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Aug 6, 2021

When is SpaceX Starlink coming to my area? Rollout data reveals progress

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

The space-faring firm’s satellite internet service promises connections with high speed and low latency — and data suggests the rollout pace is now increasing.

Aug 6, 2021

Eternal Change for No Energy: A Time Crystal Finally Made Real

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Like a perpetual motion machine, a time crystal forever cycles between states without consuming energy. Physicists claim to have built this new phase of matter inside a quantum computer.

Aug 6, 2021

Decoding Heart-Brain Talk to Prevent Sudden Cardiac Deaths

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

As a cardiac electrophysiologist, Deeptankar DeMazumder has worked for years with people at risk for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Despite the latest medical advances, less than 10 percent of individuals stricken with an SCA will survive this highly dangerous condition in which irregular heart rhythms, or arrhythmias, cause the heart suddenly to stop beating.

In his role as a physician, DeMazumder keeps a tight focus on the electrical activity in their hearts, doing his best to prevent this potentially fatal event. In his other role, as a scientist at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, DeMazumber is also driven by a life-saving aspiration: finding ways to identify at-risk individuals with much greater accuracy than currently possible—and to develop better ways of protecting them from SCAs. He recently received a 2020 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award to pursue one of his promising ideas.

SCAs happen without warning and can cause death within minutes. Poor heart function and abnormal heart rhythms are important risk factors, but it’s not possible today to predict reliably who will have an SCA. However, doctors already routinely capture a wealth of information in electrical signals from the heart using electrocardiograms (ECGs). They also frequently use electroencephalograms (EEGs) to capture electrical activity in the brain.

Aug 6, 2021

Earth’s Interior Is Swallowing Up More Carbon Than Thought – Locking It Away at Depth

Posted by in category: futurism

Scientists from Cambridge University and NTU Singapore have found that slow-motion collisions of tectonic plates drag more carbon into Earth’s interior than previously thought.

They found that the carbon drawn into Earth’s interior at subduction zones — where tectonic plates collide and dive into Earth’s interior — tends to stay locked away at depth, rather than resurfacing in the form of volcanic emissions.

Aug 5, 2021

Nighttime weather on Venus revealed for the 1st time

Posted by in category: space

What’s the weather like at night on Venus? Scientists are finally finding out.

Just one planet away, Venus is relatively close to Earth and we have been studying it for a long time, with the first Venusian probe reaching the planet in 1978. However, scientists have known very little about what the weather is like at night on Venus. That is, until now.

Aug 5, 2021

A chimeric hemagglutinin-based universal influenza virus vaccine approach induces broad and long-lasting immunity in a randomized, placebo-controlled phase I trial

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

New influenza virus vaccines tested in humans elicit broadly cross-reactive antibodies that bind the stalk of the viral hemagglutinin protein and may serve as templates to design a universal influenza vaccine.

Aug 5, 2021

A single-dose live attenuated chimeric vaccine candidate against Zika virus

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The mosquito-borne Zika virus is an emerging pathogen from the Flavivirus genus for which there are no approved antivirals or vaccines. Using the clinically validated PDK-53 dengue virus vaccine strain as a backbone, we created a chimeric dengue/Zika virus, VacDZ, as a live attenuated vaccine candidate against Zika virus. VacDZ demonstrates key markers of attenuation: small plaque phenotype, temperature sensitivity, attenuation of neurovirulence in suckling mice, and attenuation of pathogenicity in interferon deficient adult AG129 mice. VacDZ may be administered as a traditional live virus vaccine, or as a DNA-launched vaccine that produces live VacDZ in vivo after delivery. Both vaccine formulations induce a protective immune response against Zika virus in AG129 mice, which includes neutralising antibodies and a strong Th1 response.

Aug 5, 2021

Organic electronics may soon enter the GHz-regime

Posted by in categories: computing, physics

Physicists of the Technische Universität Dresden introduce the first implementation of a complementary vertical organic transistor technology, which is able to operate at low voltage, with adjustable inverter properties, and a fall and rise time demonstrated in inverter and ring-oscillator circuits of less than 10 nanoseconds, respectively. With this new technology they are just a stone’s throw away from the commercialization of efficient, flexible and printable electronics of the future. Their groundbreaking findings are published in the renowned journal Nature Electronics.

Poor performance is still impeding the commercialization of flexible and printable electronics. Hence, the development of low-voltage, high-gain, and high-frequency complementary circuits is seen as one of the most important targets of research. High-frequency logic circuits, such as inverter circuits and oscillators with low power consumption and fast response time, are the essential building blocks for large-area, low power-consumption, flexible and printable electronics of the future. The research group “Organic Devices and Systems” (ODS) at the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) at TU Dresden headed by Dr. Hans Kleemann is working on the development of novel organic materials and devices for high performance, flexible and possibly even biocompatible electronics and optoelectronics. Increasing the performance of organic circuits is one of the key challenges in their research. It was only some month ago, when Ph.D.

Aug 5, 2021

A new way to generate hydrogen fuel from seawater

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy

Circa 2019 pour salt water in the tank one day that converts to hydrogen then back to water.


A Stanford-led team has now developed a way to harness seawater – Earth’s most abundant source – for chemical energy.

Aug 5, 2021

Converting tamarind shells into an energy source for vehicles

Posted by in categories: energy, food, sustainability

Shells of tamarind, a tropical fruit consumed worldwide, are discarded during food production. As they are bulky, tamarind shells take up a considerable amount of space in landfills where they are disposed as agricultural waste.

However, a team of international scientists led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has found a way to deal with the problem. By processing the tamarind shells which are rich in carbon, the scientists converted the waste material into carbon nanosheets, which are a key component of supercapacitors — energy storage devices that are used in automobiles, buses, electric vehicles, trains, and elevators.

The study reflects NTU’s commitment to address humanity’s grand challenges on sustainability as part of its 2025 strategic plan, which seeks to accelerate the translation of research discoveries into innovations that mitigate our impact on the environment.