(RAND Corporation) China has pledged to crack down on the illicit export of the synthetic opioid fentanyl to the US, but a new analysis finds that may be difficult given the way that China regulates its larger drug and chemical industries. The finding are part of a new report that outlines how illicit drug polices across Asia are changing.
Physics
(DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Advanced Research Systems, Inc., has licensed ORNL's technology designed to automatically refill liquid helium used in laboratory equipment for low-temperature scientific experiments, which will reduce downtime, recover more helium and increase overall efficiency.
(Ohio State University) Researchers have built a more efficient, more reliable potassium-oxygen battery, a step toward a potential solution for energy storage on the nation's power grid and longer-lasting batteries in cell phones and laptops.
(University of East Anglia) GPs must be better-equipped to support patients to manage the psychological challenge of reducing their opioid use -- according to new research from the University of East Anglia.The recommendation is part of a toolkit being launched today to help GPs reduce the amount of opioids they prescribe.The toolkit outlines seven areas of best practice to tackle chronic opioid use -- based on international research evidence, the experiences of health organisations and individual practitioners.
(Scripps Research Institute) Nanotube tunnels extend like bridges for the toxic Huntington's disease protein, and spring back after delivery, a new study finds.
(NASA/Johnson Space Center) Earth's atmosphere shields life on the ground from cosmic radiation that can damage DNA. Astronauts in space have no such protection, and that puts them at risk. An investigation on the International Space Station examines DNA damage and repair in space in order to help protect the long-term health of space travelers.
(DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lincoln Electric announced their continued collaboration on large-scale, robotic additive manufacturing technology at the Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing InnovationXLab Summit. The new agreement builds upon previous developments by extending additive technology to new materials, leveraging data analytics and enabling rapid manufacture of metal components in excess of 100 pounds per hour.
(NYU Tandon School of Engineering) Researchers have introduced a voltage-controlled topological spin switch for logic and memory devices, such as computer hard drives, that now use nanomagnetic mechanisms to store and manipulate information. Unlike silicon transistors, these devices require no energy to maintain their magnetic state: Energy is needed only for reading and writing information. The researchers' innovation greatly reduces the energy and heat used during such reading and writing processes, and may improve security, as well.
(Carnegie Institution for Science) Detection of a supernova with an unusual chemical signature may hold the key to solving the longstanding mystery that is the source of these violent explosions. Observations taken by the Magellan telescopes at Carnegie's Las Campanas Observatory in Chile were crucial to detecting the emission of hydrogen that makes this supernova, called ASASSN-18tb, so distinctive.
(American Gastroenterological Association) The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) is thrilled to announce the 52 researchers selected to receive funding through the AGA Research Foundation Awards Program. The AGA Research Foundation will provide more than $3 million in research funding in the 2019 award year.
(Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) Peptide developed in Brazil is capable of binding to the blood-brain barrier that protects the central nervous system and could help create novel imaging tests to diagnose Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
(University of Toledo) An abundant and inexpensive agricultural byproduct, rice husks have been investigated as a water purification solution in the past. This is the first time they have been shown to remove microcystin, the toxin released by harmful algal blooms that are increasingly occurring in the Great Lakes and other freshwater lakes around the world.
(Binghamton University) The Global Health Impact Index, developed by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York to rank pharmaceutical companies based on their drugs' impact on global health, is launching a new, more-robust model that addresses even more diseases worldwide.
(University of Connecticut) Cells are the body's workers, and they often need to move around to do their jobs. Frequently, a cell will move through a tissue -- say, the wall of a blood vessel -- the way a rock climber scales a cliff, using a protein called integrin to grab onto a spot and pull itself in that direction. But cells missing the CD13 protein on their cell walls can't recruit integrin, and get stuck in place.
(Advanced Science Research Center, GC/CUNY) Andrea Alù, founding director of the Photonics Initiative at the Advance Science Research Center at The Graduate Center, CUNY and Einstein Professor of Physics at The Graduate Center, has been selected for the US Department of Defense's Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship -- the agency's most prestigious single-investigator award.
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) On April 25, 2019, the National Science Foundation's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the European-based Virgo detector registered gravitational waves from what appears likely to be a crash between two neutron stars -- the dense remnants of massive stars that previously exploded. One day later, on April 26, 2019 the LIGO-Virgo network spotted another candidate source with a potentially interesting twist: it may in fact have resulted from the collision of a neutron star and black hole, an event never before witnessed.