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Blog – Page 21

A U of A engineering researcher is using sunlight and semiconductor catalysts to produce hydrogen by splitting apart water molecules into their constituent elements.

“The process to form the semiconductor, called thermal condensation polymerization, uses cheap and Earth-abundant materials, and could eventually lead to a more efficient, economical path to clean energy than existing ,” says project lead Karthik Shankar of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, an expert in the field of photocatalysis.

In a collaboration between the U of A and the Technical University of Munich, results of the research were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

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Advances in high-throughput phenotyping (HTP) platforms together with genotyping technologies have revolutionized breeding of varieties with desired traits relying on genomic prediction. Yet, we lack an understanding of the expression of multiple traits at different time points across the entire growth period of the plant.

A research team, including IPK Leibniz Institute and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, has developed a computational approach to solve this problem. The results were published in the journal Nature Plants.

The phenome of a plant comprises the entirety of traits expressed at any given time, and is the integrated outcome of the effects of genetic factors, and their . Understanding how the crop phenome changes over time can help predict individual traits at specific time points in crop development. However, this problem is challenging not only because of the intricate dependence between individual traits, but also due to differences in how the phenomes of specific genotypes change over the plant life cycle.

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Scientists are using cutting-edge techniques to track water ice on the Moon—an essential resource for future space missions.

A University of Hawai‘i team utilized ShadowCam to peer into the Moon’s perpetually dark craters, refining estimates of surface ice. Another team introduced a cosmic ray-based method to detect deeply buried ice, a breakthrough in lunar exploration. Both approaches could revolutionize how we locate usable water beyond Earth, with Hawai‘i emerging as a key player in the growing space frontier.

Unlocking lunar water: why ice on the moon matters.

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RIKEN scientists have discovered how to manipulate molybdenum disulfide into acting as a superconductor, metal, semiconductor, or insulator using a specialized transistor technique.

By inserting potassium ions and adjusting conditions, they could trigger dramatic changes in the material’s electronic state—unexpectedly even turning it into a superconductor or insulator. This new level of control over a single 2D material could unlock exciting breakthroughs in next-gen electronics and superconductivity research.

Unlocking versatility in a single material.

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In a dramatic leap for astrophysics, Chinese researchers have recreated a key cosmic process in the lab: the acceleration of ions by powerful collisionless shocks.

By using intense lasers to simulate space-like conditions, they captured high-speed ion beams and confirmed the decades-old theory that shock drift acceleration, not shock surfing, is the main driver behind these energy gains. This discovery connects lab physics with deep-space phenomena like cosmic rays and supernova remnants, paving the way for breakthroughs in both fusion energy and space science.

Breakthrough in particle acceleration observed in lab.

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The thymus is a crucial training ground for T-cells, the body’s “white knights,” where they learn to battle the various diseases they may encounter. Thymic function shrinks to nearly nothing as we age, severely limiting our ability to recognize and defend against cellular infiltrators.

Scientists at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) discovered a crucial pathway in the thymus that determines the rate of growth and functional preservation. Surprisingly, this pathway appears to act through both indirect and direct methods. Understanding these functions could help produce treatments that preserve thymic function for longer, boosting the immune system’s power to fight disease.

A UT Health San Antonio-led study, published in Nature Aging in February 2025, highlights the role of the peptide hormone fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) in regulating T-cells and, potentially, preserving thymic size over time.

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