Electrospinning is a well-developed method for developing polymer fibers for a wide variety of applications. If biocompatible materials are used, the fibers produced can be used for biomedical applications. But electrospinning requires very high voltages, making direct deposition of the fibers onto biological material dangerous due to the shock hazard it creates. A group of researchers at Montana Technological University has developed a portable electrospinning device with a confined electric field that can safely deposit bandages and drugs directly onto biological surfaces....

Neurons that remain active even after the triggering stimulus has been silenced form the basis of short-term memory. The brain uses rhythmically active neurons to combine larger groups of neurons into functional units. Until now, neuroscientists have, for the most part, studied these and other properties with the help of network models, each of which is only able to recreate a single property. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt have now shown how the new model can be used to investigate multiple properties in parallel....

The 2015–2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a nationally representative study of Americans 12 years of age and older, served as the source of the data. Major depression is the most common mental disorder in the United States and the most significant risk factor for suicidal behavior. According to prior research, the prevalence of depression in Americans rose from 6.6 percent in 2005 to 7.3 percent in 2015....

About seven light years from the center of RCW 120 lies the boundary of the cloud, where a plethora of stars are forming. How are all of these stars being formed? To answer that question, we need to dig deep into the origin of the nebula. RCW 120 has one young, massive star in its center, which generates powerful stellar winds. The stellar winds from this star are much like those from our own Sun, in that they throw material out from their surface into space....

Concerns over the opioid epidemic have sparked a strong scientific interest in why some people become addicted while others don’t. Now, researchers are proposing novel treatment strategies that could help prevent abuse of opioids and other substances. In a report for Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers in health behavior, neuroscience, pain management, and addiction describe advances in brain science that can explain an individual’s vulnerability to substance abuse and dependency....

Scientists from the CNRS and Aix-Marseille Université have recently shown how valuable light-sensitive macromolecules are: when exposed to the right wavelength of light, they can be transformed so as to change, erase or decode the molecular message that they contain. The results of this research were published on September 4, 2019, in Nature Communications. DNA is a long chemical sequence that carries genetic information. Inspired by this biological system, in recent years many research teams have been exploring how to store and then decode information within synthetic macromolecules, also called polymers....

In a new study, scientists found that older adults that drank at least four cups of diet soda a day were 31 percent more likely to report depression than non-drinkers and people who had four or more cups of coffee a day had a roughly 10 percent lower risk of depression versus a non-drinker. Older adults who down several diet drinks a day may have a heightened risk of developing depression, a new study suggests....

A study by scientists at Cornell’s Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs suggests that the presence of certain foods in school cafeterias may prompt kids to make healthier lunch choices. Just because healthful foods are available in school cafeterias doesn’t mean children are going to eat them, but in some cases, the very presence of such foods as whole fruit may actually prompt kids to make healthier choices, even if fruit is never selected....

The rock structure behind the rover is “Greenheugh Pediment”; the hill that is middle distance on the right, is “Rafael Navarro Mountain.” Curiosity is headed toward “Maria Gordon Notch,” the U-shaped opening behind the rover to the left. Curiosity was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA. JPL manages Curiosity’s mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego....

Superconductors conduct electricity without resistance, making them valuable for long-distance electricity transmission and many other energy-saving applications. Conventional superconductors operate only at extremely low temperatures, but certain iron-based materials discovered roughly a decade ago can superconduct at relatively high temperatures and have drawn the attention of researchers. Exactly how superconductivity forms in iron-based materials is something of a mystery, especially since iron’s magnetism would seem to conflict with the emergence of superconductivity....

The black hole at the center of this galaxy is part of a survey of 18 of the biggest black holes in the universe. This large elliptical galaxy is in the center of the galaxy cluster PKS 0745-19, which is located about 1.3 billion light-years from Earth. X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown in purple and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope are in yellow. The researchers found that these black holes may be about ten times more massive than previously thought, with at least ten of them weighing between 10 and 40 billion times the mass of the sun....

Researchers reporting in ACS Nano have developed tiny, self-propelled robots that remove radioactive uranium from simulated wastewater. ACS Headline Science shows the microbots in action. The accidental release of radioactive waste, such as what occurred in the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear plant disasters, poses large threats to the environment, humans, and wildlife. Scientists have developed materials to capture, separate, remove and recover radioactive uranium from water, but the materials have limitations....

Researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have built the smallest, fastest and longest-running tiny synthetic motor to date. The team’s nanomotor is an important step toward developing miniature machines that could one day move through the body to administer insulin for diabetics when needed, or target and treat cancer cells without harming good cells. With the goal of powering these yet-to-be invented devices, UT Austin engineers focused on building a reliable, ultra-high-speed nanomotor that can convert electrical energy into mechanical motion on a scale 500 times smaller than a grain of salt....

“The ‘Antarctica Factor’ turns out to be the greatest risk, and also the greatest uncertainty, for sea levels around the globe,” says lead-author Anders Levermann from the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Columbia University’s LDEO in New York. “While we saw about 19 centimeters (7.5 inches) of sea-level rise in the past 100 years, Antarctic ice-loss could lead to up to 58 centimeters (23 inches) within this century....

The attraction to same-sex partners is prevalent in humans, but the underlying biology and causes of homosexuality and bisexuality remain not fully understood. A new study involving a researcher from Swansea University is exploring the possibility that sex hormones present in the fetus may play a role in shaping an individual’s sexual attraction later in life. Building on previous research linking parental income to fetal sex hormones, the study, for the first time, examines the potential connection between parental income and the sexual behavior of adult children....

We all struggle to get enough sleep sometimes. Whether it’s through work, stress, worry, or just one of those nights, sleepless nights are a part of life. While an occasional bad night will not cause you any harm, regularly missing out on between 5 and 9 hours a night can lead to problems. So, what should you look out for if you fall into this category? Obesity While it may seem that being awake longer would result in more physical activity and more weight loss, the opposite is actually true....

The researchers will present their results today at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Fall 2021 is a hybrid meeting being held virtually and in-person August 22-26, and on-demand content will be available August 30-September 30. The meeting features more than 7,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics. “Simple organic molecules that are liquid on Earth are typically solid icy mineral crystals on Titan because of its extremely low temperatures, down to -290 F,” says Tomče Runčevski, Ph....

Juno began the maneuver yesterday, September 30, at 7:46 p.m. EDT (4:46 p.m. PDT), and completed it early on October 1. Using the spacecraft’s reaction-control thrusters, the propulsive maneuver lasted five times longer than any previous use of that system. It changed Juno’s orbital velocity by 126 mph (203 kph) and consumed about 160 pounds (73 kilograms) of fuel. Without this maneuver, Juno would have spent 12 hours in transit across Jupiter’s shadow — more than enough time to drain the spacecraft’s batteries....

Tracking lead levels in soil over time is critical for cities to determine lead contamination risks for their youngest and most vulnerable residents, according to a new Tulane University study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study, which focuses on New Orleans but may be applied to cities throughout the world, is the first to demonstrate how long-term changes in soil lead levels affect children’s blood lead levels....

After traveling for 15 days across the Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclone Freddy made landfall on the east coast of Madagascar on the evening of February 21, 2023. This image shows Freddy just east of Madagascar at 1:50 p.m. local time (10:50 Universal Time) on February 21. It was acquired by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-20 satellite. As Freddy made landfall north of Mananjary around 7:20 p....