Space
Tech
Mapping performance variations to see how lithium-metal batteries fail
Scientists have identified the primary cause of failure in a state-of-the-art lithium-metal battery, of interest for long-range electric vehicles. Using high-energy x-rays, they followed the cycling-induced changes at thousands of different points across the battery and mapped the variations in performance. At each point, they used the x-ray data to calculate the amount of cathode material and its local state of charge. These findings, combined…
Satellite map of human pressure on land provides insight on sustainable development
The coronavirus pandemic has led researchers to switch gears or temporarily abandon projects due to health protocols or not being able to travel. But for Patrick Keys and Elizabeth Barnes, husband and wife scientists at Colorado State University, this past year led to a productive research collaboration. They teamed up with Neil Carter, assistant professor at the University of Michigan, on a paper published in…
Powered prosthetic ankles can restore a wide range of functions for amputees
A recent case study from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill demonstrates that, with training, neural control of a powered prosthetic ankle can restore a wide range of abilities, including standing on very challenging surfaces and squatting. The researchers are currently working with a larger group of study participants to see how broadly applicable the findings may be.…
Combining mask wearing, social distancing suppresses COVID-19 virus spread
Studies show wearing masks and social distancing can contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus, but their combined effectiveness is not precisely known. In Chaos, by AIP Publishing, researchers at New York University and Politecnico di Torino in Italy developed a network model to study the effects of these two measures on the spread of airborne diseases like COVID-19. The model shows viral outbreaks can…
A molecule that responds to light
Light can be used to operate quantum information processing systems, e.g. quantum computers, quickly and efficiently. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Chimie ParisTech/CNRS have now significantly advanced the development of molecule-based materials suitable for use as light-addressable fundamental quantum units. As they report in the journal Nature Communications, they have demonstrated for the first time the possibility of addressing nuclear spin levels…
HEALTH
Progress toward improved Wilson’s disease drug
Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), working in collaboration with DepYmed Inc., a CSHL spinout company, today report that they have conducted promising preclinical experiments on a compound that could be used to treat Wilson's disease and possibly other disorders -- including certain types of cancer -- in which levels of copper in the body are elevated, causing or contributing to pathology. Wilson's disease,…
