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Chemists Advance Clear Conductive Films

By Guest PostAugust 8, 2012Sciencebisacetylacetonatedichloride, brown university, chemist, conductive films, conductivity, conductivity performance, cross section, david paine, electron microscopy, guanglai li, indium acetylacetonate, indium tin oxide, ito, ito crystals, jonghun lee, melissa petruska, nanocrystal solution, polyimide, shouheng sun, solar cells, spinning, sunghwan lee

Thin, conductive films are useful in displays and solar cells. A new solution-based chemistry developed at Brown University for making indium tin oxide films could allow engineers to employ a much simpler and cheaper manufacturing process.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In a touch-screen display or a solar panel, any conductive overlay had better be clear. Engineers employ transparent thin films of indium tin oxide (ITO) for the job, but a high-tech material’s properties are only half its resume. They must also be as cheap and easy to manufacture as possible. In a new study, researchers from Brown University and ATMI Inc. report the best-ever transparency and conductivity performance for an ITO made using a chemical solution, which is potentially the facile, low-cost method manufacturers want.

“Our technology is already at the performance level for application in resistive touch screens,” said Jonghun Lee, a Brown chemistry graduate student and lead author of the paper posted online Aug. 1 by the Journal of the American Chemical Society. (more…)

Division of Labor Offers Insight into the Evolution of Multicellular Life

By Guest PostAugust 8, 2012Scienceann dornhaus, avida, beacon center, beacon researchers, ben kerr, charles ofria, communication system, digital organism, evolution, evolution platform, evolutionary history, genetic material, heather goldsby, human economies, michigan state university, multi celled, multicellular life, organism, single celled, university of arizona, university of washington

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Dividing tasks among different individuals is a more efficient way to get things done, whether you are an ant, a honeybee or a human.

A new study by researchers at Michigan State University’s BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action suggests that this efficiency may also explain a key transition in evolutionary history, from single-celled to multi-celled organisms.

The results, which can be found in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrate that the cost of switching between different tasks gives rise to the evolution of division of labor in digital organisms. In human economies, these costs could be the mental shift or the travel time required to change from activity to another. (more…)

Curbing Tobacco Use by Growing Less

By Guest PostAugust 8, 2012Healthcurbing tobacco use, die from smoking, tobacco growing municipality, tobacco rich china, tobacco workers, yuxi pilot project

UCLA researcher initiates successful crop substitution project in tobacco-rich China

In China, 350 million people smoke. Each year, 1 million die from smoking. Many more become disabled. Approximately 20 million Chinese farmers produce the world’s largest share of tobacco, nearly 40 percent of the global supply. (more…)

Grapefruit Juice Lets Patients Take Lower Dose of Cancer Drug

By Guest PostAugust 7, 2012Healthanti cancer drug, anti cancer effects, cancer fighting dose, grapefruit juice, metabolism of drug, trials of sirolimus

A daily glass of grapefruit juice lets patients derive the same benefits from an anti-cancer drug as they would get from more than three times as much of the drug by itself, according to a new clinical trial. The combination could help patients avoid side effects associated with high doses of the drug and reduce the cost of the medication. (more…)

Yale Study Reveals New Family Tree for Ray-Finned Fish

By Guest PostAugust 7, 2012Natureage of fishes, alex dornburg, bass, bonefishes, bonytongue fish, devonian period, dinosaurs, eels, evolutionary birthday, family tree, fishes, fossil record, freshwater, genetic analysis, kristen l kuhn, lineages of fish, mammals, ray finned fish, ron i eytan, salmon, second age, teleost fish, teleost lineages, teleosts, thomas near, tropical, tuna, yale university

The most common lineages of fish found today in oceans, lakes, and rivers evolved about the same time as mammals and birds, a new Yale University-led study shows.

The comparative genetic analysis of more than 200 fish species, reported the week of Aug. 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, gave an earlier than expected evolutionary birthday to well-known teleost — or ray-finned — fish such as salmon, bass, or tuna.

The analysis also shows that the very earliest lineages of living teleost fish were eels and bonefishes, not tropical freshwater bonytongue fish as some scientists had proposed. (more…)

Across the Border: Children of U.S.-born Latinas More Likely to Get Retina Cancer, Study Finds

By Guest PostAugust 7, 2012Healthcalifornia children, foreign born latinas, in vitro fertilization, latina mothers, pregnancy behaviors, retina cancer, retinoblastoma cases, risk for retinoblastoma

In a large epidemiologic study, researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center found that babies of U.S.-born Latinas are at higher risk for retinoblastoma — a malignant tumor of the retina which typically occurs before the age of 6 — than children of Mexico-born mothers. (more…)

Americans Gaining More Weight than They Say

By Guest PostAugust 7, 2012Healthawareness, causes of obesity, gaining weight, obesity, public health campaigns, weight changes

Despite the increasing awareness of the problem of obesity in the United States, most Americans don’t know whether they are gaining or losing weight, according to new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, also known at IHME, at the University of Washington. (more…)

Predatory Beetles Eavesdrop on Ants’ Chemical Conversations to Find Best Egg-Laying Sites

By Guest PostAugust 6, 2012Naturealarm pheromones, alarm signal, ant eating spiders, ants, azteca ants, azteca instabilis ants, azteca worker ants, catatonic state, chemical, chiapas, coffee bushes, coffee pest, coffee plantation, coffee plants, esteli soto jimenez, fly larvae, green coffee scale, heidi liere, honeydew, hsun yi hsieh, ivette perfecto, lady beetles, Mexico, Nature, overheard conversation, parasitic flies, pest control strategies, phorid alert pheromone, phorid flies, predatory beetles, predatory lady beetle

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Predatory beetles can detect the unique alarm signal released by ants that are under attack by parasitic flies, and the beetles use those overheard conversations to guide their search for safe egg-laying sites on coffee bushes.

Azteca instabilis ants patrol coffee bushes and emit chemical alarm signals when they’re under attack by phorid flies. In an article published online July 27 in the journal Ecology and Evolution, University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues show that pregnant lady beetles intercept the ants’ alarm pheromones, which let the beetles know that it’s safe to deposit their eggs. (more…)

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