Category Environment/Geology

The researchers have discovered 2 craters in Jämtland. One is enormous, while the other is a tenth of the size of the first. “The 2 meteorite impacts occurred at the same time, 458 million years ago, and formed these two craters,” says Prof Erik Sturkell. They found one of the craters 20 kilometres south of Östersund in Brunsflo. This is an enormous crater, with a diameter of 7.5 kilometres. The smaller crater is located 16 kilometres from there, and has a diameter of 700 metres.

“Around 470 million years ago, 2 large asteroids collided in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and many fragments were thrown off in new orbits. Many of these crashed on Earth, such as these two in Jämtland,” says Erik Sturkell.

Jämtland was under the sea at the time, with a water depth of 500m at th...

Highlights •Melatonin levels negatively correlate with multiple sclerosis relapses in humans •Melatonin treatment ameliorates pathology in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis •Melatonin blocks ROR-γt expression and Th17 differentiation •Melatonin boosts Tr1 development via Erk1/2 and ROR-α

Researchers have found an explanation that could lead to a deeper understanding of multiple sclerosis and more targeted treatment options for patients. By first looking broadly at possible environmental factors and then deeply at preclinical models of MS, the research team found that melatonin – a hormone involved in regulating a person’s sleep-wake cycle – may influence MS disease activity.

Why do symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS) seem to get better in the winter and worse in the summer? The...

(a) Coupling efficiency (ηC) versus source angle (φ) for a planar solar panel. The panel projected area decreases with the cosφ. (b) A kirigami tracking structure that, upon stretching, simultaneously changes the angle of the elements comprising the sheet. By incorporating thin-film solar cells into this structure, it may be used as a low-profile alternative to conventional single-axis solar tracking. (c) The direction of feature tilt (that is, clockwise or counter-clockwise with respect to the original plane) is controlled by lifting or lowering one end of the sheet (step 1) before the straining process (step 2).

Solar cells capture up to 40% more energy when they can track the sun, but conventional, motorized trackers are too heavy and bulky for pitched rooftops and vehicle surfaces...

The smell of electrical discharge after photocopying is a tell-tale sign of ozone in the air. Ozone is a component of ‘smog’ and on hot sunny days, in cities with high traffic volumes, more ozone is formed. New research by scientists at Universities of Melbourne and Wollongong and QUT has provided a 1st glimpse at how free radical damage might be initiated in the human lung upon exposure to the urban air pollutant ozone.

They used a powerful combination of electrospray ionisation coupled with multistage mass spectrometry experiments to shed light on how radicals are formed in the reactions of ozone with models of lung proteins.
The team studied how the deprotonated form of the amino acid cysteine and related amino acids and peptides react with ozone when isolated under idealized near...