oxygen

Kidney transplants: Electric field keeps cells powered up while organs are on ice

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Organs soon run out of energy while they are between donor and recipient, but an electric field could keep them running and improve survival Health 9 March 2022 By Clare Wilson Microscope images showing tissue damage in human donor kidneys without electrical treatment (top left and right) and less damage with treatment (bottom left and … Read more

The Iron of Earth’s Inner Core Could Be in a Strange ‘Superionic’ State, Study Finds

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Deep below the crust of Earth, past the thick mantle and liquid outer core, lies a 1,220-kilometer (760 mile) ball of solid inner core. But a new study has suggested that the inner core is not solid at all, instead forming a ‘superionic state’ with hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, making it unlike either a liquid … Read more

Earth’s Ancient ‘Supermountains’ May Have Been Crucial For Life as We Know It

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Once, there were giants. Mountain ranges that rivaled the Himalayas in height used to stretch thousands upon thousands of kilometers across the seams of merging supercontinents, billions of years in the past.   Like the teeth of decrepit old gods, they’ve long been worn down to their roots by time and decay. But in those … Read more

Marie Paulze Lavoisier | French chemist and noblewoman

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Marie Paulze was only 13 when she married the wealthy French lawyer Antoine Lavoisier, and she immediately started learning English so that she could act as the scientific go-between for his true passion in life – chemistry. Soon she was presiding over one of Paris’s most influential salons, hosting visitors such as Benjamin Franklin and James Watt. Relying … Read more

Microbes in The Ocean Depths Can Make Oxygen Without Sun. This Discovery Could Be Huge

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For most of life on Earth, oxygen is essential, and sunlight is usually needed to produce that oxygen. But in an exciting twist, researchers have caught a common, ocean-dwelling microbe breaking all the rules.   Scientists have found that a microbe called Nitrosopumilus maritimus and several of its cousins, called ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA), are able to … Read more

We May Have Seriously Underestimated How Hostile Conditions on Early Earth Were

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Scientists have been doing some great work when it comes to peering back through billions of years to figure out what ancient Earth would have looked like, and a new study reveals that the earliest conditions on our planet were probably even more hostile than originally imagined.   In particular, researchers now think that we’ve … Read more

This Mysterious Fire in Australia Has Been Burning For at Least 6,000 Years

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In a national park a four-hour drive north of Sydney in Australia, a fire is smoldering out of control – and it’s been doing so for at least 6,000 years. Known as ‘Burning Mountain’, the mysterious underground blaze is the oldest known fire on the planet. And some scientists estimate it may be far more … Read more

Rectal breathing: Ventilation alternative increases blood oxygen levels in pigs

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Flushing trillions of tiny oxygen bubbles through the rectum increases blood oxygen in pigs and could be an alternative to ventilation for people with damaged lungs Health 15 December 2021 By Michael Le Page Pigs recover from low blood oxygen levels after bubbles are injected into their rectum Tyler Stableford Photography/Getty Images The injection of … Read more

There’s a Cancer Treatment That Gives People ‘Night Vision’. Here’s How

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Among all the different types of cancer treatment, photodynamic therapy – where light is used to destroy malignant cells – might have one of the strangest side effects: Patients are often better able to see in the dark.   Last year, researchers finally figured out why this happens: Rhodopsin, a light-sensitive protein in the retinas in our eyes, interacts with … Read more