Polymer plastic solar cells remain an industry priority because of their lightweight, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. Now scientists from Stony Brook University and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) have demonstrated that these types of solar cells can be more efficient and have more stability based on new research findings. Led by…
Mammals Moving Less in Human Landscapes May Upset Ecology
Fossil Evidence Shows Bats Colonized From Islands to Continents
Plants and animals are generally thought to colonize from continents to islands, over time leading to the evolution of separate island species. Scientists have theorized that the reverse – colonizing from islands to continents – seems unlikely, mainly because the few competitors on islands make thriving on the mainland difficult for island specialists. But a…
Future Weather Forecasting: It’s all in the “MRI” of Clouds
Analyzing and determining the structure of clouds remains a challenge for scientists trying to forecast weather. A team of researchers at the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), led by Professor Pavlos Kollias, is using news types or radar in combination with current meteorology technology to take an “MRI” of clouds.…
New Computational Model of Chemical Building Blocks May Help Explain the Origins of Life
Scientists have yet to understand and explain how life’s informational molecules – proteins and DNA and RNA – arose from simpler chemicals when life on earth emerged some four billion years ago. Now a research team from the Stony Brook University Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory believe they have the…
Modeling Protein Interactions Critical to Understanding Disease Now Simplified With Computer Server
Proteins are the most abundant substance in living cells aside from water, and their interactions with cellular functions are crucial to healthy life. When proteins fall short of their intended function or interact in an unusual way, these disruptions often lead to disease development. By modeling the structure of protein interactions – a process that…