Lifeboat Foundation

Rice University materials scientists developed a fast, low-cost, scalable method to make covalent organic frameworks (COFs). Credit: Photo by Gustavo Raskosky/Rice University.

Materials scientists at Rice University have created an efficient, affordable, and scalable technique for producing covalent organic frameworks (COFs). These crystalline polymers are notable for their adjustable molecular structure, extensive surface area, and porosity, making them potentially valuable in areas like energy applications, semiconductor devices, sensors, filtration systems, and drug delivery.

“What makes these structures so special is that they are polymers but they arrange themselves in an ordered, repeating structure that makes it a crystal,” said Jeremy Daum, a Rice doctoral student and lead author of a study published in ACS Nano. “These structures look a bit like chicken wire ⎯ they’re hexagonal lattices that repeat themselves on a two-dimensional plane, and then they stack on top of themselves, and that’s how you get a layered 2D material.”

A new Northwestern Medicine study shows that RNA interference may play a key role in Alzheimer’s. For the first time, scientists have identified short strands of toxic RNAs that contribute to brain cell death and DNA damage in Alzheimer’s and aged brains. Short strands of protective RNAs are decreased during aging, the scientists report, which may allow Alzheimer’s to develop.

The study also found that older individuals with a superior memory capacity (known as SuperAgers) have higher amounts of protective short RNA strands in their brain cells. SuperAgers are individuals aged 80 and older with a memory capacity of individuals 20 to 30 years younger.

“Nobody has ever connected the activities of RNAs to Alzheimer’s,” said corresponding study author Marcus Peter, the Tom D. Spies Professor of Cancer Metabolism at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We found that in aging brain cells, the balance between toxic and protective sRNAs shifts toward toxic ones.”

Born tail first, bottlenose dolphin calves are initially adorned with two delicate rows of whiskers along their snout, resembling the tactile whiskers of seals. However, these whiskers are shed shortly after birth, leaving behind a pattern of indentations called vibrissal pits. Recently, Tim Hüttner and Guido Dehnhardt, researchers from the University of Rostock in Germany, began to suspect that these pits might serve a purpose beyond being mere remnants.

Could they allow adult bottlenose dolphins to sense weak electric fields? Taking an initial close look, they realized that the remnant pits resemble the structures that allow sharks to detect electric fields, and when they checked whether captive bottlenose dolphins could sense an electric field in water, all of the animals felt the field.

‘It was very impressive to see,’ says Dehnhardt, who recently published the extraordinary discovery and how the animals could use their electric sense in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

The research-based map is the first to display an updated, comprehensive National Seismic Hazard Model for all 50 states.

Nearly 75 percent of the U.S. could experience damaging earthquake shaking, according to a recent U.S. Geological Survey-led team of 50+ scientists and engineers.

This was one of several key findings from the latest USGS National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM). The model was used to create a color-coded map that pinpoints where damaging earthquakes are most likely to occur based on insights from seismic studies, historical geologic data, and the latest data-collection technologies.

XRISM’s first high-resolution spectrum of supernova remnant N132D offers unprecedented insights into the chemical and physical properties of the aftermath of a star’s explosion, enhancing our understanding of the universe’s elemental composition.

This image is the first high-resolution energy spectrum from the Resolve instrument on JAXA’s XRISM mission. It shows the energy of X-rays being produced within the remains of a massive star exploding in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, creating a ‘supernova remnant’ known as N132D. Spectra such as this one will enable scientists to measure the temperature and motion of X-ray emitting gas with unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy.

The spectrum indicates which chemical elements exist in N132D. XRISM can identify each element by measuring the specific energy of X-ray light that it emits (the label ‘keV’ on the x axis of the graph refers to kiloelectronvolts, a unit of energy). The ‘energy resolution’ of XRISM (its capability to distinguish X-ray light arriving with different amounts of energy) is incredible. The faint grey line shows the same spectrum from the XIS instrument on JAXA ’s Suzaku X-ray telescope (source). The energy resolution from XRISM is more than 40 times better over the energy range shown in this spectrum.

Mesolithic Scandinavians likely faced oral health issues, with studies on ancient birch tar revealing signs of gum disease, tooth decay, and diverse dietary habits.

Members of a hunter-gatherer group that lived in south-western Scandinavia during the Mesolithic era — approximately 10,000 years ago — may have been affected by tooth decay and gum disease, according to a study published today (January 18) in Scientific Reports.

DNA Analysis of Birch Tar.

Researchers at the University of Sydney Nano Institute have developed a small silicon semiconductor chip that combines electronic and photonic (light-based) elements. This innovation greatly enhances radio-frequency (RF) bandwidth and the ability to accurately control information flowing through the unit.

Expanded bandwidth means more information can flow through the chip and the inclusion of photonics allows for advanced filter controls, creating a versatile new semiconductor device.

Researchers expect the chip will have applications in advanced radar, satellite systems, wireless networks, and the roll-out of 6G and 7G telecommunications and also open the door to advanced sovereign manufacturing. It could also assist in the creation of high-tech value-add factories at places like Western Sydney’s Aerotropolis precinct.

Dangerously cold temperatures lingered over large swaths of the country for several days in mid-January 2024.

A large mass of Arctic air spilled south from Canada and lingered for several days over much of the contiguous United States in mid-January 2024. The system brought a wintry mix of bitterly cold temperatures, freezing rain, and snow that extended from the Pacific Northwest all the way to the East Coast.

As the airmass came south, sub-zero air temperatures settled over Montana and the Dakotas on January 13 and 14. Air temperatures at a National Weather Service station in Billings, Montana, reached-30 degrees Fahrenheit (−34 degrees Celsius) on January 13, the lowest temperature recorded there since the site was established in 1999.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have used DNA origami, the art of folding DNA into desired structures, to show how an important cell receptor can be activated in a previously unknown way. The result opens new avenues for understanding how the Notch signaling pathway works and how it is involved in several serious diseases. The study is published in Nature Communications.

Notch is a cell receptor that is of great importance to a wide range of organisms and plays a crucial role in many different processes, including early embryonic development in both flies and humans. Notch regulates the development of stem cells into different cell types in the body. Defects in this signaling pathway can result in serious diseases, including cancer.

The prevailing view of the receptor’s function has so far been that it is activated purely mechanically, by a neighboring cell pulling on it, meaning that signaling only occurs as a result of direct communication between cells.