Video: Reusable facemasks made using smartphones and 3D printers
A video showing how 3D printing enables researchers to make bespoke, reusable face masks.
Effective protection
Researchers found that their masks provided the same level of protection as available single-use versions. Bespoke masks also tended to fit better, with almost 90 per cent of volunteers wearing them passing a face fit test, compared with only 76 per cent of those using single-use masks.
Further tests showed that the reusable facemasks could be safely decontaminated using common household detergents – such as washing-up liquid – and cleaning materials used routinely in hospitals.
The trial was funded by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO)’s Rapid Research in Covid-19 programme.
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Musical time machine recreates lost performance
Virtual reality and ground-breaking acoustic techniques are being used to recreate historical music performances that took place more than half a millennium ago.
The immersive technology, which allows the listener to hear exactly how music would have sounded in the now-ruined chapel at Linlithgow Palace, is the closest people will get to musical time travelling, the researchers say.
Scholars from Edinburgh College of Art and the universities of Birmingham and Melbourne have collaborated with Historic Environment Scotland to reconstruct lost performances at the Palace – once a majestic royal residence of the Stewarts in the 15th and 16th centuries.
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Making music tunes up wellbeing during lockdown
Spontaneous group music making is associated with a number of wellbeing benefits – even if the performers are not in the same room – a study shows.
Online improvisation sessions by an international group of musicians enhanced mood, lowered levels of loneliness and promoted a feeling of community during the first Covid-19 lockdown, the research found.
The study is the first to investigate the effects of global online music making during the pandemic.
Researchers at Edinburgh College of Art examined the experiences of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra – a diverse group of players which includes musicians who have performed with the National Jazz Orchestra and The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
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Mediterranean diet linked to thinking skills
People who eat a Mediterranean-style diet-particularly one rich in green leafy vegetables and low in meat-are more likely to stay mentally sharp in later life, a study shows.
Closely adhering to a Mediterranean diet was associated with higher scores on a range of memory and thinking tests among adults in their late 70s, the research found.
The study found no link, however, between the Mediterranean-style diet and better brain health.
Markers of healthy brain ageing – such as greater grey or white matter volume, or fewer white matter lesions-did not differ between those regularly eating a Mediterranean diet and those who did not.