Solar Scientists Rough up Silicon Panels to Boost Light Capture
Osaka University research team modifies the surface texture of both the front and back of silicon solar cells to cheaply enhance light harvesting and boost power conversion efficiency Osaka, Japan – Power generation cost using solar panels depends on getting as much electricity out of the panels as possible while keeping the manufacturing costs low.…
Signature Analysis of Single Molecules Using Their Noise Signals
Noise is low-frequency random fluctuation that occurs in many systems, including electronics, environments, and organisms. Noise can obscure signals, so it is often removed from electronics and radio transmissions. The origin of noise in nanoscale electronics is currently of much interest, and devices that operate using noise have been proposed. Materials with a high surface-to-volume…
Researchers Push Metals To Their Limits
A Good Night’s Sleep
Despite spending at least one quarter to one third a day sleeping, good sleep can elude many people, and the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders remains primitive. Osaka University researchers have designed new technology that uses machine learning to model a personal sleep pattern based on the sounds made during sleep. Because the sounds…
Novel Mode of Antidepressant Action May Help Patients Unresponsive to SSRIs
Antidepressants treat symptoms of depression by increasing levels of brain signaling molecules (neurotransmitters) such as serotonin, as with the most widely used type of antidepressant, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). However, many of the 350 million people worldwide thought to be affected with depression do not respond to SSRI treatment. Now, researchers in the Department…
Computer Simulation of Protein Synthesis Reveals Awesome Complexity of Cell Machinery
Life depends on proteins. These molecules are produced continually in our cells, which act as microscopic production lines – but the process is so complex we have barely begun to understand it. Exploring protein synthesis may, however, be the key to revealing how the body controls the thousands of reactions occurring simultaneously inside us. Now,…
Materials That Emit Rainbows
Preventing Too Much Immunity
Scientists at the Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC), Osaka University, Japan, report a new molecular mechanism that could explain the cause of some autoimmune diseases. While the immune system is crucial for protecting the body from infection and disease, prolonged activation can damage healthy tissue. After its activation, the immune system is shut off by…
Interleukin-1α Causes People to Choke on Air
Oddly Shaped Immune Cells Cause Fibrosis
Scientists at the Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC) at Osaka University, Japan, report a new group of monocytes they call SatM. Studies in mice show that SatM may be responsible for causing fibrosis and creates a new drug target for an ailment that has little effective therapies. Fibrosis is a form of scarring that could…
A Promising Route to the Scalable Production of Highly Crystalline Graphene Films
Achieving a Breakthrough in the Formation of Beam Size Controllable X-ray Nanobeams
A research team in Japan has now succeeded in developing high precision X-ray deformable mirrors that can be configured as necessary. They are the first to have achieved the formation of three types of X-ray focused beams, which differ in focused spot size, without changing the experimental setup. These findings constitute a considerable step towards…