosols are small particles like dust and sea salt as well as airborne chemicals produced by fossil fuel combustion. They are responsible for poor air quality. The UCR study, published in the journal ...

A small interfering RNA (siRNA) investigational therapy that inhibits a gene involved in lipoprotein metabolism has been shown in a clinical trial led by Mount Sinai researchers to significantly reduce levels of different types of cholesterol and triglycerides in individuals with mixed hyperlipidemia, a condition in which fats build up in the blood. In addition to seeing promising preliminary results related to safety and efficacy in clinical trials, the Mount Sinai researchers found the RNA interference (RNAi)-based therapy zodasiran to be a potentially promising option for substantially reducing a number of atherogenic lipoproteins while requiring less frequent ...

Spend any time scrolling through social media or news sites and it feels like America is a nation in constant argument. Off-hand remarks often spark fierce screaming matches. Partisanship is up, Gallup tells us, while trust in institutions is down. However, a new study co-authored by Berkeley Haas Assistant Professor Erica R. Bailey suggests this perception may not accurately reflect the nature and frequency of political debates among everyday Americans. In three studies involving nearly 3,000 participants, researchers found most debates ...

By Dylan Walsh Some of human history’s greatest atrocities—genocide, slavery, ethnic cleanings—are rooted in our ability to dehumanize people from other social, political, or cultural groups. Whereas prior research has traced dehumanization to the belief that others think or feel less than we do, new research co-authored by Haas professor Sameer Srivastava shows that our tendency to dehumanize can also be influenced by how we think others view important facets of the world. The greater ...

Research Highlights: The benefits gained from better heart health may be related to a process involved in the aging of the body and its cells, researchers found in a study of more than 5,000 adults with a mean age of 56 years. People with rapid cell aging may offset the increased risk of heart disease, stroke and death by managing their heart disease risk factors and adopting more heart-healthy behaviors, researchers said. Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT/5 a.m. ET Wednesday, May 29, 2024 DALLAS, May 29, 2024 — The benefit of better heart health may be associated with the positive impact of heart healthy lifestyle factors on biological aging (the age of the body and its ...

Neurological disorders, such as addiction, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), affect millions of people worldwide and are often characterized by complex pathologies involving multiple brain regions and circuits. These conditions are notoriously difficult to treat due to the intricate and poorly understood nature of brain functions and the challenge of delivering therapies to deep brain structures without invasive procedures. In the rapidly evolving field of neuroscience, non-invasive brain stimulation is a new hope for ...

An analysis by researchers in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson showed that risks for death by suicide and homicide peak at night, with nocturnal wakefulness, age, alcohol use and relationship conflicts being especially prevalent as contributing factors. Nearly 19% of suicides and 36% of homicides occur at night. Suicide and homicide share little in common, but their highly concordant overnight risk patterns suggest a common feature: nocturnal ...

City officials were more likely to maintain climate action during the pandemic in places with more climate-related health issues affecting residents. Cities around the world were more likely to maintain climate action and enact ‘green recovery’ long-term plans after the pandemic if local decision-makers were more alert to the health risks of climate change, a new global study has shown. The health benefits of tackling climate change, such as cleaner air and more access to green spaces, were key ...

Pennsylvania has been disproportionately affected by the opioid epidemic, having the fourth highest number of overdose deaths in the country in 2020. Also, the rate of overdose deaths among Black persons is significantly higher than that of white persons in the state. A recent analysis published in Addiction reveals that compared with white people in Pennsylvania, Black individuals are less likely to receive naloxone—a medication that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose. In the analysis of 2019–2021 data collected from death ...

New research has revealed up to a 9% increase in college freshmen enrollments in US states that have legalized recreational marijuana compared with states without such legalization. The study, which is published in Economic Inquiry, found that the increase was from out-of-state enrollments, with early adopter states and public non-research institutions experiencing the most pronounced increases. Recreational marijuana legalization did not negatively impact degree completion or graduation rate, and it did not affect ...

Longer freight trains are more likely to derail compared with shorter trains, according to new research published in Risk Analysis. The increased risk held even after accounting for the need for fewer trains if more cars were on each train. For the study, investigators assessed information on US freight train accidents between 2013–2022 from Federal Railroad Administration databases. The team found that running 100-car trains would lead to an 11% higher risk of derailment compared with running 50-car trains, even when accounting for the fact that only half as many 100-car trains would need to run. For 200-car trains, the risk was 24% higher than ...

