February 2, 2021
Cornell wind energy scientists have released a new global wind atlas – a digital compendium filled with documented extreme wind speeds for all parts of the world – to help engineers select the turbines in any given region and accelerate the development of sustainable energy.
This wind atlas is the first publicly available, uniform and geospatially explicit (datasets tied to locations) description of extreme wind speeds, according to the research, “A Global Assessment of Extreme Wind Speeds For Wind Energy Applications,” published Jan. 25 in Nature Energy.
“Cost-efficient expansion of the wind-energy industry is enabled by access to this newly released digital atlas of the extreme wind conditions under which wind turbines will operate at locations around the world,” said Sara C. Pryor, professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, who authored the paper with Rebecca J. Barthelmie, professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aeros
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IMAGE: The research team collects samples during a 2015 cruise in the North Pacific. Co-author Bryndan Durham, center, recovers the sampling instrument. The gray bottles open and close at specific depths. view more
Credit: Dror Shitrit/Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology
Just as plants and animals on land are keenly attuned to the hours of sunlight in the day, life in the oceans follows the rhythms of the day, the seasons and even the moon. A University of Washington study finds the biological light switches that make this possible.
Single-celled organisms in the open ocean use a diverse array of genetic tools to detect light, even in tiny amounts, and respond, according to a study published Feb. 1 in the
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VIDEO: Subunits B (blue), B-1 (cyan), and B-2 (gray) depicted as ribbon diagrams. Initially bound to B-1, subunit B unflattens, straining contact between subunits until they separate. The resulting loose lateral. view more
Credit: Vilmos Zsolnay, University of Chicago.
Our cells are filled with bones, in a sense. Thin, flexible protein strands called actin filaments help support and move around the bulk of the cells of eukaryotes, which includes all plants and animals. Always on the go, actin filaments constantly grow, shrink, bind with other things, and branch off when cells move.
Supercomputer simulations have helped solve the mystery of how actin filaments polymerize, or chain together. This fundamental research could be applied to treatments to stop cancer spread, develop self-healing materials, and more.
Targeting the deadly coils of Ebola
In the midst of a global pandemic with COVID-19, it s hard to appreciate how lucky those outside of Africa have been to avoid the deadly Ebola virus disease. It incapacitates its victims soon after infection with massive vomiting or diarrhea, leading to death from fluid loss in about 50 percent of the afflicted. The Ebola virus transmits only through bodily fluids, marking a key difference from the COVID-19 virus and one that has helped contain Ebola s spread.
Ebola outbreaks continue to flare up in West Africa, although a vaccine developed in December 2019 and improvements in care and containment have helped keep Ebola in check. Supercomputer simulations by a University of Delaware team that included an undergraduate supported by the XSEDE EMPOWER program are adding to the mix and helping to crack the defenses of Ebola s coiled genetic material. This new research could help lead to breakthroughs in treatment and improved vaccines for Ebola and o
Research may lead to better treatment and vaccines for Ebola, COVID-19
In the midst of a global pandemic with COVID-19, it s hard to appreciate how lucky those outside of Africa have been to avoid the deadly Ebola virus disease. It incapacitates its victims soon after infection with massive vomiting or diarrhea, leading to death from fluid loss in about 50 percent of the afflicted. The Ebola virus transmits only through bodily fluids, marking a key difference from the COVID-19 virus and one that has helped contain Ebola s spread.
Ebola outbreaks continue to flare up in West Africa, although a vaccine developed in December 2019 and improvements in care and containment have helped keep Ebola in check.