By dipping small pieces of an ordinary kitchen sponge into solutions of nanoscale electrode materials, scientists have created a light-weight, low-cost supercapacitor that benefits from the sponge's porous structure. The pores provide a large surface area for the electrode materials to attach to, leading to an increase in ion movement between the electrodes and the electrolyte that fills in the pores. Overall, the new supercapacitor exhibits a performance that is superior to that of one made of the same electrode materials but without the sponge.

The investigation of light absorbing organic semiconductors is important for the development of lightweight flexible solar cells. Replacing sulfur atoms in commonly used, polymer-based solar cells with tellurium atoms results in materials that absorb a wider range of wavelengths of sunlight. A tellurophene-containing low-bandgap polymer (PDPPTe2T) was synthesized by microwave-assisted palladium-catalyzed ipso-arylative polymerization of 2,5-bis[(α-hydroxy-α,α-diphenyl)methyl]tellurophene with a diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) monomer.

A novel approach to growing nanowires promises a new means of control over their light-emitting and electronic properties. In a recent issue of Nano Letters, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) demonstrated a new growth technique that uses specially engineered catalysts. These catalysts, which are precursors to growing the nanowires, have given scientists more options than ever in turning the color of light-emitting nanowires.

The efficiency of plastic solar cells can be doubled or tripled if an extra solvent is added during the production process, comparable with the role of baking powder in dough mixture. Exactly how this works has been unclear for the last ten years. But now researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have come up with the answer in a publication in Nature Communications. This new understanding will now enable focused development of plastic solar cells.

(Phys.org) —High-end smartphones to come, if they could talk, would deliver a message to Samsung, relaying thanks for the memory. Samsung Electronics has announced they are mass-producing an "embedded package on package" (ePoP) memory for use in high-end smartphones. Samsung said this is a tech improvement over existing two-package eMCP memory solutions. This presents an opportunity for more space for a battery pack in slim handsets. In talking about the ePoP phone memory stack, Korea IT Times described ePOP as "a memory chip package that combines DRAM, NAND flash and controller into one memory, enabling them to be piled on top of a mobile application processor."

Researchers at the University of Hertfordshire have developed a prototype of a social robot which supports independent living for the elderly, working in partnership with their relatives or carers.

The Silk Road trial has concluded, with Ross Ulbricht found guilty of running the anonymous online marketplace for illegal goods. But questions remain over how the FBI found its way through Tor, the software that allows anonymous, untraceable use of the web, to gather the evidence against him.

Prepare to open your wallets, ladies and gentlemen: Microsoft has announced the release of an augmented reality (AR) headset called HoloLens.

Log on to Twitter, Facebook or other social media and you will find that much of the content shared with you comes in the form of images, not just words. Those images can convey a lot more than a sentence might, and will often provoke emotions in the viewer.

For Paul Torrens, wintry weather is less about sledding and more about testing out models of human behavior.

Galo Valdebenito, a professor of seismic and structural dynamics and associate dean of engineering at Austral University, is developing tools so urban planners can better assess earthquake risks.

How can 3D Printing revolutionize the world? In the newly published book '3D Printing with Biomaterials', authors Ad van Wijk and Iris van Wijk explore the promises of 3D printing with biomaterials towards a sustainable and circular economy. This is illustrated by a remarkable example: the printing of an entire town house from bio-based plastics, made from sugar beets. The resulting carbon footprint for material is reduced by more than 60%.

Most Internet users know that practicing good online hygiene – never clicking on spam, choosing strong passwords and setting up two-factor authentication – is essential for protecting their personal information. They typically don't know, however, that unless the developers of the websites they visit take similar precautions, they could still be at risk.

China on Friday rejected accusations it was behind a hacking attack that saw data on up to 80 million customers stolen from US health insurance giant Anthem as "groundless".

(AP)—U.K. spies acted illegally when they scooped up data about Britons' electronic communications gathered by the U.S. National Security Agency, a court ruled Friday in a landmark judgment against Britain's security services.

(AP)—A snake-like robot designed to examine the inside of one of three melted reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant is ready to begin its expedition.

While the security breach affecting as many as 80 million Anthem Inc. customers generates big headlines because of its size, it's the smaller-scale attacks that concern Purdue University cybersecurity expert Eugene Spafford.

Billy Franklin recently bought a 2007 Chevrolet Suburban for $14,900 through eBay on his Android phone while eating dinner at Red Lobster.

(AP)—After a huge hack, Anthem is warning about "phishing" scam emails that are targeting people it insures or has insured in the past.

