1. Simplified electrical grid with energy storage. Inset: Hydronium ion figures

A new type of battery developed by Oregon State University shows promise for sustainable, high-power energy storage. It’s the world’s first battery to use only hydronium ions as the charge carrier. The new battery provides an additional option for researchers, particularly in the area of stationary storage. Stationary storage refers to batteries in a permanent location that store grid power – including power generated from alternative energy sources such as wind turbines or solar cells – for use on a standby or emergency basis.

Hydronium, H3O+, is a positively charged ion produced when a proton is added to a water molecule...

Sagittarius A*. This image was taken with NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Credit: Public domain

A team of researchers from around the world is getting ready to create what might be the first image of a black hole. The project is the result of collaboration between teams manning radio receivers around the world and a team at MIT that will assemble the data from the other teams and hopefully create an image. The project has been ongoing for ~20 years as members have sought to piece together the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).

Each of the 12 participating radio receiving teams will use equipment that has been installed for the project to record data received at a wavelength of 230GHz during April 5 through the 14th...

Imagine being able to view microscopic aspects of a classical nova, a massive stellar explosion on the surface of a white dwarf star (about as big as Earth), in a laboratory rather than from afar via a telescope.

Cosmic detonations of this scale and larger created many of the atoms in our bodies, says MSU’s Christopher Wrede, who presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting. A safe way to study these events in laboratories on Earth is to investigate the exotic nuclei or “rare isotopes” that influence them. “Astronomers observe exploding stars and astrophysicists model them on supercomputers,” said Wrede, physics assistant professor, MSU...

The fungus Pichia, a type of yeast, is linked to kids’ likelihood of developing asthma, new research shows.

University of British Columbia microbiologists have found a yeast in the gut of new babies in Ecuador that appears to be a strong predictor that they will develop asthma in childhood. The new research furthers our understanding of the role microscopic organisms play in our overall health. “Children with this type of yeast called Pichia were much more at risk of asthma,” said Brett Finlay, a microbiologist at UBC. “This is the first time anyone has shown any kind of association between yeast and asthma.”

In previous research, Finlay and his colleagues identified 4 gut bacteria in Canadian children that, if present in the first 100 days of life, seem to prevent asthma...