Unraveling life's origin: Five key breakthroughs from the past five years
There is still so much we don't understand about the origin of life on Earth.
There is still so much we don't understand about the origin of life on Earth.
Cell & Microbiology
May 4, 2024
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90
Before you buy something, or visit a new restaurant, or see a new film, you may be tempted to check out the online reviews. Researching what strangers think of the things we might like has become a familiar part of the modern ...
Social Sciences
May 4, 2024
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53
Research led by scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has demonstrated that small changes in the isotopic content of thin semiconductor materials can influence their optical and electronic ...
Nanophysics
May 3, 2024
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188
In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Umeå researchers describe a natural product-like molecule, Tantalosin, that inhibits interaction between two proteins in complexes that reshape membranes ...
Biochemistry
May 3, 2024
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27
Sourdough is the oldest kind of leavened bread in recorded history, and people have been eating it for thousands of years. The components of creating a sourdough starter are very simple—flour and water. Mixing them produces ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 1, 2024
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35
By exploiting a smart learning algorithm that fuses two microscopy signals, University of Michigan researchers have accomplished high-resolution, efficient 3D chemical imaging for the first time at the one-nanometer scale. ...
Nanomaterials
Apr 30, 2024
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35
Inexpensive and readily available copper-based catalysts are considered ideal for the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) to produce multi-carbon products. The presence of copper oxides is crucial for generating ...
Nanomaterials
Apr 29, 2024
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1
A research group led by Prof. Li Xingxing of University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of Chinese Academy of Chinese (CAS) made a reversible topological control in 2D organometallic lattices achieved through tautomerization. ...
Condensed Matter
Apr 29, 2024
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2
A team of researchers led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has created tiny droplets that, when activated by laser light, can detect viral protein biomarkers indicating the presence of certain ...
Bio & Medicine
Apr 29, 2024
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18
One of the many secrets to bacteria's success is their ability to defend themselves from viruses, called phages, that infect bacteria and use their cellular machinery to make copies of themselves.
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 26, 2024
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60
The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has no known substructure and is believed to be a point particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1836 times less than that of the proton. The intrinsic angular momentum (spin) of the electron is a half integer value of 1/2, which means that it is a fermion. The anti-particle of the electron is called the positron, which is identical to electron except that it carries electrical and other charges of the opposite sign. In collisions electrons and positrons annihilate, producing a pair (or more) of gamma ray photons. Electrons participate in gravitational, electromagnetic and weak interactions.
The concept of an indivisible amount of electric charge was theorized to explain the chemical properties of atoms, beginning in 1838 by British natural philosopher Richard Laming; the name electron was introduced for this charge in 1894 by Irish physicist George Johnstone Stoney. The electron was identified as a particle in 1897 by J. J. Thomson and his team of British physicists. Electrons are identical particles that belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family. Electrons have quantum mechanical properties of both a particle and a wave, so they can collide with other particles and be diffracted like light. Each electron occupies a quantum state that describes its random behavior upon measuring a physical parameter, such as its energy or spin orientation. Because an electron is a type of fermion, no two electrons can occupy the same quantum state; this property is known as the Pauli exclusion principle.
In many physical phenomena, such as electricity, magnetism, and thermal conductivity, electrons play an essential role. An electron generates a magnetic field while moving, and it is deflected by external magnetic fields. When an electron is accelerated, it can absorb or radiate energy in the form of photons. Electrons, together with atomic nuclei made of protons and neutrons, make up atoms. However, electrons contribute less than 0.06% to an atom's total mass. The attractive Coulomb force between an electron and a proton causes electrons to be bound into atoms. The exchange or sharing of the electrons between two or more atoms is the main cause of chemical bonding.
Electrons were created by the Big Bang, and they are lost in stellar nucleosynthesis processes. Electrons are produced by cosmic rays entering the atmosphere and are predicted to be created by Hawking radiation at the event horizon of a black hole. Radioactive isotopes can release an electron from an atomic nucleus as a result of negative beta decay. Laboratory instruments are capable of containing and observing individual electrons, while telescopes can detect electron plasma by its energy emission. Electrons have multiple applications, including welding, cathode ray tubes, electron microscopes, radiation therapy, lasers and particle accelerators.
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