Synopsis: Domenii: Environmental challenges:


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#Beating battery drain Stream video on your smartphone or use its GPS for an hour or two and you ll probably see the battery drain significantly.

and a shoebox-size module (for base stations) based on nearly a decade of MIT research to essentially switch gears to adjust voltage supply to power amplifiers as needed cutting the waste.

And ultimately it could impact the environment: If all midsized carrier networks were to replace current radio amplifiers with Eta Devices technology he says the reduction in greenhouse gases would be equivalent to taking about 5 million cars off the road.


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the team now aims to conduct studies in complex 3-D settings to make sure the process works effectively in situations that more closely resemble a real cellular environment.


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#Nanoparticles get a magnetic handle A long-sought goal of creating particles that can emit a colorful fluorescent glow in a biological environment


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which is broken into particles by chemical reactions with both the substrate and the environment. Then they expose the array to a plasma rich in carbon.


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By augmenting the yeast s environment with potassium chloride and increasing the ph with potassium hydroxide the researchers were able to dramatically boost ethanol production.


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Multiple uses for quick changes While troops and vehicles often move from one environment to another,

they are limited presently to fixed camouflage patterns that might be effective in one environment but stick out like a sore thumb in another.

Zhao says. odern warfare requires troops to deploy in many different environments during single missions.

This system could potentially allow dynamic camouflage in different environments. Another important potential application Zhao says,


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How drastically could cab-sharing reduce traffic fares and carbon dioxide emissions? Authoritatively answering that question requires analyzing huge volumes of data

The optimal combination of trips would have reduced total travel time by 40 percent with corresponding reductions in operational costs and carbon dioxide emissions.

Over a four-day period he says ride sharing saved $18000 in fares and operational costs and more than 1000 pounds in carbon emissions.


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A system proposed by researchers at MIT recycles materials from discarded car batteries a potential source of lead pollution into new,

The system is described in a paper in the journal Energy and Environmental science, co-authored by professors Angela M. Belcher and Paula T. Hammond, graduate student Po-Yen Chen,

and that could cause a lot of environmental issues, Belcher says. Today, she says, 90 percent of the lead recovered from the recycling of old batteries is used to produce new batteries,

limiting the risk of lead contamination of the environment. When the panels are retired eventually, the lead can simply be recycled into new solar panels. he process to encapsulate them will be the same as for polymer cells today,

says, ow, what an interesting paper, that turns the waste of one system into a valuable resource for another!

I think the work demonstrated here can resolve a major issue of industrial waste, and provide a solution for future renewable energy.


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In the desert environment dust is present on a daily basis says co-author Numan Abu-Dheir of the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Saudi arabia.


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steam-powered applications. team is important for desalination, hygiene systems, and sterilization, says Ghasemi, who led the development of the structure. specially in remote areas where the sun is the only source of energy,


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Because the process relies on condensation it requires a humid environment as well as a source of temperatures colder than the surrounding air such as a cave or river.


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and weak interaction with the rest of the environment including nonmetallic materials and humans. In fact they demonstrated that they could light the bulb at roughly 45 percent efficiency with all six researchers standing in between the two coils.


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and more importantly not discharging the produced water into the environment. Tiny droplets of water colored blue are suspended in oil on top of a membrane developed by the MIT team.


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and react to their environment. Most of the natural opsins now used for optogenetics respond best to blue or green light.


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In addition to their potential for dangerous explosions, leaking gas pipes can be a significant contributor to global warming:

Methane, the primary constituent of natural gas, is a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.


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Gayeski says. nd that data can be liberated from its local environment to the cloud, Grace adds.


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The BAT could also provide power to places blacked out by natural disasters as well as at amusement parks festivals and sports venues.


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The company which aims to leverage biotechnology as a way to solve environmental issues is also modifying their system to generate value from wastewater in agricultural and military fields,

raising the cost of waste disposal and causing environmental harm. But a more cyclical approach where waste is used as an energy source could provide higher profit yields

and liminate the tension between the environment and economics, says CEO Matt Silver SM 5, Phd 0, who co-founded Cambrian with Justin Buck Phd 2,

now the company chief technology officer. he treatment of wastewater, for example, consumes over 3 percent of the electricity in the United states,

consume the wastewater remaining organic pollutants and, in the process, generate electricity. This electricity travels through a circuit and onto cathodes coated with separate microbes that consume that electricity

Treated wastewater exits the reactor with 80 to 90 percent of pollutants removed, so it can be used for irrigation, equipment washing,

At that rate, a winery would shave about 2 pounds of CO2 per case off of its carbon footprint

where aerobic microorganisms degrade pollutants consume a lot of energy and generate biosolids (organic materials) that are managed at cost.

