Nanoparticles make solar cells cheaper to manufacture

Buriak and her team have designed nanoparticles that absorb light and conduct electricity from two very common elements: phosphorus and zinc. Both materials are more plentiful than scarce materials such as cadmium and free from manufacturing restrictions imposed on lead-based nanoparticles."Half the world already lives off the grid, and with demand for electrical power expected to double by the year 2050, it is important that renewable energy sources like solar power are made more affordable by lowering the costs of manufacturing," Buriak said.Her team's research supports a promising approach of making solar cells cheaply using mass manufacturing methods like roll-to-roll printing (as with newspaper presses) or spray-coating (similar to automotive painting). "Nanoparticle-based 'inks' could be used to literally paint or print solar cells or precise compositions," Buriak said.The team was able to develop a synthetic method to make zinc phosphide nanoparticles and demonstrated that the particles can be dissolved to form an ink and processed to make thin films that are responsive to light.Buriak and her team are now experimenting with the nanoparticles, spray-coating them onto large solar cells to test their efficiency. The team has applied for a provisional patent and has secured funding to enable the next step to scale-up manufacture.

Diet food making you fat

DIET ICE CREAM

THE idea of an ice cream that is lighter, sugar free or has low/ no fat was every dieters dream, which ice cream manufacturers didn’t take long to translate into reality. Amul's Slim Scoop, Diet Scoop, Dairy Den, Havmor's Vanilla, or Vadilal’s or Mother Diary's Dietz are some of the ice creams marketed as diet products.

DIET CHOCOLATES

FAT and sugar free chocolates are a dream come true for chocoholics on a weight loss regime. There are also fat free chocolate pudding cups, which claim to have only 35 calories compared to 80 calories in the regular pudding. However, experts have a different take on this.

"Don't get into the trap of no-fat chocolates. When manufacturers remove the sweet stuff, they add fat. These might also contain the element, sorbitol, which can cause health problems like bloating and diarrhea.

LOW FAT BUTTER

CONSUMPTION of low fat butter is of course any day a better choice than the regular stuff but too much of that can make you fat too. Nutralite and Amul Lite, the low calorie bread spreads are a popular choice among the health conscious. These are cholesterol free, low in saturated fats.

DIET SNACKS

GO TO any of the urban supermarkets, and you won’t miss those ubiquitous fat free sweets, jams, muffins and bhujias . All these, promising you to take on guilt free trip! But beware, as most of these snacks are also sugar and fat bombs in disguise.

Gorge on them, yes, but not with false hopes, warn experts.

Food Types for Healthy Hair

When your hair starts falling off like dry straws, what can you do?

First, it would help to locate the various reasons for hair loss. Studies have revealed that men lose hair for some common reasons, like:

• Improper diet,


• Lack of proper vitamins,


• Genetic factors,


• Excessive stress, anxiety and worries,


• Prolonged illnesses like typhoid, anemia, dysentery, jaundice etc,


• Poor blood circulation, and


• Unclean scalps.

1. Your scalp needs nutrition. So get plenty of fluids like buttermilk, lime juice and coconut water. Drink at least 8-10 glasses of water every day!


2. One bowl of sprouted pulses for would be great.


3. Proteins. Eat chicken and egg each day.


4. Reduce you daily intake of tea and coffee.


5. When you are washing hair, use a teaspoon of lime juice for the last rinse. That make your hair lustrous while protecting it from dandruff.


6. You are never too old for milk. Drink two glasses of skimmed milk for maximum benefits.


7. Apply a paste of methi seeds on your scalp for half an hour once every week, and drink methi water on empty stomachs.


8. Remember how the age old sadhus survived on fruits? No wonder that they had such long hair! Eat at least 2 or 3 fruits every day like strawberries, bananas, apples, mangoes, chikoos, and grapes.


9. Go green- eat a lot of vegetables, munch away on that iron laden spinach.


10. It is better to have more faith in white meat. Fish, chicken and egg can do wonders for your hair! Try to stay away from red meat.

Five Healthy Foods to Eat at your Workstation

Fruits
Not only they help you conquer that “false hunger”, they are also brimming with nutrients which are needed to keep you going all day. You can choose between apples, bananas, mangoes, oranges, papayas etc. but make sure you carry some fruits to the office on a daily basis.

Cup of Green Tea

Polyphenols, one of the major ingredients of green tea, is known to help repair the damaged DNA and stimulate the immune system. Besides, research shows that green tea also helps in reducing the risk of cancers, including skin cancer and prostate cancer.

Walnuts

Some new researches have pointed out that walnuts have more (and better quality) antioxidants than almonds, peanuts, pistachios and many other nuts. All nuts have been found to improve lipids and can reduce the risk of heart diseases. Walnuts have also been found to enhance cognitive and motor function in animals with Alzheimer's. Experts recommend seven walnuts a day.

