By mimicking photosynthesis, the light-driven process that plants use to produce sugars, MIT researchers have designed a new type of photocatalyst that can absorb light and use it to drive a variety of chemical reactions. The new type of catalyst, known as a biohybrid photocatalyst, contains a light-harvesting protein that absorbs light and transfers the […]

Within the visual cortex of the adult brain, a small region is specialized to respond to faces, while nearby regions show strong preferences for bodies or for scenes such as landscapes. Neuroscientists have long hypothesized that it takes many years of visual experience for these areas to develop in children. However, a new MIT study […]

Birch reductions can now be performed at room temperature, without the traditionally used hazardous combination of liquid ammonia and alkali metal. The researchers who discovered the method say it is cheap, quick and ‘accessible to any chemical laboratory’. The Birch reduction converts arenes like benzene into cyclohexadienes. It generally requires alkali metals to be dissolved […]

To produce a cost-effective redox flow battery, researchers based at the South China University of Technology have synthesized a molecular compound that serves as a low-cost electrolyte, enabling a stable flow battery that retains 99.98% capacity per cycle. They published their approach on August 14 in the Energy Material Advances. Comprising two tanks of opposing liquid electrolytes, […]

A regular, affordable antibiotic treatment significantly reduced the risk of underlying rheumatic heart disease progression in children and adolescents, according to a new study. The research, led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Uganda Heart Institute and the Children’s National Hospital in Washington, also showed that early screening was […]

They say procrastination is the thief of time – actually deadlines are. New research from the University of Otago has found that if you want someone to help you out with something, it is best not to set a deadline at all. But if you do set a deadline, make it short. Professor Stephen Knowles, […]

In an unexpected discovery, Georgetown University Medical Center researchers have identified what appears to be a significant vascular defect in patients with moderately severe Parkinson’s disease. The finding could help explain an earlier outcome of the same study, in which the drug nilotinib was able to halt motor and non-motor (cognition and quality of life) […]

Refugees are on the move in forests across the western U.S. As climate conditions change, the ranges of tree species are shifting, especially toward cooler or wetter sites. A new Stanford analysis provides some of the first empirical evidence that wildfire is accelerating this process, likely by reducing competition from established species. The study, published […]

Patients with mitral and tricuspid valve regurgitation, a condition sometimes called “leaky heart valves,” appeared to do better after two years if they had a tricuspid valve repair at the time of mitral valve surgery, according to a study supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a part of the National Institutes of Health. The […]

Anovel study is assessing whether medicinal mushrooms and Chinese herbs provide therapeutic benefit in treating acute COVID-19 infection. MACH-19 (Mushrooms and Chinese Herbs for COVID-19) — a multi-center study led by University of California San Diego School of Medicine and UCLA, in collaboration with the La Jolla Institute for Immunology — is among the first […]