Carbon nanotubes improve metal’s longevity under radiation

Nuclear reactors are incredible feats of engineering, but they come with a persistent problem: the metals holding everything together don't age gracefully under intense radiation. Over time, exposure to the harsh radiation environment near the reactor core causes metals to become porous and brittle — a gradual deterioration that eventually forces reactors into early retirement.

But a team of researchers from MIT and several international partners may have found a surprisingly simple fix: carbon nanotubes.

Tiny Tubes, Big Impact

The idea sounds almost too straightforward. By mixing just a small quantity of carbon nanotubes — less than 2 percent by volume — into a metal during manufacturing, the resulting composite becomes dramatically more resistant to radiation damage. The team published their findings in the journal Nano Energy.

Here's what actually happens inside a reactor: nuclear fission produces helium gas, which gets trapped within the metal's crystal structure. Over time, this trapped helium forms tiny bubbles along grain boundaries, making the metal progressively more brittle. It's a slow-motion weakening that nobody has been able to stop — until now.

The carbon nanotubes, despite being just a minuscule fraction of the total material, form what the researchers describe as a percolating one-dimensional transport network. Think of it like a system of microscopic chimneys running through the metal, giving the trapped helium a way to escape before it can cause lasting damage.

Surviving the Extreme

Testing showed the composite structure held up under 70 DPA of radiation damage — a measurement that describes how many times, on average, every atom in the material gets knocked out of its position by radiation. That's a lot. In practical terms, the new material showed five to ten times less embrittlement compared to untreated metal samples.

Even after heavy radiation exposure, the nanotubes retained their slender, one-dimensional shape. MIT's Ju Li described the phenomenon as something like "insects trapped in amber" — the nanotubes transform chemically into carbides, but their structure persists, continuing to provide those crucial escape routes for helium.

Stronger Before Radiation Even Hits

What's particularly striking about this material is that its benefits don't wait for radiation exposure to kick in. Even in a brand new, unirradiated state, the addition of carbon nanotubes boosts the metal's strength by 50 percent and also improves its tensile ductility — its ability to bend and deform without snapping.

For now, the approach has only been demonstrated in aluminum, which limits it to lower-temperature environments like research reactors. But the team is already testing the concept with zirconium — a metal widely used as fuel rod cladding in commercial reactors — and believes the radiation-shielding effect is likely a general property of metal-nanotube composites.

Affordable and Already Being Made

One of the more practical aspects of this discovery is cost. Carbon nanotubes are already being manufactured at industrial scale in South Korea for the automotive industry, which means the raw materials are relatively cheap. The composite itself can be produced using standard industrial processes, and it's already being made by the ton.

If the results hold up across other metals, this approach could meaningfully extend the operational lifetimes of nuclear reactors — both research facilities and commercial power plants — while also finding applications in spacecraft and nuclear waste storage containers.

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Source: MIT News

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Mint can as anti-cancer drug!

Mint is one of those herbs most people associate with fresh breath or a soothing cup of tea. But researchers at India's Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) in Lucknow have been looking at it from a very different angle — as a potential weapon against cancer.

Their focus? A compound called L-Menthol, naturally found in the mint plant, which has shown a surprising ability to kill cancer cells and block their growth.

What Makes Menthol Stand Out

What makes this research particularly interesting is not just that menthol works against cancer cells — it's how it works. The compound appears to interfere with cell division, preventing cancer cells from multiplying and spreading to other organs. In laboratory studies, it has shown activity against colon cancer cells, and researchers believe it could have broader applications.

Menthol's potential isn't entirely new to science. Studies have looked at its effects on liver cancer, colon cancer, and even brain tumors. One intriguing area involves menthol-modified nanoparticles that can carry anti-cancer drugs across the blood-brain barrier — a major obstacle in treating brain tumors — achieving deeper penetration into tumor tissue than conventional formulations.

A Cost-Effective Alternative

One of the more practical arguments for exploring menthol as an anti-cancer agent is economics. Current cancer drugs are often extraordinarily expensive to produce. Paclitaxel, for instance, is derived from the bark of the European Yew tree — a slow-growing and limited resource. Menthol, by contrast, is cheap to produce, widely available, and already manufactured at scale for use in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.

That cost difference could matter enormously in making cancer treatments more accessible, especially in developing countries where high drug prices are a major barrier to care.

Research Is Still in Early Stages

It's worth being clear: this research is still primarily at the laboratory and preclinical stage. Menthol has shown genuine promise in cell studies and animal models, but it has not yet been through the rigorous clinical trials needed to confirm it as a human cancer treatment.

Scientists at the University of Salford in the UK have also been investigating a related compound, hoping to move toward testing on human cancer cells from breast and lung tissue. The path from a promising lab result to an approved drug is long and demanding — but the early signals are encouraging enough to keep researchers interested.

For now, mint remains your herb garden's most intriguing overachiever — and researchers are just beginning to understand what it might truly be capable of.

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Source: Chemistry World

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New Way Could Boost Battery Performance using Bee Pollen

When Jialiang Tang, a doctoral student at Purdue University, heard that his mother had developed a pollen allergy, his reaction was a little unusual. Instead of reaching for antihistamines, he started thinking about batteries.

"I was fascinated by the beauty and diversity of pollen microstructures," Tang explained. "But the idea of using them as battery anodes didn't really kick in until I started working on battery research and learned more about the carbonization of biomass."

The result is a genuinely surprising piece of research: pollen — nature's most notorious allergen — might be a viable alternative to graphite in the anodes of lithium-ion batteries.

From Flowers to Electrodes

The Purdue team tested two types of pollen: bee pollen (collected from multiple flower sources by bees) and cattail pollen (which comes from a single plant and has a more uniform grain structure). Both were converted into carbon microstructures through a process called pyrolysis — heating the pollen to high temperatures in an argon-filled chamber to yield pure carbon that retains the original pollen shape. A follow-up step, heating in the presence of oxygen, created tiny pores throughout the structure that boost energy storage capacity.