(AP)—Democratic senators on Friday called on federal regulators to investigate Verizon Wireless, the country's biggest mobile provider, for secretly inserting unique tracking codes into the Web traffic of its some 100 million customers.

(AP)—The rush to outfit police officers with body cameras after last summer's unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, threatens to saddle local governments with steep costs for managing the volumes of footage they must keep for months or even years, according to contracts, invoices and company data reviewed by The Associated Press.

(AP)—Utah state officials have seen what they describe as a sharp uptick in attempts to hack into state computers in the last two years.

(AP)—Insurers aren't required to encrypt consumers' data under a 1990s federal law that remains the foundation for health care privacy in the Internet age—an omission that seems striking in light of the major cyberattack against Anthem.

An update to Google's free online map service on Friday let users become local guides who post reviews of businesses and venues in a challenge to Yelp.

(AP)—Sprint's latest plan for luring new subscribers is to occupy the remains of RadioShack.

(AP)—Communications and information technology company Harris is buying Exelis in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $4.4 billion.

Lockheed Martin and Dominion Resources, Inc. have co-developed a new smart grid technology called VirtuGrid, which will enable remote detection of power outages for faster mapping and response. This collaboration between the two companies brings together Lockheed Martin's trusted expertise in technology and Dominion's experience in distribution engineering.

(AP)—A British parliamentary committee on Friday accused the accounting firm PwC of promoting tax avoidance on an industrial scale and urged the government to step in and do more to regulate the tax industry.

Uber is launching a "panic button" and other safety features for users in India, following news that Mumbai was readying a ban on the ride-sharing service.

To help people with hormone deficiencies, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed a potential new therapy based on an unlikely model: immune molecules from cows.

Women with type 1 diabetes face a 40% increased excess risk of death from all causes, and have more than twice the risk of dying from heart disease, compared to men with type 1 diabetes, a large meta-analysis involving more than 200 000 people with type 1 diabetes published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology has found.

In the month following an older heart patient's hospital discharge, there is a one in five risk of rehospitalization or death, but little is known about how these risks change over time. A new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers found that risks remain high for up to a year, but can be addressed with targeted care.

A new study by Johns Hopkins researchers links a well-known cell communication pathway called Notch to one of the most common—but overall still rare—brain tumors found in children.

Thousands of travelers to the Caribbean and nearby regions are coming home with an unwanted souvenir: a mosquito-borne virus that recently settled there.

(AP)—As vaccine skeptics fight laws that would force more parents to inoculate their kids, they are finding unexpected allies in conservative Republicans.

Small lifestyle changes involving physical activity, healthy eating and maintaining social networks can set the stage for happier and healthier futures for people after retirement. Led by John Mathers, Professor of Human Nutrition at Newcastle University's Institute for Ageing, the five-year LiveWell project assessed how well people will age after retirement. The researchers studied the key issues surrounding retirement, and what factors promote health and wellbeing at this stage in life.

While health-conscious individuals understand the benefits of eating fresh fruits and veggies, they may not be aware of the amount of pesticides they could be ingesting along with their vitamin C and fiber. A new study to be published in the Feb. 5 edition of Environmental Health Perspectives is among the first to predict a person's pesticide exposure based on information about their usual diet.

When you think about teenage peer pressure, plenty of images likely come to mind. Perhaps a classic after school TV special or dramatic D.A.R.E. program skit with a dimly-lit basement and one friend saying "Come on, everybody's doing it." Indeed, a good deal of prior research has focused on direct forms of pressure between friends. But if these images don't fully resonate with your own memories of high school, you may be onto something. New research suggests that although these direct forms of pressure may exist, teens likely are influenced in other, more indirect ways too.

MicroRNA are the tiny non-coding RNA molecules that help determine whether genes are expressed or silenced. One particular microRNA—miR-107—plays a key role in early brain development, and perhaps in the development of brain-related disease, a Yale School of Medicine team has found.

Leprosy is an ancient and debilitating infectious disease largely quelled with medicine in the past several decades. Yet its persistence in some developing countries has mystified scientists, who long have thought the bacteria that cause the disease cannot survive in the environment.

The prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has turned new drug development into a high-stakes chess game, with researchers always trying to anticipate a disease bacteria's next move or mutation to make sure new antibiotics will be effective when they go into use.

If you've ever been told that you're "tone deaf" or "can't carry a tune," don't give up.  New research out of Northwestern University suggests that singing accurately is not so much a talent as a learned skill that can decline over time if not used.

