Genetic variations in the skin can create a natural sunscreen, according to University of Queensland researchers investigating the genes linked with vitamin D.

Professor John McGrath from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute said this was one of a number of ways vitamin D affected the body in a collaborative study that looked at the genomes of more than half a million people from the United Kingdom.

“This study has implicated several new skin-related genes that impact on our vitamin D status – distinct from skin colour which affects our ability to make vitamin D depending on the concentration of the pigment melanin in the skin,” Professor McGrath said.

“Vitamin D is the sunshine hormone and we need bright sunshine on the skin to make it, but variations in our genes also influence ...

Researchers use a ferroelectric glass electrolyte within an electrochemical cell to create batteries. A new type of battery combines negative capacitance and negative resistance within the same cell, allowing the cell to self-charge without losing energy, which has important implications for long-term storage and improved output power for batteries.

These batteries can be used in extremely low-frequency communications and in devices such as blinking lights, electronic beepers, voltage-controlled oscillators, inverters, switching power supplies, digital converters and function generators, and eventually for technologies related to modern computers.

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New measurements confirm, to the highest energies yet explored, that the laws of physics hold no matter where you are or how fast you’re moving...

The FDA granted its first emergency authorization for a rapid antibody blood test for COVID-19, developed by Cellex, allowing people to gauge a person’s immune response to the novel coronavirus.

The serological test—which uses a fingerprick of blood and a small strip, similar to a combination of a blood glucose test and a home pregnancy exam—detects two different types of antibodies produced by the body to fight off the infection. Available by prescription, this can be used to determine whether a person has been previously infected and possibly recovered.