Creating a two-dimensional material, just a few atoms thick, is often an arduous process requiring sophisticated equipment. So scientists were surprised to see 2D puddles emerge inside a three-dimensional superconductor – a material that allows electrons to travel with 100% efficiency and zero resistance – with no prompting. Within those puddles, superconducting electrons acted as if they were confined inside an incredibly thin, sheet-like plane, a situation that requires them to somehow cross over to another dimension, where different rules of quantum physics apply....

Scientists have for the first time detected black holes eating neutron stars, “like Pac Man,” in a discovery documenting the collision of the two most extreme and enigmatic objects in the Universe. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the US and the Virgo gravitational-wave observatory in Italy have captured the gravitational waves from the death spiral and merger of a neutron star with a black hole, not once but twice....

Psychiatric disorders, including autism, are characterized and diagnosed based on a clinical assessment of verbal and physical behavior. However, brain imaging and cognitive neuroscience are poised to provide a powerful advanced new tool. Published in PLoS One, the study combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and machine-learning techniques first developed at Carnegie Mellon that use brain activation patterns to scan and decode the contents of a person’s thoughts of objects or emotions....

“We developed a pretty clever battery for mass-market electric vehicles with cost parity with combustion engine vehicles,” said Chao-Yang Wang, William E. Diefenderfer Chair of mechanical engineering, professor of chemical engineering and professor of materials science and engineering, and director of the Electrochemical Engine Center at Penn State. “There is no more range anxiety and this battery is affordable.” The researchers also say that the battery should be good for 2 million miles in its lifetime....

The research could lead to electronics being designed with better endurance. University of Sydney researchers have made a significant discovery in the field of materials science, for the first time providing a full picture of how fatigue in ferroelectric materials occurs. Ferroelectric materials are used in many devices, including memories, capacitors, actuators, and sensors. These devices are commonly used in both consumer and industrial instruments, such as computers, medical ultrasound equipment, and underwater sonars....

These molecular transporters can be chemically programmed to deliver an optimal concentration of drugs, making them more efficient than current methods. A team of Canadian researchers from the University of Montreal, (UdeM) report the details in a new study that will be published today (November 2) in the journal Nature Communications. Optimal dosing at all times: a medical challenge Providing and maintaining a therapeutic drug dosage throughout treatment is one of the key ways to successfully treat disease....

Konkolewicz and Page’s technique uses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology to illuminate how proteins and synthetic polymers interact in chemical substances known as bioconjugates. Why bioconjugates are useful Proteins can be used to catalyze chemical reactions that are useful in many applications. For example, protein enzymes are used to produce high-fructose corn syrup and insulin is used to treat diabetes. But some proteins are active for only a very short time or they break down easily, so it’s just not practical – or cost-effective – to use them....

For many years, professor of mechanical engineering Bumsoo Han and his research group have been studying cancer cells. He builds microfluidic structures to simulate their biological environment; he has even used these structures to build a “time machine” to reverse the growth of pancreatic cancer cells. “In our experiments, we’ve been observing and studying how these cancer cells migrate, because it’s an important aspect of cancer metastasis,” said Hye-ran Moon, postdoctoral researcher on Han’s team....

Legalization of recreational cannabis may be associated with an increase in fatal motor vehicle collisions based on data from the United States, and authors discuss the implications for Canada in an analysis in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). “Analyses of data suggest that legalization of recreational cannabis in United States jurisdictions may be associated with a small but significant increase in fatal motor vehicle collisions and fatalities, which, if extrapolated to the Canadian context, could result in as many as 308 additional driving fatalities annually,” says Ms....

“This is a radically new way of generating electricity from solar energy. It means that we can use solar energy to produce electricity regardless of weather, time of day, season, or geographical location. It is a closed system that can operate without causing carbon dioxide emissions,” says research leader Kasper Moth-Poulsen, Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers. The researchers behind the solar energy system MOST, which makes it possible to capture solar energy, store it for up to 18 years, and release it when and where it is needed, have now taken the system a step further....

