National Institute of Standards and Technology Sensor Experts Invent Supercool Mini-Thermometer

National Institute of Standards and Technology Sensor Experts Invent Supercool Mini-Thermometer | site |



(Information contained in National Institute of Standards and Technology [NIST] press release: November 17, 2020)

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have invented a miniature thermometer with big potential applications, such as monitoring the temperature of processor chips in superconductor-based quantum computers, which must stay cold to work properly.

NIST’s superconducting thermometer measures temperatures below 1 kelvin (minus 272.15 C or minus 457.87 F), down to 50 ...

Envision color: Activity Patterns in the Brain are Specific to the Color You See | site |


NIH research findings reveal new aspects of visual processing.


(November 16, 2020) - - Today the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published the following information: Researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) have decoded brain maps of human color perception. The findings, published today in Current Biology, open a window into how color processing is organized in the brain, and how the brain recognizes and groups colors in the environment. The study may have implications for the development of machine-brain interfaces for visual prosthetics. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health. “This is one of the first studies to determine what color a person is seeing based on direct measurements of brain activity,” said Bevil Conway, Ph.D., chief of NEI’s Unit on Sensation, Cognition and Action, who led the study. “The approach lets us get at...

Library of Congress to Host Experts on Mapping COVID-19 Pandemic for GIS Day 2020 | site |


(November 10, 2020) - - On November 10, 2020 the Library of Congress (LOC) published the following information: The Library of Congress will mark GIS Day on Nov. 18 with special programs featuring geographic information science professionals and analysts who are documenting the outbreak of COVID-19. For cartographers and epidemiologists tracking the spread, evolution and mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as well as the distribution of a potential vaccine and personal protective equipment, the outbreak of COVID-19 has presented a geospatial analysis challenge like none other. Experts from multiple institutions will discuss their findings and examine how mapping and geographic information science technologies are helping public health officials, emergency rooms, epidemiologists and the general public as they struggle to understand the spread of the disease and work to allocate...

National Institutes of Health says Cardiac Arrest Treatment that uses Life Support Machine boosts Survival | site |


(November 13, 2020) - - Today the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published the following information:

Using a life support machine to replicate the functions of the heart and lungs significantly improved the survival of people who suffered from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, according to a new study published today in The Lancet . The treatment program involving the life support machine called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) proved so much more effective than the standard treatment for this usually fatal condition that the trial was stopped early after enrolling just 30 of the expected 165 patients. The study, known as the Advanced Reperfusion Strategies for Refractory Cardiac Arrest (ARREST) trial, was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health. It found th...

National Institute of Standards and Technology says New Airflow Videos Show Why Masks With Exhalation Valves Do Not Slow the Spread of COVID-19 | site |



(November 10, 2020) - - On November 10, 2020 the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published the following information:

Many people wear masks in public to slow the spread of COVID-19, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, masks with exhalation valves do not slow the spread of the disease, and now, new videos from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) show why.

The videos, which show airflow patterns through masks with and without exhalation valves, were created by NIST research engineer Matthew Staymates. The videos were published, along with an accompanying research article, in the journal Physics of Fluids.



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National Institute of Standards and Technology researches Room Temperature Conversion of CO2 to CO: A New Way to Synthesize Hydrocarbons | site |


NIST says new method could potentially reduce carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere and slash costs of chemical manufacturing.


(November 2, 2020) - - On November 2, 2020 the National Institute of Standards and Technology published the following information: Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have demonstrated a room-temperature method that could significantly reduce carbon dioxide levels in fossil-fuel power plant exhaust, one of the main sources of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Although the researchers demonstrated this method in a small-scale, highly controlled environment with dimensions of just nanometers (billionths of a meter), they have already come up with concepts for scaling up the method and making it practical for real-w...

U.S. Department of Energy to Provide $32 Million to Develop Advanced Chemical Sciences Software| site |


(November 2, 2020) - - On November 2, 2020 the U.S. Department of Energy published the following information: WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced plans to provide up to $32 million for research to advance the development of sophisticated software for the chemical sciences. The effort aims to take advantage of the DOE national laboratories’ rapidly advancing supercomputing capabilities, including emerging exascale systems capable of a billion-billion operations per second, to accelerate the discovery and development of chemical mechanisms for a wide variety of potential applications. “The DOE national laboratories host some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world,” said Dr. Chris Fall, Director of DOE’s Office of Science. “This research will harness these extraordinary capabilities to advance our underst...

Scientists use Clues in the Human Genome to Discover new Inflammatory Syndrome | site |




(October 27, 2020) - - On October 27, 2020, the National Institutes of Health published the following information:

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have discovered a new inflammatory disorder called vacuoles, E1 enzyme, X-linked, autoinflammatory and somatic syndrome (VEXAS), which is caused by mutations in the UBA1 gene. VEXAS causes symptoms that included blood clots in veins, recurrent fevers, pulmonary abnormalities and vacuoles (unusual cavity-like structures) in myeloid cells. The scientists reported their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Nearly 125 million people in the U.S. live with some form of a chronic inflammatory disease. Many of these diseases have overlapping symptoms, which often make it difficult for researchers to diagnose the specific inflammatory disease in a given patient. ...

National Institutes of Health says the Gut trains the Immune System to Protect the Brain| site |



Gut-trained immune cells at CNS borders guard against meningitis and other infections.


(November 5, 2020) - - Today, November 5, 2020, the National Institutes of Health published the following information: The membranes surrounding our brains are in a never-ending battle against deadly infections, as germs constantly try to elude watchful immune cells and sneak past a special protective barrier called the meninges. In a study involving mice and human autopsy tissue, researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Cambridge University have shown that some of these immune cells are trained to fight these infections by first spending time in the gut. “This finding opens a new area of neuroimmunology, showing that gut-educated antibody-producing cells inhabit and defend regions that surround the central nervous system,” said Dorian McGavern, P...

National Institutes of Health Scientists discover Key Pathway in Lysosomes that Coronaviruses use to Exit Cells | site |



Targeting cells’ ‘trash compactor’ could lead to new antiviral strategy to fight COVID-19.


(October 28, 2020) - - Today, October 28, 2020, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published the following information:

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered a biological pathway that the novel coronavirus appears to use to hijack and exit cells as it spreads through the body. A better understanding of this important pathway may provide vital insight in stopping the transmission of the virus—SARS-CoV-2—which causes COVID-19 disease.

In cell studies, the researchers showed for the first time that the coronavirus can exit infected cells through the lysosome, an organelle known as the cells’ ...