Popcorn

If there ever was a list of healthy snacks, this is definitely going to be on the list. In fact, many say that popcorn is the healthiest snack available. It is 100 percent whole grain and is big on fiber and antioxidants. If you can air-pop your popcorn and add a minimal quantity of salt, you'd have the best popcorn, say experts. If your office has a microwave, just make sure you bring a pack of low sodium popcorn to work.

Dark Chocolate

This, too, contains those powerful antioxidants called Polyphenols which combat the risk factors (like oxidation of LDL cholesterol) for heart diseases and also inhibit clotting. Studies have also indicated that consuming a small bar of dark chocolate daily can reduce blood pressure in people with mild hypertension. Caffeine, another active ingredient of dark chocolate, can give you that much-required kick and a boost in concentration levels.

Stem Cell Assays

Stem cell therapy development is an exciting area of research that promises the future treatment of many diseases. Since this area in drug development is in its infancy, there are many hurdles to overcome. The scientists at Marin Biologic are here to assist you in the many phases of your stem cell therapy development. We can culture adult or embryonic stem cells and monitor the differentiation markers for your therapy development. Please think of Marin Biologic as your stem cell research laboratory.

Microenvironment may contribute to stem cell "homing" events or differentiation. Our scientists can study microenvironments, whether generated in culture or from exogeneous tissue, and their effects on stem cell differentiation using in vitro methods. Transfecting adult or embryonic stem cells with a genetic marker to follow their "homing activities" can be performed prior to inoculation in vivo. Development of "homing" stem cells as a delivery vehicle for cancer therapy can be undertaken at Marin Biologic. Replacement therapy for hormone, cytokines and metabolic intermediates can be implemented using stem cell therapy. Insulin production is a key target for diabetes therapy using stem cells because of their "normal" detection of glucose levels and "normal" synthesis and release of insulin. Our scientists can help you to develop stems cells that synthesize your therapeutic molecule by initiating differentiation and monitoring specific production.

To implement stem cell therapy, there must be many levels of investigation ranging from the cell culture of stem cells, triggering differentiation, expanding stem cell cultures to large scale cultures for replacement therapy, determining whether immunocompatibility of embryonic stem cells is retained for transplant, down regulating HLA molecules in adult stem cells, etc. The scientists at Marin Biologic are very experienced and creative in cell biology and can bridge this field with molecular biology and biochemistry for potential cell therapy and assay development.

CELL BASED ASSAY

Cell-based assay or bioassay development can range from cytotoxic assays including apoptosis to cell proliferation and metabolic assays. Cell-based assay development can also include high throughput screening assays and other custom bioassays used to characterize drug stability for GLP GMP lot release, drug potency and for drug purification and production support. Mechanisms of action, such as receptor binding, receptor activation, cell signaling, drug internalization and subcellular localization can be delineated in cell-based assays following treatment with your pharmaceuticals. Bioassay development can encompass testing of conditioned medium, cell lysates or whole cells in a variety of formats including ELISA and immunohistochemical methods. Our scientists can grow and differentiate stem cells as well as provide assay development to monitor stem cell differentiation using specific gene expression.

Human Genome (DNA) by Numbers (statistics)

Cells in the human bodY - 75-100 trillion Base pairs in each cell -3.1 billion
Base pairs in the largest human gene (dystrophin) -2.4 million
Genes in the human genome - 28,000-35,000
Chromosomes in each cell - 46

Human DNA measurements: DNA helix diameter - 20-26 Ångström2.0-2.6 Nanometers
Distance between base pairs - 3.3-3.4 Ångström0.33-0.34 Nanometers
Length of one helix turn - 33-34 Ångströమ - 3.3-3.4 Nanometers
Number of base pairs in one helix turn - 10

How Human DNA compares to other species:
Below we listed a number of species and their DNA properties like number of chromosomes, genes and base pairs and how they differentiate in comparison to human DNA.

species CHROMOSOMES GENES BASEPAIRS
Human (Homo sapiens)
46 (23 pairs)
23,686
~3.1 billion
Mouse (Mus musculus)
40
23,786
~2.7 billion
Pufferfish (Takifugu rubripes)
44
~31,000
~365 million
Malaria Mosquito (Anopheles gambiae)
6
~14,000
~289 million
Sea Squirt (Ciona intestinalis)
28
~16,000
~160 million
Fruit Fly (Drosophila melanogaster)
8
~14,000
~137 million
Roundworm (Caenorhabditis elegans)
12
~19,000
~97 million
Bacterium (Escherichia coli)
(1)
~5,000
~4.1 million

ANIMAL
Percentage of human DNA
Chimpanzee
96.0%
Orang Utan
96.4%
Gorilla
97.7%
Bonobo
98.4%
Mice
70-98.5%