The results were published in Nature's Scientific Reports.

Surprising Performance Numbers

Cattail pollen outperformed bee pollen in testing, delivering a specific capacity of 590 milliamp hours per gram at 50°C and 382 mAh/g at room temperature. For context, conventional graphite — the standard anode material in lithium-ion batteries — has a theoretical capacity of 372 mAh/g. So the cattail-derived carbon is already exceeding what graphite can theoretically offer.

Bee pollen performed somewhat less impressively but still showed strong early results. After just one hour of charging, the anodes reached more than half their full capacity — delivering 200 mAh/g in that short window. A full charge required about 10 hours.

Why This Matters

Beyond the performance numbers, pollen has a few practical advantages. It's renewable, abundantly available, and can be harvested without complex industrial processes. The pyrolysis method used to convert it into carbon is relatively simple and low-energy. That combination — accessible raw material plus straightforward processing — is attractive from both a cost and sustainability standpoint.

The researchers tested the anodes at two temperatures (25°C and 50°C) to simulate real-world climate differences, since battery performance can vary significantly depending on where in the world a device is used.

Still Early Days

Professor Vilas Pol, who led the research, was candid about where things stand. "We are just introducing the fascinating concept here," he said. "Further work is needed to determine how practical it might be."

The current study only looked at pollen in anodes. The next phase of research will test pollen-derived carbon in full-cell batteries paired with commercial cathodes — a necessary step toward understanding whether this could ever move from laboratory curiosity to real-world product.

Whether pollen ever makes it into your phone battery remains to be seen. But for now, it's hard not to appreciate the irony: the thing that makes spring miserable for millions of allergy sufferers might one day help power their devices.

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Source: ACS Energy Letters / Purdue University

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ZIKA VIRUS USED TO SPREAD COMPUTER VIRUS [Really]

When a health crisis captures global headlines, cybercriminals are rarely far behind. The Zika virus outbreak of 2016 was no exception.

As fears about the mosquito-borne virus spread across Brazil and beyond, security researchers at Symantec uncovered a malicious email campaign specifically designed to exploit public anxiety — using concern about Zika to deliver malware directly to people's computers.

The Setup: A Fake Health Alert

The scam emails were crafted to look like they came from Saúde Curiosa (Curious Health), a legitimate Brazilian health and wellness website. The subject line read: "ZIKA VIRUS! Isso mesmo, matando com água!" which translates to "Zika Virus! That's right, killing it with water!"

Inside the email, recipients were urged to click buttons labeled things like "Eliminating Mosquito! Click Here!" or "Instructions To Follow! Download!" Both the links and the attachment led to the same destination: a piece of malware called JS.Downloader, hosted on Dropbox. Once installed, this malware acted as a gateway, downloading additional malicious software onto the victim's computer.

More than 1,500 people had already clicked the infected links by the time Symantec reported it.

Why Brazil Was the Target

Brazil was the epicenter of the Zika outbreak, with the vast majority of global cases concentrated there. The WHO had declared Zika a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in February 2016, following a significant surge in birth defects in affected regions.

The timing made Brazil's population especially vulnerable to health-related phishing campaigns. People were actively seeking information and protective guidance, which made a convincing fake health alert all the more dangerous.

How to Protect Yourself

Symantec issued clear guidance at the time, which applies to any similar situation:

• For health information, go directly to official sources like the World Health Organization website
• Never click links or open attachments in unsolicited emails, even if the sender looks familiar
• Keep your security software updated and running
• Treat any email with urgent health warnings and download buttons as suspicious by default

This kind of social engineering exploiting fear and urgency to bypass people's better judgment is one of the oldest tricks in cybercrime. Whenever a major health scare or global crisis dominates the news cycle, expect a wave of phishing emails to follow within days.

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Source: Symantec Security Response

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Air Quality Monitor help you to see what you breathe

Most of us only think about air quality when we're stuck in traffic or when wildfire smoke rolls into town. But here's the uncomfortable truth: the air inside your own home can be just as polluted as anything you'd encounter outdoors — sometimes worse.

A device called the AirVisual Node was designed to change that, giving ordinary people the ability to see exactly what they're breathing in real time.

What Is the AirVisual Node?

Developed by AirVisual, an international team focused on air quality awareness, the Node is a compact air quality monitor with a bright, colorful 5-inch LED screen that displays key environmental readings at a glance. It tracks PM2.5 (fine particulate matter), CO2 levels, temperature, and humidity — both indoors and, when connected to Wi-Fi, outdoors through a global network of monitoring stations.

PM2.5 refers to particles 2.5 micrometers or smaller in diameter — small enough to pass through your nose and throat and lodge deep in your lungs. These include dust, soot, smoke, and chemical compounds from common household sources like cooking, cleaning products, candles, and even furniture off-gassing. The Node can also detect PM10 particles — slightly larger but still inhalable.

How It Works

The Node uses a laser-based sensor that draws air through the device with a small fan. As particles pass through a beam of light, the sensor measures how the light scatters, calculating particle concentration. According to AirVisual, the PM2.5 sensor has an accuracy range of about ±8% and a minimum lifespan of three years.

CO2 readings update every 1-2 minutes, and PM2.5 readings stabilize within 30 seconds — making it practical for moving around a home or office to spot-check different rooms or identify problem sources.

Smart Forecasting Built In

When connected to Wi-Fi, the Node does more than measure current conditions. It uses AI-driven analysis and data from thousands of environmental monitoring stations worldwide to generate three-day air quality forecasts for your area. This can help with planning outdoor activities, deciding when to open windows, or knowing when to run an air purifier.

Why Indoor Air Quality Matters More Than You Think

Indoor air pollution is an underappreciated health issue. The EPA has noted that indoor air can be two to five times more polluted than outdoor air in many cases. Cooking fumes, off-gassing from synthetic materials, pet dander, mold spores, and air seeping in from outside all contribute to what people breathe every day without realizing it.

