How do you Power Billions of Sensors? By Converting Waste Heat into Electricity

This image shows the external appearance of the developed compact, ultra-lightweight flexible thermoelectric conversion device. Credit: Osaka University

Interconnected healthcare and many other future applications will require internet connectivity between billions of sensors. The devices that will enable these applications must be small, flexible, reliable, and environmentally sustainable. Researchers must develop new tools beyond batteries to power these devices, because continually replacing batteries is difficult and expensive.

In a study published in Advanced Materials Technologies, researchers from Osaka University have revealed how the thermoelectric effect, or converting temperature differences into electricity, can be optimally used to power small, flexible devices...

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Comet ATLAS may put on quite a Show

Comet’s trajectory in the sky with 7-day markers. Credit: Tomruen/CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons

A comet called Atlas is currently heading toward the sun, and it just might put on a really good show in a couple of months. Discovered last December by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert system in Hawaii (thus the name ATLAS for the comet), the comet has been growing much brighter than experts had predicted. If it manages to hold its shape as it moves nearer to the sun, it could grow brighter than Venus.

Shortly after its discovery, ATLAS began growing brighter than expected—a lot brighter. So bright that it can now be seen by amateur astronomers with binoculars. It is expected to reach its peak brightness at the end of May...

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First Supercentenarian-derived Stem Cells Created

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can transform into any cell in the body
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can transform into any cell in the body.

People who live more than 110 years, called supercentenarians, are remarkable not only because of their age, but also because of their incredible health. This elite group appears resistant to diseases such as Alzheimer’s, heart disease and cancer that still affect even centenarians. However, we don’t know why some people become supercentenarians and others do not.

Now, for the first time, scientists have reprogrammed cells from a 114-year-old woman into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)...

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Statins Starve Cancer Cells to Death

Dictyostelium Amoeba, the same species used in the initial drug screen Credit: xiaoguang Li

More than 35 million Americans take statin drugs daily to lower their blood cholesterol levels. Now, in experiments with human cells in the laboratory, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have added to growing evidence that the ubiquitous drug may kill cancer cells and have uncovered clues to how they do it.

The findings, say the researchers, enhance previous evidence that statins could be valuable in combating some forms of cancer. In unrelated studies, other Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have studied how statins may cut the risk for aggressive prostate cancer.

“There have been epidemiological indications that people who take statins long term have fewer and less aggressive cance...

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