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The material in question is called a polyamide, a threaded-up network of amide molecular units (amides are chemical groups of nitrogen attached to an oxygen-bound carbon atom). This class of polymers includes the fiber Kevlar, which is used to make bulletproof vests, and the fire-resistant fabric Nomex. Like Kevlar, the polyamide molecules in this new material tether to each other via hydrogen bonding all along the lengths of their chains, thereby reinforcing the material’s overall strength....

Those flowers with long and thin stems proved to be the most attractive to insects and produced the most seeds. The scientists concluded their swaying motions made them most visible among others. There are practical limits, however. Those flowers with terribly long stems moved too much to allow insects to make a stable landing and so were generally avoided. Similarly, the flowers with shorter stems were less visited since they were hard to differentiate from the crowd....

With all our product stories, the goal is simple: more information about the stuff you’re thinking about buying. We may sometimes get a cut from a purchase, but if something shows up on one of our pages, it’s because we like it. Period.

Fusion, the main reaction that powers stars, occurs when two atoms fuse their nuclei together, releasing an outburst of energy in the process. In labs, physicists can channel an immense amount of energy through laser beams to trigger fusion, but it takes much more energy than what you get out of it—hardly a viable energy generator. For nuclear scientists, the ultimate goal is ignition, when energy from fusion surpasses the energy fed into the process....

On Sunday, for the first time since March, New York City’s Department of Health reported no deaths from COVID-19, a much-needed breath of fresh air in a region that was once the epicenter of the US coronavirus pandemic. However, across the nation, coronavirus case counts vary widely, showing the stark differences in how different regions are handling the pandemic. The number of positive case counts continues to surge in southern and southwestern states....

As scientists around the world race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, researchers at Oxford University have now pulled into the lead. The team recently began testing a vaccine candidate in people that—if effective—could possibly become available as early as September, the New York Times reported on April 27. That would be well before any other vaccine effort currently underway is expected to reach the finish line. The researchers were able to move swiftly because they had already developed a vaccine candidate for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), a virulent respiratory disease caused by another member of the coronavirus family....

Pfizer applied for approval back in early May of 2021, submitting updated data from an ongoing Phase III clinical trial which included roughly 44,000 participants from the United States as well as Europe, South Africa, and pockets of South America. The most recent data showed the vaccine was 91 percent effective in fully preventing a COVID-19 infection. This number was slightly lower than when the company applied for emergency-use authorization back in late 2020, which showed it to be 95 percent effective at preventing infection....

Researchers at the University of California, Davis and the University of Iowa wanted to understand how pathologists are able to refine their cancer-identification skills over time, and what are the most important features and properties that help them make an accurate diagnosis. To figure it out, the scientists trained pigeons to distinguish between healthy and malignant tissue, since humans and pigeons share many of the same visual systems. And the pigeons were surprisingly good at it, according to a study published today in PLOS One....

Football Quarterbacks will throw spirals more easily with the Baden Perfection than with other pigskins. The ball slopes at a steeper-than-normal 49.3-degree angle from the stripe to the nose, which forces the player’s index finger to grip the center of the ball more tightly. That centralized pressure helps initiate stronger spins. Baden Perfection F7000L Football $60 Jersey The fit of the new NFL uniforms, made by Nike for 2012, is as pro grade as its price tag, leaving almost no loose fabric for opponents to grab....

If you are someone who is interested in being prepared in even the most extreme of conditions, then you are in luck. Right now you can purchase the American Red Cross FRX3+ Multi-Powered Weather Alert Radio at a tremendously discounted rate. The American Red Cross FRX3+ is a crank-powered, rechargeable weather radio with solar panel and hand turbine generation to keep you at the ready for any sort of emergency or disaster....

A new study led by researchers at the University of Minnesota shows that PM2.5 air pollution from food production, the majority of which is created in animal-based food production, results in 15,900 deaths each year in the United States. “Air quality is the largest environmental health risk in the US and worldwide,” says Jason Hill, a professor of bioproducts and biosystems engineering at the University of Minnesota and study author, “and about a fifth of all anthropogenic deaths from air pollution are attributable to the food system and agriculture....

However, the biologists found that sharks were thriving in a few countries. Those nations used sanctuaries and other conservation strategies, which the researchers think may be playing a significant role in restoring shark populations elsewhere that have taken a hit, the researchers reported on July 22 in the journal Nature. “There are certain places where the shark population seems to be in reasonably good shape but…that’s probably not an accident,” says Michael Berumen, a professor of marine science at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia and coauthor of the new findings....

But the hullabaloo raised another point: when did moderate drinking stop being good for us? It wasn’t long ago that the court of public opinion held that a glass of cabernet with dinner wasn’t just okay for you, it was actively good for you. Yet it seems like opinion is shifting. Suddenly moderate drinking is unhealthy. What happened? Tim Naimi, a physician and epidemiologist at Boston University School of Medicine and Public Health who’s studied this subject for many years, says he isn’t sure why public perception seems to be shifting now....

Here’s why. If, as the narrator informs us, the car achieves a takeoff speed of 280 mph, then using the equations of projectile motion, we can easily calculate that without air resistance (estimating a launch angle of about 30 degrees) the maximum distance the car could achieve is around 1500 meters, or just short of a mile. (I’ll leave it to those of you with a little physics background to confirm this is true....

Whether you’re off the grid or recovering from a natural disaster, the SatPaq from Higher Ground, a 2019 CES Innovation Award Honoree, helps you stay in contact with the rest of the world and get help in an emergency. The SatPaq ($249) is a credit card sized accessory that clips onto your smartphone and can send and receive texts, transmitting your messages 23,000 miles into space and on to its destination....

Here are the most explosive Fire TV streaming device deals: Fire TV Omni Series 75-inch $749.99 (Was $1,099.99) Three HDMI inputs allow you to connect to cable or satellite and video game consoles, and the HDMI eARC lets you easily integrate compatible audio equipment for enhanced sound. You can do this all securely with built-in privacy protections and controls, including a switch that electronically disconnects the microphones. Keep the microphones on and you’ll get full Alexa control, which can integrate the TV into a full-blown smart home system....

Here are some office essentials that qualify for the Stock Up & Save discount:

The emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) is a deceptively attractive metallic-green adult beetle with a red abdomen. But few people ever actually see the insect itself – just the trail of destruction it leaves behind under the bark of ash trees. These insects, which are native to Asia and Russia, were first discovered in Michigan in 2002. Since then they have spread to 35 states and become the most destructive and costly invasive wood-boring insect in U....

The study was conducted by Tanjila Alam and Pawan S. Takhar from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In it, they cut russet potatoes into tiny 45-millimeter diameter, 1.65-millimeter thick disks and then deep fried them in soybean oil. So, think of them as little crispy potato chips for science. The potato samples were fried in 190 degrees Celsius oil for 0, 20, 40, 60, or 80 seconds. After that, the fried potatoes were subjected to X-ray micro-computed tomography, which creates a micro 3D image of the sample without destroying it....

Teaching your kids to code is a fantastic way to set them up for the future. And instead of sending them to school to memorize syntax, you can trust CodeSpark to instill in them the necessary skills to be an efficient programmer. Named as the #1 learn-to-code app, this award-winning platform is specifically created to help kids learn and love coding by igniting their curiosity in STEM. For a limited time, you can get a 3-month subscription for 66 percent off....