Processes where anaerobic microbes eat pollutants, while producing small amounts of burnable methane, have gained popularity in the last few decades

and wastewater pollution is rising, causing many companies to consider water risk in their overall strategy.

is to leverage biotechnology to advance a sustainable ndustrial ecology, where the waste of industry is recycled to create energy

and value much like in natural ecosystems. n a natural ecosystem, there really is no such thing as waste,

Silver says. t just another resource. l


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#Fast way to measure DNA repair Our DNA is under constant attack from many sources,

including environmental pollutants, ultraviolet light, and radiation. Fortunately, cells have several major DNA repair systems that can fix this damage,

and the introduction of alkyl groups caused by pollutants such as fuel exhaust and tobacco smoke. To achieve this, the researchers created five different circular pieces of DNA, four


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Tumors in low-oxygen environments tend to be more resistant to therapy and spread more aggressively to other parts of the body.

The researchers are now working on sensors that could be used to monitor other biological properties such as ph. We hope this is the first of many types of solid-state contrast agents where the material responds to its chemical environment in such a way that we can detect it by MRI Cima says.


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which produces unhealthy indoor air pollution, and can contribute to deforestation. Solar cooking could alleviate that

and since people often cook while the sun isn out, being able to store heat for later use could be a big benefit.


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They could also be equipped with sensors that can ecordtheir environments noting for example, if a refrigerated vaccine has ever been exposed to temperatures too high or low.


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which respond to their environment produce complex biological molecules and span multiple length scales with the benefits of nonliving materials

This puts control of curli fiber production in the hands of the researchers who can adjust the amount of AHL in the cells environment.

The two types of engineered cells can be grown together in a colony allowing researchers to control the material composition of the biofilm by varying the amounts of AHL and atc in the environment.

If gold nanoparticles are added to the environment the histidine tags will grab onto them creating rows of gold nanowires and a network that conducts electricity.

which could be useful for converting agricultural waste to biofuels. Other potential applications include diagnostic devices and scaffolds for tissue engineering.


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and give them completely new functions, such as monitoring environmental pollutants. In a new Nature Materials paper, the researchers report boosting plantsability to capture light energy by 30 percent by embedding carbon nanotubes in the chloroplast,

they survive in harsh environments, and they provide their own power source and water distribution.

an environmental pollutant produced by combustion. Strano lab has developed previously carbon nanotube sensors for many different chemicals,

the researchers hope to develop plants that could be used to monitor environmental pollution, pesticides, fungal infections, or exposure to bacterial toxins.


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In most robotic motion-planning systems avoiding collisions with the environment is the highest priority.

With soft robots collision poses little danger to either the robot or the environment. In some cases it is actually advantageous for these robots to bump into the environment

because they can use these points of contact as means of getting to the destination faster Rus says.


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Manipulating the environment It appears that metastatic tumors as well as the supportive cells that surround them, secrete certain proteins into the extracellular matrix to make it easier for them to escape


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Despite their potential to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2 EMISSIONS and fuel consumption electric and hybrid cars and trucks struggled for years to find a solid customer base.

and Fedex among others can provide a 20 percent reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 EMISSIONS. The goal is to reduce oil consumption with cost-effective electric drive technology where fleets don t need additional infrastructure

but began viewing climate change and energy as the real challenges of my generation. After graduating he co-founded the consulting


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In all, about 50 percent of households in the study reported serious negative income shocks in the six months preceding the survey. hey face very high-risk environments


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#Study finds piece-by-piece approach to emissions policies can be effective Discussions on curbing climate change tend to focus on comprehensive, emissions-focused measures:

or a tax on all carbon emissions. But a new study by researchers at MIT finds that a egmentalapproach involving separate targeting of energy choices

and energy consumption through regulations or incentives can play an important role in achieving emission reductions. The new study, by assistant professor of engineering systems Jessika Trancik, is being published this week in the journal Environmental science and Technology.

