Category Uncategorized

A New Mechanism Encouraging the Brain to Self-Repair After an Ischemic Stroke

Lipid metabolism triggering brain-autonomous neural repair after ischemic stroke
The neurons around an injured brain region will play major roles in promoting functional recovery through nervous system development, synapse organization, and remyelination; however, the molecular mechanisms triggering such a broad range of neural repair after brain injury remained unknown. Our study demonstrated that the secretion of PLA2G2E from perilesional neurons with ischemic stress generated DGLA and 15-HETrE, which triggered these recovery processes through the neuronal Padi4-dependent induction of cluster formation associated with neural repair after ischemic brain injury.

Partial recovery after ischemic stroke is possible, but the mechanisms involved in this process remain unclear...

Read More

Sun ‘Umbrella’ tethered to Asteroid might help Mitigate Climate Change

sun umbrella tethered to asteroid
(Photo credit: Brooks Bays/UH Institute for Astronomy)

Earth is rapidly warming and scientists are developing a variety of approaches to reduce the effects of climate change. István Szapudi, an astronomer at the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy, has proposed a novel approach—a solar shield to reduce the amount of sunlight hitting Earth, combined with a tethered, captured asteroid as a counterweight. Engineering studies using this approach could start now to create a workable design that could mitigate climate change within decades.

The paper, “Solar radiation management with a tethered sun shield,” is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

One of the simplest approaches to reducing the global temperature is to shade the Earth from a fracti...

Read More

Giant Swirling Waves at Edge of Jupiter’s Magnetosphere

Graph of KHI at Jupiter showing swirling waves
UCAR/Zhang, et.al. An SwRI-led team identified intermittent evidence of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, giant swirling waves, at the boundary between Jupiter’s magnetosphere and the solar wind that fills interplanetary space, modeled here by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research scientists in a 2017 GRL paper.

Waves produced by Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities transfer energy in the solar system. A team led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has found that NASA’s Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter frequently encounters giant swirling waves at the boundary between the solar wind and Jupiter’s magnetosphere...

Read More

New Study could help Unlock ‘Game-Changing’ Batteries for Electric Vehicles and Aviation

An artistic image of a glowing cylindrical battery lying on top of an electronic circuit board. Image credit: Shutterstock.

Significantly improved electric vehicle (EV) batteries could be a step closer thanks to a new study led by University of Oxford researchers, published today in Nature. Using advanced imaging techniques, this revealed mechanisms which cause lithium metal solid-state batteries (Li-SSBs) to fail. If these can be overcome, solid-state batteries using lithium metal anodes could deliver a step-change improvement in EV battery range, safety and performance, and help advance electrically powered aviation.

One of the co-lead authors of the study Dominic Melvin, a PhD student in the University of Oxford’s Department of Materials, said: ‘Progressing solid-state batteries with lithium metal anodes is one of the most important challenges facing the advancement of battery technologies...

Read More