A Nanomaterial Flex — MXene Electrodes Help OLED Display Technology Shine, While Bending and Stretching - Drexel

Scientists have long explored the idea of using insects as our agents in the field in places where humans won't fit or survive. Imagine a cockroach in an earthquake zone, able to skitter into the rubble to map out exactly where human chemical signatures can be found; or a grasshopper leaping through a minefield to bring back a map of the bombs based on the vapors it encountered. Recent research from Washington University in St. Louis brings this sci-fi concept one step closer to reality. Related StoriesSelecting a Lubricant for a Compressor in the Chemical IndustryA Voltammetric Study Of The Underpotential Deposition Of Cobalt Onto A Glassy Carbon ElectrodeStudy Of Surface Alignment Of Liquid Crystal Multilayers Evaporated On Polyvinylcinnamate Photoalignment Film"We marry the best biology has to offer with engineering principles to create a superior sensing system," said Barani Raman, the Dennis & Barbara Kessler Professor in biomedical engineering at the WashU McKelvey School of Engineering.

A sense of desperation is understandably in the air over at DC, the company, like Marvel, slowly realising that the mass superhero fever has finally broken. There’s still interest there, of course (this summer’s Spider-Man is now the biggest film of all time in the US after all), but it’s no longer good enough to leave a high-speed conveyor belt unmanned, purpose and quality control be damned. 2019 saw a staggering 10 superhero films released in cinemas, and the inevitable exhaustion that followed, also fueled by Covid, led to a gradual winding down, monster hits turning into minor ones and sure bets often becoming expensive flops. As Peter Parker winged his way to box office records this summer, DC’s Supergirl bombed so hard that experts believe it might have cost Warners upwards of $200m in losses. It was just the latest disappointment for the brand after Black Adam, Joker: Folie à Deux, Blue Beetle and The Flash all underperformed while even last year’s much-heralded Superman reboot only grossed a solid $618m, a far cry from the $1bn heyday of the genre (things got so bad that even a fully filmed Batgirl adventure was deleted for the tax break).

Last May, satellites detected 37.5 million tons of pelagic sargassum, a species of brown seaweed, forming an unbroken band from the coast of West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico. This Atlantic Great Sargassum Belt simply did not exist 15 years ago. What was once confined to the Sargasso Sea – a warm but nutrient-poor region – has now expanded dramatically beyond its historic boundaries. Once described as a ‘blue desert’, that area is no longer so empty. Sargassum has spread far beyond its original home, transforming from ecological curiosity into a large-scale environmental force.

Beneath the ground, vast networks of fungi quietly support plant life and play an important role in regulating the planet's climate by helping move carbon into soils. Now, researchers have created the first global maps showing where these underground fungal networks are found and how much of them exist worldwide. The study, published in Science, focuses on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, a group of fungi that form partnerships with most plants on Earth. Alongside the research, scientists released an interactive visualization that allows users to explore the remarkable scale of this hidden underground infrastructure. The maps are expected to help researchers and policymakers identify areas where these fungal networks are thriving and where they may be under threat.