Trancik is joined on the paper by three MIT graduate students: Michael Chang and Christina Karapataki of the Engineering Systems Division and Leah Stokes of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. policy that focused on controlling carbon emissions is a different kind of policy than one that focused

on the underlying demand-side and supply-side technology drivers, Trancik says. And while those calling for sweeping, emission-focused policies have faced often uphill battles in regions, states,

in order to meet emissions reduction commitments that have been made by most nations. any nations are generally moving in the direction of segmental policies,

hat would involve capping carbon dioxide emissions, but then using these segmental policies to address particular areas of concern,

A global agreement on carbon emissions would be most effective at reducing the risks of climate change

An added benefit, Trancik notes, is that discussing segmental approaches is likely to lead to a greater understanding of where emissions reductions might come from,

which may eventually make it easier to reach an agreement on limiting carbon emissions directly. Decisions made over the next decade will have long-lasting effects on overall emissions,

says this study valuates a number of examples of policies that contribute to a portfolio effort of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,


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Varanasi team findings may also have implications for ecology: The researchers found that some butterfly wings naturally produce the same effect,


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When an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011, knocking out emergency power supplies,

In addition to nuclear safety systems, this work has important implications for systems such as steam generators, industrial boilers, fire suppression,


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and Dust environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft had made history by using a pulsed laser beam to transmit data over the 239000 miles from the moon to Earth at a record-breaking data-download speed of 622 megabits per second (Mbps). This download speed is more than six times faster than the speed achieved by the best


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which is the basis for uperalloysused in extreme environments, such as in deep-sea oil wells. By creating a computer model of that microstructure and studying its response to various conditions,


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In experiments involving visual data about particularly cluttered scenes depicting the kinds of environments in which a household robot would operate Glover s algorithm had about the same false positive-rate rate as the best existing algorithm:


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And they could swarm into environments hostile or inaccessible to humans diagnose problems, and reorganize themselves to provide solutions.


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The researchers also used their new system to monitor human embryonic kidney cells as pure water was added to their environment a shock that forces the cells to absorb water


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such lanterns spew out black carbon that contributes to global warming and indoor air pollution. These solar lamps save customers who make about $2 per day, on average roughly $70 apiece annually.


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while a Lidar system captures 3-D images to discern building facades from the physical environment.

to better differentiate building facades from the surrounding environment. What was perhaps the most surprising and challenging aspect,


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scientists must take into account the environment in which the material will be used, instead of using a ne-size fits allapproach,

the researchers created a model that allows them to predict how it will work in different environments,


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An earthquake and a caterpillarin general, the researchers found that when atoms in the ion crystal were spaced regularly,

as the atoms collectively jump to the next trough. t like an earthquake, Vuletic says. here force building up,


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that can extract energy from the environment to recharge. Last week, at the Symposia on VLSI Technology And circuits, MIT researchers presented a new power converter chip that can harvest more than 80 percent of the energy trickling into it


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Aguilar conceived of the Explorer after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, as a student at both MIT Sloan and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard university.


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must be sealed completely from any contaminant in the environment, Cima says. here was no precedent for that. he company has also found ways to integrate electronics into the microchips to shrink down the device.


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cleaner fuels such as gasoline without using hydrogen a change that would reduce costs, energy use, and carbon dioxide emissions.

when refined, yields a higher fraction of lower-value products such as asphalt along with solid chunks of waste called coke.

and contribute to acid rain and smog. Processes now used to upgrade and desulfurize heavy crude oil are expensive and energy-intensive,


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#New study shows how nanoparticles can clean up environmental pollutants Many human-made pollutants in the environment resist degradation through natural processes,

Brandl says. hen we came up with the idea to use our particles to remove toxic chemicals, pollutants,

in a solution hydrophobic pollutant molecules move toward the hydrophobic nanoparticles, and adsorb onto their surface,

and now nrichedby the pollutants they form larger aggregates that can then be removed through filtration, sedimentation,

and molecules. he interactions we exploit to remove the pollutants are nonspecific, Brandl says. e can remove hormones, BPA,

and we can do this in one step. nd the nanoparticleshigh surface-area-to-volume ratio means that only a small amount is needed to remove a relatively large quantity of pollutants.

thus offer potential for the cost-effective cleanup of contaminated water and soil on a wider scale. rom the applied perspective,

as another example of a persistent pollutant that could potentially be remediated using these nanomaterials. nd for analytical applications where you don need as much volume to purify or concentrate,


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Now if the oxide surface says'I wish I had more negative charge'instead of the oxide gathering ions from the environment


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A recent update from the American Heart Association also suggested that fine particles in air pollution leads to elevated risk for cardiovascular diseases.


