Synopsis: Electricity & magnetism:


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There isn't a single solution for disease resistance in the field which is part of the reason these findings are said important Peck.

The concept of another layer of interaction between host and microbe provides an additional conceptual strategy for how resistance might be manipulated.


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This atomic substitution creates local electric fields at the grain boundaries that boost the material's photovoltaic performance instead of damaging it.


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#Cow manure harbors diverse new antibiotic resistance genesmanure from dairy cows which is used commonly as a farm soil fertilizer contains a surprising number of newly identified antibiotic resistance genes from the cows'gut bacteria.

The findings reported in mbioâ the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology hints that cow manure is a potential source of new types of antibiotic resistance genes that transfer to bacteria in the soils

where food is grown. Thousands of antibiotic resistance (AR) genes have already been identified but the vast majority of them don't pose a problem

when found in harmless bacteria. The real worry is when these genes appear in the types of pathogenic bacteria that cause food-borne illnesses

The team also found an entire new family of AR genes that confer resistance to chloramphenicol antibiotics which are used commonly to treat respiratory infections in livestock.

so if they acquire antibiotic resistance they could pose a problem. Alternatively benign bacteria in manure might transfer resistance genes to pathogens at any point along the path--in manure soil food or humans.

We're hoping this study will open up a larger field of surveillance to start looking at new types of resistance before they show up in the clinic says Handelsman.

Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American Society for Microbiology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.


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nchez researcher in the Department of Electrical engineering some factors that may increase the cost of acquiring the import greenhouses are the level of sophistication of its technologies for automation its size


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or wood residue or export electricity from biofuel production facilities to offset emissions from coal-fueled power plants.


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The liberalization of the Indian economy is associated most often with near-double digit growth the rise of India as an economic powerhouse and the emergence of wealthy urban middle classes.


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and help curb the growing epidemic of antibiotic resistance. The research was published in the journal PLOS One.


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Coal-fired power plants produce a lot of pollution so any measures that will reduce our combustion of coal will also help us to fight air pollution.

This will be particularly important for China he said which has been plagued by skyrocketing air pollution from coal power plants used to fuel its industrial expansion.

Experts estimate that a quarter of a million people die prematurely each year in China because of air pollution from the country's coal-fired power plants.

when solar power was more of a novelty source of energy for individuals who were too far from power lines to get conventional electricity from the grid.

Today we build large power plants that can supply entire cities with renewable electricity. In fact today we install the equivalent of 100 large coal-fired power plants--the same capacity in renewables--every year he said.

However we haven't started phasing out the coal-fired power plants so this needs to happen too.

The good news is that the WG III report presents a full range of options for action.


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and started to improve when the U s. Clean Air Act of 1970 required coal power plants and other polluters to scrub sulfur out of their smokestacks.

You can really see the effect of the Clean Air Act in 1970 which had the most dramatic impact on emission of acid from coal-fired power plants.

What's more airborne nitrate dissolves in water and falls at the poles as snow.


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Just as in nature very little mechanical energy is required in the laboratory to release a much greater amount of chemical energy--quite similar to a fuse

This requires electricity is prone to malfunctions and is expensive. The objective of his research group is to replace complicated control systems with cleverly designed materials.


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Growing crops on photovoltaic farmsgrowing agave and other carefully chosen plants amid photovoltaic panels could allow solar farms not only to collect sunlight for electricity

electricity from solar infrastructure and easily transportable liquid fuel from biofuel cultivation said Ravi the lead author of a new study published in a recent issue of the journal Environmental science & Technology that details the idea.

Crops planted beneath the solar panels would capture the runoff water used for cleaning the PV panels


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Novel electrodestwo years ago Kanan and Li created a novel electrode made of a material they called oxide-derived copper.

because the metallic electrode was produced from copper oxide. Conventional copper electrodes consist of individual nanoparticles that just sit on top of each other Kanan said.

Oxide-derived copper on the other hand is made of copper nanocrystals that are linked all together in a continuous network with well-defined grain boundaries.

For the Nature study Kanan and Li built an electrochemical cell--a device consisting of two electrodes placed in water saturated with carbon monoxide gas.

When a voltage is applied across the electrodes of a conventional cell a current flows and water is converted to oxygen gas at one electrode (the anode)

and hydrogen gas at the other electrode (the cathode). The challenge was to find a cathode that would reduce carbon monoxide to ethanol instead of reducing water to hydrogen.