The journal Science published a statistic-laden research article last month that garnered far more attention than most such pieces usually do. In it, the authors made a provocative claim: two-thirds of the variation of cancer risk among different types of tissues can be attributed to random mutations – in other words, "bad luck." That meant that the other two major drivers of cancer—heredity and environment—account for only one-third of the variation.

New insights into how nerves cells in the brain maintain efficient communication with each other may help offset the effects of Alzheimer's disease.

The aim of a mobile application called Alicia, developed by the Calité Research group at the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) of Elche, is to help patients over 65 years with multiple pathologies to administer their own medication at home. This app has been tested on 99 patients from Alicante and was able to reduce medication mistakes in up to 41.2% of cases. It is available for iPhone, iPad and Android.

As a new study shows that at least half of the population will get cancer at some point in their lives, a University of Huddersfield research project claims that the complementary therapy named Reiki can improve the quality of life for cancer patients by lowering their levels of anxiety, depression and fatigue. The findings are to be presented at a major conference and larger-scale research could follow.

A new mobile app is set to transform the care of patients with long-standing pain issues. Designed and developed in collaboration between the Keele University Research Institute for Primary Care & Health Sciences and Keele University Science & Business Park-based software developers Secret Attic, the app allows patients to use their smartphone to record their levels of wellbeing each day.

Drinking red grape juice or wine – in moderation – could improve the health of overweight people by helping them burn fat better, according to a new study coauthored by an Oregon State University researcher.

(AP)—Concerns about measles in the U.S. are growing as five infants who attend a suburban Chicago day care center have now been diagnosed with the disease.

Several state legislatures are debating vaccine-related measures as dozens of people have fallen ill from a measles outbreak that started at Disneyland in December and spread beyond the theme park. Here is a look at some of the legislation around the country:

Young adults with Down syndrome are more likely to be social depending on their access to public transport and cultural and religious services rather than social factors like their relationships with other people, according to recent research.

The spinal cord runs through a canal in the vertebrae that is lined with soft protective tissues. In patients with a condition known as ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament of the spine (OPLL), bone begins to form within one of these tissues. The resulting narrowing of the spinal canal compresses the spinal cord, inflicting motor weakness, numbness and pain.

A critical review of the evidence surrounding popular detox diets has concluded that there is no compelling evidence to support the use of detox diets for weight management or toxin elimination.

On Dec. 26, 2013, a two-year-old boy living in the Guinean village of Meliandou, Guéckédou Prefecture was stricken with a rare disease, caused by the filament-shaped Ebola virus.

Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) have discovered a precise stem cell signaling process that can lead to intestinal tumors if disrupted. The findings add to our understanding of how stem cells give rise to tumors and identify specific stem cell molecules that may be targeted to prevent the onset, progression, and recurrence of intestinal cancers. The results of the study appear online in Cell Reports today.

Research by a team of scientists from Cologne, Munich and Mainz has shown an unprecedented degree of connectivity reorganization in newly-generated hippocampal neurons in response to experience, suggesting their direct contribution to the processing of complex information in the adult brain.

(HealthDay)—Ladies, a heavy coffee habit might do more than perk you up. New research suggests it may also reduce your risk of endometrial cancer.

A new report from The Gerontological Society of America's Workgroup on Cognitive Impairment Detection and Earlier Diagnosis outlines a course of action for increasing the use of evidence-based cognitive assessment tools as part of the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit (AWV).

When we think of how we fight disease, the image of cells in our immune system fending off microbial invaders often comes to mind. Another strategy our bodies can employ is to cut off the enemy's supply lines and effectively starve disease-causing microbes of the iron they need to function. However, this tactic can backfire and cause anaemia if the iron-starved state is sustained for too long, a common problem in chronically ill patients. The search for therapies against this anaemia of chronic disease (ACD) could take on new directions thanks to a study published today in Blood. In it, scientists in the Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit, a joint venture of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and Heidelberg University Clinic, both in Heidelberg, Germany, have found a hitherto unknown way through which mice starve pathogens of iron.

A team of researchers that includes scientists from the Quinnipiac University and the University of California, Berkeley reports a new method for minimally invasive tissue ablation surgery that combines electrolysis with reversible electroporation.

Deaf people who sign have poorer health than the general population, according to a study led by researchers from the School for Social and Community Medicine at the University of Bristol, UK.

Researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered that Candida albicans—a leading cause of potentially fatal hospital-acquired infections—rarely develops resistance to combination drug therapy and, when it becomes resistant, it also becomes less dangerous.

A Montana State University graduate student who wants to reduce the number of people dying from lung infections has discovered a molecule that's critical for immunity.

