Category Environment/Geology

Flight paths for the 7km arc and line, followed from left to right. The star indicates the location of the ground station at Smith Falls{Montague Airport. The inner portions represent where the quantum link was active. Photo produced using GPSVisualizer.com, map data c 2016 Google, imagery c 2016 Cnes/Spot Image, DigitalGlobe, Landsat, New York GIS, USDA Farm Service Agency.

Researchers in Canada have taken a significant step towards enabling secure quantum communication via moving satellites, as announced by the Canadian Government in April 2017. Their study demonstrates the first quantum key distribution transmissions from a ground transmitter to a quantum payload on a moving aircraft...

Rod-like cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) approximately 120 nanometers long and 6.5 nanometers in diameter under the microscope.
Credit: Empa

Empa researchers have succeeded in developing an environmentally-friendly ink for 3D printing based on cellulose nanocrystals (CNC). This technology can be used to fabricate microstructures with outstanding mechanical properties, which have promising potential uses in implants and other biomedical applications. In order to produce 3D microstructured materials for automobile components, for instance, Empa researchers have been using a 3D printing method called “Direct Ink Writing” for the past year (DIW)...

Exploiting biased reptation for continuous flow preparative DNA fractionation in a versatile microfluidic platform. Microsystems & Nanoengineering, 2017; 3: 17001 DOI: 10.1038/micronano.2017.1

University of Twente researchers in The Netherlands developed a glass microchip for ultrafast separation and purification of DNA fragments. The chip, moreover, is easy to produce and cheap. The new chip is capable of fractionating DNA fragments within just a few minutes, while conventional approaches take hours. The chip does this in high resolution and also purifies the fragments; it removes the other salts in the DNA sample. Tiny amounts of DNA, like in medical diagnostics or in forensics, will be sufficient...

This study adds to previous evidence that air pollution causes oxidative stress, which can damage lipids, proteins, and DNA. Credit: © Pink Badger / Fotolia

Children and teens exposed to high levels of traffic-related air pollution have evidence of telomere shortening, reports a study in the May Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Young people with asthma also have evidence of telomere shortening, according to the preliminary research by John R. Balmes, MD, of University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues. “Our results suggest that telomere length may have potential for use as a biomarker of DNA damage due to environmental exposures and/or chronic inflammation.”

The study included 14 children and adolescents living in Fresno, Calif...