Researchers improve Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Threefold

Threefold improvement of solid oxide fuel cell in 4 minutes
This image was selected as a front-inside cover of Advanced Materials illustrating the morphology evolution of oxide nano-catalyst over time during coating process. Credit: Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER)

A research team has successfully developed a catalyst coating technology that significantly improves the performance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) in just four minutes.

Dr. Yoonseok Choi from the Hydrogen Convergence Materials Laboratory at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), in collaboration with Professor WooChul Jung from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at KAIST and Professor Beom-Kyung Park from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Pusan National University, led the research.

Their findings were published in Adva...

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Investigating the Origins of the Crab Nebula

This image by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) shows different structural details of the Crab Nebula. The supernova remnant is comprised of several different components, including doubly ionized sulfur (represented in green), warm dust (magenta), and synchrotron emission (blue). Yellow-white mottled filaments within the Crab’s interior represent areas where dust and doubly ionized sulfur coincide. The observations were taken as part of General Observer program 1714.
: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim (Princeton University)

A team of scientists used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to parse the composition of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus...

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Berberine could treat Eczema-Exacerbated Staph Infections, finds study

Staphylococcus aureus
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Eczema, a skin inflammatory disease that causes dry, itchy and inflamed skin, affects millions worldwide. Eczema is associated with an altered skin microbiome and higher colonization by Staphylococcus aureus.

A study, led at New York Medical by postdoctoral fellow Anish R. Maskey, Ph.D., focuses on the natural compound berberine and its impact on eczema exacerbated by S. aureus. The findings, presented at ASM Microbe, shed light on berberine’s ability to inhibit S. aureus colonization and alleviate eczema symptoms without adverse effects.

Current treatments often fall short—topical antibiotics can give temporary relief, but risk development of antibiotic resistance, and steroid use can potentially result in topical steroid withdrawal (TSW) syndrome...

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A New Large-Scale Simulation Platform to Train Robots on Everyday Tasks

A new large-scale simulation platform to train robots on everyday tasks
RoboCasa is a simulation framework for training generalist robot agents. Image credits: Yuke Zhu and Soroush Nasiriany.

The performance of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including large computational models for natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision algorithms, has been rapidly improving over the past decades. One reason for this is that datasets to train these algorithms have exponentially grown, collecting hundreds of thousands of images and texts often collected from the internet.

Training data for robot control and planning algorithms, on the other hand, remains far less abundant, in part because acquiring it is not as straightforward...

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