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Purdue University scientists led a comprehensive analysis of research concerning the effects of microplastics on aquatic life, with the results showing widely different impacts among different types of animals. Strong negative effects were particularly apparent for small animals, such as larval fish and zooplankton, a source of food for many species, suggesting serious potential consequences that could ripple throughout the food web.

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Surfaces that repel water can support efficient boiling if all air and vapor is removed from a system first, according to research featured on the cover of the most recent issue of Physical Review Letters.

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An ancient horse burial at Tombos along the Nile River Valley shows that a member of the horse family thousands of years ago was more important to the culture than previously thought, which provides a window into human-animal relationships more than 3,000 years ago.

The research findings are published in Antiquity, and reported by the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Tombos horse was discovered in 2011, and members of the Purdue team – professor Michele Buzon and alumna Sarah Schrader – played a part in the excavation and analysis. The horse is dated to the Third Intermediate Period, 1050-728 B.C.E., and it was found more than 5 feet underground in a tomb. The horse, with some chestnut-colored fur remaining, had been buried in a funeral position with a burial shroud.

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A new algorithm makes interpreting the results of cryo-electron microscopy maps easier and more accurate, helping researchers to determine protein structures and potentially create drugs that block their functions.

Cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM, uses electron beams to obtain 3-D images of biomolecular structures. The use of this technique has skyrocketed in recent years due to technolgical advancements, but as cryo-EM gains steam in the field, additional tools are needed to interpret the images it outputs.

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Purdue researchers have helped design a compact switch that enables light to be more reliably confined to small computer chip components for faster information processing.

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Purdue researchers have developed an online platform that enables first responders to monitor emergency situations using tweets and Instagram posts.

Called the Social Media Analytics and Reporting Toolkit (SMART), the browser-based platform filters social media content according to key words and geographic regions defined by the user.

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A cross-like shape helps the electrodes of implantable neurostimulation devices to deliver more charge to specific areas of the nervous system, possibly prolonging device life span, says research published in March in Nature Scientific Reports.

The shape, called “fractal,” would be particularly useful for stimulating smaller areas, such as deep brain structures or the retina, since it maximizes perimeter within a smaller surface area – providing the higher resolution needed for restoring bodily functions and potentially enabling neurostimulation devices to last longer in the body without a recharge.

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Less than half the patients diagnosed with cancer respond favorably to chemotherapy, but a new method for testing how patients will respond to various drugs could pave the way for more personalized treatment.

Using Doppler light scattering, like a weather radar, researchers can determine how a patient will respond to chemotherapy even before they begin treatment.

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Purdue University researchers Jean-Christophe “Chris” Rochet and Dr. Riyi Shi say their discovery of a key factor in the development of Parkinson’s disease could lead to new therapies, potentially including drugs currently on the market; it could facilitate earlier diagnosis and prevention of the neurological disorder. (Purdue University photo/Alex Kumar)

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Purdue researchers collaborated in a Rice University-led study detecting a quantum shift that results from the strong coupling of light and an ultra-high mobility two-dimensional electron gas rotating in opposite directions.

The work, published on April 16 in Nature Photonics, describes a system predicted to go into a new ground state (or state of lowest energy) that physicists could use to study phase transitions and possibly harness for the development of quantum bits for advanced computing. Researchers found that inducing strong coupling of light and matter in the form of a two-dimensional electron gas leads to a quantum interaction of counter-rotating fields called the Bloch-Siegert shift.

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