Lifeboat Foundation

The properties of nanoribbon edges are important for their applications in electronic devices, sensors, and catalysts. A group of scientists from Japan and China studied the mechanical response of single-layer molybdenum disulfide nanoribbons with armchair edges using in situ transmission electron microscopy.

They showed that the nanoribbon Young’s modulus varied inversely with its width below the width of 3nm, indicating a higher bond stiffness for the armchair edges. Their work, published in the journal Advanced Science, was co-authored by Associate Professor Kenta Hongo and Professor Ryo Maezono from JAIST and Lecturer Chunmeng Liu and Lecturer Jiaqi Zhang from Zhengzhou University, China.

Sensors have become ubiquitous in the modern world, with applications ranging from detecting explosives, measuring physiological spikes of glucose or cortisol non-invasively to estimating greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.

Life on a faraway planet—if it’s out there—might not look anything like life on Earth. But there are only so many chemical ingredients in the universe’s pantry, and only so many ways to mix them. A team led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has exploited those limitations to write a cookbook of hundreds of chemical recipes with the potential to give rise to life.

Their ingredient list could focus the search for life elsewhere in the universe by pointing out the most likely conditions—planetary versions of mixing techniques, oven temperatures and baking times—for the recipes to come together.

The process of progressing from basic chemical ingredients to the complex cycles of cell metabolism and reproduction that define life, the researchers say, requires not only a simple beginning but also repetition.

Integrated information theory is seen by some people as a leading theory of consciousness, but now over 100 neuroscientists have signed an open letter calling it untestable pseudoscience.

By Clare Wilson

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Scientists at Université Laval and the University of Lethbridge have succeeded in reversing certain cognitive manifestations associated with Alzheimer’s disease in an animal model of the disease. Their results have been published in the scientific journal Brain.

Although this has yet to be demonstrated in humans, we believe that the mechanism we have uncovered constitutes a very interesting therapeutic target, because it not only slows down the progression of the disease but also partially restores certain cognitive functions.

Many of the bacteria that ravage crops and threaten our food supply employ a shared tactic to induce disease: they inject a cocktail of harmful proteins directly into the plant’s cells.

For 25 years, biologist Sheng-Yang He and his senior research associate Kinya Nomura have been investigating this set of molecules that plant pathogens use to cause diseases in hundreds of crops globally, from rice to apple orchards.

Now, thanks to a team effort between three collaborating research groups, they may finally have an answer to how these molecules make plants sick — and a way to disarm them.

A study published in the journal PLOS Biology looked at the underlying pathways involved in breast cancer recurrence.

Researchers reported that a common chemotherapy treatment encouraged connective tissue cells to produce cytokines that helped reawaken dormant cancer cells.

The researchers say the results offer possible direction on adding other therapies to chemotherapy treatment to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence.

Continue reading “Breast cancer: How chemotherapy may sometimes reactivate dormant cells” »

The space advocacy movement has announced an initiative to found the Mars Technology Institute, which aims to create the technologies necessary for establishing a presence on the red planet.

The Mars Society is a space advocacy organization established in 1998 by Dr. Robert Zubrin and other members. The association studies settlement technologies for Mars and educates the public on the benefits of such missions.

Continue reading “Mars Society establishes institute to advance colony on Mars” »

China is looking for a clean, sustainable energy source and is turning to the power of nuclear fusion.

What is a clean source of power that could provide clean and unlimited energy? Nuclear energy, which uses nuclear fission, comes to mind. But there is another potential source of energy that would promote sustainability – nuclear fusion.

Nuclear fusion is the opposite of nuclear fission. Fission means splitting atoms apart, which results in the release of energy. Fusion is when two atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus. Fusion is the process that powers the Sun and the stars.