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The technology, which has been tested in the lab, could ultimately be used for manufacturing and building in difficult-to-access or dangerous locations such as tall buildings or help with post-disaster relief construction, say the researchers.

3D printing is gaining momentum in the . Both on-site and in the factory, static and print materials for use in , such as steel and .

This new approach to 3D printing—led in its development by Imperial and Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories of Materials Science and Technology—uses flying robots, known as , that use collective building methods inspired by natural builders like bees and wasps who work together to create large, intricate structures.

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A study led by Durham University’s Fetal and Neonatal Research Lab, UK, took 4D ultrasound scans of 100 pregnant women to see how their unborn babies responded after being exposed to flavors from foods eaten by their mothers.

Researchers looked at how the fetuses reacted to either carrot or kale just a short time after the flavors had been ingested by the mothers.

Fetuses exposed to carrot showed more “laughter-face” responses while those exposed to kale showed more “cry-face” responses.

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From the same mind whose research propelled the notion that “sitting too much is not the same as exercising too little,” comes a groundbreaking discovery set to turn a sedentary lifestyle on its ear: The soleus muscle in the calf, though only 1% of your body weight, can do big things to improve the metabolic health in the rest of your body if activated correctly.

And Marc Hamilton, professor of Health and Human Performance at the University of Houston, has discovered such an approach for optimal activation—he’s pioneering the “soleus pushup” (SPU) which effectively elevates muscle metabolism for hours, even while one is sitting. The soleus, one of 600 muscles in the , is a posterior leg muscle that runs from just below the knee to the heel.

Published in the journal iScience, Hamilton’s research suggests the soleus pushup’s ability to sustain an elevated oxidative metabolism to improve the regulation of blood glucose is more effective than any popular methods currently touted as a solution including exercise, weight loss and intermittent fasting. Oxidative metabolism is the process by which oxygen is used to burn metabolites like blood glucose or fats, but it depends, in part, on the immediate energy needs of the muscle when it’s working.

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Researchers investigated the polarization-dependence of the force exerted by circularly polarized light (CPL) by performing optical trapping of chiral nanoparticles. They found that left-and right-handed CPL exerted different strengths of the optical gradient force on the nanoparticles, and the D-and L-form particles are subject to different gradient force by CPL. The present results suggest that separation of materials according to their handedness of chirality can be realized by the optical force.

Chirality is the property that the structure is not superimposable on its mirrored image. Chiral materials exhibit the characteristic feature that they respond differently to left-and right-circularly polarized light. When is irradiated with strong laser light, optical is exerted on it. It has been expected theoretically that the optical force exerted on chiral materials by left-and right-circularly polarized light would also be different.

The research group at Institute for Molecular Science and three other universities used an experimental technique of optical trapping to observe the circular-polarization dependent optical force exerted on chiral gold nanoparticles. Chiral gold nanoparticles have either D-form (right-handed) or L-form (left-handed) structure, and the experiment was performed using both.

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Florida’s “silent” flying dish-rack, powered by ionic propulsion, is on track for commercial rollout in 2024, according to Undefined Technologies, which has released new outdoor flight test video. We remain curious, but unconvinced it’ll be viable.

The “Silent Ventus” drone doesn’t use propellers to fly. Instead, its entire broad structure creates two stacked grids of electrodes, designed to create high-voltage electric fields that can ionize the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the air, freeing electrons to give them a positive charge, and then propelling these downward to create an “ionic wind” that can produce thrust.

It’s not new; ionic propulsion has been used in space, and as we pointed out when we first saw the Silent Ventus drone project, for a few very small-scale terrestrial projects as well, one of which was used to levitate Orville the mouse in 2003. Undefined says its “Air Tantrum” technology yields “higher levels of thrust, up to 150% compared to current ion thruster technologies.”

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Small but mighty, lysosomes play a surprisingly important role in cells despite their diminutive size. Making up only 1–3% of the cell by volume, these small sacs are the cell’s recycling centers, home to enzymes that break down unneeded molecules into small pieces that can then be reassembled to form new ones. Lysosomal dysfunction can lead to a variety of neurodegenerative or other diseases, but without ways to better study the inner contents of lysosomes, the exact molecules involved in diseases—and therefore new drugs to target them—remain elusive.

A new method, reported in Nature on Sept. 21, allows scientists to determine all the molecules present in the lysosomes of any cell in mice. Studying the contents of these molecular recycling centers could help researchers learn how the improper degradation of cellular materials leads to certain diseases. Led by Stanford University’s Monther Abu-Remaileh, institute scholar at Sarafan ChEM-H, the study’s team also learned more about the cause for a currently untreatable neurodegenerative known as Batten disease, information that could lead to new therapies.

“Lysosomes are fascinating both fundamentally and clinically: they supply the rest of the cell with nutrients, but we don’t always know how and when they supply them, and they are the places where many diseases, especially those that affect the brain, start,” said Abu-Remaileh, who is an assistant professor of chemical engineering and of genetics.

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From pv magazine France

French hydrogen specialist Hydrogène de France (HDF) is moving forward with its green hydrogen project in Swakopmund, a city located on the Namibian coast, in the administrative region of Erongo.

The company said it obtained new permits for the project from the Namibian authorities. “This important step in the authorization process confirms a favorable environment for the project. As a result, HDF Energy is moving closer to building the first green hydrogen power plant in Africa, among the first deployed by HDF Energy globally, ” said Nicolas Lecomte, HDF Energy’s director for southern Africa.

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