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Blog – Page 7

Japanese scientists have created all-organic solar cells made of carbon-based materials with a record efficiency of 8.7% for this type of cell.

It is noted that the amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth every day is 10 times higher than all the existing needs of humanity. Over the past 6 years, there has been a rapid development of cells for solar panels. However, there are still a number of challenges to their widespread use, including high production costs, efficiency, and environmental impact.

Silicon is currently the most widely used material in solar cells. However, such cells often also contain potentially hazardous materials that are difficult to dispose of in an environmentally friendly manner.

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Although lumber does show promise as a renewable alternative to structural materials such as steel and concrete, it still tends to be a bit weaker than those substances. Scientists have now set about addressing that shortcoming, by strengthening wood with added iron.

Led by Asst. Prof. Vivian Merk, a team of researchers at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) started out with cubes of untreated red oak hardwood. Red oak – along with hardwoods like maple, cherry and walnut – is an example of what’s known as ring-porous wood. In a nutshell, this means that it utilizes large ring-shaped internal vessels to draw water up from the tree’s roots to its leaves.

The scientists proceeded to mix ferric nitrate with potassium hydroxide, creating a hard iron oxide mineral called nanocrystalline ferrihydrite, which occurs naturally in soil and water. Utilizing a vacuum impregnation process, nanoparticles of that ferrihydrite were drawn into the wood and deposited inside of its individual cell walls.

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Power in Spain and Portugal has been mostly restored after a mass blackout paralysed most of the Iberian Peninsula.

Just over 92 per cent of Spain’s power is back, REE, the country’s electricity operator said early on Tuesday, and around 80 per cent of customers in Portugal are reported to have electricity.

Spain has declared a state of emergency in what is believed to be Europe’s largest power cut.

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Fish are masters of coordinated motion. Schools of fish have no leader, yet individuals manage to stay in formation, avoid collisions, and respond with liquid flexibility to changes in their environment. Reproducing this combination of robustness and flexibility has been a long-standing challenge for human-engineered systems like robots.

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An international research team led by Professor Kiavash Movahedi from the Brussels Center for Immunology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has published unexpected results in the journal Immunity. Their study sheds new light on the possibility of effectively replacing defective microglia—the brain’s immune cells—marking a potential breakthrough in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Microglia are essential for healthy brain function. Defective are increasingly linked to the development of neurodegenerative disorders.

“Microglia are unique,” says Prof. Movahedi. “They originate early in and maintain themselves throughout life without being replaced by new cells from the blood. That makes them special, but also vulnerable.”

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