NIAID July 20, 2022 NIAID and its partners under the Chemical Countermeasures Research Program (CCRP) invite applications for the early-stage development of therapeutics and medical countermeasures (MCMs) to mitigate the adverse health effects resulting from toxic chemical exposure, including validation of therapeutic targets and preclinical characterization of lead compounds. Through the funding opportunity announcement (FOA) CCRP Initiative: Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats (CounterACT) Therapeutics Discovery and Early-Stage Development (UG3/UH3, Clinical Trial Not Allowed), the ultimate aim is to generate well-characterized therapeutic candidates that may one day advance the nation’s medical and public health preparedness for, response to, and recovery from chemical-related […]
Light accelerates conductivity in nature’s ‘electric grid’
Nanowerk September 7, 2022 Almost all living things breathe oxygen to get rid of excess electrons when converting nutrients into energy. Without access to oxygen, however, soil bacteria living deep under oceans or buried underground respire by “breathing minerals,” through tiny protein nanowires. Researchers at Yale University found that exposing bacteria-produced nanowires to light yielded up to a 100-fold increase in electrical conductivity showing stable and robust photocurrent that persists for hours. They showed that living biofilms of Geobacter sulfurreducens used nanowires of cytochrome OmcS as intrinsic photoconductors. Photocurrents respond rapidly (<100 ms) to the excitation and persist reversibly for hours. […]
Magnetic skyrmions: Two methods for creating them and guiding their motion
Phys.org September 7, 2022 Magnetic skyrmions are envisioned as information carriers in future information technology. Skyrmions in thin magnetic films may act as an ideal test bed to study the dynamics of topologically non-trivial magnetic quasi-particles. To study the skyrmions reliable generation of the magnetic skyrmion at controlled positions is required. An international team of researchers (Germany, the Netherlands) developed full nanometer-scale control of the skyrmion generation by two independent approaches employing He+-ion irradiation or using backside reflective masks. The influence of nanopatterned backside aluminum masks on the optical excitation was studied in two sample geometries with varying layer sequence […]
A new catalyst to slow down global warming
Phys.org September 2, 2022 An international team of researchers (Russia, USA – University of Notre Dame) has developed a new simplified method of producing industrial cobalt-nickel catalysts for carbon dioxide processing that makes the process simple and inexpensive. The catalysts are a bulk alloy with a porous surface and nanoscale grains that form foamy high-activity particles. Due to the structure and the synergistic interaction of Co with Ni, the catalysts are characterized by a more intense interaction with CO2 molecules and high stability. They focused on exploring the possibilities of full utilization of carbon dioxide, simplifying the production of effective […]
New practical method of producing Airy beams could enhance ultrasound
Phys.org September 7, 2022 Airy beams are a class of acoustic waves that move on a curved, arch-like trajectory and can auto-focus around obstacles that are directly in the beam’s path, which makes them well suited for ultrasound applications in biomedical imaging, therapy, non-destructive testing, and particle manipulation. A team of researchers in the US (Washington State University, Pennsylvania State University) has designed and fabricated a family of Airy-beam-enabled binary acoustic metasurfaces (AB BAMs) to generate Airy beams for underwater ultrasound-beam manipulation. They used 3D printing with two coding bits: a polylactic acid unit acting as a bit “1” and […]
New Prototype Device Harvests Water From The Air to Make Hydrogen Fuel
Science Alert September 7, 2022 Current and potential energetically passive procedures for improving atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) capabilities involve different strategies and dedicated materials. In this paper researchers in France have reviewed the advantages and limitations of different AWH strategies from the perspective of morphology and wettability optimization, substrate cooling, and sorbent assistance. They have demonstrated various applications based on advanced AWH technologies. They proposed a prospective concept of multifunctional water vapor harvesting panel based on promising cooling material, inspired by silicon-based solar energy panels providing a brief outlook of its advantages and challenges…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
New theory for detection of terahertz electromagnetic waves gives hope for advances in IT and medicine
Phys.org September 2, 2022 An international team of researchers (Germany, UK) has presented a detailed theory of the in-plane photoelectric (IPPE) effect providing analytical results for the THz wave generated photocurrent, the quantum efficiency, and the internal responsivity of the detector, the gate voltages, and the geometrical parameters of the detector. The calculations are performed for macroscopically wide samples at zero temperature. Results of the theory are applicable to any semiconductor systems with 2D electron gases, including III-V structures, silicon-based field effect transistors, and the novel 2D layered, graphene-related materials. Their findings make it possible to construct small, inexpensive, and […]
Organic thin-film sensors for light-source analysis and anti-counterfeiting applications
Science Daily September 6, 2022 Researchers in Germany have developed an organic thin-film sensor that describes a completely new way of identifying the wavelength of light and achieves a spectral resolution below one nanometer. The principle of operation of the new sensor is that light of unknown wavelength excites luminescent materials in a hair-thin film. The film consists of a mixture of phosphorescent and fluorescent entities, which absorb the light under investigation in different ways. The intensity of the afterglow can be used to infer the wavelength of the unknown input light. They exploited the fundamental physics of excited states […]
Researchers devise tunable conducting edge
Phys.org September 5, 2022 An international team of researchers (USA – UC Riverside, Israel, Japan) stacked monolayer WTe2 with an insulating ferromagnet of several atomic layer thickness—of Cr2Ge2Te6 (CGT) and found that the WTe2 had developed ferromagnetism with a conducting edge. The edge flow of the electrons was unidirectional and could be made to switch directions with the use of an external magnetic field. When only the edge conducts electricity, the size of the interior of the material is inconsequential, allowing electronic devices that use such materials to be made smaller. Currently, the technology works only at very low temperatures; […]
Researchers improve mechanical properties of aluminum/steel joints
Phys.org September 5, 2022 To join aluminum to steel researchers in China proposed an innovative hybrid resistance spot-laser welding process. The welding current distribution and the weld structure were optimized to produce a thin and uniform intermetallic layer with its thickness below 1.2 μm. The faying interface morphology of aluminum and steel dissimilar materials was changed from a traditional flat surface to an interface with a deep bulge into the aluminum weld. The presence of a weak bonding area around the periphery of the joint facilitated the crack initiation and rapid propagation. Laser spot welding process inhibited rapid propagation of […]