In research published in Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry, investigators sampled water from 19 locations across the Hudson and East Rivers in 2021 and 2022 to identify and quantify the prescribed pharmaceuticals and drugs of abuse that are making their way into New York City’s rivers and to determine the source of these pollutants. Metoprolol and atenolol (blood pressure medications), benzoylecgonine (the main metabolite of cocaine), methamphetamine (a stimulant), and methadone (an opioid) were the most prevalent drugs, ...

As a newly developed perovskite with a large amount of intrinsic oxygen vacancies, BaSc0.8W0.2O2.8 achieves high proton conduction at low and intermediate temperatures, report scientists at Tokyo Tech. By the donor doping of large W6+, this material can take up more water to increase its proton concentration, as well as reduce the proton trapping through electrostatic repulsion between the dopant and proton. These findings could pave the way to the rational design of novel perovskites for protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) and electrolysis cells (PCECs). In line with global efforts towards cleaner energy technologies, fuel cells may soon become an indispensable ...

Vaccination remains the most effective strategy for avian influenza prevention and control in humans, despite varying vaccine efficacy across strains. That’s according to the authors of a new review which delves into existing research into bird flu vaccines for humans. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, the results of the paper are particularly timely following news last week (Wednesday 22nd May) that the bird flu strain H5N1 had once again, for a second time, jumped from cattle in America to a human – prompting fears of subsequent human-to-human infection, with possible critical consequences. Instances ...

62% of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) designated to protect rare migratory fish species are outside of their core habitats, according to a new modelling study. The findings are published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology. A team of researchers in France from the “Pole MIAME” that gathers diadromous fish experts from multiple research institutions (OFB, INRAE, Institut Agro and UPPA) have developed a new modelling approach that accurately predicts core and unsuitable habitats of rare and data-poor ...

The advancement of urbanization and globalization has impacted every corner of the Earth， human activities have transformed over one-third of the planet’s ecosystems, including agricultural lands and urban areas. Thus, there is an urgent need to define and achieve the equilibrium of novel ecosystems. This study employed pragmatic designed experiments as its core method, integrating methodologies from empiricism, positivism, and romanticism to propose a semi-empirical ecological design framework that emphasizes learning by doing and research through practice. ...

A new study by Chinese scientists, released on May 29 in Shanghai, has called for the use of consumption-based accounting (“CBA”) emissions in calculating global carbon emissions in order to help make allocating responsibility for reducing emissions just and fair. The study, “Research Report on Consumption-based Carbon Emissions (2024)” (“the Report”), was jointly completed by scientists from several institutes under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) as well as from Tsinghua University. The ...

The depletion of energy resources poses a significant threat to the development of human society. Specifically, a considerable amount of low-grade heat (LGH), typically below 100 °C, is currently being wasted. However, if harnessed effectively, it has the potential to significantly improve overall energy utilization efficiency and subsequently reduce carbon dioxide emissions. A research group of Junyong Hu from Taiyuan University of Technology has concentrated on developing a new type of reverse electrodialysis ...

The Colorado River is a lifeline for many cities and farms in the Southwest United States. It flows for about 1,448 miles before reaching the Gulf of California in Mexico and supplies water to numerous cities and farms along the way.   However, over the past 60 years, the amount of water in the Colorado River has been shrinking. In fact, in some years, the river’s water has been used up completely before it reaches the gulf. Landon Marston, assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering, teamed up with researchers from multiple universities and ...

According to a recent study published in Chemical Engineering Journal, a collaborative research team led by Professor WANG Hui from High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Hefei Institutes of Science of Chinese Academy of Sciences developed magnetite nanozyme (MNZs) with dual enzymatic activities through structural engineering, and proved its structure-dependent behavior in the process of tumor treatment. MNZs, as a substitute for natural enzymes, has been widely studied in the field of tumor catalytic therapy. However, the catalytic efficiency of traditional MNZs in tumor microenvironment (TME) is often limited, which is mainly due to the low production rate of hydroxyl radical ...

People have various relationships in society including those with family, friends, and coworkers. While these relationships play a significant role in our lives, it's crucial to maintain a healthy distance as being too close can lead to intense emotions or conflicts. Interestingly, a recent study in the field of chemistry demonstrates that maintaining such distance can enhance battery performance in electric vehicles.   In this research, Professor Soojin Park, Dr. Sungjin Cho and Youngjin Song, a PhD student, from the Department of Chemistry at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in collaboration with the team of Professor Sung Gap Im ...