Having a real-time monitor that surfaces this invisible data — and makes it easy to understand — is exactly the kind of tool that can shift behavior. When you can actually see your CO2 levels spike after a room full of people has been sitting together for an hour, or watch PM2.5 readings jump when you fry something on the stove, it changes how you think about ventilation.

The AirVisual Node won't clean your air — that's a job for purifiers and good ventilation. But it gives you the data you need to make informed decisions, and sometimes, simply knowing is the first step.

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Source: AirVisual

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What You have to know about zika virus Causing Congenital deformities!!

When the Zika virus began spreading rapidly across Latin America in 2015 and 2016, it quickly became clear that this was not a typical mosquito-borne illness. What made Zika uniquely alarming — and uniquely heartbreaking — was what it appeared to do to unborn children.

The Connection to Microcephaly

Brazilian health authorities first noticed something unusual: a sudden and dramatic spike in cases of microcephaly — a condition where infants are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains. Normally rare, microcephaly cases in Brazil surged by more than 20 times the historical average during the height of the Zika outbreak.

The evidence pointing to Zika as the cause built up quickly. Researchers found the virus in the amniotic fluid of fetuses diagnosed with microcephaly. Zika RNA was detected in the brain tissue of infants who died shortly after birth. And the geographic pattern matched: areas with the highest Zika transmission rates also had the sharpest increases in birth defects.

How Zika Attacks the Developing Brain

Zika is transmitted primarily by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same species responsible for dengue and chikungunya. But unlike most arboviruses, Zika appears to have an unusual ability to cross the placental barrier and directly infect fetal neural progenitor cells — the cells responsible for building the brain.

Laboratory studies showed that Zika preferentially targets and kills these precursor cells, effectively halting normal brain development. The virus can also trigger programmed cell death and disrupt cell cycle progression in developing neural tissue. The result, in severe cases, is a brain that is drastically smaller and less developed than it should be.

Other Neurological Effects

Microcephaly captured the most attention, but researchers identified a broader constellation of problems now referred to as Congenital Zika Syndrome. This can include:

• Severe brain malformations beyond microcephaly
• Eye damage and vision problems
• Joint problems, including contractures that limit limb movement
• Excessive muscle tone
• Hearing loss

Importantly, not all babies born to Zika-infected mothers develop these complications. The timing and severity of infection during pregnancy, along with other factors, appear to influence outcomes. Infection during the first trimester carries the highest risk.

The WHO Response

On February 1, 2016, the World Health Organization declared the Zika outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern — the same designation used for the Ebola crisis. The declaration mobilized international research funding and accelerated vaccine development efforts.

For pregnant women or those planning to conceive, the key guidance was clear: avoid travel to Zika-affected regions if possible, use insect repellent consistently, wear protective clothing, and use mosquito nets. Sexual transmission of Zika was also confirmed, adding another layer to prevention strategies.

The Zika outbreak brought into sharp focus how devastating a seemingly mild illness can become when it intersects with pregnancy — and reminded the global health community that emerging viruses deserve careful monitoring long before they reach crisis levels.

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Source: World Health Organization – Zika Virus

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3D BIOPRINTER CREATES BONE, MUSCLE AND CARTILAGE FOR THIS EAR

Science fiction has long imagined a world where doctors could simply print replacement body parts. At Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, that future just got a little closer.

A team led by Dr. Anthony Atala has developed a 3D bioprinting system — called the Integrated Tissue and Organ Printing System, or ITOP — capable of printing human-sized structures made from living bone, muscle, and cartilage. Their findings were published in Nature Biotechnology.

What Makes ITOP Different

Previous bioprinting systems ran into a fundamental problem: once printed tissue reaches a certain size, the cells at its core die because nutrients and oxygen can't reach them. The ITOP system solved this by printing microscopic channels — essentially a network of tiny tunnels running through the tissue — that allow blood, nutrients, and oxygen to penetrate deep into the structure and keep cells alive.

The printer uses two types of materials working together: biodegradable plastic (polycaprolactone) that acts as a structural scaffold, and a gel containing living cells. The plastic holds everything in shape while the cells settle in and grow. Over time, the plastic degrades and the living tissue takes its place.

The Ear, the Bone, the Muscle

The Wake Forest team demonstrated the technology with several proof-of-concept experiments. They printed human-sized ear structures from rabbit cartilage cells and implanted them under the skin of mice. Two months later, the ears had maintained their shape and developed their own blood vessels — a critical sign that the tissue was integrating successfully into the body.

They also printed muscle tissue from mouse and rat cells and implanted it into rats. Within a week, the tissue had not only maintained its structure but had started to develop blood vessels and triggered nearby nerve formation. Skull bone fragments printed from human stem cells had formed new bone tissue with blood vessels by five months post-implantation.

Even more impressively, the team printed human-sized jawbone fragments from human stem cells — the exact kind of structure that could eventually be used in facial reconstruction surgery.

Custom-Built for Each Patient

One of the more exciting aspects of the ITOP system is its ability to use CT and MRI scan data to print tissue that's precisely tailored to an individual patient's anatomy. If someone has lost part of an ear, for instance, the system could print a new one matched to the size and shape of their existing ear.

The printer can work with a wide range of cell types, including stem cells derived from amniotic fluid, making it versatile across different tissue types and applications.

Not Ready for Human Use Yet

Atala is careful about expectations. "This is an important advance in our quest to make replacement tissue for patients," he said, "but more research is needed before such 3D printed tissues could be tested in human patients." The next phase will focus on safety testing and developing clinical-grade human cells derived directly from the patients who would receive the transplants.

Still, after a decade of development, what the Wake Forest team has demonstrated represents a genuine turning point — proof that printing living, functional, human-scale tissue is no longer theoretical.

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Source: Nature Biotechnology / Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

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Start Moving to Stop Brain Shrinkage!!

Your brain begins to shrink in your late 20s. It's an unsettling fact, but it's true. As we age, brain volume declines — particularly in regions like the hippocampus, which is central to memory and learning. By the time we reach our 60s, that shrinkage can translate into noticeably slower thinking and memory problems.

