Interesting and Cool Science in the News – February 2024

Steeped: Chemistry of Tea (book cover)

After U.K. Hot Water, Michelle Francl Enjoys a Cuppa with Chemistry (Bryn Mawr News, January 30, 2024)

Artificial ‘power plants’ harness energy from wind and rain (ACS Press Release, January 17, 2024)

Atomic dance gives rise to a magnet (NSF Research News, January 11, 2024)

Bacteria stitch exotic building blocks into novel proteins (Science, January 11, 2024)

Can autoimmune diseases be cured? Scientists see hope at last (Nature News, January 23, 2024)

Clusters of atmospheric rivers amp up California storm damages (Stanford News, January 19, 2024)

Combining cell types may lead to improved cardiac cell therapy following heart attack (NSF Research News, January 18, 2024)

‘Diamond rain’ on icy planets offers clues into magnetic field mysteries (SLAC News, January 8, 2024)

Drones capture new clues about how water shapes mountain ranges (NSF Research News, January 23, 2024)

Final supernova results from Dark Energy Survey offer unique insights into the expansion of the universe (SLAC News, January 12, 2024)

Forming ice: There’s a fungal protein for that (NSF Research News, January 16, 2024)

The future of digital health (podcast plus transcript) (Stanford Engineering, January 12, 2024)

Gene therapies that let deaf children hear bring hope—and many questions (Science News, January 26, 2024)

Glowing COVID-19 diagnostic test prototype produces results in one minute (ACS Press Release, January 17, 2024)

Healthy eating and activity reverse aging marker in kids with obesity, Stanford Medicine-led study finds (Stanford Medicine News, January 19, 2024)

Investigating the molecular basis of a nice cup of tea (Chemistry World, January 24, 2024)

Ladies Who Lab: Lesser-Known Women in Science, 1920–1970 (Science History Institute Blog, January 11, 2024)

Media literacy is more than spotting fake news. How one librarian gives teens the tools to decide what to trust (CNN, January 22, 2024)

Meteorite Analysis Shows Earth’s Building Blocks Contained Water (Caltech News, January 9, 2024)

Microbes that gave rise to all plants and animals became multicellular 1.6 billion years ago, tiny fossils reveal (Science News, January 24, 2024)

Microplastics from natural fertilizers are blowing in the wind more often than once thought (ACS Press Release, January 17, 2024)

Molecular Self-Assembly Can “Think” Like a Neural Network (Caltech News, January 18, 2024)

A more eco-friendly facial sheet mask that moisturizes, even though it’s packaged dry (ACS Press Release, January 10, 2024)

More kids are being hospitalized for eating disorders — researchers learned why (Scope blog, Stanford Medicine, January 18, 2024)

The movers and shakers of Stanford’s earthquake center (Stanford Report, January 19, 2024)

New candidate for universal memory is fast, low-power, stable, and long-lasting (Stanford News, January 22, 2024)

New Covid-19 antiviral cuts symptoms by 1.5 days (Chemistry World, January 25, 2024)

New, portable antenna could help restore communication after disasters (Stanford News, January 18, 2024)

New research on microbes expands the known limits for life on Earth and beyond (Stanford News, January 9, 2024)

New study reveals genes that ‘don’t play well together’ in swordtail fish hybrids, driving the development of distinct species (Stanford Humanities & Sciences News, January 12, 2024)

Next-generation batteries could go organic, cobalt-free for long-lasting power (ACS Press Release, January 18, 2024)

A non-allergenic wheat protein for growing better cultivated meat (ACS Press Release, January 29, 2024)

Obesity drugs have another superpower: taming inflammation (Nature News, January 26, 2024)

PFAS flow equally between Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Ocean, study finds (ACS Press Release, January 10, 2024)

‘Plug-and-play’ nanoparticles could make it easier to tackle various biological targets (NSF Research News, January 16, 2024)

Puffed-up MOFs for improved drug delivery (ACS Press Release, January 29, 2024)

Recent advances in medical applications of nanoparticles (ACS Press Release, January 4, 2024)

Researchers add a ‘twist’ to classical material design (SLAC News, January 24, 2024)

Researchers invent new way to stretch diamond for better quantum bits (NSF Research News, January 23, 2024)

Researchers release solar power data software to increase clean energy generation (SLAC News, January 17, 2024)

Rise in Chemical Accidents Should Augment Safety Board Response (Bloomberg Law News, January 10, 2024)

Scientists accidentally create world’s tightest, smallest knot (LiveScience, January 24, 2024)

Scientists observe the formation and transformation of gas-phase ions as it occurs (SLAC News, January 29, 2024)

Seven technologies to watch in 2024 (Nature Technology Feature, January 22, 2024)

Sick of being sick? As respiratory viruses roar back, experts offer guidance (Scope blog, Stanford Medicine, January 23, 2024)

Six Tips to Take the “Ack!” Out of Feedback (Stanford Magazine, January 16, 2024)

‘Smart speaker’ shows potential for better self-management of Type 2 diabetes (Stanford Medicine News, January 19, 2024)

Stanford study reveals mechanisms behind how growing cells maintain their mojo by scaling up biosynthesis (Stanford News, January 22, 2024)

Teaching Nature to Break Man-made Chemical Bonds (Caltech News, January 25, 2024)

This fast-living marsupial chooses sex over sleep — and dies young (Nature News, January 25, 2024)

Using magnetized neurons to treat Parkinson’s disease symptoms (ACS Press Release, January 18, 2024)

Using NLP [natural language processing] to Detect Mental Health Crises (Stanford Human Centered Artificial Intelligence, January 8, 2024)

Visionary chemistry is making labs accessible to blind students and researchers (Chemistry World, January 12, 2024)

Watch a robot made of muscle and steel turn on a dime (Science News, January 26, 2024)

Water Batteries: Pumped storage hydropower plants can bank energy for times when wind and solar power fall short (Science News, January 25, 2024)

What does your dog’s tail wag really mean? (Science News, January 16, 2024)

‘Wildly weird’ RNA bits discovered infesting the microbes in our guts (Nature News, January 29, 2024)

Zoom In… or Out? Jonathan Levav on Why Face-to-Face Meetings Matter (Insights by Stanford Business, January 24, 2024)

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