New research from the University of St Andrews has proposed that particles in solar flares are 6.5 times hotter than previously thought. The research provides an unexpected solution to a 50-year-old mystery about our nearest star.

Solar flares are sudden and huge releases of energy in the sun’s outer atmosphere that heat parts of it to greater than 10 million degrees. These dramatic events greatly increase the solar X-rays and radiation reaching Earth and are hazardous to spacecraft and astronauts, as well as affecting our planet’s upper atmosphere.

The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, looks at evidence of how flares heat solar plasma to greater than 10 million degrees. This solar plasma is made up of ions and electrons...

A team led by scientists from Peking University has developed a rubber-like material that converts body heat into electricity. This advance could allow the next generation of wearable electronics to generate their own power continuously without the need for bulky batteries or constant recharging.

“Our thermoelectric elastomers combine skin-like elasticity with high energy conversion efficiency, paving the way for next-generation self-powered wearables,” the team said.

The science of thermoelectricity
The new material works on the principle of thermoelectricity, a process where temperature differences create an electrical current...

Saturn’s moon Titan may be more alive with possibilities than we thought. New NASA research suggests that in Titan’s freezing methane and ethane lakes, simple molecules could naturally arrange themselves into vesicles—tiny bubble-like structures that mimic the first steps toward life. These compartments, born from splashing droplets and complex chemistry in Titan’s atmosphere, could act like primitive cell walls.

NASA research has shown that cell-like compartments called vesicles could form naturally in the lakes of Saturn’s moon Titan.

Titan is the only world apart from Earth that is known to have liquid on its surface...

“Young” immune cells created by Cedars-Sinai investigators reversed signs of aging and Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of laboratory mice, according to a study published in the journal Advanced Science.

The immune cells, which were produced from human stem cells, could be used to develop new treatments for neurological conditions in humans.

“Previous studies have shown that transfusions of blood or plasma from young mice improved cognitive decline in older mice, but that is difficult to translate into a therapy,” said Clive Svendsen, Ph.D...