But a growing body of research suggests there's something surprisingly simple that can slow this process: moving your body regularly.

What Exercise Does to Your Brain

A landmark study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences tracked 120 older adults over a year. Half followed an aerobic exercise program; the other half did only stretching. At the end of the year, brain scans showed that the aerobic exercise group had actually increased hippocampal volume by about 2% — effectively reversing 1-2 years of age-related brain shrinkage. The stretching group, meanwhile, showed the typical decline.

And it's not just the hippocampus. Consistent aerobic exercise has been shown to increase gray matter volume across nearly all regions of the brain, with particularly strong gains in the prefrontal cortex and caudate nucleus — areas involved in decision-making, attention, and executive control. Exercise also appears to strengthen the connections between these regions, making the brain more functionally integrated over time.

The Biology Behind It

Why does exercise have this effect? Several biological mechanisms are at work. Physical activity increases the brain's production of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), a protein that acts like fertilizer for neurons — supporting their growth, survival, and formation of new connections. Exercise also boosts blood vessel formation in the brain, improves cerebral blood flow, and reduces neuroinflammation.

Beyond BDNF, exercise stimulates the release of other growth factors including IGF-1 and VEGF, which promote the growth of new neurons — a process called neurogenesis — particularly in the hippocampus. This ongoing generation of new brain cells appears to be one of the key mechanisms by which exercise helps preserve memory and cognitive function.

What Kind and How Much?

The research points most strongly toward aerobic exercise — the kind that gets your heart rate up and keeps it there. Walking briskly, jogging, cycling, and swimming all count. The studies showing brain benefits typically involved 30-60 minutes of moderate aerobic activity three or more times per week, over periods of months to years.

That said, even lighter physical activity appears to offer some protection. The key variable seems to be consistency: regular movers of all kinds show better brain health outcomes than their sedentary counterparts, regardless of age.

The Takeaway

We tend to think about exercise in terms of physical health — heart disease, weight, blood pressure. But the evidence is increasingly clear that the brain may be one of the biggest beneficiaries of a physically active life. If you're looking for a reason to get off the couch, your future cognitive self might be the best one there is.

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Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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Bacteria Evolution speedup by changing phenotypes!!

Antibiotic resistance is one of the defining public health challenges of the 21st century — and understanding how bacteria evolve resistance so rapidly is key to fighting it. Research from the University of Edinburgh has shed new light on a surprising mechanism: phenotypic switching.

What Is Phenotypic Switching?

Bacteria with identical DNA can still behave very differently from one another — a phenomenon called phenotypic variation. Some cells in a population might grow quickly, while others grow slowly and remain dormant. This isn't caused by genetic differences; it's a kind of behavioral flexibility that bacteria can switch between, often randomly.

The Edinburgh researchers, led by physicist Bartlomiej Waclaw, found that this switching behavior doesn't just help bacteria survive in the short term — it also dramatically speeds up their evolutionary process, particularly when facing antibiotic pressure.

How It Speeds Up Evolution

Here's the critical insight: when exposed to antibiotics, bacteria that switch to a slower-growing, less metabolically active state (sometimes called a "persister" state) are harder to kill. They aren't resistant in the genetic sense — they just don't give the drug enough of a target to work on. But this temporary survival window gives them time.

While they're persisting, mutations can accumulate. And if one of those mutations happens to confer genuine genetic resistance, the bacterium now has a genetic upgrade that allows it to grow and replicate even in the presence of the antibiotic. The phenotypic switch bought the time needed to find that genetic escape route.

The researchers' modeling showed that bacteria with optimal phenotypic switching behaviors could evolve antibiotic-resistant mutations in as few as 10 to 100 generations — not the millions of generations traditionally assumed. In the context of a fast-reproducing bacterium, that could mean developing full resistance within hours to days of antibiotic exposure.

Why This Matters for Medicine

This finding has direct implications for how we think about and treat bacterial infections. Standard antibiotic dosing protocols are designed based on assumptions about how quickly bacteria evolve. If phenotypic switching dramatically accelerates that process, it means some infections may be developing resistance far faster than current clinical models predict.

It also suggests that targeting phenotypic switching itself — rather than just the bacteria's genetic resistance mechanisms — could be a promising avenue for new treatments. Drugs that prevent bacteria from entering persister states might close off one of their fastest routes to resistance.

Understanding evolution at this level — not just the genetics, but the behavioral flexibility bacteria use to survive — is becoming increasingly important as we try to stay ahead of an adaptive and increasingly dangerous enemy.

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Source: Scientific Reports / University of Edinburgh

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Nanomembrane Toilet Design [Cranfield University]

A cheap, easy to maintain, "green" toilet that uses no water and turns human waste into electricity and clean water will be trialed in 2016, possibly in Ghana. Dubbed the "Nano Membrane Toilet" by its creators from Cranfield University, UK, this new approach to managing waste could help some of the world's 2.3 billion people who have no access to safe, hygienic toilets.

The toilet's magic happens when you close the lid. The bottom of the bowl uses a rotation mechanism to sweep the waste into a sedimentation chamber, which helps block any odors from escaping. The waste is then filtered through a special nanotech membrane, which separates vaporized water molecules from the rest of the waste, helping to prevent pathogens and solids from being carried further by the water.


The vaporized water then travels through to a chamber filled with "nano-coated hydrophilic beads", which helps the water vapor condense and fall into a collection area below. This water is pure enough to be used for household washing and farm irrigation.

The residual solid waste and pathogens are driven by an archimedean screw into a second chamber. This part of the design is still being finalized, but the current plan is for the solid waste to be incinerated to convert it into ash and energy. The energy will power the nanomembrane filtration process, with enough left over to charge mobile phones or other small devices.

The only waste product of the whole process is ash from the burning of solids, which is nutrient-rich and pathogen free, and therefore, usable in farming. The toilet can manage the waste generated by households of up to 10 people.

Funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Reinvent the Toilet Challenge, and winner of the Clean Equity Monaco 2015 award, the nano membrane toilet is to be trialed and tested in 2016, possibly in Ghana.

