Functional vascularized lung grafts for lung bioengineering. Science Advances, 2017; DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700521

New approach to bioengineering lungs selectively treats epithelium that lines the lung airway, while preserving lung vasculature. A Columbia Engineering team is the first to successfully bioengineer a functional lung with perfusable and healthy vasculature in an ex vivo rodent lung. End-stage lung disease is the third leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 400,000 deaths per year in the US alone...

UConn chemistry professor Doug Adamson has found an inexpensive way to manufacture the pristine form of this substance, which is stronger than steel and thinner than a human hair. Credit: Peter Morenus/UConn Photo

A UConn chemist Professor Doug Adamson has patented a one-of-a-kind process for exfoliating graphene in its pure (unoxidized) form, as well as manufacturing innovative graphene nanocomposites that have potential uses in a variety of applications, including desalination of brackish water. If you think of graphite like a deck of cards, each individual card would be a sheet of graphene. Comprised of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, graphene is a 2D crystal at least 100X stronger than steel...

Schematic of the epitaxial growth procedure of ZnSe/GaAs heterostructure growth using either light-start or dark-start growth procedures. (a) Prior to ZnSe epilayer growth, the GaAs epilayer was grown in a dedicated III-V MBE chamber and was covered with an amorphous arsenic film prior to transferring it to a dedicated II-VI chamber. (b) The amorphous arsenic film was then thermally desorbed and the interface growth was initiated with a Zn pre-treatment under either a light-start or dark-start condition. During light-start sample growth, UV light was directed onto the growth surface from the beginning of Zn pre-treatment until the end of the ZnSe growth (f–h). During dark-start sample growth, UV light was directed onto the growth surface only during ZnSe epilayer growth (c–e).

A discov...

SPHEREx could provide some important hints into the origin of the universe, improving our knowledge about its birth and evolution

NASA has recently chosen 6 proposed astrophysics mission for concept studies. Among them is the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer, or SPHEREx, which aims to unlock the mysteries of the universe by performing the first all-sky spectral survey. If selected for construction and launch, the survey provided by the SPHEREx spacecraft could provide crucial insights into the origin and evolution of galaxies, and could help scientists explore whether planets around other stars might harbor life.

“SPHEREx will produce the first infrared spectral survey of the entire sky...