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Tests may lead to doubling of fuel cell life
May 23, 2013 | Comments
To improve fuel cell module durability and predict longevity, researchers are studying the degradation mechanisms of the fuel cells that occur under real-world transit bus conditions. While quantifying the effects of electrode degradation stressors in the operating cycle of the bus on the membrane lifetime, the team has discovered links between electrode degradation and membrane durability.
Researchers discover a way to detect new viruses
June 17, 2013 9:27 pm | Comments
In a new approach, scientists have used blood serum as a biological source to...
Silicon-based nanoparticles could make LEDs cheaper, greener
June 13, 2013 8:07 am | Comments
Light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, are the most efficient and environmentally friendly light bulbs...
New boron-silicon electrode could boost lithium-ion battery capacity
June 6, 2013 2:04 pm | Comments
Silicon can accept ten times more lithium than the graphite used in the electrodes in...
Underwater springs show how coral reefs respond to ocean acidification
June 17, 2013 7:06 pm | CommentsA recent study is the first to show that corals are not able to fully acclimate to low pH conditions in nature. The results are from a study of corals growing where underwater springs naturally lower the pH of seawater. The coral doesn’t die, but the acidity reduces the density of coral skeletons, making coral reefs more vulnerable to disruption and erosion.
New type of nanosheet offers fast pollutant degradation
June 17, 2013 6:56 pm | CommentsWaste from textile and paint industries often contains organic dyes such as methylene blue as pollutants. Photocatalysis is an efficient means of reducing such pollution, and molybdenum trioxide catalyzes this degradation. Researchers in India now report four methods to produce nanosheets made of very few layers of molybdenum trioxide, which are more efficient than their bulk counterparts.
Polymer-coated catalyst protects "artificial leaf"
June 17, 2013 6:42 pm | CommentsElectrolysis is often used to produce hydrogen that can be used for a storable fuel. Modified solar cells with highly efficient architecture can use this method to obtain hydrogen from water with the help of catalysts. But these solar cells rapidly corrode in aqueous electrolytes. By embedding the catalysts in an electrically conducting polymer, researchers have prevented this corrosion while maintaining competitive efficiency.
Scientists moving 15-ton magnet from N.Y. to Chicago
June 17, 2013 6:20 pm | by Frank Eltman, Associated Press | CommentsScientists on Long Island are preparing to move a 50-foot-wide electromagnet 3,200 miles over land and sea to its new home at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. The trip, starting at Brookhaven National Laboratory, is expected to take more than a month.
Google begins launching Internet-beaming balloons
June 17, 2013 2:54 pm | by Martha Mendoza and Nick Perry, Associated Press | CommentsEighteen months in the works, the top-secret project was announced Saturday in New Zealand, where up to 50 volunteer households are already beginning to receive the Internet briefly on their home computers via translucent helium balloons that sail by on the wind 12 miles above Earth. Google is launching these Internet-beaming antennas into the stratosphere aboard giant, jellyfish-shaped balloons.
A way to detect new viruses
June 17, 2013 2:14 pm | CommentsIn recently published research, St. Louis Univ. researchers describe a technology that can detect new, previously unknown viruses. The technique offers the potential to screen patients for viruses even when doctors have not identified a particular virus as the likely source of an infection. In the new approach, scientists use blood serum as a biological source to categorize and discover viruses.
Scientists make first direct images of topological insulator’s edge currents
June 17, 2013 1:57 pm | CommentsResearchers have made the first direct images of electrical currents flowing along the edges of a topological insulator. In these strange solid-state materials, currents flow only along the edges of a sample while avoiding the interior. Using an exquisitely sensitive detector they built, the team was able to sense the weak magnetic fields generated by the edge currents and tell exactly where the currents were flowing.
Working backward: Computer-aided design of zeolite templates
June 17, 2013 12:08 pm | CommentsTaking a page from computer-aided drug designers, Rice Univ. researchers have developed a computational method that chemists can use to tailor the properties of zeolites, one of the world’s most-used industrial minerals. The method allows chemists to work backward by first considering the type of zeolite they want to make and then creating the organic template needed to produce it.
Is artificial sweetener a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease?
June 17, 2013 11:42 am | CommentsMannitol, a sugar alcohol produced by fungi, bacteria and algae, is a common component of sugar-free gum and candy. The sweetener is also used in the medical field. Now a team from Tel Aviv Univ. have found that mannitol also prevents clumps of a protein from forming in the brain—a process that is characteristic of Parkinson's disease.
Printing artificial bone
June 17, 2013 10:23 am | by Denise Brehm, Civil and Environmental Engineering | CommentsResearchers working to design new materials that are durable, lightweight and environmentally sustainable are increasingly looking to bone for inspiration. While researchers have come up with hierarchical structures in the design of new materials, going from a computer model to the production of physical artifacts has been a persistent challenge. Now researchers have developed an approach that allows them to turn their designs into reality.
Antioxidant with a long shelf life
June 17, 2013 9:28 am | by Fabio Bergamin, ETH Zurich | CommentsCommonly found in many fruits, vegetables, coffees, teas, and wines, antioxidants are generally regarded as healthy chemicals. However, the problem with using antioxidants in other products is that many of these molecules are not actually very stable. Scientists have recently developed a nanomaterial that protects other molecules from oxidation, and unlike previous attempts the new antioxidant has a long shelf life.
Lilly to take over development of diabetes drug
June 17, 2013 9:16 am | by The Associated Press | CommentsEli Lilly and Co. will pay Canadian drug developer Transition Therapeutics Inc. $7 million and take over the development of a potential diabetes treatment heading into mid-stage clinical testing. Transition said Monday it also could receive up to $240 million in additional payments, plus royalties if the treatment is eventually approved and sold.
To ease shortage of organs, grow them in a lab?
June 17, 2013 9:13 am | by Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer | CommentsGrowing lungs and other organs for transplant is still in the future, but scientists are working toward that goal. In North Carolina, a 3-D printer builds prototype kidneys. In several labs, scientists study how to build on the internal scaffolding of hearts, lungs, livers, and kidneys of people and pigs to make custom-made implants. Solid organs like lungs or livers are still too difficult, but simpler body parts are now being made.
A robot that runs like a cat
June 17, 2013 9:00 am | CommentsThanks to its legs, whose design faithfully reproduces feline morphology, a Swiss research institute’s new four-legged “cheetah-cub robot” has the same advantages as its model: It is small, light and fast. Still in its experimental stage, the robot will serve as a platform for research in locomotion and biomechanics.
Chemists produce star-shaped macromolecule that grabs large anions
June 17, 2013 8:02 am | CommentsChemists at Indiana Univ. Bloomington have created a symmetrical, five-sided macrocycle that is easy to synthesize and has characteristics that may help expand the molecular tool box available to researchers in biology, chemistry and materials sciences.
