Phys.org May 14, 2021 Although it is widely accepted that climate change perturbs food productions, no systematic understanding exists on where and how the major risks for entering unprecedented conditions may occur. An international team of researchers (Finland, Switzerland) has addressed this gap by introducing the concept of safe climatic space (SCS), which incorporates the decisive climatic factors of agricultural production: precipitation, temperature, and aridity. They showed that a rapid and unhalted growth of greenhouse gas emissions (SSP5–8.5) could force 31% of the global food crop and 34% of livestock production beyond the SCS by 2081–2100. The most vulnerable areas […]
Author Archives: Hema Viswanath
COVID-19 testing method gives results within one second
Phys.org May 18, 2021 An international team of researchers (USA – University of Florida, Taiwan) has developed a sensor system which amplifies the binding signal for a target biomarker using a disposable and biofunctionalized strips, which can be connected externally to a reusable printed circuit board for signal amplification with an embedded MOSFET. The sensor was externally connected to the gate electrode of the MOSFET, and synchronous pulses were applied to both the sensing strip and the drain contact of the MOSFET. The resulting changes in the dynamics of drain waveforms were converted into analog voltages and digital readouts, which […]
Engineers harvest WiFi signals to power small electronics
Nanowerk May 18, 2021 Widespread use of the 2.4GHz radio frequency that uses WiFi has made excess signals available to be tapped for alternative uses. An international team of researchers (Singapore, India, Japan) has demonstrated electrical synchronization of four non-vortex uniformly magnetized spin-torque oscillators (STOs) using a single common current source in both parallel and series configurations at 2.4 GHz band, resolving the frequency-area quandary for designing STO based on-chip communication systems. The synchronized STOs showed an excellent time-domain stability and substantially improved phase noise performance. By integrating the electrically connected eight STOs, they demonstrated the battery-free energy-harvesting system utilizing the […]
Future sparkles for diamond-based quantum technology
Science Daily May 17, 2021 Advancement of diamond based photonic circuitry requires robust fabrication protocols of key components – including diamond resonators and cavities. Researchers in Australia have developed a new hard masking method, which uses a thin metallic tungsten layer to pattern the diamond nanostructure, enabling the creation of one-dimensional photonic crystal cavities. The use of tungsten instead of a more conventional silicon oxide layer enables good repeatability and reliability of the fabrication procedures. The process yields high quality diamond cavities with quality factors (Q-factors) approaching 1 × 104. They showed that the cavities can be picked up and […]
A Global Database of COVID-19 Vaccinations
Global Biodefense May 18, 2021 A team of researchers in the UK has developed the Our World in Data COVID-19 vaccination dataset, a global public dataset that tracks the scale and rate of the vaccine rollout across the world. The dataset includes data on the total number of vaccinations administered, first and second doses administered, daily vaccination rates and population-adjusted coverage for all countries for which data are available (169 countries as of 7 April 2021). It will be maintained as the global vaccination campaign continues to progress. Vaccination data are updated daily and are made available via two channels. […]
Harvesting light like nature does
Nanowerk May 15, 2021 Inspired by the formation of hierarchically structured natural biominerals (e.g., bone and tooth), various sequence-defined polymers have been synthesized and exploited for design and synthesis of functional hybrid materials. A team of researchers in the US (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Washington State University) created an altered protein-like structure, called a peptoid, and attached a precise silicate-based cage-like structure to one end of it. They found that, under the right conditions, they could induce these molecules to self-assemble into perfectly shaped crystals of 2D nanosheets. It has the programmability of a protein-like synthetic molecule with the complexity […]
How plants leave behind their parents’ genomic baggage
Phys.org May 20, 2021 An international team of researchers (USA – Cold Springs Harbor, Canada, France) discovered that after baby plants remove the epigenetic modifications, the SUVH9 protein puts back the ones they need to survive. Without SUVH9, plants develop poorly because the wrong genes turn on at the wrong time. The SUVH9 protein uses small snippets of RNA to look for the right places to reinstall the beneficial modifications, which are on mobile genetic elements known as transposons. The SUVH9 protein adds the epigenetic modifications to them, and this ensures nearby genes are turned off at the right time. […]
Nanofiber filter captures almost 100% of coronavirus aerosols
EurekAlert May 18, 2021 A team of researchers in the US (George Washington University, UC Riverside, US Naval Academy) designed and fabricated electrospun air filters using ultrafine nanofibers (∼300 nm) which have much smaller pore size in comparison to the surgical mask and cloth masks. They used a coronavirus strain served as a SARS-CoV-2 surrogate to generate aerosols for filtration efficiency tests. The air filters showed excellent performance by capturing up to 99.9% of coronavirus aerosols, which outperformed many commercial face masks. They found that the same electrospun air filter or face mask removed NaCl aerosols equivalently or less effectively in […]
New material could harvest water all day long
Phys.org May 20, 2021 Inspired by the shape of cactus spines, a team of researchers in the US (Caltech, University of Minnesota) has developed a hydrogel which combines the two water harvesting methods, namely, Fog collection and Solar-steam generation in one device. The hydrogel itself is a polyvinyl alcohol/polypyrrole (PVA/PPy) composite gel, a non-toxic and flexible material used in numerous applications. They used the gel to build a network of spines. Due to their tiny size, they can be printed onto a wafer-thin membrane. During the day, the hydrogel membrane absorbs sunlight to heat up water trapped beneath it, which […]
Nuclear terrorism could be intercepted by neutron-gamma detector that pinpoints source
EurekAlert May 19, 2021 Researchers in Sweden have developed a Neutron-Gamma Emission Tomography (NGET) system that goes beyond the capabilities of existing radiation portal monitors, by measuring the time and energy correlations between particles emitted in nuclear fission and using machine learning algorithms to visualize where they are coming from. The system looks for coincidences of neutron and gamma ray emissions–which when mapped together in real-time allow pinpointing their origin. They demonstrated the method on a radiation portal monitor prototype system based on fast organic scintillators measuring the characteristic fast time and energy correlations between particles emitted in nuclear fission […]