International consortium funded by Alzheimer’s Association will study effects. An article published this month in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association cites decades of published scientific evidence to make a compelling case for SARS-CoV-2’s expected long-term effects on the brain and nervous system. Dementia researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) are the first and senior authors of the report and are joined by coauthors from the Alzheimer’s Association and Nottingham and Leicester universities in England....

As research on greenhouse gases and global warming continues, this brief video from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center explains how instruments like CERES and MODIS are providing researchers with long-term trend data on Earth’s heat balance. Aqua CERES: Tracking Earth’s Heat Balance Is the heat budget of the planet changing? Thermometers on the ground can give us a snapshot of a summer heatwave or winter cold spell, but it takes something like NASA’s CERES instruments to give a long term picture of whether the planet is keeping more of its heat than it loses back into space....

Now, researchers at MIT and at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have outlined a pathway to slashing costs further, this time by slimming down the silicon cells themselves. Thinner silicon cells have been explored before, especially around a dozen years ago when the cost of silicon peaked because of supply shortages. But this approach suffered from some difficulties: The thin silicon wafers were too brittle and fragile, leading to unacceptable levels of losses during the manufacturing process, and they had lower efficiency....

A new analysis has integrated findings from 134 studies of the impact of color-coded nutrition labels and warnings found on the front of some food packaging, indicating that these labels do indeed appear to encourage more healthful purchases. Jing Song of Queen Mary University of London, UK, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine. Some countries have introduced mandatory front-of-package labeling in hope of improving people’s diets and reducing the burden of diseases associated with poor diets....

For more than a decade, drugs like enzalutamide (also known by the brand name Xtandi) that inhibit male hormones from activating the androgen receptor have been used to treat advanced prostate cancer. Although successful in most cases, sometimes these drugs eventually stop working. However, there is a limited understanding of how this change occurs. A new study suggests androgen receptor inhibitors can fundamentally rewire and reshape how prostate tumors function....

Not surprisingly, COVID-19 vaccines and antiviral treatments dominated headlines in 2021. But in addition to these breakthroughs, pharmaceutical and biotech companies continued to work on new technologies to treat other diseases. A cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, an independent news outlet of the American Chemical Society, highlights the year in pharma for COVID-19 and beyond. Two years into the pandemic, the drug industry has affirmed its strength in tackling public health crises, writes Associate Editor Ryan Cross....

The study, which was published on June 28 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, included researchers from the University of Arizona, University of Hawaii at Hilo, CIRAD, Santa Clara University, Purdue University West Lafayette and University of Exeter. “Any major impacts in the global coffee industry will have serious implications for millions of people across the globe, including the coffee retail market here in the United States,” said lead author Kevon Rhiney, an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at Rutgers-New Brunswick....

The COVID-19 pandemic has been depressing, demoralizing, and stressful for people around the world. But is there any way to measure exactly how bad it has made everyone feel? A new study led by MIT researchers attempts just that, through a massive examination of hundreds of millions social media posts in about 100 countries. The research, which analyzes the language terms used in social media, finds a pronounced drop in positive public sentiment after the pandemic set in during early 2020 — with a subsequent, incremental, halting return to prepandemic status....

High BMI independently associated with death and longer ICU stay for COVID patients. Obese patients (BMI >35 kg/m2) were twice as likely to experience a prolonged ICU stay or die, in a large Swedish cohort study. In patients with COVID-19, a high body mass index (BMI) is associated with an increased risk of death and prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Lovisa Sjögren of Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and colleagues....

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues in 2021, we must remain vigilant against more contagious variants of the virus that have reached Colorado. Even with the rollout of vaccines in the spring, we are in a race to beat this virus and must continue to prevent its transmission as best as we can. Research by CU Boulder experts and scientists across the world have now clearly shown that aerosols are the main route of transmission for SARS-COV-2, as outbreaks continue to happen in crowded, poorly ventilated spaces....