Researchers Create Morphing Crystals Powered by Water Evaporation

digital rendering of tripeptide crystals in black, grey, white and red
Researchers have developed tripeptide crystals (illustrated above), which feature aqueous pores that expand and contract in response to humidity changes and use evaporation to create an effective mechanical actuator. (Credit: Tony Wang)

Water Evaporation, as observed when a puddle of water disappears on a summer day, is a remarkably powerful process. If it were harnessed, the process could provide a[8 clean source of energy to power mechanical machines and devices. In a newly published paper in Nature Materials, an international team of scientists led by researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the Graduate Center, CUNY (CUNY ASRC) details the development of shape-shifting crystals that directly convert evaporation energy into powerful motions.

These water-responsive m...

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Possible Marker of Life Spotted on Venus

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An international team of astronomers today announced the discovery of a rare molecule — phosphine — in the clouds of Venus. On Earth, this gas is only made industrially or by microbes that thrive in oxygen-free environments. Astronomers have speculated for decades that high clouds on Venus could offer a home for microbes — floating free of the scorching surface but needing to tolerate very high acidity. The detection of phosphine could point to such extra-terrestrial “aerial” life.

An international team of astronomers today announced the discovery of a rare molecule – phosphine – in the clouds of Venus. On Earth, this gas is only made industrially or by microbes that thrive in oxygen-free environments...

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New Immunotherapy to Beat Cancer

Sophie Lucas (University of Louvain de Duve Institute) and her team succeeded in neutralising a molecule that blocks the immune system against cancer. UCLouvain scientists discovered that this new immunotherapy increases the action of another well-known but not always effective immunotherapy, and that it makes tumour regression possible. This very promising discovery in the fight against cancer is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Cancer immunotherapy is the manipulation of the immune responses naturally present in the human body to fight cancer. Often, these immune responses are blocked by cells or molecules that prevent them from killing cancer cells, and the tumour is able to establish itself and grow.

In 2004, Sophie Lucas, researcher at the University of Louva...

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New Ultrafast Yellow Laser Poised to Benefit Biomedical Applications

Researchers used a two-step nonlinear frequency conversion to convert mid-infrared laser light into yellow light that can be tuned from 570 nm to 596 nm. This wavelength range is useful for a variety of applications.
Credit: Varun Sharma

Researchers have developed a new compact and ultrafast, high-power yellow laser. The tunable laser exhibits excellent beam quality and helps fill the need for a practical yellow light source emitting ultrafast pulses of light.

“The yellow-orange spectral range is highly absorbed by hemoglobin in the blood, making lasers with these wavelengths particularly useful for biomedical applications, dermatology treatments and eye surgery,” said research team member Anirban Ghosh from the Photonic Sciences Lab at the Physical Research Laboratory in India...

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