Lightweight Electric Wristband Heaters for Constant, Portable Warmth

Infrared image of active wristband heater
An electrically conductive and durable yarn was sewn onto fabric and became a wearable heater (high temperatures indicated by yellows and reds) when a safe voltage was applied.
Credit: Adapted from ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2021, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c13329

As the fall chill settles in across the U.S., people are getting out their cozy sweaters and electric blankets, or stocking up on handheld heat packets for extra warmth. But sweaters and blankets are bulky, and heat packs only work for a little while. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces demonstrate a conductive, durable yarn for lightweight wearable heaters that are re-usable and provide constant, portable warmth.

Lightweight wearable heaters with heating elements embedded within the fabric co...

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In Earth’s Highest Atmospheric Layers, space weather can really heat things up

The thermosphere is the highest and hottest atmospheric layer, where the ISS flies and the aurora and airglow can be observed. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Genna Duberstein

New results from NASA satellite data show that space weather—the changing conditions in space driven by the sun—can heat up Earth’s hottest and highest atmospheric layer.

The findings, published in July in Geophysical Research Letters, used data from NASA’s Global Observations of the Limb and Disk, or GOLD mission. Launched in 2018 aboard the SES-14 communications satellite, GOLD looks down on Earth’s upper atmosphere from what’s known as geosynchronous orbit, effectively “hovering” over the western hemisphere as Earth turns...

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Scientists gain new understanding of how Brain Cells Talk

-which could help in the Treatment of Mental Health conditions and Memory diseases

Experts from the University of Nottingham have discovered that reversing the modification of molecular messages at synapses in the human brain, may contribute to reversible mental health conditions such as anxiety, and memory diseases such as dementia.

The findings , published in Molecular Psychiatry, are a major step in our understanding how brain cells communicate, and could help to identify new treatments for neurological and psychiatric conditions.

The research was led by Dr Helen Miranda Knight in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham, along with researchers across the Schools of Medicine, Life Science, and Bioscience...

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Optimum Pressure to Improve the Performance of Lithium Metal Batteries

Top row: top view and cross sections of deposited lithium at 70 kilo-Pascal or kPa (less than one atmosphere)
Bottom row: top view and cross sections of deposited lithium at 350 kPa, or 3.5 atmospheres
The higher pressure causes the lithium particles to deposit in neatly stacked columns, which increases the volume of lithium deposited and prevents porosity.

A team of materials scientists and chemists has determined the proper stack pressure that lithium metal batteries, or LMBs, need to be subjected to during battery operation in order to produce optimal performance.

The team, which includes researchers from the University of California San Diego, Michigan State University, Idaho National Laboratory and the General Motors Research and Development Center, presents their findings in the...

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