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Categories: Engineering: Nanotechnology, Environmental: Wildfires
Published Unprecedented levels of high-severity fire burn in Sierra Nevada
(via sciencedaily.com) High-severity wildfire in California's Sierra Nevada forests has nearly quintupled compared to before Euro-American settlement, rising from less than 10% per year then to up to 43% today, a new study finds.
Published Incorporation of water molecules into layered materials impacts ion storage capability
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have experimentally detected the structural change of hydration water confined in the tiny nano-scale pores of layered materials such as clays. Their findings potentially open the door to new options for ion separation and energy storage.
Published New nanoparticles deliver therapy brain-wide, edit Alzheimer's gene in mice
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers describe a new family of nano-scale capsules made of silica that can carry genome-editing tools into many organs around the body and then harmlessly dissolve.
Published Nanoparticles make it easier to turn light into solvated electrons
(via sciencedaily.com) Solutions containing solvated electrons are inherently clean chemical reactants, and they could become easier and cheaper to make now that chemists have uncovered the long-sought mechanism of a light-driven process that creates them.
Published In the wake of a wildfire, embers of change in cognition and brain function linger
(via sciencedaily.com) Five years after the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, researchers document persistent differences in cognitive function among survivors.
Published What's driving re-burns across California and the West?
(via sciencedaily.com) Seasonal temperature, moisture loss from plants and wind speed are what primarily drive fires that sweep across the same landscape multiple times, a new study reveals. These findings and others could help land managers plan more effective treatments in areas susceptible to fire, particularly in the fire-ravaged wildland-urban interfaces of California.
Published Engineers grow 'perfect' atom-thin materials on industrial silicon wafers
(via sciencedaily.com) Engineers fabricated 2D materials that could lead to next-generation transistors and electronic films.
Published Researchers gain deeper understanding of mechanism behind superconductors
(via sciencedaily.com) Physicists have once again gained a deeper understanding of the mechanism behind superconductors. This brings researchers one step closer to their goal of developing the foundations for a theory for superconductors that would allow current to flow without resistance and without energy loss. The researchers found that in superconducting copper-oxygen bonds, called cuprates, there must be a very specific charge distribution between the copper and the oxygen, even under pressure.
Published Preventing vehicle crashes by learning from insects
(via sciencedaily.com) Despite only about 25% of car travel happening after dark, almost half of fatal accidents occur at night. As our vehicles become more advanced and even autonomous, the ways of detecting and avoiding these collisions must evolve too. Current systems are often complicated, resource-intensive or work poorly in the dark. But now, researchers have designed a simple, power-saving collision detector inspired by the way insects avoid bumping into one another.
Published 20,000 premature US deaths caused by human-ignited fires each year
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study shows that smoke particles from human-lit fires are responsible for over 80% of smoke-related deaths each year. The study shows that smoke pollution is on the rise, reducing air quality, and leading to increased illness and premature deaths.
Published AI discovers new nanostructures
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists have successfully demonstrated that autonomous methods can discover new materials. The artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technique led to the discovery of three new nanostructures, including a first-of-its-kind nanoscale 'ladder.'
Published The world in grains of interstellar dust
(via sciencedaily.com) Understanding how dust grains form in interstellar gas could offer significant insights to astronomers and help materials scientists develop useful nanoparticles.
Published Novel design helps develop powerful microbatteries
(via sciencedaily.com) Translating electrochemical performance of large format batteries to microscale power sources has been a long-standing technological challenge, limiting the ability of batteries to power microdevices, microrobots and implantable medical devices. Researchers have created a high-voltage microbattery (> 9 V), with high-energy and -power density, unparalleled by any existing battery design.
Published Optical coating approach prevents fogging and unwanted reflections
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers combine a polymer coating with silicon dioxide nanostructures to create a coating to prevent fogging and unwanted reflections. The technique solves a common problem for sensors such as lidar used in autonomous cars.
Published Now on the molecular scale: Electric motors
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Electric vehicles, powered by macroscopic electric motors, are increasingly prevalent on our streets and highways. Now a multidisciplinary team has made an electric motor you can't see with the naked eye: an electric motor on the molecular scale. This early work -- a motor that can convert electrical energy into unidirectional motion at the molecular level -- has implications for materials science and particularly medicine, where the electric molecular motor could team up with biomolecular motors in the human body.
Published Researchers uncover mechanisms to easily dry, redisperse cellulose nanocrystals
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team of chemical engineering researchers studied the mechanisms of drying the nanocrystals and proposed nanotechnology to render the nanocrystals highly redispersible in aqueous mediums, while retaining their full functionality, to make them easier to store and transport.
Published Discovery of a new form of carbon called Long-range Ordered Porous Carbon (LOPC)
(via sciencedaily.com) The most well-known forms of carbon include graphite and diamond, but there are other more exotic nanoscale allotropes of carbon as well. These include graphene and fullerenes, which are sp2 hybridized carbon with zero (flat-shaped) or positive (sphere-shaped) curvatures. Researchers now report the discovery of a new form of carbon formed by heating fullerenes with lithium nitride.
Published Bird diversity increased in severely burned forests of Southern Appalachian mountains
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study found bird diversity increased in North Carolina mountain forest areas severely burned by wildfire in 2016, reinforcing that while wildfire can pose risks to safety and property, it can be beneficial to wildlife. The study results could help forest managers better predict bird responses to wildfire, and manage forests to benefit birds.
Published Wildfire threats not commonly disclosed by US firms despite risk to economy
(via sciencedaily.com) U.S. firms rarely report their wildfire risks in required federal filings and instead bury such risks in nonspecific risk disclosures, according to new research.
Published Climate whiplash increased wildfires on California's west coast about 8,000 years ago
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have been studying the effects of the sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred about 8,200 years ago, the so-called 8.2-kiloyear event, with the help of mineral deposits present in White Moon Cave in Northern California. New indications show that oscillations between extreme wetness and aridity in California were closely linked with the occurrence of wildfires. The researchers have concluded that such events are likely to become more common in the face of human-induced climate change.