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    Astronauts don’t develop Anemia during spaceflight, NASA study suggests

    September 12, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Blood collection onboard the ISS. Astronaut Nicole Stott performs phlebotomy on the ISS. Samples were collected ~10 h prior to return vehicle undocking (Space Shuttle or Soyuz). Blood samples were returned to the laboratory for analysis within 48 h of collection

    Blood collection onboard the ISS. Astronaut Nicole Stott performs phlebotomy on the ISS. Samples were collected ~10 h prior to return vehicle undocking (Space Shuttle or Soyuz). Blood samples were returned to the laboratory for analysis within 48 h of collection

    Space flight anemia is an established phenomenon, but it may not be a major concern during long-duration space missions, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Hematology. Dr Richard Simpson; associate professor at The University of Arizona and the University of Houston said: “There is an idea of ‘space anemia’ that is associated with space flight...

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    Your Stool Reveal whether you can Lose Weight

    September 12, 2017, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology, Health/Medical

    The bacteria we all have in our gut may play a decisive role in personalized nutrition and the development of obesity. Credit: © aamulya / Fotolia

    The bacteria we all have in our gut may play a decisive role in personalized nutrition and the development of obesity. Credit: © aamulya / Fotolia

    A ratio between 2 groups of intestinal bacteria is decisive for whether overweight people lose weight on a diet that follows the Danish national dietary recommendations and contains a lot of fruit, vegetables, fiber and whole grains. In the study 31 subjects ate the New Nordic Diet for 26 weeks and lost an average of 3.5 kg, whereas the 23 subjects eating an Average Danish Diet lost an average of 1.7 kg. Thus weight loss was on average 1.8 kilos greater in the subjects on the New Nordic Diet.

    When the subjects were divided by their level of intestinal bacteria, it was found that people with a high proportion of Prevotella bacteria in relation t...

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    Self-assembling nanoparticle arrays can switch between a mirror and a window

    September 12, 2017, Categories  Physics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    By finely tuning the distance between nanoparticles in a single layer, researchers have made a filter that can change between a mirror and a window.

    Electrotunable nanoplasmonic liquid mirror. Nature Materials, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/nmat4969

    By finely tuning the distance between nanoparticles in a single layer, researchers have made a filter that can change between a mirror and a window. The development could help scientists create special materials whose optical properties can be changed in real time. These materials could then be used for applications from tuneable optical filters to miniature chemical sensors. Creating a ‘tuneable’ material has been a challenge because of the tiny scales involved. In order to tune the optical properties of a single layer of nanoparticles – which are only tens of nanometres in size each – the space between them needs to be set precisely and uniformly.

    To form the layer, the team from Imperial College Lo...

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    First On-Chip Nanoscale Optical Quantum Memory developed

    September 12, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Faraon quantum

    Artist’s representation of Faraon’s quantum memory device. Credit: Ella Maru Studio

    Smallest-yet optical quantum memory device is a storage medium for optical quantum networks with the potential to be scaled up for commercial use. For the first time, an international team led by engineers at Caltech has developed a computer chip with nanoscale optical quantum memory. Quantum memory stores information on individual quantum particles – in this case, photons of light.

    This allows it to take advantage of the peculiar features of quantum mechanics (such as superposition, in which a quantum element can exist in two distinct states simultaneously) to store data more efficiently and securely...

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