Faster-degrading Plastic could promise Cleaner Seas

Chemists create faster-degrading plastic for marine uses | Cornell ...

To address plastic pollution plaguing the world’s seas and waterways, Cornell University chemists have developed a new polymer that can degrade by ultraviolet radiation, according to research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

“We have created a new plastic that has the mechanical properties required by commercial fishing gear. If it eventually gets lost in the aquatic environment, this material can degrade on a realistic time scale,” said lead researcher Bryce Lipinski, a doctoral candidate in the laboratory of Geoff Coates, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University. “This material could reduce persistent plastic accumulation in the environment.”

Commercial fishing contributes to about half of all floating plastic waste that ends ...

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ALMA reveals unusual Composition of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. DagnelloArtist impression of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov as it travels through our solar system. This mysterious visitor from the depths of space is the first conclusively identified comet from another star. The comet consists of a loose agglomeration of ices and dust particles, and is likely no more than 3,200 feet across, about the length of nine football fields. Gas is ejected out of the comet as it approaches the Sun and is heated up.
Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. DagnelloCredit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello

2I/Borisov likely formed in extremely cold environment, high amounts of CO show. A galactic visitor entered our solar system last year — interstellar comet 2I/Borisov...

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Researchers Repurpose Classic Chemotherapy Drug to Overcome Cancer Therapy Resistance

Anticancer immunity targeting therapy-resistant leukemia stem cells is activated by low-dose doxorubicin.
Image/Art credit: Mark Miller, Stowers Institute.

Drug resistance is a major obstacle in cancer treatment – leading to relapse for many patients. In a new study, published online April 20, 2020, in Nature Cell Biology, researchers from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Children’s Mercy Kansas City, and The University of Kansas Cancer Center report on a promising new strategy to overcome drug resistance in leukemia, using targeted doses of the widely-used chemotherapy drug doxorubicin.

The study’s researchers found that low doses of the anthracycline antibiotic doxorubicin inhibit the interaction between two molecular pathways that work closely together to promote tumor ...

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Quantum Entanglement offers unprecedented precision for GPS, Imaging and beyond

Graphic of RF waves being transferred to photonic waves and then entangled.
A graphic demonstrating the team’s quantum metrology experiment.

Engineers have demonstrated for the first time that it’s possible to connect a network of sensors through quantum entanglement. The experiment opens a door to unprecedented levels of sensitivity in GPS navigation, medical imaging and astronomy.

Your phone’s GPS, the WiFi in your house and communications on aircraft are all powered by radio-frequency waves, or waves, which carry information from a transmitter at one point to a sensor at another. The sensors interpret this information in different ways. For example, a GPS sensor uses the angle at which it receives an RF wave to determine its own relative location. The more precisely it can measure the angle, the more accurately it can determine location.

In a paper pu...

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