Bodhammer shares a report from the University of Michigan: In a step closer to skyscrapers that serve as power sources, a team led by University of Michigan researchers has set a new efficiency record for color-neutral, transparent solar cells. The team achieved 8.1% efficiency and 43.3% transparency with an organic, or carbon-based, design rather than conventional silicon. While the cells have…
Tag: National Academy of Sciences
From Rocks To Icebergs, the Natural World Tends To Break Into Cubes
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Researchers have found that when everything from icebergs to rocks breaks apart, their pieces tend to resemble cubes. The finding suggests a universal rule of fragmentation at scales ranging from the microscopic to the planetary. The scientists started their study “fragmenting” an abstract cube in a computer simulation by slicing it with 50 two-dimensional…
Researchers Use DNA to Store ‘The Wizard of Oz’ – Translated Into Esperanto
“DNA is millions of times more efficient at storing data than your laptop’s magnetic hard drive,” reports Popular Mechanics. “Since DNA can store data far more densely than silicon, you could squeeze all of the data in the world inside just a few grams of it.” In a new paper published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy…
James Webb Space Telescope launch date delayed
NASA is delaying the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope for another 7 months, from March 2021 to October 31, 2021 due to, among other factors, work stoppages during the coronavirus pandemic. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/james-webb-space-telescope-launch-date-delayed-oct2021…
Are the Earth’s magnetic poles about to swap places?
Earth’s previous polar reversal happened 780,000 years ago. Are we facing another one soon? Hear from the authors of a new study, on a strange anomaly that might be a clue. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/earths-magnetic-poles-reversal-soon-study…
Tech Firms Hire ‘Red Teams.’ Scientists Should, Too
The recent retraction of a research paper which claimed to find no link between police killings and the race of the victims was a story tailor-made for today’s fights over cancel culture. From a report: First, the authors asked for the paper to be withdrawn, both because they’d been “careless when describing the inferences that could be made from our data”…
Hummingbirds see colors we can only imagine
“Our experiments enabled us to get a sneak peek into what the world looks like to a hummingbird,” one scientist said. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/wild-hummingbirds-see-colors-humans-can-only-imagine…
Will large parts of Earth be too hot for people in 50 years?
New research by an international team of scientists indicates that – if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated – inhospitably hot regions on Earth may expand from a current level of 0.8% to 19% by 2070. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/global-warming-areas-of-earth-too-hot-for-people…
Scientists Engineer One Protein To Fight Cancer and Regenerate Neurons
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Our lungs, bones, blood vessels and other major organs are made up of cells, and one way our bodies keep us healthy is by using protein messengers known as ligands that bind to receptors on the surfaces of cells to regulate our biological processes. When those messages get garbled, it can make us…
Alternating flows and a high-latitude eastward jet explain Saturn’s polar hexagon, researchers report
A pair of researchers at Harvard University has developed a computer simulation that may explain Saturn’s mysterious polar hexagon. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Rakesh Yadav and Jeremy Bloxham describe the factors that went into developing their simulation and what it showed. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-06-alternating-high-latitude-eastward-jet-saturn.html…