Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboraotry are creating double-pane solar windows that generate electricity with greater efficiency and also create shading and insulation. It’s all made possible by a new window architecture which utilizes two different layers of low-cost quantum dots tuned to absorb different parts of the solar spectrum. The approach complements existing photovoltaic technology by adding high-efficiency sunlight collectors to existing solar panels or integrating them as semitransparent windows into a building’s architecture.

Using two types of “designer” quantum dots, researchers are creating double-pane solar windows that generate electricity with greater efficiency and create shading and insulation for good measure...

Mounted on the exterior of the International Space Station, the Space Debris Sensor (SDS) collects information on small orbital debris. Credit: NASA

The International Space Station isn’t the only spacecraft orbiting the Earth. In fact, it is accompanied by the Hubble Space Telescope, satellites within the Earth Observing System, and more than 1,000 other operational spacecraft and CubeSats. In addition to spacecraft, bits of orbital debris – human-made objects no longer serving a purpose in space – are also in orbit. With an estimated more than 100 million pieces of orbital debris measuring smaller than one centimeter currently in Earth’s orbit, they can be too small to track, but many are large enough to cause damage to operational spacecraft.

The space station has orbital debris shields ...

Prof Chen Peng (left) holding the new microneedle fat burning patch with Asst Prof Xu Chenjie. Credit: NTU Singapore

A new approach to reducing bulging tummy fats has shown promise in laboratory trials. It combines a new way to deliver drugs, via a micro-needle patch, with drugs that are known to turn energy-storing white fat into energy-burning brown fat. This innovative approach developed by scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) reduced weight gain in mice on a high fat diet and their fat mass by more than 30% over four weeks.

The new type of skin patch contains hundreds of micro-needles, each thinner than a human hair, which are loaded with the drug Beta-3 adrenergic receptor agonist or another drug called thyroid hormone T3 triiodothyronine...

TA-treatment enhanced neurogenesis and increased numbers of DCX positive cell numbers in the dentate gyrus of APP/PS1 mice. A: control group; B: APP/PS1 group; C: APP/PS1+TA group. Scale bar in image A: 100 μm. *** = P < .001 compared with the control group; ### = P < .001 compared with the APP/PS1 group. One-way ANOVA with Bonferroni repeated measures post hoc tests. N = 6 per group.

A drug developed for diabetes could be used to treat Alzheimer’s after scientists found it “significantly reversed memory loss” in mice through a triple action. The research, published in Brain Research, could bring substantial improvements in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease through the use of a drug originally created to treat type 2 diabetes...