Aerogels have been considered as an ideal material for thermal insulation. Unfortunately, their application in textiles is greatly limited by their fragility and poor processability. We overcame these issues by encapsulating the aerogel fiber with a stretchable layer, mimicking the core-shell structure of polar bear hair. Despite its high internal porosity over 90%, our fiber is stretchable up to 1000% strain, which is greatly improved compared with that of traditional aerogel fibers (~2% strain). In addition to its washability and dyeability, our fiber is mechanically robust, retaining its stable thermal insulation property after 10,000 stretching cycles (100% strain). A sweater knitted with our fiber was only one-fifth as thick as down, with similar performance. Our strategy for this fiber provides rich possibilities for developing multifunctional aerogel fibers and textiles.
信息技術Information Technology
Are cryptocurrencies currencies? Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador
A currency’s essential feature is to be a medium of exchange. This study explores the potential of cryptocurrencies to be used in daily transactions in El Salvador, the first country to make bitcoin legal tender. The government’s “big push” introduced “Chivo Wallet,” a digital wallet sharing features with Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), with perks to use it for trading bitcoins and US dollars. Through a nationally representative, face-to-face survey of 1800 households and blockchain data encompassing all Chivo Wallet transactions, we document a pattern of low and decreasing usage of digital payments and bitcoin. Privacy and security concerns are key adoption barriers, which speaks to a policy debate on crypto and CBDCs with anonymity at its core. Additionally, we estimate Chivo Wallet’s adoption cost and complementarities among adopters.
化學Chemistry
Autonomous, multiproperty-driven molecular discovery: From predictions to measurements and back
We demonstrated two case studies on dye-like molecules, targeting absorption wavelength, lipophilicity, and photooxidative stability. In the first study, the platform experimentally realized 294 unreported molecules across three automatic iterations of molecular design-make-test-analyze cycles while exploring the structure-function space of four rarely reported scaffolds. In each iteration, the property prediction models that guided exploration learned the structure-property space of diverse scaffold derivatives, which were realized with multistep syntheses and a variety of reactions. The second study exploited property models trained on the explored chemical space and previously reported molecules to discover nine top-performing molecules within a lightly explored structure-property space.
社會學Sociology
Highlighting health consequences of racial disparities sparks support for action
Racial disparities arise across many vital areas of American life, including employment, health, and interpersonal treatment. For example, one in three Black children lives in poverty (versus one in nine white children), and, on average, Black Americans live four fewer years compared with white Americans. Which disparity is more likely to spark reduction efforts We find that highlighting disparities in health-related (versus economic) outcomes spurs greater social media engagement and support for disparity-mitigating policy. Further, reading about racial health disparities elicits greater support for action (e.g., protesting) compared with economic- or belonging-based disparities. This occurs in part because people view health disparities as violating morally sacred values, which enhances perceived injustice. This work elucidates which manifestations of racial inequality are most likely to prompt Americans to action.
地球科學Earth Science
Genomic evidence for West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse during the Last Interglacial
The marine-based West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is considered vulnerable to irreversible collapse under future climate trajectories, and its tipping point may lie within the mitigated warming scenarios of 1.5° to 2°C of the United Nations Paris Agreement. Knowledge of ice loss during similarly warm past climates could resolve this uncertainty, including the Last Interglacial when global sea levels were 5 to 10 meters higher than today and global average temperatures were 0.5° to 1.5°C warmer than preindustrial levels. Using a panel of genome-wide, single-nucleotide polymorphisms of a circum-Antarctic octopus, we show persistent, historic signals of gene flow only possible with complete WAIS collapse. Our results provide the first empirical evidence that the tipping point of WAIS loss could be reached even under stringent climate mitigation scenarios.
Learning skillful medium-range global weather forecasting