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    Electric Cooker an easy, efficient way to Sanitize N95 Masks, study finds

    August 7, 2020, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    One 50-minute, 212 F cooking cycle in a dry electric multicooker decontaminates an N95 respirator without chemicals and without compromising the filtration or fit.
    Photo by Chamteut Oh

    Owners of electric multicookers may be able to add another use to its list of functions, a new study suggests: sanitization of N95 respirator masks.

    The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign study found that 50 minutes of dry heat in an electric cooker, such as a rice cooker or Instant Pot, decontaminated N95 respirators inside and out while maintaining their filtration and fit. This could enable wearers to safely reuse limited supplies of the respirators, originally intended to be one-time-use items.

    Led by civil and environmental engineering professors Thanh “Helen” Nguyen and Vishal Verma, the...

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    Ammonia Sparks unexpected, exotic Lightning on Jupiter

    August 7, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    illustration used data obtained by NASA’s Juno mission to depict high-altitude electrical storms
    This illustration used data obtained by NASA’s Juno mission to depict high-altitude electrical storms on Jupiter. Juno’s sensitive Stellar Reference Unit camera detected unusual lightning flashes on the planet’s dark side during the spacecraft’s close flybys of the planet.

    NASA’s Juno spacecraft – orbiting and closely observing the planet Jupiter – has unexpectedly discovered lightning in the planet’s upper atmosphere, according to a multi-institutional study led by the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which includes two Cornell University researchers.

    Jupiter’s gaseous atmosphere seems placid from a distance, but up close the clouds roil in a turbulent, chemically dynamic realm...

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    Scientists develop a new way to Deliver Drugs through the Skin

    August 6, 2020, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Scientists develop new way to deliver more drugs through the skin
    A prototype patent-pending temporal pressure device developed by the NTU and A*STAR scientists, which can put pressure on the skin, thus creating micropores that allow the drugs to pass through the skin easier. Credit: Nanyang Technological University

    Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) have shown that applying ‘temporal pressure’ to the skin of mice can create a new way to deliver drugs.

    In a paper published in Science Advances, the researchers showed that bringing together two magnets so that they pinch and apply pressure to a fold of skin, led to short term changes in the skin barrier and specifically the formation of “micropores” underneath its surface.

    In tests, they showed t...

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    Turning Carbon Dioxide into Liquid Fuel

    August 6, 2020, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Artistic rendering of electrocatalytic process for conversion of carbon dioxide and water into ethanol. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)
    Artistic rendering of electrocatalytic process for conversion of carbon dioxide and water into ethanol. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)

    A research team, led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with Northern Illinois University, has discovered a new electrocatalyst that converts carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into ethanol with very high energy efficiency, high selectivity for the desired final product and low cost. Ethanol is a particularly desirable commodity because it is an ingredient in nearly all U.S. gasoline and is widely used as an intermediate product in the chemical, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.

    “The process resulting from our catalyst would contribute to the circular carbon economy, which entails the reu...

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