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Iranian Scientists Build Fuel Cells with Appropriate Performance at High Temperature

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Iranian researchers from Amirkabir University of Technology produced nanocomposite membranes that are able to improve performance of fuel cells at high temperature.

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Nanocomposite Sensors Detect Toxic Gases

Iranian researchers from Shiraz University in association with their colleagues from South Korea synthesized nanocomposites to be used in the production of sensors to detect toxic gases and gas pollutants, including carbon monoxide.

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CU-Boulder ultrafast microscope used to make slow-motion electron movie

University of Colorado Boulder researchers have demonstrated the use of the world's first ultrafast optical microscope, allowing them to probe and visualize matter at the atomic level with mind-bending speed.

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This is an image captured by CU-Boulder researchers using an ultrafast optical microscope shows clouds of electrons oscillating in gold material in space and time. The width of the image is 100 nanometers (about the size of a particle that will fit through a surgical mask), while the time between the top and bottom frame (10 fs, or femtoseconds) is less than 1 trillionth of a second.

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Light used to measure the 'big stretch' in spider silk proteins

While working to improve a tool that measures the pushes and pulls sensed by proteins in living cells, biophysicists at Johns Hopkins say they've discovered one reason spiders' silk is so elastic: Pieces of the silk's protein threads act like supersprings, stretching to five times their initial length. The investigators say the tool will shed light on many biological events, including the shifting forces between cells during cancer metastasis.

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Graphene becomes superconductive -- Electrons with 'no mass' flow with 'no resistance'

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This is the crystal structure of Ca-intercalated bilayer graphene fabricated on SiC substrate. Insertion of Ca atoms between two graphene layers causes the superconductivity.

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Breaking cell barriers with retractable protein nanoneedles: Adapting a bacterial structure, Wyss Institute researchers develop protein actuators that can mechanically puncture cells

The ability to control the transfer of molecules through cellular membranes is an important function in synthetic biology; a new study from researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and Harvard Medical School (HMS) introduces a novel mechanical method for controlling release of molecules inside cells.

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In this time-lapse, retractable protein actuators called "R bodies" - found naturally in certain bacteria - are seen extending from barely-visible tiny coils into long pointy tubes that are capable of rupturing cell membranes. The extension is triggered by a rise in pH level. Wyss Institute researchers have harnessed these structures and are adapting them for use in mammalian cells, which could one day lead to novel mechanisms for delivering drugs and other chemicals of interest.

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Earth-like Planets Have Earth-like Interiors

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Replacement of Toxic Antibacterial Agents Possible by Biocompatible Polymeric Nanocomposites

Iranian researchers produced nanoparticles with antibacterial properties, which have desirable performance in the presence of various types of bacteria.

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Astronomers Report Results of First Search for Visible Light Associated with Gravitational Waves.

Einstein's general theory of relativity predicts the emission of gravitational waves by massive celestial bodies moving though space-time. For the past century gravitational waves have eluded a direct detection, but now the LIGO Virgo Collaboration has announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves, emitted by a merging pair of black holes. Catastrophic mergers of binary systems can also produce brilliant and explosive fireworks of light, so a team of astronomers, including at Harvard, sought evidence of such an visible afterglow. Although none was spotted, this work represents the first detailed search for a visible counterpart of a gravitational wave event. It also will serve as a model for similar event follow-up in the future.

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A metal that behaves like water: Researchers describe new behaviors of graphene

Graphene is going to change the world -- or so we've been told. Since its discovery a decade ago, scientists and tech gurus have hailed graphene as the wonder material that could replace silicon in electronics, increase the efficiency of batteries, the durability and conductivity of touch screens and pave the way for cheap thermal electric energy, among many other things.

It's one atom thick, stronger than steel, harder than diamond and one of the most conductive materials on earth.