Many scientists agree: The smartphone offers many applications and has become one of the most sophisticated technologies out there.

(HealthDay)—Robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery for kidney cancer is associated with considerable benefits, which outweigh health care and surgical costs, according to a study published in the February issue of Health Affairs.

(HealthDay)—Occupation and work hours are associated with increased workers' risk for neck pain, according to a study published in the Feb. 1 issue of Spine.

(HealthDay)—The APOEε2 allele may be associated with a milder clinical and pathological course of Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to research published online Jan. 26 in the Annals of Neurology.

(HealthDay)—Erbium:YAG lasers can effectively treat refractory melasma, according to a study published in the February issue of the International Journal of Dermatology.

Do electronic cigarettes help people quit smoking? As the debate continues on that point, a new University of Rochester study suggests that e-cigarettes are likely a toxic replacement for tobacco products.

Factors associated with the prevalence of diabetes vary by geographic region in the United States, according to new research from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

In one of the first studies of its kind, researchers found that the prevalence of geriatric conditions and diabetic complications among older, insured patients with diabetes did not vary significantly by ethnicity. The study was published online today in the Journal of Aging and Health.

Researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital have developed a way to measure upper extremity movement in patients with muscular dystrophy using interactive video game technology. Their hope is to expand inclusion criteria for clinical trials to incorporate patients using wheelchairs.

A new compound discovered by a team of UC Davis investigators has potent actions against production of a chemical that which is implicated in the development of chronic pain following a peripheral nerve injury in the spinal cord.

Ready for some bad news? I hope you're sitting down. Well, actually, you might want to stand up, because sitting down IS KILLING YOU RIGHT NOW!

The protest tents are being taken down but resentment burns on in Stafford, where the hospital is a notorious example of a healthcare crisis roiling Britain ahead of May's general election.

(HealthDay)—In response to the announcement of changes to the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) requirements from the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) has announced that it will not be making changes to the requirements for maintaining certification at this time.

Girls of color are disproportionately impacted by school discipline policies and excluded from current efforts to address the school-to-prison pipeline, according to a new report authored by UCLA School of Law Professors Kimberlé Crenshaw and Jyoti Nanda, along with UCLA Law alumna Priscilla Ocen, a professor at Loyola Law School.

Almost every child who has lost parents to Ebola is being cared for in their community, UNICEF said on Friday—allaying fears that many would be shunned by relatives and neighbours.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, appears to fail as a method of preventing HIV in a new study of women in Africa, but it was actually stigma faced by the participants that affected the outcome, according to an accompanying editorial by a University of Alabama at Birmingham expert in the Feb. 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

People who survive Ebola continue to suffer from serious physical and psychological ailments and require care long after the deadly virus has left their bodies, the World Health Organization said Friday.

The drug lurasidone (trade name Latuda) has been available since November 2014 for the treatment of adults with schizophrenia. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined in a dossier assessment whether this new drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy.

Guinea has put 58 people on trial over an attack on Ebola outreach workers by a mob wielding machetes, a judicial source said on Friday.

(AP)—Pepperidge Farm is recalling about 46,000 packages of bagels because they may contain peanuts or almonds that could set off a serious allergic reaction.

(AP)—Dozens of people with serious illnesses and others who have seen relatives suffer packed a Colorado legislative hearing Friday to testify on a proposal that would give dying patients the option to seek help ending their lives.

(AP)—A government report says the number of drivers who get on the road with alcohol in their systems has declined by nearly one-third since 2007, but there has been a large increase in drivers using marijuana and other illegal drugs.

Copolymers made from synthetic and biomimetic components open new and interesting perspectives as biocompatible, biodegradable materials that can also be given biological functionality. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, French scientists have now introduced silicon-peptide copolymers. Their extremely simple synthesis is applicable to all types of peptides and produces both linear and branched polymer chains.

A more accurate view of the structure of the oxygen-evolving complex that splits water during photosynthesis is now in hand thanks to a study involving researchers from the RIKEN SPring-8 Center, Okayama University and the Japan Science and Technology Agency. The new model of natural photosynthesis provides a blueprint for synthesizing water-splitting catalysts that mimic this natural process.

Hydrogels are materials that are commonly used in everyday objects such as contact lenses or diapers, in order to control humidity. However, chemical engineers at the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), in Mexico, have developed a new technology based on thermosensitive nanoparticles (nano-hydrogels) to use these materials in the field of biomedicine, as an alternative to achieve controlled release of anticancer drugs.