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Category: health – Page 157

Using electrified spatiotemporal heating to depolymerize plastics

A team of engineers and materials scientists affiliated with multiple institutions in the U.S., has developed a new way to depolymerize plastics using electrified spatiotemporal heating. In their paper, published in the journal Nature, the group describes the new process and its efficiency. Nature has also published a Research Briefing in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team.

Over the past several years, has become a major concern, both for the environment and for the health of plants and animals, including humans, and scientists are seeking ways to recycle it. Most of the techniques developed thus far involve using chemicals to depolymerize . These efforts are still extremely inefficient, however, with yields between 10% and 25%. In this new effort, the team has found a way to use pulsed electricity to boost the yield to approximately 36%.

The approach involved designing a new kind of with a porous carbon felt bilayer and a pulsed electric heater at the top. In their reactor, plastic bits are melted as they are fed in to the upper chamber and flow as a mass into a lower chamber, where the material is pushed through the felt filter. The plastic then begins to decompose as the . As the molecules that make up the plastic become smaller, their volatility grows until they are expelled from the reactor as a gas, which allows more liquid to be drawn in. Using electricity to heat the plastic allows for oscillating the temperature, allowing simpler depolymerization reactions to take precedence over side reactions, which need additional heating to depolymerize.

The Pangenome Breakthrough: A Crystal Clear Image of Human Genomic Diversity

In a major advance, scientists have assembled genomic sequences of 47 people from diverse backgrounds to create a pangenome, which offers a more accurate representation of human genetic diversity than the existing reference genome. This new pangenome will help researchers refine their understanding of the link between genes and diseases, and could ultimately help address health disparities.

For more than 20 years, scientists have relied on the human reference genome, a consensus genetic sequence, as a standard against which to compare other genetic data. Used in countless studies, the reference genome has made it possible to identify genes implicated in specific diseases and trace the evolution of human traits, among other things.

But it has always been a flawed tool. One of its biggest problems is that about 70 percent of its data came from a single man of predominantly African-European background whose DNA.

Study suggests a possible connection between mobile phones and hypertension

While the study doesn’t prove causation, it raises important questions about the potential health risks of mobile phone use and highlights the need for further investigation.

Have you ever considered the potential health risks associated with your mobile phone? Our phones are digital devices emitting multiple radiations, and it doesn’t help that we always use them constantly.

A new study conducted by the UK Biobank suggests that there may be a link between mobile phone use and hypertension.

RapidEye/iStock.

Researchers find ingenious solution to map ocean plastics from orbit

Ocean microplastics have become a major source of concern, especially since they are so hard to track down, but researchers found an ingenious solution using satellites.

Ocean plastics have become a major source of concern for evironmental conservationists and public health professionals in recent years, and there hasn’t been a good way to track how these plastics are moving or their concentrations. But now, researchers from the University of Michigan have developed an ingenious way to track the ebb and flow of these microplastics around the world thanks to NASA satellites.

Solarseven/iStock.

Microplastics are the remnant pieces of larger plastics that have disintegrated over time due to chemical and physical processes, and are typically measured as less than 5mm in size. The underlying plastic compounds remain intact even as the plastic fiber or particle gets physically smaller, and plastics do not chemically decompose.

Vast Space to launch world’s first commercial space station on SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2025

The company offers features such as a large window dome with a view of space, internet access via onboard Wi-Fi, and a dedicated room for exercise and rest at Haven-1.

We have entered a brand new era of space exploration, from flying a chopper on Mars to re-directing an asteroid’s trajectory to retrieving soil samples from a distant space rock.

The future of space is dynamic, with technological prowess allowing science fiction-inspired ideas to become reality. And next-generation space outposts are one such area that has piqued the interest of space startups. Especially since the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled to be decommissioned by the end of this decade.

Task Force Updates Breast Cancer Screening Guidance

Yesterday the U.S. Preventative Service Task Force (USPSTF) announced an updated recommendation for breast cancer screening focusing on encouraging more women to begin biennial (every other year) mammograms at age 40. This recommendation, available online now in draft form, is an update to the Task Force’s January 2016 recommendation that women aged 50 – 74 receive mammograms every other year. At the same time, the USPSTF noted that women in their 40s should make an individual choice regarding regular breast cancer screening.

The USPSTF, comprised of experts in disease prevention and evidence-based medicine, serves as an independent team striving to improve the health of people throughout the United States. The Task Force recommends preventative healthcare based on evidence and clinical data. While the recommendations levied by the Task Force pertain to various preventative services, including cancer screening, behavioral counseling, and preventive medicines, the group’s overarching focus remains to help stay healthy.

Importantly, the USPSTF does not conduct its own studies or clinical trials. Instead, this group reviews evidence on preventative approaches to different diseases to conclude the potential pros and cons of such measures.

Combining Two Nobel Prize-Winning Techniques: A New Microchip Technology

Physicists at Delft University of Technology have developed a new technology on a microchip by combining two Nobel Prize-winning methods for the first time. The microchip is capable of accurately measuring distances in materials, which could have applications in areas such as underwater measurement and medical imaging.

The new technology, which utilizes sound vibrations instead of light, could be useful for obtaining high-precision position measurements in materials that are opaque. This breakthrough could result in the development of new methods for monitoring the Earth’s climate and human health. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

<em>Nature Communications</em> is a peer-reviewed, open-access, multidisciplinary, scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio. It covers the natural sciences, including physics, biology, chemistry, medicine, and earth sciences. It began publishing in 2010 and has editorial offices in London, Berlin, New York City, and Shanghai.

AI runs 10,000 experiments a day on bacteria to speed up discoveries

Scientific work often involves sifting through enormous amounts of data, a task that’s overwhelmingly mundane for humans but a piece of cake for artificial intelligence. A new platform dubbed BacterAI can conduct as many as 10,000 experiments per day to teach itself – and us – more about bacteria.

The human body is home to trillions of microbes, covering almost every surface inside and out. Many of them are vital to specific bodily functions, while many others make you sick. Research continues to uncover how inextricably linked our overall health is to our microbiomes, but managing and exploring the data involved remains a daunting task.

“We know almost nothing about most of the bacteria that influence our health,” said Paul Jensen, corresponding author of the new study. “Understanding how bacteria grow is the first step toward reengineering our microbiome.”

U.S. Surgeon General Warns Of Loneliness Epidemic And Some Say That Generative AI ChatGPT Is The Cure

The U.S. Surgeon General has released an advisory alerting the public at large that loneliness has become an epidemic and represents an urgent public health concern. You might be tempted to think that this advisory is somewhat over the top and that loneliness is merely something that we all need to contend with from time to time. It seems obvious that loneliness happens. It seems obvious that loneliness is challenging.

Why should the nation’s highest official public health advisor make such a seemingly outsized clamor over a matter that we take for granted and assume is a natural part of living our lives?

BacterAI: New AI system enables robots to conduct 10,000 scientific experiments a day

Artificial intelligence-powered BacterAI accurately predicts the necessary amino acid combinations for growth 90% of the time.

A group of scientists has created a system powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that enables robots to conduct as many as 10,000 scientific experiments independently in a single day.

The AI system, named BacterAI, could significantly accelerate the pace of discovery in a range of fields such as medicine, agriculture, and environmental science. In a recent research study released in Nature Microbiology, the team successfully utilized BacterAI to map the metabolic processes of two microbes linked with oral health.