Graphene-based Wearables for Health Monitoring, Food Inspection and Night Vision

Graphene-enabled fitness band measures heart rate, hydration, oxygen saturation, breathing rate and temperature. The technology will be showcased at MWC19.

Scientists have developed dozens of new graphene-based prototypes. These technologies aim to turn mobile phones into life saving devices. The first of ICFO’s devices on display will allow customers to monitor their level of exposure to sunlight through a UV sensor. Designed as a flexible, transparent and disposable patch, it connects to a mobile device and alerts the user once he or she has reached a defined threshold of sun exposure.

Using the same core technology as the UV patch, ICFO’s fitness band is being developed to measure heart rate, hydration, oxygen saturation, breathing rate and temperature, while monitoring the use...

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Carbonaceous Chondrites provide clues about the Delivery of Water to Earth

Carbonaceous chondrites provide clues about the delivery of water to Earth
Sample collecting of meteorites in Antarctica. Credit: Katherine Joy / ANSMET

Researchers have discovered that carbonaceous chondrites, a class of meteorites, incorporated hydrated minerals along with organic material from the protoplanetary disk before the formation of planets. Scientists from the study published in the journal Space Science Reviews note that these meteorites played “an important role in the primordial Earth’s water enrichment” because they facilitated the transportation of volatile elements that were accumulated on the external regions of the so-called protoplanetary disk from which planets were formed more than 4.500 years ago. Earth was formed in an environment close to the Sun, very much reduced due to the relative lack of oxygen.

Carbonaceous chondrites come fro...

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A Nearby River of Stars

Night sky centered on the south Galactic pole in a so-called stereographic projection. In this special projection, the Milky Way curves around the entire image in an arc. The stars in the stream are displayed in red and cover almost the entire southern Galactic hemisphere, thereby crossing many well-known constellations.
Credit: Astronomy & Astrophysics; Background image: Gaia DR2 skyma

Researchers from the University of Vienna, who have found a river of stars, a stellar stream in astronomical parlance, covering most of the southern sky. The stream is relatively nearby and contains at least 4000 stars that have been moving together in space since they formed, about 1 billion years ago...

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Drug to Rejuvenate Muscle Cells


Small molecule nicotinamide N-methyltransferase inhibitor activates senescent muscle stem cells and improves regenerative capacity of aged skeletal muscle

Elderly to feel fitter, faster and stronger. Researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have developed a promising drug that has proven to significantly increase muscle size, strength and metabolic state in aged mice, according to a study just published in Biochemical Pharmacology.

As we age, our bodies increasingly lose the ability to repair and rebuild degenerating skeletal muscles. Beginning around age 35, muscle mass, strength and function continually decline as we get older. This can dramatically limit the ability of older adults to live fully active and independent lives.

“We identified a protein in m...

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