Most materials are incapable of reducing carbon monoxide and exclusively react with water Kanan said. Copper is the only exception

but conventional copper is very inefficient. In the Nature experiment Kanan and Li used a cathode made of oxide-derived copper.

When a small voltage was applied the results were dramatic. The oxide-derived copper produced ethanol and acetate with 57 percent faradaic efficiency Kanan said.

That means 57 percent of the electric current went into producing these two compounds from carbon monoxide.

We're excited because this represents a more than 10-fold increase in efficiency over conventional copper catalysts.

Ultimately Kanan would like to see a scaled-up version of the catalytic cell powered by electricity from the sun wind or other renewable resource.


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In solid-state physics electron mobility refers to how quickly electrons pass through a metal or semiconductor in the presence of an electric field.


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For example said Babst Branching has a big impact on the display of a plant's leaves to capture sunlight like arrays of solar panels.


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Trying to understand the unusual susceptibility of bank voles to prions from other species Stanley Prusiner Joel Watts Kurt Giles


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When crossing parent plants for example breeders often like to track the genes underlying their trait of interest such as resistance to a pathogen.


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Understanding the structure of the peanut's genome will lay the groundwork for new varieties with traits like added disease resistance and drought tolerance.


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and Identify Candidate Genes for Broad Resistance in Rice published in the January edition of Plant Physiology.


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and drilling medical therapy and diagnosis biopharmaceuticals air conditioning fuel cells power transmission systems solar cells micro-and nanoelectronic mechanical systems and cooling systems for everything from engines to nuclear reactors.

The great properties of nanodiamond--lubricity high thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity and stability among others--are said quite impressive Taha-Tijerina.


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Areas downwind of large agricultural regions often set the stage for more mixing of ammonia with human-made emissions from combustion such as from traffic and power plants.


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and resolution to produce all the data scientists need said Liang Dong an Iowa State university associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

That has Dong leading a research team that includes Namrata Vaswani an Iowa State associate professor of electrical and computer engineering;


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and 0 to 30%if they used to generate electricity; the figures vary between countries.


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Dangerous infections are diminishing the role of some antibiotics making them less able to treat infections as pathogens are developing resistance to the drugs he said adding that about 23000 people die in the U s. annually because of exposure to pathogens that don't respond to antibiotics.


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#Secret of multiple insecticide resistance in mosquitoesresearchers at LSTM have discovered how unprecedented multiple and extreme-level resistance is generated in mosquitoes found in the rice fields of Tiassalã in southern CÃ'te d'Ivoire.

The paper CYP6 P450 enzymes and ACE-1 duplication produce extreme and multiple insecticide resistance in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae published in PLOS Genetics today highlights the combination of stringently-replicated whole genome transcription

This is the first wild Anopheles population to display such complete multiple resistance which is a serious concern

In addition to many of the mosquitoes surviving a standard one-hour insecticide exposure (used as THE WHO standard to monitor the prevalence of resistance) the levels of resistance displayed in Tiassalã were very high with 50%of mosquitoes tested surviving for longer

When these genes were transplanted into Drosophila resistance to pyrethroids and carbamates was generated in otherwise susceptible fly strains..

These genes are familiar candidates to LSTM researchers who have documented previously their links with pyrethroid and DDT resistance.

This new research shows how specific P450 genes can engender resistance across insecticides with entirely different modes of action:

DDT and pyrethroids target a voltage-gated sodium channel (a nerve cell membrane channel) whereas carbamates and organophosphates target the neurotransmitter Acetylcholinesterase encoded by the gene ACE-1. This is where Tiassalã mosquitoes yielded another surprise contributing to their exceptionally high carbamate resistance.

A well-known single nucleotide resistance mutation at the ACE-1 gene is near ubiquitous in the population

but because almost every female is a heterozygote (possesses a resistant and susceptible allele) it did not seem this could cause any variation in resistance.

However from application of a newly-developed qpcr diagnostic it was found that the ACE-1 gene was duplicated in some individuals with those resistant to carbamate much more likely to have duplicated additional copies of the resistant ACE-1 allele.

This combination of distinct mechanisms provides the Anopheles population of Tiassalã with high levels of resistance and resistance across insecticides.

but understanding of their resistance mechanisms provides tools for monitoring in other West african populations to help maintain the effectiveness of vector control programmes.


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The team's results support an ecological theory that native species in communities can exert biotic resistance.