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and Barry Rand an assistant professor of electrical engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.


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This innovation in nanotechnology won't soak up enough carbon to solve global warming researchers say. However it will provide an environmentally friendly low-cost way to make nanoporous graphene for use in supercapacitors-devices that can store energy and release it rapidly.

but this approach is faster has little environmental impact and costs less said Xiulei (David) Ji an OSU assistant professor of chemistry in the OSU College of Science

Nanoporous carbon materials can also adsorb gas pollutants work as environmental filters or be used in water treatment.


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Future research in nanoparticle PTT will look at toxicity biodegradability and compatibility issues. Shi said that the team is currently looking for other diverse biodegradable materials to use for the carriers such as plant chlorophylls like those in cabbage that are both edible and photothermal.


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Color IQ also has a positive environmental impact, which earned the company the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the U s. Environmental protection agency in October.

000 gallons of toxic solvents and 100 kilograms of toxic cadmium waste in U s. production each year.


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"The biggest challenge facing researchers trying to culture neurons for study is that it's very difficult to recreate the cozy, soft, three-dimensional environment of the brain.


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This stormy environment strongly affects our ability to capture the intrinsic behavior of nanotube resonators.


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#Tracking heat-driven decay in leading electric vehicle batteries Rechargeable electric vehicles are one of the greatest tools against rising pollution and carbon emissions and their widespread adoption hinges on battery performance.

Crucially the high heat of vehicle environments can intensify these telltale degradation tracks and even cause complete battery failure.


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This study which is reported in Science in a paper titled The structure of interfacial water on gold electrodes studied by x-ray absorption spectroscopy marks the first time that the scientific community has shown such high sensitivity in an in-situ environment under working electrode conditions s


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which allows increasing the production of biogas by 200%with a controlled introduction of iron oxide nanoparticles to the process of organic waste treatment.

and by the Group of Organic Solid Waste Composting of the UAB School of engineering, directed by Antoni Sánchez.

"We believe we are offering a totally innovative approach to the improvement of biogas production and organic waste treatment,

In addition, it offers a significant improvement in the decomposition of organic waste when compared to existing technologies,

This translates into a profitable and sustainable solution to the processing of organic waste, thus favouring the use of this renewable source of energy,

such as agricultural, industrial or urban waste treatments.""Now the challenge lies in extrapolating the technology to digesters with capacity for hundreds of cubic metres.

"We were studying the toxicity of iron oxide nanoparticles in the waste treatment of anaerobic biological processes when we discovered that not only were they not toxic,

"Our business concept focuses on the design of processes with low energy, low toxicity, minimisation of waste and reduction of contaminating emissions",Víctor Puntes affirms."

"In addition, the composition of the additive can be optimised according to the waste which must be treated,


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which holds excellent potential for a lighting device with low power consumption said Norihiro Shimoi the lead researcher and an associate professor of environmental studies at the Tohoku University.

and reduce carbon dioxide emissions on the earth Shimoi said d


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#Physicists set new records for silicon quantum computing Two research teams working in the same laboratories at UNSW Australia have found distinct solutions to a critical challenge that has held back the realisation of super


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which is the natural environment for lipid membranes. Previously, other research teams have focused on writing with lipids in air


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which is broken into particles by chemical reactions with both the substrate and the environment. Then they expose the array to a plasma rich in carbon.


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and optically traceable smart 2-D material that responds to ph or the acidity or basicity of its surrounding environment.


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Therefore replacing copper with nanotube wires should significantly reduce the CO2 EMISSIONS related to the manufacturing and operating of electrical machines.


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or electrical signal they can alert us to dangers in our external and internal environments.

when it senses minor changes in the environment. The narrower the band of absorbed light is the more sensitive the biosensor.


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The results appear online in the journal Environmental science: Nano. Carbon nanotubes are rapidly becoming more common because of their usefulness in nanoelectric devices composite materials and biomedicine.

The Duke study was done using small-scale replications of a wetland environment called mesocosms that include soil sediments microbes insects plants and fish.

