Windows with transparent photovoltaic modules or façades in which microalgae are being bred to provide the house with its own biofuel are just some of the aspects buildings of the future could feature. 

A new international research effort, coordinated by  Friedrich Schiller University in Jena’s materials scientist Lothar Wondraczek, is aiming to change this. In the project ‘Large-Area Fluidic Windows – LaWin’ the scientists intend to develop functional façades and window modules, together with an integrated production process to achieve an as to yet unmatched readiness to market.

Metamaterials have long held promise for extraordinary properties when it comes to diverting and controlling waves, especially sound and light: for instance, at the right optical frequency, they can make an object invisible, or increase the resolving power of a lens.

A new project has created three-dimensional metamaterials by combining physico-chemical formulation and microfluidics technology, making soft metamaterials that are easier to shape. In their experiment, the researchers got ultrasonic oscillations to move backwards while the energy carried by the wave moved forwards.

Examples of poisonings due to people mistakenly picking and consuming poisonous botanicals in the wild made it clear that, contrary to claims by an alarming number of nutritionists and supplement sales compnies, natural does not mean safe.

Nature has always been just as toxic as any synthetic chemical and people being sold botanicals need public awareness, and they won't get it from the people making money off of their lack of knowledge.

When health problems occur, medical professionals also need better awareness of negative health consequences related to consuming certain botanicals – both acute effects and adverse effects due to prolonged use – to ensure such effects can be reported and factored into risk assessments.

For some Medicare patients, the prognosis was better when cardiologists were away from the hospital attending national cardiology meetings.

Anupam B. Jena, M.D., Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School, Boston, and coauthors analyzed differences in 30-day mortality and treatment such as angioplasty (also known as percutaneous coronary intervention, PCI) among Medicare patients hospitalized for heart attack (acute myocardial infarction, AMI), heart failure or cardiac arrest from 2002 to 2011 during the dates of two national cardiology meetings compared with identical non-meeting dates in the three weeks before and after conferences.  

The grape escape. Shutterstock

By Mohit Kumar Jolly, Rice University

Launched in 1959, named after the inventor’s daughter Barbara, and owned by 99% of 3-10 year old girls in the USA, Barbie has been a popular request on young girls’ Christmas wish lists for 55 years.

So, should we buy them? What are these toys teaching our young girls? Barbie has been blamed for causing body image issues and even eating disorders. She has even been said to be perpetuating gender stereotypes that lead to domestic violence and the gender pay gap. But are they really all that bad?

Scam artists often prey on older people and that has fed the perception that when it comes to important financial decisions, getting old means having less competence.

Not so, according to new work using credit scores and cognitive ability tests, which instead found evidence that "crystallized intelligence" - gained through experience and accumulated knowledge - is more important that "fluid intelligence," the ability to think logically and process new information.

Past research has found that fluid intelligence decreases with old age and so being a senior citizen means being resigned to "cognitive decline."

Being obese brings with it a greater risk of heart disease, but patients who are obese before developing heart failure live longer than normal weight patients with the same condition, an 'obesity paradox' that is still unexplained.

Using data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, researchers looked at body mass index before the initial diagnosis of heart failure in 1,487 patients and followed them for 10 years, comparing the survival rates of obese, overweight and normal weight patients after the development of heart failure. The majority of patients included in the study were overweight (35 percent) or obese (47 percent) prior to their initial diagnosis of heart failure.

Use of a light-emitting electronic device like an iPad in the hours before bedtime can adversely impact overall health, alertness, and the circadian clock which synchronizes the daily rhythm of sleep to external environmental time cues, according to a new study which compared the biological effects of reading an light-emitting electronic device (LE-eBook) to a printed book. 

Rabbits can strip grasslands bare and chew through young woody trees. John Schilling/Flickr, CC BY-ND

By Andrew Bengsen, University of New England

On Christmas Day 1859, the Victoria Acclimatisation Society released 24 rabbits for hunting, to help settlers feel more at home.