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which will help scientists understand more about disease resistance in pines. The megagenomes of conifers are a challenge to sequence.


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Varieties of wheat with some resistance to blight were collected in China during the 1950s and breeding for better resistance has been done since.

The most resistant variety of wheat Sumai 3 was released in China in the 1960s Yen explains

Resistance to the disease is controlled by the chemical pathways of two growth hormones jasmonate and ethylene Yen explains.

Through funding from USDA and the South dakota Wheat Commission he has identified biomarkers that will allow breeders to screen for this resistance.

Disease development Essentially Yen hypothesizes that the fungus softens the host cell wall during infection and triggers a chain of host resistance responses.

In the resistant wheat the key resistance gene may delay this chain of reactions until the host tissue is too hard for the disease to develop Yen explains.


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whether an intervention had a significant effect said Baraniuk the Victor E. Cameron Professor of Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of Rice's RDLS.


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#Honey offers new approach to fighting antibiotic resistancehoney that delectable condiment for breads and fruits could be one sweet solution to the serious ever-growing problem of bacterial resistance to antibiotics

The unique property of honey lies in its ability to fight infection on multiple levels making it more difficult for bacteria to develop resistance said study leader Susan M. Meschwitz Ph d. That is it uses a combination of weapons including hydrogen peroxide

which is the basis of conventional antibiotics is that it results in the bacteria building up resistance to the drugs.


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modulation and decoupling Foster surgically inserted electrodes into the forelimbs and hind limbs of seven male green anole lizards.


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and moving parts and electrical engineers to design control systems Linden said. Tests have shown that each of the eight fiber-optic cables can produce between 80 and 90 watts of energy meaning the whole system can deliver up to 700 watts of energy into the reaction chamber said Linden.

In late December tests at CU-Boulder showed the solar energy directed into the reaction chamber could easily boil water


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and the third from an area in Missouri with no evidence of rotation resistance. After generations in the laboratory insects gradually lose their natural diversity Seufferheld said.

Seufferheld now works for Monsanto and is based in Buenos aires where he is in charge of insect resistance management.

These genes have been found to play a role in rootworm resistance to crop rotation. The team looked at how treatment with RNAI

We now know that disrupting a particular target gene may enhance undesirable pest characteristic such as rotation resistance


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The GRIN2A gene influences electrochemical events that affect the flow and strength of electrical impulses in the brain.

Having identified the de novo gene defect the researchers conducted laboratory experiments to confirm the resulting protein dysfunction and its effects on electrical-regulating mechanisms.


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and a third time to be made into products said Pearce an associate professor of materials science and engineering/electrical and computer engineering.


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Nematodes can also build up resistance to pesticides. We have wondered always how the Yangambi km5 fights off roundworms.


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#Predators delay pest resistance to Bt cropscrops genetically modified with the bacterium Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) produce proteins that kill pest insects.

Steady exposure has prompted concern that pests will develop resistance to these proteins making Bt plants ineffective.

Cornell research shows that the combination of natural enemies such as ladybeetles with Bt crops delays a pestâ##s ability to evolve resistance to these insecticidal proteins. â#oethis is demonstrated the first example of a predator being able

to delay the evolution of resistance in an insect pest to a Bt cropâ#said Anthony Shelton a professor of entomology at Cornell University's New york state Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva N y

Since farmers began planting Bt crops in 1996 with 70 million hectares planted in the United states in 2012 there have been only three clear-cut cases in agriculture of resistance in caterpillars

To delay or prevent insect pests from evolving resistance to Bt crops the U s. Environmental protection agency promotes the use of multiple Bt genes in plants

These predators can reduce the number of potentially resistant individuals in a pest population and delay evolution of resistance to Bt.

Also resistance to Bt plants evolved significantly slower in this treatment. In contrast Bt plants with no refuge were defoliated completely in treatments without ladybirds after only four to five generations showing rapid development of resistance in the pests.

In the treatment with sprayed non-Bt refuge plants and predators diamondback moth populations were reduced

but the larvae more quickly evolved resistance to the Bt plants. â#oethese results demonstrate the effectiveness of Bt plants in controlling the pest population the lack of effect of Bt on the predators

and the role predators play in delaying resistance to Bt plants in the pest populationâ#said Shelton.


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#Entomologists update definitions to tackle resistance to biotech crops, pesticidesresistance to pesticides has now been recorded in nearly a thousand pest species including more than 500 insects 218 weeds and 190 fungi that attack plants.

