News Focus Channel: Hidden - DC Metro

It's National Farmers Market Week, and Washington, D.C. Ranks #1

American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 15:05:36 EST

National Farmers Market Week is being celebrated across the United States this week, and Washington, D.C. ranks number one for farmers markets among the 100 largest U.S. cities, according to the 2019 American Fitness Index(r) rankings published by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the Anthem Foundation.

Academy for Eating Disorders Announces 2019 Class of Fellows

Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 08:55:00 EST

Academy for Eating Disorders Announces 2019 Class of Fellows

To Grow or Not to Grow? That Is the Question for Plants

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 14:55:44 EST

Scientists show metabolic tradeoffs result from a specific change to the grow-defend balance.

Forming the Ion that Made the Universe

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 15:05:08 EST

Research offers details on the chemistry of trihydrogen ion.

Experimental Drug Lowers Serum Phosphate in Phase 3 Trial of Hemodialysis Patients

American Society of Nephrology (ASN) — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 17:00:00 EST

* In a phase 3 clinical trial, tenapanor significantly lowered elevated blood phosphate in patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis, resulting in an average reduction of 1.0-1.2 mg/dL over 8 weeks. * Side effects were largely limited to softening of stool and more frequent bowel movements.

Secondhand Smoke Linked with Higher Kidney Disease Risk

American Society of Nephrology (ASN) — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 17:00:00 EST

* Exposure to secondhand smoke was linked with a higher prevalence of kidney disease, as well as development of incident kidney disease. * This association was present even at low levels of exposure.

New Cell-Sized Micro Robots Might Make Incredible Journeys

American Physical Society (APS) — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 15:30:00 EST

Researchers have created tiny functional, remote-powered, walking robots, developing a multistep nanofabrication technique that turns a 4-inch specialized silicon wafer into a million microscopic robots in just weeks. Each one of a robot's four legs is just under 100-atoms-thick, but powered by laser light hitting the robots' solar panels, they propel the tiny robots. The researchers are now working on smart versions of the robots that could potentially make incredible journeys in the human body.

New Report on Industrial Physics and its Role in the US Economy

American Physical Society (APS) — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 15:30:00 EST

A new APS report, "The Impact of Industrial Physics on the U.S. Economy," shows the significant role of physics, which contributed an estimated $2.3 trillion (12.6 percent of U.S. GDP) in 2016 alone. Industrial physics encompasses the application of physics knowledge and principles to the design and manufacture of products and services. Many people working within this field have job titles other than physicist, so this report includes all aspects of industrial physics contributions.

Mathematics of Sea Slug Movement Points to Future Robots

American Physical Society (APS) — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 15:30:00 EST

Mathematician Shankar Venkataramani's research group recently discovered a lot of new, powerful geometries involved in frilly surfaces, which he will describe at the 2019 APS March Meeting. For mathematicians, frilly is plain language for an inflected nonsmooth surface -- one that changes the direction in which it bends, such as with kale or coral. Venkataramani's group developed the mathematics to describe these surfaces, and the combination of new geometry insights and age-old slugs might just be the right combination for a new generation of flexible, energy-efficient soft-bodied robots.

Water: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 15:05:07 EST

Elegant theory shows how water helps separate ions involved in material synthesis and manufacturing.

The Treatment Plenary at the International Conference on Eating Disorders to Address the Evidence for Short-Term Treatments for Eating Disorders

Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 08:55:00 EST

The Treatment Plenary at the International Conference on Eating Disorders to address the evidence for short-term treatments for eating disorders

Seeing Coherent Patterns at the Microscopic Scale

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 15:05:31 EST

Review highlights insights into coherence, which could help overcome roadblocks in next-generation energy systems.

A Simplified Way to Predict the Function of Microbial Communities

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 14:55:10 EST

A pioneering study offers an easier approach to study how microbes work and could help scientists advance models of the cycling of elements and nutrients in frequently flooded soils.

Squeezed Quantum Dots Produce More Stable Light

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 14:55:01 EST

Exploiting a strain-engineering approach could provide nanoscale light sources with a nonfluctuating emission wavelength for use in sensors, quantum communication, and imaging.

New Surprises from Jupiter and Saturn

American Physical Society (APS) — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 14:30:00 EST

The latest data from the giant planets has sent researchers back to the drawing board. Cassini orbited Saturn for 13 years before its dramatic final dive into the planet's interior, while Juno has been orbiting Jupiter for two and a half years; the data collected has been "invaluable but also confounding," said David Stevenson from Caltech, who will present an update of both missions at the 2019 APS March Meeting in Boston. Innovative design that protected the instruments from fierce radiation and powered the mission on solar energy alone has reaped plenty of surprises.

Improving Solar Cell Efficiency with a Bucket of Water

American Physical Society (APS) — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 12:00:00 EST

Solar cells offer a clean source of energy, but the efficiency of a fixed solar system is limited: The sun moves, but solar cells do not. Beth Parks has devised an astonishingly simple way to overcome this limitation -- a bucket of water. As she will describe at the 2019 APS March Meeting, she developed a frame that holds the solar cell with a bucket suspended on either end. By controlling the leak of water from one of the buckets, the solar cell shifts, tracking the arc of the sun throughout the day.

The Decline of Radiology Trainee Exposure to Invasive Procedures

Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 09:05:47 EST

As interventional radiology (IR) evolves as a distinct specialty from diagnostic radiology (DR), the central and ongoing role of diagnostic radiologists in performing certain invasive radiological procedures could have important patient access implications.

The Science of Knitting, Unpicked

American Physical Society (APS) — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 08:00:00 EST

Knitting may be an ancient manufacturing method, but Elisabetta Matsumoto believes that understanding how different stitch types determine shape and mechanical strength will be invaluable for designing materials for future technologies, and a more detailed understanding of the knitting "code" could benefit manufacturers around the world. Members of the Matsumoto group are delving through the surprisingly complex mathematics that underlies tangles of yarn -- work Matsumoto will describe at the 2019 APS March Meeting.

Unexpected Complexity: A 3D Look into Plant Root Relationships with Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 15:10:36 EST

Scientists develop a molecular map of metabolic products of bacteria in root nodules to aid sustainable agriculture.

Maximizing Ozone Signals

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 15:05:00 EST

New technique enables more efficient and precise estimates of trends in ozone and other atmospheric constituents within selected geographical regions and timeframes.