Author Archives: Guest Post

New Path to More Efficient Organic Solar Cells Uncovered at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source

By Guest PostJanuary 12, 2013Environmentacceptor, advanced light source, affordable, als, als beamlines, amount, berkeley lab, brian collins, christopher mcneill, convert, crystallinity, donor, earth, efficient, electricity, eliot gann, energy use, exciton journey, fossil fuels, fullerene solar film, harald ade, john tumbleston, land mass, nanometers, north Carolina, organic cell, photovoltaic cells, photovoltaic devices, physicist, polymer, r soxs, research, resonant soft, silicon based, size matters, solar cell, solar energy, solvent diiodooctane, state university, stxm, sunlight, ultraviolet light beams, volume, x ray, x ray scattering, zhe li

Why are efficient and affordable solar cells so highly coveted? Volume. The amount of solar energy lighting up Earth’s land mass every year is nearly 3,000 times the total amount of annual human energy use. But to compete with energy from fossil fuels, photovoltaic devices must convert sunlight to electricity with a certain measure of efficiency. For polymer-based organic photovoltaic cells, which are far less expensive to manufacture than silicon-based solar cells, scientists have long believed that the key to high efficiencies rests in the purity of the polymer/organic cell’s two domains – acceptor and donor. Now, however, an alternate and possibly easier route forward has been shown.

Working at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS), a premier source of X-ray and ultraviolet light beams for research, an international team of scientists found that for highly efficient polymer/organic photovoltaic cells, size matters. (more…)

Virus Caught in the Act of Infecting a Cell

By Guest PostJanuary 12, 2013Health, Scienceaustin, bacterium, bo hu, cryo electron tomography, ct scan, e coli, experimental evidence, feelers, fibers, genetic, genetic material, head, human hair, ian molineux, image, infect, infect a cell, infected cell membrane, infection, infection process, jun liu, protein, protein path, robot like process, structure, t7, texas, thickness, university, ut health, viral dna, virus, visualize, william margolin

About the video: watch an animation showing the changes in the structure of a T7 virus as it infects an E. coli bacterium.

AUSTIN, Texas — The detailed changes in the structure of a virus as it infects an E. coli bacterium have been observed for the first time, report researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UT Health) Medical School this week in Science Express. (more…)

Multiple Sclerosis Study Reveals How Killer T Cells Learn to Recognize Nerve Fiber Insulators

By Guest PostJanuary 12, 2013Healtharsenal, autoimmune disorders, autoimmune encephalitis, autoimmune reactivity, axons, blood vessels, body, brain, branched tentacles, cancer, cd4+ t cell, cd8 t cells, central nervous system, chronic multiple sclerosis, corticosteroids, cytoxic t cells, degeneration of axons, electrical impulse conductors, electrical wire, fight disease, generalized immunosuppressants, humans, infection, inflamed lesions, inflammatory response, inflammatory situation, insulation, joan goverman, killer t cells, laboratory models, lesions, luca castelli, methotrexate, mouse model, multiple sclerosis, myelin protein, myelin sheath, nerve cell projections, nerve fibers, no cells, oligodendrocytes, pathogens, peptides, proteins, qingyong ji, spines, support cells, symptoms, tip dendritic cells, tissue damage, transmit signals, university of washington, white blood cells

Misguided killer T cells may be the missing link in sustained tissue damage in the brains and spines of people with multiple sclerosis, findings from the University of Washington reveal. Cytoxic T cells, also known as CD8+ T cells, are white blood cells that normally are in the body’s arsenal to fight disease.

Multiple sclerosis is characterized by inflamed lesions that damage the insulation surrounding nerve fibers and destroy the axons, electrical impulse conductors that look like long, branching projections. Affected nerves fail to transmit signals effectively. (more…)

NASA’s Galex Reveals the Largest-Known Spiral Galaxy

By Guest PostJanuary 11, 2013Scienceall sky survey, baerbel koribalski, barred spiral galaxy, biggest stellar system, brazil, california, catholic university, cathy horellou, Chile, claudia mendes, constellation pavo, de, dimitri gadotti, disk galaxy, duilia de mello, dwarf galaxy, eli dwek, european southern observatory, fernanda urrutia viscarra, fossil record, galactic encounter, galaxy evolution explorer, galex, goddard, gravitational interaction, greenbelt, ic 4970, institute of technology, largest, milky way galaxy, mission, NASA, ngc 6872, oliveira, onsala space observatory, pasadena, rafael eufrasio, sao paulo, space flight center, spiral arms, star formation, stellar population, Sweden, two micron, united states, university, very large telescope

