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    The Bald Truth: Altered Cell Divisions cause Hair Thinning

    March 18, 2021, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Schematic model of the distinct types of stem cell divisions determine HF homeostasis and aging.
    Young HFSCs undergo symmetric cell divisions (SCDs) and asymmetric cell divisions (ACDs) to generate new bulge cells for their self-renewal and expansion. Whereas aged HFSCs provoke hemidesmosomal instability including COL17A1 and undergo stress response (SR) type ACDs to induce epidermal differentiation that triggers their delamination, thereby causing stepwise miniaturization of HFs and hair thinning and loss.

    Researchers have identified a novel mechanism underlying hair thinning and loss during aging...

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    Double-duty Catalyst generates Hydrogen Fuel while Cleaning up Wastewater

    March 18, 2021, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology, Technology/Electronics

    031721-energy
    A newly developed catalyst can destroy medications and other compounds present in wastewater to generate hydrogen fuel.
    Credit: Dmitri Ma/Shutterstock.com

    Hydrogen is a pollution-free energy source when it’s extracted from water using sunlight instead of fossil fuels. But current strategies for “splitting” or breaking apart water molecules with catalysts and light require the introduction of chemical additives to expedite the process. Now, researchers reporting in ACS ES&T Engineering have developed a catalyst that destroys medications and other compounds already present in wastewater to generate hydrogen fuel, getting rid of a contaminant while producing something useful.

    Harnessing the sun’s energy to split water to make hydrogen fuel is a promising renewable resource, but it is a ...

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    Jupiter’s ‘Dawn Storm’ Auroras are surprisingly Earth-like

    March 18, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Evolution of a Dawn Storm in Jupiter's Polar Aurorae
    Evolution of a dawn storm in Jupiter’s polar aurorae. The imagery for the video was collected using data from the Ultraviolet Spectrograph instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft. (See video in the article below for more detail.) Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/UVS/ULiège

    Spectacular ultraviolet storms in big planet’s aurora, generated by charged particles from its volcanic moon, Io. The midnight births of the dramatic bright surges in Jupiter’s aurora known as dawn storms are captured in a new study of data from the Juno space probe.

    The storms, which consist of brightenings and broadenings of the dawn flank of an oval of auroral activity that encircles Jupiter’s poles, evolve in a pattern surprisingly reminiscent of familiar surges in the aurora that undulate across Earth’s po...

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    Pick up the pace! Slow Walkers Four Times more likely to Die from COVID-19, study finds

    March 18, 2021, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Slow walkers are almost four times more likely to die from COVID-19, and have over twice the risk of contracting a severe version of the virus, according to a team of researchers from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre led by Professor Tom Yates at the University of Leicester.

    The study of 412,596 middle-aged UK Biobank participants examined the relative association of body mass index (BMI) and self-reported walking pace with the risk of contracting severe COVID-19 and COVID-19 mortality.

    The analysis found slow walkers of a normal weight to be almost 2.5 times more likely to develop severe COVID-19 and 3.75 times more likely to die from the virus than normal weight fast walkers.

    Professor Yates, Lead Researcher for the stud...

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