The recorded cases of resistance in insects mites and other arthropods which include resistance to multiple pesticides per species more than doubled from 5141 in 1990 to 11254 in 2013.

and Michigan State university updated definitions for 50 key terms related to resistance in a new article in the Journal of Economic Entomology.

The lack of a modern glossary for resistance was brought recently to our attention by an initiative of the U s. Environmental protection agency (EPA) seeking input on definitions of terms about resistance said Dr. Mark Whalon one of the co-authors from Michigan State university

who directs the online Arthropod Pesticide Resistance Database and who also serves as the Entomological Society of America's Liaison to the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs.

We provide a list of 50 key resistance terms and definitions aimed at facilitating understanding and management of resistance.

The authors favor definitions that promote proactive detection and management of resistance such as resistance defined as a genetically based decrease in susceptibility to a pesticide.

They contrast this with an alternative definition used by some industry scientists that requires repeated failure of a product to achieve the expected level of control

and managing insect resistance to corn and cotton plants genetically engineered to produce proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).

and 76%of all corn grown in the U s. Recognizing that resistance is not all

or none and that intermediate levels of resistance can have a continuum of effects on pest control the authors describe five categories of field-evolved resistance

and use them to classify 13 cases of resistance to five Bt toxins in transgenic corn

and cotton based on monitoring data from five continents for nine major pest species. Emerging resistance of the western corn rootworm to Bt corn exemplifies the urgent need for well-defined

resistance terms. The cost of this insidious beetle to U s. corn growers has been estimated at one billion dollars annually.

The first evidence of rootworm resistance to Bt corn was discovered in Iowa in 2009 said Dr. Bruce Tabashnik the study's lead author

Nearly five years later the resistance has spread but decisive regulatory action by the EPA is stalled still in part

because an effective definition of resistance is lacking in this case. Although some scientists have expressed concern that reports of pest resistance to Bt crops provide'ammunition'to anti-biotech activists Tabashnik said Pests are remarkably adaptable.

They usually evolve resistance to any tactic that's used repeatedly to control them so this problem is limited not to transgenic crops.

Noting that insects have been evolving resistance to natural plant defenses for millions of years and that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the first reported case of insecticide resistance he concludes Finding ways to delay resistance is a never-ending challenge with any pest management approach.

Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Entomological Society of America. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference e


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#Ancient Chinese medicine put through its paces for pancreatic cancerthe bark of the Amur cork tree (Phellodendron amurense) has traveled a centuries-long road with the healing arts.

and the resulting resistance to drugs he said and there are no drugs currently targeting that pathway in those cancers.


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Consumer concerns about bacterial resistance to antibiotics have prompted the swine industry to seek additional methods to protect the health of pigs including special feed additives.


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and using it to fuel power plants. Biogas technology has been used successfully for decades and it can produce renewable electricity at a cost that's competitive with traditional fuels the authors said.

The amount of methane biogas that went uncollected from palm oil wastewater lagoons last year alone could have met a quarter of Malaysia's electricity needs.

Tapping into that unused fuel supply could yield both financial and environmental benefits the authors said.


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In his approach to the plant defense response French said he is trying to produce something like a systemic acquired resistance or induced systemic resistance response from the potato against the pathogen.

if these systemic acquired resistance compounds work and if so why are they working? French said.


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New and improved varieties of cowpeas have numerous adaptive traits of agronomic importance such as 60-70 day maturity drought tolerance heat tolerance aphid resistance

and heat tolerant genes but also develop a platform for mapping genes controlling several other biotic and abiotic stress tolerances such as aphid resistance and low phosphorus tolerance both


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When running the radar draws 5 watts of power the same as a low-energy light bulb;

standby power is 1 milliwatt. The units also boast antenna arrays--Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO--different from the Wifi router philosophy)--that allow the researchers to construct 3d images of the ice.

This will be very useful because of the uneven shape of the ice-sheet's underside Dr Nicholls commented.


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Chappell and colleagues at the University of Georgia's Department of Horticulture reported on the implementation and use of these WSNS at three commercial nursery and greenhouse operations in Georgia. The report focused on the use of capacitance-based


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#Genetic secret of mosquito resistance to DDT, bed net insecticides discoveredresearchers from LSTM have found that a single genetic mutation causes resistance to DDT

With the continuing rise of resistance the research published in the journal Genome Biology is key as scientists say that this knowledge could help improve malaria control strategies.