PASADENA, Calif. — The spectacular barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 has ranked among the biggest stellar systems for decades. Now a team of astronomers from the United States, Chile and Brazil has crowned it the largest known spiral, based on archival data from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) mission, which has since been loaned to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Measuring tip-to-tip across its two outsized spiral arms, NGC 6872 spans more than 522,000 light-years, making it more than five times the size of our Milky Way galaxy. (more…)

Americans Have Worse Health than People in Other High-Income Countries

By Guest PostJanuary 11, 2013Healthadvantaged american, aids, american, ana diez roux, australia, average, better health, blood pressure, canada, cholesterol level, chronic lung disease, diabetes, die, disability, disease, environmental, factor, gravity, health disadvantage, healthy behaviour, heart disease, high income countries, higher rate, hiv, homicide, injury, Japan, mortality gap, non hispanic whites, obesity, policy factor, rich nation, sexually transmitted infections, steven woolf, teenage pregnancies, united states, university of michigan, western european countries

WASHINGTON — On average, Americans die sooner and experience higher rates of disease and injury than people in other high-income countries, says a new report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine.

The report finds that this health disadvantage exists at all ages from birth to age 75 and that even advantaged Americans—those who have health insurance, college educations, higher incomes and healthy behaviors—appear to be sicker than their peers in other rich nations. (more…)

Pesticides and Parkinson’s: UCLA Researchers Uncover Further Proof of a Link

By Guest PostJanuary 11, 2013Environment, Healthaaron lulla, aldehyde dehydrogenase, aldh, aldh activity, arthur g fitzmaurice, benomyl, benomyl exposure, brain malformations, california, carcinogenesis, case, cellular event, central valley, common chemical, culprit, damage, degeneration of neurons, disease, dopal, dopaminergic neurons, drifting particles, environmental protection agency, enzyme, genetic variations, hoa a lam, jeff bronstein, link, lisa barnhill, liver tumors, maneb, mid brain, molecular tweezers, neurologist, neuron, neurotransmitter, nigel t maidment, paraquat, parkinson's, parkinsons symptoms, pesticide, progression of disease, protein, reproductive effect, rigidity, slowed movement, speech, spray, substantia nigra, therapeutic drugs, toxicological effect, toxin, tremor, ucla, ziram, α synuclein

Study suggests potential new target in fight against debilitating disease

For several years, neurologists at UCLA have been building a case that a link exists between pesticides and Parkinson’s disease. To date, paraquat, maneb and ziram — common chemicals sprayed in California’s Central Valley and elsewhere — have been tied to increases in the disease, not only among farmworkers but in individuals who simply lived or worked near fields and likely inhaled drifting particles.

Now, UCLA researchers have discovered a link between Parkinson’s and another pesticide, benomyl, whose toxicological effects still linger some 10 years after the chemical was banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (more…)

NASA’s Kepler Discovers 461 New Planet Candidates

By Guest PostJanuary 11, 2013Science461 new planet, ames research center, candidate, christopher burke, discovery, earth size, exoplanet archive, habitable zone, institute, jack lissauer, kepler catalog, kepler data, kepler mission, liquid water, masquerade, moffett field, mountain view, multi planet system, NASA, orbit, orbital period, planet, planetary candidates, potential planet, seti, size of earth, spacecraft instrumentation, steve howell, surface

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA’s Kepler mission Monday announced the discovery of 461 new planet candidates. Four of the potential new planets are less than twice the size of Earth and orbit in their sun’s “habitable zone,” the region in the planetary system where liquid water might exist on the surface of a planet.

Based on observations conducted from May 2009 to March 2011, the findings show a steady increase in the number of smaller-size planet candidates and the number of stars with more than one candidate. (more…)

IBM Tops U.S. Patent List for 20th Consecutive Year

By Guest PostJanuary 10, 2013Technology2012, accenture, Amazon, analytics, annual list, apple, big data, cloud, cybersecurity, emc, era of cognitive systems, flexible products, ginni rometty, hp, ibm, ibm inventors, ibm puresystems, ibm watson system, industry solutions, intel, intelligent orchestration system, invention, lightweight, Microsoft, mobile, mobile network, modeling platform, oracle, patented invention, sms, Social networking, software defined environments, sun, symantec, synapse, ultra thin, us patent recipients

IBM inventors deliver innovation in emerging areas of tech

ARMONK, N.Y. – 10 Jan 2013: IBM today announced that it received a record 6,478 patents in 2012 for inventions that will enable fundamental advancements across key domains including analytics, Big Data, cybersecurity, cloud, mobile, social networking and software defined environments, as well as industry solutions for retail, banking, healthcare, and transportation. These patented inventions also will advance a major shift in computing, known as the era of cognitive systems.

This is the 20^th consecutive year that IBM topped the annual list of U.S. patent recipients. (more…)