Currently, more than 650 million people in the world do not have access to clean water, and more than 2.3 billion don't have access to a safe, private toilet. Researchers around the world are working to help solve this problem, but high-tech solutions, such as adding solar panels, are usually too expensive to be practical.

Sociological issues also play a role. As toilet infrastructure deteriorates, people prefer to go outside rather than use a smelly room inside their house. This makes women vulnerable to rape, and creates further sanitation and hygiene issues.

The nano membrane toilet is clean, odorless and aspirational, and it should be capable of working in environments that lack sewage, external power and water. So it will be interesting to see how it works in the field.

The plan is for the toilet to be rented to households through a local organization, helping to spread the costs to stay within the Gate Foundation's challenge of keeping the cost of the toilet below US 5 cents per person per day.

If all goes well, the toilet could also find applications elsewhere like the military, construction industry, yachts, or outdoor events.

Source

------------------------- *Leave a comments, questions or even a suggestions below this post. Your expressions are always welcomed.

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2015 was warmer: Earth's Temp. Depend on where you put thermometer to measure

In January 2016, NASA and NOAA made an announcement that surprised almost no one in the climate science community — and alarmed many outside of it: 2015 was the hottest year ever recorded since modern record-keeping began in 1880. And it didn't just break the previous record. It shattered it.

By How Much?

According to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, globally averaged temperatures in 2015 were 0.87°C (1.57°F) above the 1951-1980 baseline — blowing past 2014's record by 0.13°C (0.23°F). NOAA calculated a slightly different figure: 0.90°C above the 20th-century average, also the largest margin by which an annual record had ever been beaten.

Ten months of 2015 individually tied or broke monthly temperature records. December 2015 alone was more than half a degree Fahrenheit warmer than December 2014. The warming wasn't confined to one region — 2015 was the warmest year on record for Asia and South America, and the second warmest for the continental United States, Africa, and Europe.

Why NASA and NOAA Sometimes Report Different Numbers

One interesting aspect of temperature monitoring is that different agencies can report slightly different numbers for the same year, and both can be correct. This is because they use different baseline periods for comparison, different collections of monitoring stations, and different methods for handling data gaps or adjustments for urban heat islands.

NASA compiles data from roughly 6,300 meteorological stations worldwide, plus ship and buoy measurements of sea surface temperatures, and Antarctic research stations. NOAA uses a similar but not identical network. The Japanese Meteorological Agency and the University of California Berkeley also maintain independent temperature records, and all of them showed 2015 as the warmest year on record.

Satellite measurements paint a slightly different picture: they showed 2015 as only the third hottest year since satellite records began in 1979. Scientists note, however, that satellites measure temperatures higher in the atmosphere rather than at the surface, and come with a larger margin of error.

El Niño and the Long-Term Trend

The 2015 record was boosted by one of the strongest El Niño events in history, which warmed ocean surface temperatures significantly. But as NASA GISS Director Gavin Schmidt noted, "Last year's temperatures had an assist from El Niño, but it is the cumulative effect of the long-term trend that has resulted in the record warming that we are seeing."

That long-term trend is driven primarily by the buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from human activity. At the time of the announcement, 15 of the 16 hottest years ever recorded had occurred since 2001.

The 2015 record brought global average temperatures about halfway to the 2°C ceiling that world leaders had agreed to try to stay under at the Paris Climate Conference just weeks earlier.

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Source: NASA / NOAA

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How Full Moon Could Affect Winter Storm Jonas!!!

When Winter Storm Jonas barreled up the East Coast of the United States in January 2016, forecasters were already bracing for a major blizzard. What made this storm's timing particularly notable was something entirely beyond human control: the full moon.

The Timing

The moon reached its full phase on January 23, 2016 at 8:46 p.m. ET, right as Jonas was beginning to unleash heavy snow and brutal winds across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. While full moons don't cause blizzards, they do influence tides, and that influence was set to intersect with the storm's coastal impacts in an unfortunate way.

Why Full Moons Affect Tides

A full moon occurs when the Earth, sun, and moon align in a straight line, with Earth in the middle. In this configuration, the gravitational pull of both the sun and the moon work together on Earth's oceans. The result is what are called astronomically high tides or spring tides, which are noticeably higher than normal high tides.

During Jonas, these tidal conditions were expected to produce high tides up to 5.5 feet (1.7 meters) higher than normal at some points along the coast, according to meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in New York.

Storm Plus Tides: A Compound Threat

Blizzards are typically thought of as an inland threat, but when strong coastal storms combine with elevated tides, the risk of coastal flooding rises sharply. Jonas arrived with sustained winds of 40 to 50 mph and gusts reaching up to 80 km/h along the coast. Combined with the astronomically high tides, the conditions created a significant risk of storm surge and coastal flooding on top of the feet of snow already expected inland.

This compounding of weather events is not unprecedented but is always a concern for emergency managers and coastal residents. Big weather systems don't happen in isolation. They interact with natural rhythms already in motion, and sometimes those rhythms amplify the damage.

In the end, Jonas caused significant coastal flooding along parts of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, in addition to record snowfall totals in several cities. The full moon tides were just one more variable stacked against an already dangerous situation.

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Source: The Weather Channel / National Weather Service

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'Nano-reactor' for production of hydrogen biofuel Combining bacterial genes, virus shell!!!

Producing hydrogen fuel cleanly and cheaply has long been one of the holy grails of clean energy research. A team at Indiana University may have found a surprisingly elegant solution: hiding a bacterial enzyme inside the shell of a virus.

The result is what they're calling a "nano-reactor" — a tiny biological machine that is 150 times more efficient at producing hydrogen than the raw enzyme it's built from. Their findings were published in Nature Chemistry.

How It Works

The key enzyme in question is called hydrogenase — specifically, NiFe-hydrogenase (nickel-iron hydrogenase), one of three forms that occur naturally. What makes this enzyme remarkable is its ability to take in protons and produce hydrogen gas — a clean-burning fuel. The problem is that, in its natural form, the enzyme is fragile. It breaks down easily when exposed to heat or environmental chemicals, making it impractical for industrial use.