The researchers led by Dr Charles Wondji used a wide range of methods to narrow down how the resistance works finding a single mutation in the GSTE2 gene which makes insects break down DDT

The spread of resistance genes could hold back efforts to prevent the disease. The authors say that knowing how resistance works will help to develop tests

and stop these genes from spreading amongst mosquito populations. Charles Wondji said:''We found a population of mosquitoes fully resistant to DDT (no mortality

So we wanted to elucidate the molecular basis of that resistance in the population and design a field applicable diagnostic assay for its monitoring.'

They designed a DNA-based diagnostic test for this type of resistance (metabolic resistance) and confirmed that this mutation was found in mosquitoes from other areas of the world with DDT resistance

but was completely absent in regions without. X-ray crystallography of the protein coded by the gene illustrated exactly how the mutation conferred resistance by opening up the'active site'where DDT molecules bind to the protein so more can be broken down.

This means that the mosquito can survive by breaking down the poison into nontoxic substances..

'For the first time we have been able to identify a molecular marker for metabolic resistance (the type of resistance most likely to lead to control failure) in a mosquito population

and track resistance at an early stage in the field which is an essential requirement to successfully tackle the growing problem of insecticide resistance in vector control.

This significant progress opens the door for us to do this with other forms of resistance as well and in other vector species.'Story Source:

The above story is provided based on materials by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.


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Plant pathologists have made great strides in identifying floral traits that mediate host plant resistance to floral pathogens in individual systems;


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Corn cubs and sugar canes are in fact plant parts that can also be used directly as food so there is a great public resistance to accept producing this kind of bioethanol.


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#Genetically modified spuds beat blightin a three-year GM research trial scientists boosted resistance of potatoes to late blight their most important disease without deploying fungicides.

The trial was conducted with Desiree potatoes to address the challenge of building resistance to blight in potato varieties with popular consumer and processing characteristics.

Cultivated potatoes possess around 750 resistance genes but in most varieties late blight is able to elude them.

The Sainsbury Laboratory is continuing to identify multiple blight resistance genes that will difficult for blight to simultaneously overcome.

Their research will allow resistance genes to be prioritized that will be more difficult for the pathogen to evade.

and experiment with multiple resistance genes. By combining understanding of resistance genes with knowledge of the pathogen they hope to develop Desiree

and Maris Piper varieties that can completely thwart attacks from late blight. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Norwich Bioscience Institutes.


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#Pond-dwelling powerhouses genome points to biofuel potentialduckweed is a tiny floating plant that's been known to drive people daffy.

which is already producing electricity from duckweed. Understanding which genes produce which traits will allow researchers to create new varieties of duckweed with enhanced biofuel traits such as increased reduction of cellulose or increased starch or even higher lipid production.


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Theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and his Rice colleagues found through exhaustive analysis that those who wish to control the chirality of nanotubes--the characteristic that determines their electrical properties--would be wise to look at other aspects of their growth.

and that angle controls how well the nanotube will conduct electricity. A perfect conducting metallic nanotube would have arranged the atoms in armchairs so-called

or the other or the chiral angle can be anything in between with a shifting range of electrical properties.


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#New pomegranate-inspired design solves problems for lithium-ion batteriesan electrode designed like a pomegranate--with silicon nanoparticles clustered like seeds in a tough carbon rind--overcomes several remaining

While a couple of challenges remain this design brings us closer to using silicon anodes in smaller lighter

Experiments showed our pomegranate-inspired anode operates at 97 percent capacity even after 1000 cycles of charging

The anode or negative electrode is where energy is stored when a battery charges. Silicon anodes could store 10 times more charge than the graphite anodes in today's rechargeable lithium-ion batteries

but they also have major drawbacks: The brittle silicon swells and falls apart during battery charging

and it reacts with the battery's electrolyte to form gunk that coats the anode

and provide a sturdy highway for electrical currents. And since each pomegranate cluster has just one-tenth the surface area of the individual particles inside it a much smaller area is exposed to the electrolyte thereby reducing the amount of gunk that forms to a manageable level.

Although the clusters are too small to see individually together they form a fine black powder that can be used to coat a piece of foil

and form an anode. Lab tests showed that pomegranate anodes worked well when made in the thickness required for commercial battery performance.

While these experiments show the technique works Cui said the team will have to solve two more problems to make it viable on a commercial scale:


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