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Blog – Page 703

One of the key features of the eVinci microreactor is its impressive versatility. It will have the capability to generate five megawatts of electricity, produce over 13 megawatts of high-temperature heat, or operate in combined heat and power mode, according to the Saskatchewan Research Council.

To put this in perspective, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported in 2012 that a single megawatt of capacity from a conventional power plant can meet the energy needs of 400 to 900 homes in a year.

Westinghouse views the eVinci microreactor as a groundbreaking technology that holds great promise for future energy requirements.

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A breakthrough study has validated the existence of a stable single-electron covalent bond between two carbon atoms, supporting Linus Pauling’s early 20th-century theory and opening avenues for chemical research.

Covalent bonds, in which two atoms share a pair of electrons, form the foundation of most organic compounds. In 1931, the Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling suggested that covalent bonds made from just a single, unpaired electron could exist, but these single-electron bonds would likely be much weaker than a standard covalent bond involving a pair of electrons.

Since then, single-electron bonds have been observed, but never in carbon or hydrogen. The search for one-electron bonds shared between carbon atoms has stymied scientists.

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Quantum mechanics: it’s the realm of science where nothing is normal, and everything seems to undermine the fundaments of our common understanding of reality. Nonetheless, we simple humans tick on.

But quantum physicists, who pride themselves on staring into the abyss and gleaning its spooky secrets, have just discovered another baffling phenomenon to make your mind melt: “negative time.”

As detailed in a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study covered by Scientific American, a team of researchers say they’ve observed photons exhibiting this bizarre temporal behavior as the result of what’s known as atomic excitation.

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But these exciting applications have been limited in part by the tedious process of tunneling individual sub-nanometer pores one by one.

“If we are to ever scale up 2D material membranes to be relevant for applications outside the laboratory, the ‘one at a time’ method just isn’t feasible,” said recent UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) Ph.D. graduate Eli Hoenig. “But, even within the confines of laboratory experiment, a nanoporous membrane provides significantly larger signals than a single pore, increasing the sensitivity.”

Hoenig is first author of a paper recently published in Nature Communications that found a novel path around this longstanding problem. Under PME Asst. Prof. Chong Liu, the team created a new method of pore generation that builds materials with intentional weak spots, then applies a remote electric field to generate multiple nanoscale pores all at once.

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Summary: Neural stem cells, which create new neurons in the brain, become less active with age due to elevated glucose levels. Researchers found that by knocking out the glucose transporter gene GLUT4 in older mice, they could significantly increase the production of new neurons.

This discovery opens up potential pathways for both genetic and behavioral interventions to stimulate brain repair, including the possibility of a low-carbohydrate diet. The findings could help treat neurodegenerative diseases and aid in brain recovery after injury.

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Scientists at the University of Minnesota and the Midwest Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Center have made a surprising discovery: antibodies can have opposite effects on viral infections in human cells.

The spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, enables the virus to enter human cells and is the primary target for the body’s antibodies. Previous research has shown that antibodies can either block the virus, have no effect, or, in rare cases, assist the virus in infecting cells. While antibody drugs work to block infections, this new study challenges current understanding of their mechanisms.

Published in the journal PLOS Pathogens, this study is the first to identify an antibody that can both assist and block the virus. This particular antibody helps pre-omicron variants of the virus infect cells while preventing the omicron variant from doing the same. The study also explains how the antibody aids the pre-omicron virus in invading cells while blocking the omicron virus from succeeding.

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Patients with certain mental disorders, including schizophrenia, often hear voices in the absence of sound.

Auditory hallucinations are likely the result of abnormalities in two brain processes: a broken corollary discharge that fails to suppress self-generated sounds, and a noisy efference copy that makes the brain hear these sounds more intensely than it should. That is the conclusion of a study published October 3 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Xing Tian, of New York University Shanghai, China, and colleagues.

In the new study, researchers carried out electroencephalogram (EEG) experiments measuring the brain waves of 20 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia with and 20 patients diagnosed with who had never experienced such hallucinations.

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