To fix that, the Indiana University team extracted two genes from the common bacterium Escherichia coli — specifically hyaA and hyaB, which encode the core subunits of the hydrogenase enzyme. They then inserted those genes into the protective protein shell, or "capsid," of a bacterial virus called bacteriophage P22.

The resulting biomaterial, designated P22-Hyd, is dramatically more stable than unprotected hydrogenase. It resists degradation from environmental chemicals, maintains catalytic activity at room temperature, and can be produced through a simple fermentation process — no specialized equipment or exotic conditions required.

Why This Matters

Current fuel cell technology often relies on platinum as a catalyst — an expensive, rare metal that needs to be mined, processed, and that can't be renewed once it's used. P22-Hyd offers a biological alternative that is fundamentally different in its economics and sustainability profile.

"This material is comparable to platinum, except it's truly renewable," said Trevor Douglas, who led the research. "You don't need to mine it; you can create it at room temperature on a massive scale using fermentation technology; it's biodegradable. It's a very green process to make a very high-end sustainable material."

Beyond producing hydrogen, P22-Hyd also works in reverse — recombining hydrogen and oxygen to generate electrical power. That bidirectional capability makes it potentially useful both in fuel production and in the fuel cells themselves.

The Road Ahead

This research is still at the proof-of-concept stage, but it addresses one of the fundamental barriers to hydrogen biofuel viability: the inability to produce enough of the catalyst material in a stable, efficient form. With P22-Hyd, the team has demonstrated that high-volume production through fermentation is feasible, which is a necessary step toward practical application.

If scalable, this approach could become part of a broader clean hydrogen economy — providing fuel for hydrogen-powered vehicles and other applications without the environmental cost of either fossil fuels or precious-metal catalysts.

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Source: Nature Chemistry / Indiana University

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Planet Nine!!

Our solar system may have a ninth planet hiding in the distant darkness — and astronomers have never actually seen it. What they have seen is something almost as compelling: a strange pattern in the orbits of several objects in the outer solar system that's difficult to explain without invoking the gravitational influence of a large, unseen world.

The case was made by two Caltech astronomers, Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin, who noticed that a cluster of distant Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) — icy bodies orbiting far beyond Neptune — have orbits that are oddly aligned. Statistically, this alignment is highly unlikely to be a coincidence. When they ran simulations to figure out what could be causing it, the best explanation was a planet with roughly ten times Earth's mass, orbiting at an average distance about 500 to 700 times farther from the Sun than Earth.

Why This Is Such a Big Deal

If confirmed, Planet Nine would be the first new planet added to our solar system in 170 years — since Neptune was discovered in 1846. It would also be by far the most distant known planet, with an orbital period estimated between 10,000 and 20,000 years. That's so far out that even at its closest approach to the Sun, it would be thousands of times more distant than Earth.

The planet hasn't been directly observed yet. Finding it will require pointing powerful telescopes at the right patch of sky — and that patch covers a huge area. But the indirect gravitational evidence is strong enough that multiple research teams are now actively searching.

The Skeptics and the Believers

Not everyone is convinced. Some astronomers argue that the apparent alignment of KBO orbits could be a result of observational bias — we're more likely to find objects in certain parts of the sky simply because those are the areas we look at most. Brown and Batygin have argued their analysis accounts for this, but the debate continues.

What's undeniable is that the outer solar system keeps surprising us. Whether Planet Nine is real or not, the search for it is already revealing new things about the structure of our cosmic neighborhood.

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Source: NPR - Hints of a Hidden Distant Planet in Our Solar System

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Eating Vegetables could prevent Blindness!!! Know How

It's a piece of health advice that's easy to overlook: eat your greens. But for eye health, a landmark study out of Harvard has found that this advice could have some genuinely significant consequences — particularly when it comes to glaucoma, one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness worldwide.

The Study

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston analyzed dietary and health records from more than 100,000 middle-aged people, tracked over 30 years. The finding was striking: people who consumed at least 240 mg of nitrate per day — primarily found in leafy green vegetables like spinach and lettuce — were 30 percent less likely to develop glaucoma compared to those who ate fewer nitrate-rich foods.

To put the 240 mg target in perspective: that's roughly equivalent to two cups of lettuce a day. Not an unreasonable amount for someone who prioritizes vegetables.

Why Leafy Greens?

The connection appears to run through blood flow. It's thought that the nitrates in leafy greens improve blood circulation to the optic nerve — the nerve that connects the eye to the brain and is progressively damaged in glaucoma. Poor blood supply to the optic nerve is considered a contributing factor in glaucoma's development and progression.

When you consume dietary nitrate, the body converts it to nitric oxide, a molecule that helps relax and dilate blood vessels. Better circulation in the optic nerve region may protect against the kind of damage that leads to vision loss.

About Glaucoma

Glaucoma is often called the "silent thief of sight" because it typically causes no pain and progresses gradually, often without the person realizing it until significant vision loss has already occurred. Around 500,000 people in Britain alone suffer from it, and it's thought that many more are undiagnosed. Worldwide, it's the second leading cause of blindness after cataracts.

While glaucoma is most often associated with elevated eye pressure, it can also develop in people with normal eye pressure — and that's where blood flow to the optic nerve becomes especially relevant.

Important Caveats

This study shows an association, not a proven cause-and-effect relationship. Researchers caution that other lifestyle factors associated with high vegetable consumption — lower smoking rates, healthier overall diet — may also play a role. Randomized controlled trials would be needed to confirm that increasing nitrate intake directly prevents glaucoma.

Still, the findings add to a growing body of evidence linking diet to eye health. And given that eating more leafy greens carries essentially no downsides, this is one piece of preventive health advice worth taking seriously.

