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Categories: Biology: Cell Biology, Energy: Technology

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A bifacial perovskite solar cell, which allows sunlight to reach both sides of the device, holds the potential to produce higher energy yields at lower overall costs.

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In its simplest form, popcorn is pretty uncomplicated. Most supermarket varieties offer the choice of two kernel colors, yellow or white, and two kernel shapes, pointed or pearl. When popped, the flake typically expands into one of two shapes: mushroom or butterfly. But there's more to popcorn than meets the eye. New research reveals a wealth of untapped diversity lurking in popcorn's genetic code.

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A milliliter of blood contains about 15 individual drops. For a person with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), each drop of blood could contain anywhere from fewer than 20 copies of the virus to more than 500,000 copies. Called the viral load, this is what is measured to allow clinicians to understand how patients are responding to anti-viral medications and monitor potential progression. The time-consuming viral load testing needs to be repeated several times as a patient undergoes treatment. Now, a research team has developed a time and cost-efficient digital assay that can directly measure the presence of HIV in single drop of blood.

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A water purification system separates out salt and other unnecessary particles with an electrified version of dialysis. Successfully applied to wastewater with planned expansion into rivers and seas, the method saves money and saps 90% less energy than its counterparts.

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CoSn(OH)6 (CSO) is an effective oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst, necessary for developing next-generation lithium -- air batteries. However, current methods of synthesizing CSO are complicated and slow. Recently, an international research team synthesized CSO in a single step within 20 minutes using solution plasma to generate CSO nanocrystals with excellent OER catalytic properties. Their findings could boost the manufacturing of high energy density batteries.

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Similar to the expeditions of a hundred or two hundred years ago, the Tara Pacific expedition lasted over two years. The goal: to research the conditions for life and survival of corals. The ship crossed the entire Pacific Ocean, assembling the largest genetic inventory conducted in any marine system to date. The team's 70 scientists from eight countries took around 58,000 samples from the hundred coral reefs studied.

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Scientists have discovered a new molecular signalling pathway, triggered when leaves are exposed to low humidity, that ensures plant roots keep growing towards water. A new study has found that when the leaves of a plant are exposed to dry air (low humidity), they send a shoot-to-root signal, using abscisic acid (ABA), to tell the roots to keep growing. This is a surprising finding as ABA is usually thought to be a growth inhibitor, not a growth promoter.

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Warmer temperatures are known to make more turtle eggs become female hatchlings, but new research shows that those females also have a higher capacity for egg production, even before their sex is set. This finding may explain why many animals besides turtles have temperature-dependent sex determination and why the system persists, despite seeming like a risky strategy. It may also provide a troubling glimpse of what could lie ahead in a warming world.

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The Bachman's warbler, a songbird that was last seen in North America nearly 40 years ago, was a distinct species and not a hybrid of its two living sister species, according a new study in which the full genomes of seven museum specimens of the bird were sequenced.

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Just as space holds infinite mysteries, when we zoom in at the level of biomolecules (one trillion times smaller than a meter), there is still so much to learn. Scientists are studying the conformational landscapes of biomolecules and how they modulate cell function. When biomolecules receive certain inputs, it can cause the atoms to rearrange and the biomolecule to change shape. This change in shape affects their function in cells, so understanding conformational dynamics is critical for drug development.

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According to a new study, eukaryotes -- complex life forms with nuclei in their cells, including all the world's plants, animals, insects and fungi -- trace their roots to a common Asgard archaean ancestor. That means eukaryotes are, in the parlance of evolutionary biologists, a 'well-nested clade' within Asgard archaea, similar to how birds are one of several groups within a larger group called dinosaurs, sharing a common ancestor.

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More than 30 previously unknown RNA viruses in sea lice have been identified. Sea lice are parasitic copepods (small crustaceans) found in many fresh and saltwater habitats, and have been implicated in the decline of wild salmon populations. The research sheds greater light on the types of viruses being carried by sea lice, and how the viruses and host are interacting.

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Researchers have deciphered a biochemical mechanism that ensures that newly formed proteins are processed correctly when they leave the cell's own protein factories. This solves a decade-old puzzle in protein sorting.

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An obscure aquatic plant has helped to explain how plants avoid cracking up under the stresses and strains of growth.

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Perovskite solar cells have attained now attained the extremely high efficiency rate of 24.35% with an active area of 1 cm2. This ground-breaking achievement in maximizing power generation from next-generation renewable energy sources will be crucial to securing the world's energy future.

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Low-cost, flexible displays that use very little energy could be a step closer, thanks to an innovation that solves a problem that has plagued source-gated transistors (SGT).

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The herpes simplex virus-1 can sometimes cause a dangerous brain infection. Combining an anti-inflammatory and an antiviral could help in these cases, report scientists.

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Engineers designed a technology to probe connections between the brain and the digestive tract. Using fibers embedded with a variety of sensors, as well as optogenetic stimulation, the researchers could control neural circuits connecting the gut and the brain, in mice.

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For the first time, researchers have developed a genome-scale way to map the regulatory role of transcription factors, proteins that play a key role in gene expression and determining a plant's physiological traits. Their work reveals unprecedented insights into gene regulatory networks and identifies a new library of DNA parts that can be used to optimize plants for bioenergy and agriculture.

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Researchers have outlined a new high-speed tunable microcomb that could help propel advances in wireless communication, imaging, atomic clocks, and more.