Researchers Use Carbon-Air Battery in Breakthrough for Next-Generation Storage Systems

The power sector is undergoing a rapid change globally as the world shifts to renewable energy and cuts down on using fossil fuels. However, a big roadblock to generating electricity from wind and solar energy is their intermittent nature due to unfavourable environmental conditions. To address this problem, storage was found in hydrogen batteries. But these, too, suffered from poor efficiency and required massive space to build, which made them complex for thermal management. Now, researchers at a Japanese institute say they have found a way to make renewable energy…

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Researchers Unveil Advances in Cancer Diagnostics

Scientists have unveiled a test for detecting pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms, in less than a drop of blood. The diagnostic method is fast, cheap and ultra-sensitive, and can be adapted to test for other diseases whose fingerprints are detectable in blood, they wrote in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. A team in the United States and China identified a protein dubbed EphA2 found in pancreatic tumours. They then developed a test to detect its presence in as little as 0.001 millilitres of blood plasma — the liquid…

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These 3 Sports May Help You Live Longer, Researchers Say

Photo: Getty Images Looking for a new hobby? Try tennis, swimming, or dance, and you may just extend your lifespan, suggests research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. In an analysis of six sport and exercise categories, researchers found that people who pursued these activities actually lived longer than those who got their fitness on in other ways. The study surveyed more than 80,000 adults in England and Scotland, ages 30 and up, who were asked about the physical activity they had done in the last four weeks. Along with things like housework…

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Researchers investigate why obesity can trigger bowel cancer

“Excess calories ‘turn off a hormone in the intestine that blocks colon cancer’,” the Mail Online reports. Obesity is a known risk factor for bowel cancer (also known as colorectal cancer). There is evidence that a diet rich in processed meats, which contain the potentially cacogenic compound nitrates, increases bowel cancer risk. However, it is unclear why other high-calorie diets also increase risk. This latest study, conducted in genetically engineered mice, found that obesity caused by a diet rich in fats or carbohydrates “silenced” a hormone called guanylin. This, in turn, led…

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Researchers identify protein that boosts memory

Researchers identify protein that boosts memory (Getty Images) Researchers have discovered a link between higer levels of a protein and better memory and more brain volume, suggesting a new way to predict the progression of memory loss and brain atrophy in Alzheimer’s patients. The research, published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, found a correlation between lower levels of the protein neuronal pentraxin-2, or NPTX2 and diminished memory and less brain volume. “NPTX2 seems to exert a protective effect,” said one of the researchers Ashley Swanson from Iowa State…

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Yale Researchers Find the Part of the Brain That Determines How Well You Handle Stress

Humans are amazingly resilient in crises, but some cope with life’s stresses better than others. On any given day people face any number of minor annoyances such as being stuck in traffic or spilling coffee on their shirts or forgetting their keys. Then there’s the persistent stressors that come from work, relationships and finances. And there’s the uncontrollable anxieties of global terrorism, mass shootings and Zika-carrying mosquitoes. But why are some people able to deal with it all so calmly, while others freak out? A team of researchers at Yale…

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