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Source: JAMA Ophthalmology / Harvard Medical School

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Research: Cancer Drugs may help reverse Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease and cancer don't have much in common on the surface — but at the molecular level, researchers have been finding unexpected overlaps. One of the more intriguing threads is the idea that drugs already approved to treat certain cancers might also have a role in fighting Alzheimer's.

The Connection: Tyrosine Kinases

A class of enzymes called tyrosine kinases plays a central role in cancer biology. Many cancer drugs work by inhibiting these kinases, disrupting the signaling pathways that drive uncontrolled cell growth. It turns out these same kinases are also implicated in the brain's ability to clear toxic proteins — which is exactly the process that breaks down in Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers at Georgetown University, led by Dr. Charbel Moussa, have been exploring several tyrosine kinase inhibitors for their potential to treat neurodegenerative diseases. The Georgetown group had previously shown that tau — the protein that forms toxic tangles in Alzheimer's brains — is a critical part of the cellular "garbage disposal system" that clears accumulated toxic proteins. When tau is abnormally modified (what researchers call phosphorylated tau or p-Tau), it can no longer perform this function.

The Drug: Pazopanib

One study presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference found that pazopanib — an FDA-approved drug for renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) — reduced levels of phosphorylated tau in animal models genetically engineered to overproduce human mutant tau. If that reduction in p-Tau translates to reduced toxic tangle formation, it could slow Alzheimer's progression.

This isn't the only cancer drug on the Georgetown team's radar. Their work also led to clinical trials with nilotinib, a leukemia drug, for both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.

Why Repurpose Cancer Drugs?

Drug development from scratch is extraordinarily expensive and takes over a decade on average. Finding existing approved drugs that work against Alzheimer's — a strategy called drug repurposing — could dramatically shorten the timeline to treatment. Approved drugs have already cleared safety reviews, which removes one of the biggest hurdles in drug development.

The challenge is that what works in animal models doesn't always translate to humans, and Alzheimer's clinical trials have a notoriously high failure rate. But the logic of the tau pathway, and the growing evidence that tyrosine kinase inhibitors affect it, has given researchers a concrete molecular target to pursue.

The research is ongoing, and no cancer drug has yet been approved as an Alzheimer's treatment. But the intersection of cancer biology and neuroscience is producing new ideas in a field that desperately needs them.

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Source: Cancer Treatment Reviews / Georgetown University

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Fuel cell breakthrough to low-cost nickel-based catalyst

Hydrogen fuel cells are often called the future of clean transportation — but there's a catch that's held the technology back for years: the catalysts that make them work are made from platinum, one of the most expensive and rare metals on Earth. A breakthrough from the University of Delaware may have found a way around that.

The Platinum Problem

In traditional proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, platinum is used to catalyze the hydrogen oxidation reaction — the chemical process at the heart of how fuel cells generate electricity. Platinum works extremely well, but it costs a fortune, which is a large part of why hydrogen fuel cell vehicles remain far too expensive for most consumers. A Toyota Mirai, for example, carried a price tag around $57,000.

Professor Yushan Yan, a Distinguished Engineering Professor at the University of Delaware's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, set his sights on fixing this.

The Nickel Solution

Yan's team found that by switching the fuel cell's operating environment from acidic to basic (alkaline), nickel — a far cheaper and more abundant metal — could match platinum's catalytic activity. Specifically, they used nickel supported on nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes as the hydrogen oxidation reaction catalyst.

This configuration, operating within what they call a hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cell (HEMFC), delivered high performance at dramatically lower cost. The findings were published in Nature Communications in January 2016.

"This new hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cell can offer high performance at an unprecedented low cost," Yan said. "Our real hope is that we can put hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells into cars and make them truly affordable — maybe $23,000 for a Toyota Mirai."

What It Means for Fuel Cell Vehicles

Fuel cell vehicles have several theoretical advantages over battery electric vehicles: longer driving ranges, faster refueling, and better suitability for heavy transport like trucks, buses, and trains. The primary barrier to adoption has consistently been cost. If nickel-based catalysts can deliver performance comparable to platinum at a fraction of the price, that changes the economics of the entire industry.

Yan is also a firm believer in the broader hydrogen economy — the idea that cheap, clean hydrogen produced from renewable energy could power transportation, industry, and energy storage at scale. More affordable fuel cells are a key enabling piece of that vision.

Still Work to Do

As of the 2016 publication, the HEMFC approach still needed further development to reach commercial maturity. Yan's lab has continued refining the technology in subsequent years, including later work published in Nature Materials showing a nickel-based catalyst more than six times more efficient than the next-best non-platinum alternative.

The goal: a fully platinum-free, high-performance fuel cell that can compete with internal combustion engines on cost and accessibility. The 2016 breakthrough was a significant step toward that goal.

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Source: Nature Chemistry / University of Delaware

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Can Spider Silk Really Detect Chemicals? Scientists Say Yes!

When we think of spider silk, we usually think of webs catching flies or maybe a certain superhero swinging through New York. But for scientists at EPFL, spider silk is actually the next big thing in high-tech sensors. They’ve discovered that these natural fibers can do something glass can't: they can "smell" chemicals by using light.

Professor Luc Thévenaz and his team found that the dragline silk produced by spiders is remarkably similar to the fiber optic cables we use for the internet. It’s perfectly round, smooth, and transparent. However, while glass is just a static material, spider silk is alive with protein structures that react to the world around them.

How a "Living" Fiber Works

The secret lies in the shape of the proteins. They are coiled up like tiny springs (helixes). When certain molecules—like ammonia or acetic acid—touch the silk, these springs start to unwind. This change in shape messes with the way light travels through the fiber. By measuring those tiny light shifts, researchers can detect exactly when a specific chemical is present.

Why This Is a Game-Changer

• It’s Reversible: Unlike many sensors that break after one use, spider silk snaps back to its original shape. You can use it over and over again.
• Nature’s Best: The team used silk from Nephila edulis spiders (the golden silk orb-weaver). While we can make synthetic silk, the real stuff still performs better and is way cheaper to "produce."
• Eco-Friendly Medical Tech: Because silk is biodegradable and biocompatible, it’s perfect for medical implants. Imagine a sensor inside your body that monitors your health and then simply dissolves when it’s no longer needed. No second surgery required.