While not perfect representations of a natural environment mesocosms provide a reasonable compromise between the laboratory and the real world.

The wetland mesocosms we used are a much closer approximation of the natural processes constantly churning in the environment said Lee Ferguson associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Duke.

The nanoparticle-pollutant package could then be eaten by sediment-dwelling organisms in a sort of'Trojan horse'effect allowing the adsorbed contaminants to accumulate up the food chain.

whether or not these pollutants can be stripped away from the carbon nanotubes by these animals'digestive systems after being ingested continued Ferguson.

Schierz A. Espinasse B. Wiesner M. R. Bisesi J. H. Sabo-Attwood T. Ferguson P. L. Environmental science:


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Composites have also been created to store the by-products of the nuclear energy cycle nuclear waste where the different components of the composite can each store a different part of the waste.


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and Texas Children's took advantage of the surrounding collaborative research environment. This stemmed from talking with Dr. Pasquali's lab as well as interventional cardiologists in the Texas Medical center Jacot said.

and for nutrients and waste to pass through. As a side benefit nanotubes also make the patches stronger and lower their tendency to swell


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but also carbon dioxide greenhouse gas byproduct which escapes into the atmosphere. Argonne's early-stage generator, composed of many tiny assemblies,


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when kept in a minus-20-Degree celsius environment the researchers reported. One can now think of using these films in automobile glass as an invisible deicer


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of element sulfur and environment friendly as well. We try to enhance the cyclic and rate performances of Li-S batteries for practical application with the N-ACNT/G hybrids as cathode materials. said Prof.


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and images of materials while they're in more natural environments. Over the last decade developments allowed scientists to take images of materials in solution


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what types of lifeforms we might find in extreme environments like space. In addition this research has the potential to inform the creation of living microbial circuits forming the foundation of hybrid biological-synthetic electronic devices.


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So if a fraction of the 6. 6 billion mobile phone users globally changed to solar it would reduce our carbon footprint a lot.


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The ability to watch how individual lipid molecules interact with their environment can help researchers understand not only how these


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or 766571 metric tons are deposited into the environment worldwide every year. Co-author of the study Professor Jongheop Yi from Seoul National University said:

Numerous countries are developing strict regulations to avoid the trillions of toxic and non-biodegradable used-cigarette filters that are disposed of into the environment each yearur method is just one way of achieving this.


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The next steps for the researchers include studies to optimize these properties in different bodily environments and more tests perhaps with medications for both chronic pain and inflammation.


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mimicking the environment inside a living organism. The team is comprised of researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of technology's Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems,


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These toxic liquid solvents raise many issues for concern including environmental pollution, high cost of disposal, health problems and poisoning during the disposal process.


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Like tiny submarines these versatile nanocarriers can navigate in the watery environment surrounding cells and transport their guest molecules through the membrane of living cells to sequentially deliver their cargo.

and force them to interact exclusively in the intracellular environment can evolve into a valuable strategy to activate drugs inside cells Raymo says.

These nanocarriers hold the guest molecules within the confines of their water-insoluble interior and use their water-soluble exterior to travel through an aqueous environment.

otherwise be insoluble in water across a liquid environment. Once inside a living cell the particles mix

They are responsible for the ability of the supramolecules to assemble spontaneously in liquid environments. Under the right conditions the reversibility of these weak noncovalent contacts allows the supramolecular constructs to exchange their components as well as their cargo.

and neutral environment) makes these nanoparticles an ideal vehicle for the controlled activation of therapeutics directly inside the cells Raymo says.


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and plays important roles in natural environments, particularly inside biological nanochannels. Professor Lei Jiang and his group from State Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, set out to study this unified bionic frontier.


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Biogenous Iron Oxide produced byleptothrix) has been regarded usually as useless waste but Jun Takada and colleagues at Okayama University discovered unexpected industrial functions of L-BIOX such as a great potential as an anode material in lithium-ion battery.


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Moreover, it was difficult to display the structures including their actual environment. For thick samples, hard X-ray tomography was limited to a resolution of around 150 nanometres.


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Understanding how synthetic DNA-coated nanoparticles interact with a lipid surface may also offer insight into how such particles coated with actual genes might interact with cell membraneshich are composed largely of lipidsnd with one another in a lipid environment."


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