Theoretical physicists at Goethe University Frankfurt have analysed data from the black hole M87 as part of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration to test Albert Einstein s theory of general relativity. According to the tests, the size of the shadow from M87 is in excellent agreement being from a black hole in general relativity, but sets constraints on the properties of black holes in other theories.
South Korea s Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has presented the evaporation-driven transport-control of small molecules in gas-permeable and low-aspect-ratio nanoslits, wherein both the diffusive and advective mass transports of solutes are affected by solvent evaporation through the nanoslit walls.
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Helping to advance the potential of aqueous redox flow batteries - which could provide safe grid-scale energy storage - researchers have engineered a new class of molecules to provide energy storage for this battery type. We have demonstrated here the ability to pursue and exploit accelerated redox reactions enabled by molecular engineering of materials that would otherwise be unsuitable for flow batteries, they write. The past decade has witnessed the rapid development of redox flow batteries, which are well-suited for large-scale grid storage applications. However, suitable redox molecules, which serve as the energy storage materials for these batteries, are currently limited. Developing such molecules for flow battery applications is urgently needed to fully unleash the energy storage potential of aqueous organic redox flow batteries, write Bo Hu and T. Leo Liu in a related Perspective. Recent studies have explored using fluorenone (FL) molecules but the performance
The yeast
Candida albicans can cause itchy, painful urinary tract and vaginal yeast infections. For women in low-resource settings who lack access to healthcare facilities, these infections create substantial social and economic burdens. Now, researchers reporting in
ACS Omega have developed color-changing threads that turn bright pink in the presence of
C. albicans. When embedded in tampons or sanitary napkins, they could allow women to quickly and discreetly self-diagnose vulvovaginal yeast infections, the researchers say.
According to the Mayo Clinic, about 75% of women will experience a yeast infection, or vulvovaginal candidiasis, at least once in their lifetime. Although women in high-resource areas can easily be diagnosed with a vaginal swab at their doctor s office and then treated with an antifungal medication, many women throughout the world lack access to basic healthcare facilities. Moreover, in some resource-limited areas, societal taboos cause women to feel shame
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The work was conducted under the auspices of the Russian Science Foundation; the project Synthesis and research of a new class of nanocomposite ceramics with degenerate dielectric constant for optoplasmonic applications is headed by Professor Sergey Kharintsev (KFU s Institute of Physics).
Professor Kharintsev, the first co-author, comments, Under the influence of light, collective oscillations of electrons can be excited in metallic nanostructures, and as a result the electric field in the vicinity of the nanostructures strongly increases. The field of physics that studies the effects of generation and propagation of such electromagnetic excitations is called plasmonics. Its most striking achievements include optical visualization of single molecules and diagnostics of their vibrations with a spatial resolution of 0.16 nm (for example, the size of a water molecule is 0.3 nm). In practice, the achievements of plasmonics are widely used in the development of highly sensi