We’re still in the early days of "spider-tech," but the potential for everything from environmental monitoring to internal health tracking is huge. Nature really did get there first!

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Source: Nature Communications / EPFL

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Increase Your Influence By Following This Steps

Meiko S. got a chance to interview Udemy.com Instructor and Lead Human Behavioral Investigator Vanessa Van Edwards. Her mission in life is to help you become the most memorable person in the room. She refers to herself as a recovering boring person who was uninterestingly bland. So she turned to science to overcome her dilemma.

By using current research out of academic institutions and research organizations around the world, she's able to share the latest people science in an actionable, applicable and un-boring ways.
 
1. Connect with people emotionally
According to Vanessa's research, she's discovered that if you want to intrigue and influence people you have to get their dopamine pumping. Dopamine is that pleasure/reward area in our brain that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy. She says you need to be relentless about stimulating that part of the brain, if you want to influence someone. A great way to do that is by having excellent conversation starters handy. Two that she always uses is, "What was the best part of your day and what was the worst part of your day?" or "What personal passion project are you currently working on right now?"

2. Be emotionally curious
When you make others feel important, your influence goes a long way. All of us want to be liked, loved and accepted. When you fulfill that need for others, you are perceived by them as being influential. Dale Carnegie once said, "To be interesting, you have to be interested." So be genuinely interested in other people. A great way to become interested in people is to ask them open-ended questions. Get them talking about themselves and that will help increase your rapport with them.

3. Use High Confident Body Language
Researchers at Harvard Business School, according to Vanessa's Udemy.com class conducted a study wanting to know if a person's body language could affect other people's opinions of them. It turns out that it can. Low power body language is normally contracted, with the shoulders rolled with one's head down or bowed. High power or confident body language is expansive. The head is held high, the arms are loose, shoulders are back and the chest is out. When you manifest power body language you are seen as more influential. Confident body language not only affects the way others see you, but it also affects the way you see yourself.

4. Tell a Story
Our brains are hard-wired for stories. When we hear stories, our brains feel like we are right there with the other person. It's like you are experiencing the story along with them. Do you see the potential of how influential this could make you? When you tell a story, the brain of the other person is in sync with you. If you can stimulate the other person's brain with a story, you can in effect get them on your side. Vanessa suggests creating a story toolbox. This toolbox should consist of relevant and thought-provoking stories you can tell at any time when you're with people. Then after you tell the story, follow it up with some interesting questions. She suggests, "What was your most challenging moment and how did you overcome it?" or "When did a person, situation or moment turn out differently than you expected?

5. Be Vulnerable
Being open about your emotions actually increases your likeability and influence. People perceive you as being real when you admit to weaknesses or flaws. They are better able to relate to you. Vanessa suggests sharing a vulnerable story from your story toolbox. By doing this you not only tell a great story but you are being vulnerable as well, so it doubly increases your influence.

6. May I ask a favor?
According to Vanessa's Udemy.com class, whenever you ask someone for a favor, you are perceived more positively. It turns out that asking for help is one of the best things you can do to be seen as an influential person. It is known as the Franklin Effect. So freely ask for help in the form of advice, other people's opinion and their guidance.

7. Become Charismatic
Who is the most charismatic person you know? Why did you pick that person? Most likely you chose that individual because of the way that person makes you feel. According to scientific research, most people don't remember what a person looks like or what they may have said. They remember how the other person made them feel. Charismatic people make others feel good. Vanessa gives three non-verbal ways to up your charisma quotient. When talking to someone, she says you should tilt your head, your torso should be aligned with theirs and lastly, your toes should point toward them. As Dale Carnegie said, when you show you are interested in other people, you become more interesting.


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How Your Mood Affected By Your Voice Tone!!

Changing The Tone Of Your Voice May Boost Your Mood, And Here's How

Scientists reveal how the tone of your voice is linked to your happiness. 

If you want to feel happier, try sounding happier. 
That's according to a new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, which finds that our emotions don't just affect our voices -- our voices can also influence our emotional state.

"The voice is one of our main channels of emotional expression, and the results of this study indicate that when we speak we do not just influence others but also ourselves," Dr. Petter Johansson, a researcher at Lund University in Sweden and one of the study's authors, told The Huffington Post in an email. "In a sense, we listen to our own voice to find out how we feel."

For the study, an international team of researchers created a digital audio platform that allowed them to covertly alter the emotional tone of people's voices while they were talking to make them sound happier, more sad or more fearful.

Then, the researchers asked 109 participants to read a short story aloud while listening to themselves through a headset. During this experiment, the researchers were subtly manipulating the participants' voices to sound happier, more sad or more fearful without the participants' knowledge.

The researchers found that when people listened to their altered voice, it changed their mood. They took on whatever emotion their voice was expressing -- whether happiness, sadness or fear.

"There is a lot of emotional information contained in a person's voice, such as change in pitch indicating happiness or sadness, increase in volume showing anger, vibrato indicating fear or stress, talking speed signaling excitement, and so on," Johansson said.

 

CNRS - This graph depicts how voice audio affects emotions.

How did the researchers manipulate the emotional tone of the voices? To make a voice sound happier, for instance, they altered the pitch and inflection so as to convey positivity, while also increasing dynamic range to make the voice sound more confident. Comparable adjustments were made to make the voices sound sadder or fearful.

The research suggests that we actually listen to our own voices to get a sense of how we're feeling, and that vocal information may be a powerful way to change a person's emotional state.

Additionally, the researchers say the study's findings are important as scientists know so little about how vocal emotion works and gaining a better understanding could lead to therapeutic technologies that treat depression and anxiety. For instance, patients could retell positive memories and listen to a version of their own voice that has been modified to make them sound happier, thus improving their mood.

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------------------------- *Leave a comments, questions or even a suggestions below this post. Your expressions are always welcomed.

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