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+13 +3
Nanotechnology enables engineers to weld previously un-weldable aluminum alloy
An aluminum alloy developed in the 1940s has long held promise for use in automobile manufacturing, except for one key obstacle. Although it's nearly as strong as steel and just one-third the weight, it is almost impossible to weld together using the technique commonly used to assemble body panels or engine parts.
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+10 +1
Hydrogel-based electrodes for brain implants developed
Hydrogels are physical and chemical polymer networks capable of retaining large quantities of liquid in aqueous conditions without losing their dimensional stability. They are used in a whole host of applications, and in combination with other components and they acquire specific properties such as electrical conductivity. The Materials + Technology research group in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Environment...
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+3 +1
How the Midnight Sun Gave This Man 'Rotten Zombie Skin'
Here's how a man got "rotten 'zombie' skin" during a hiking trip in Greenland. By Laura Geggel.
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+12 +1
These fragile, futuristic batteries run longer with a little oil
Batteries that use aluminum and oxygen normally live fast and die young. But a new design could help these high-energy devices endure. Aluminum-air batteries are promising candidates for a new generation of non-rechargeable batteries, because they’re super lightweight and compact. The batteries, however, aren’t widely used because their internal components quickly degrade each other.
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+3 +1
Crowdfunding a consumable spherical water bottle—the Ooho!
(Phys.org)—A small team of entrepreneurs affiliated with Skipping Rocks Lab has started a crowdfunding effort to mass-market a consumable water bottling device that produces what they call the Ooho!—a spherical blob of water held in a thin membrane that is small enough to be popped into the mouth.
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+24 +3
iPhones are Allergic to Helium
This is the kind of tale that you don’t hear every day. During the installation of a new MRI machine, a technician started getting calls that iPhones weren’t working—but Androids were just fine.
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+22 +4
This ‘two-faced’ membrane can create electricity—from nothing but salty water
Imagine being stuffed into a crowded train car and noticing a less crowded one just down the platform. You’d probably want to move over as soon as possible. Particles that follow this balancing act—known as osmosis—spontaneously move from an area of high concentration to one of low concentration. Now, scientists have used this tendency to create a power-producing membrane that can harvest electric current from nothing but salty water.
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+10 +2
Chemists find a recipe that may have jump-started life on Earth
In the molecular dance that gave birth to life on Earth, RNA appears to be a central player. But the origins of the molecule, which can store genetic information as DNA does and speed chemical reactions as proteins do, remain a mystery. Now, a team of researchers has shown for the first time that a set of simple starting materials, which were likely present on early Earth, can produce all four of RNA’s chemical building blocks.
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+35 +8
We Discovered Helium 150 Years Ago. Are We Running Out?
The versatile gas lies at the center of a complex, fragile global market.
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+35 +6
Chemists discover how blue light speeds blindness
Blue light from digital devices and the sun transforms vital molecules in the eye's retina into cell killers, according to optical chemistry research at The University of Toledo.
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+13 +4
How a particle accelerator helped recover tarnished 19th century images
With the aid of a particle accelerator, scientists are bringing back ghosts from the past, revealing portraits hidden underneath the tarnished surface of two roughly 150-year-old silver photographic plates. Researchers used an accelerator called a synchrotron to produce strong, but nondamaging beams of X-rays to scan the damaged photographs, called daguerreotypes, and map their chemical composition.
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+5 +1
Splitting water for fuel while removing CO₂ from the air
The longer we wait to take serious action on climate change, the more necessary it becomes to remove some of the CO2 we've already put in the air. In fact, the scenarios in the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in which warming was limited to 2°C relied heavily on CO2 removal. Adoption of the necessary technology still seems too far off, given the current lack of market incentives and supporting policies. The technique seen as most likely to scale up involves growing...
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+9 +2
From Wine Casks to Stove Propaganda: The Unlikely Journey of Cream of Tartar
...using cream of tartar in meringues is not only a fairly recent trend, but also likely of American origin. That being said, cream of tartar’s story truly begins, like all good stories, long ago and far away.
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+13 +5
How Desert Solar Can Fuel Centuries of Air Travel
Thermochemical solar fuel manufacturing would be an energy industry with a life of centuries, rather than decades. The feedstock of sunlight, carbon dioxide and water is essentially unlimited. Scientists with the SOLAR-JET Project have demonstrated the first-ever entire process to make kerosene, the jet fuel used by commercial airlines, using a high-temperature thermal solar reactor...
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+9 +1
'Age' Your Steaks With Fish Sauce and Koji
Some things, like love or a delicious shrimp base, can’t be hurried, but a lot of things can be approximated. Though there is no substitute for a true dry-aged steak, there are two ingredients that food geeks swear help you get pretty close: koji and fish sauce.
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+17 +5
Alan Turing’s chemistry hypothesis turned into a desalination filter
A chemical reaction he suggested can now be done, and it makes a great membrane.
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+19 +3
Scientists Finally Know Why Tattoo Ink Lasts Even Though Skin Regenerates
If the skin regenerates itself every couple of weeks, then why do tattoos last for years? Sure, we know that tattoo ink is inserted into the layer right beneath the outermost layer of skin, but even the cells there must regenerate eventually. The seeming paradox of tattoo permanence has hurt the brains of even the most science-savvy ink enthusiasts. Fortunately, on Tuesday, a team of researchers report they’ve found a solution.
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+15 +4
Scientists just found a breakthrough new way of using lasers
Scientists have found a breakthrough technique to separate two liquids from each other using a laser. The research is something like taking the milk out of your tea after you've made it, say researchers – and just as difficult as that sounds. But scientists say the breakthrough will have far more advanced applications than making sure you get the tea round right. Eventually the breakthrough could help make a technique used in the production of computers, phones, drugs, paints, light bulbs and solar cells far easier, potentially making them much cheaper.
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+9 +2
Researchers discover efficient and sustainable way to filter salt and metal ions from water
With two billion people worldwide lacking access to clean and safe drinking water, joint research by Monash University, CSIRO and the University of Texas at Austin published today in Sciences Advances may offer a breakthrough new solution. It all comes down to metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), an amazing next generation material that have the largest internal surface area of any known substance.
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+32 +4
Crushed wood is stronger than steel
Compressing wood and removing some of its polymers can increase its strength by more than a factor of ten.
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