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Study shows how long coronavirus stays alive on common materials
Researchers figure out the infectious periods of coronavirus on cardboard, metal and plastic.
Coronavirus
Photo By BSIP/UIG Via Getty Images
- A new study tested how long coronavirus stays infectious on surfaces like plastic, cardboard and metal as well as air.
- The results show that the virus can live from hours in air to several days on steel.
- The research underscores the importance of cleaning household and hospital areas and objects.
A new study provided some valuable information about how long coronavirus survives on different surfaces, showing that it stays alive for quite a long time on some common materials. As the disease spreads through air and contaminated objects, the findings help understand the measures that need to be taken to contain it.
For the study, the researchers tried to duplicate how a virus could be spread on surfaces by an infected person in a home or hospital setting. They dispensed an aerosol of microscopic droplets on surfaces that could end up contaminated through coughing or touching.
Here's a list of the finding by the scientists, showing how long the coronavirus survives:
AIR (aerosols) - 3 hours
COPPER - 4 hours
CARDBOARD - 24 hours
PLASTIC - 2 to 3 days
STAINLESS STEEL - 2 to 3 days
The study's co-author James Lloyd-Smith, a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, cautioned that the virus is very hard to contain because it is easily "transmissible through relatively casual contact," adding "If you're touching items that someone else has recently handled, be aware they could be contaminated and wash your hands."
Regularly cleaning and disinfecting surfaces around your house and public spaces is also of paramount importance. Neeltje van Doremalen from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which was also involved in the study, recommended using cleaning solutions with diluted bleach as an additional possibility.
6 Steps to Prevent COVID-19
Take steps to lower your risk of getting sick with COVID-19. Here are some things you should do.
The study's full list authors includes UCLA, the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Princeton University.
Check out this research in the New England Journal of Medicine.
What You Need To Know About Handwashing
A brief history of human dignity
What is human dignity? Here's a primer, told through 200 years of great essays, lectures, and novels.
30 November, 2020
Credit: Benjavisa Ruangvaree / AdobeStock
Sponsored by the Institute for Humane Studies
- Human dignity means that each of our lives have an unimpeachable value simply because we are human, and therefore we are deserving of a baseline level of respect.
- That baseline requires more than the absence of violence, discrimination, and authoritarianism. It means giving individuals the freedom to pursue their own happiness and purpose.
- We look at incredible writings from the last 200 years that illustrate the push for human dignity in regards to slavery, equality, communism, free speech and education.
<p>In a <em>New York Times</em> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html" target="_blank">essay</a> published the day of his funeral on July 30, 2020, Congressman John Lewis wrote that his "last days and hours"—in which he watched widespread protests over George Floyd's murder and saw a square in downtown D.C. christened Black Lives Matter Plaza—filled him with hope. "Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity."</p>
<p>Human dignity is a powerful phrase invoked to peacefully protest against violence, discrimination, and authoritarianism. But when we talk about human dignity, what do we mean?</p>
The inherent worth of all human beings
<p>Human dignity is the inherent worth of each individual human being. Recognizing human dignity means respecting human beings' special value—value that sets us apart from other animals; value that is intrinsic and cannot be lost.</p> <p>Liberalism—the broad political philosophy that organizes society around liberty, justice, and equality—is rooted in the idea of human dignity. Liberalism assumes each of our lives, plans, and preferences have some unimpeachable value, not because of any objective evaluation or contribution to a greater good, but simply because they belong to a human being. We are human, and therefore deserving of a baseline level of respect. </p> <p>Because so many of us take human dignity for granted—just a fact of our humanness—it's usually only when someone's dignity is ignored or violated that we feel compelled to talk about it. </p> <p>But human dignity means more than the absence of violence, discrimination, and authoritarianism. It means giving individuals the freedom to pursue their own happiness and purpose—a freedom that can be hampered by restrictive social institutions or the tyranny of the majority. The liberal ideal of the good society is not just peaceful but also pluralistic: It is a society in which we respect others' right to think and live differently than we do.</p>From the 19th century to today
<p>With <a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?year_start=1800&year_end=2019&content=human+dignity&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Chuman%20dignity%3B%2Cc0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google Books Ngram Viewer</a>, we can chart mentions of human dignity from 1800-2019.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDg0ODU0My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTUwMzE4MX0.bu0D_0uQuyNLyJjfRESNhu7twkJ5nxu8pQtfa1w3hZs/img.png?width=980" id="7ef38" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9974c7bef3812fcb36858f325889e3c6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>We can also map human dignity against mentions of liberalism to see that discussion of human dignity increased with discussion of liberalism. </p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDg0ODU0NS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjM0ODMzM30.BzxT9Y1Zg5nE-PuQ2enrBn8FXs3HauET23enIw9rH34/img.png?width=980" id="9a5d2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0f2270501d92035c19cad5fc758b55e1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>Then we can search through individual mentions to find how human dignity was discussed and understood over the last 200 years.</p>
<p>For example, German rabbi Dr. Samuel Hirsch gave a lecture in 1853 on "<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Advocate/s1ccAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22human+dignity%22&pg=PA421&printsec=frontcover" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Religion of Humanity</a>" in which he condemned slavery. "That which we love in ourselves, our true human dignity, compels us to recognize and love the same human dignity in all others," Hirsh said. He wrote:</p>
<p style="margin-left: 20px;">If I can look upon my brother-man as a creature, as a thing void of any will of his own, instead of as a free personality, that furnishes ample proof that I have not yet recognized the true human dignity in myself. To own slaves is spiritual suicide and homicide. This sin is in no way excusable on account of the kind treatment accorded to the slaves by their owner, as he never can treat them humanely. When man becomes a piece of property he is robbed of his human dignity. </p>
<p>In 1917, Kansas State Normal School <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Teaching/JMTSWAhrxSMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22human+dignity%22&pg=RA20-PA16&printsec=frontcover" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">published</a> a journal on teaching that called for instructors to help each pupil "make completer use of his one lifetime" because "an abundant life, a life of awareness, a life of dignity is an undertaking worthy of gods." </p>
<p>Thomas Bell's 1941 novel <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Out_Of_This_Furnace/TWLtI_V5YB4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22human+dignity%22&pg=PA411&printsec=frontcover" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Out of the Furnace</em></a> centered on an immigrant Slovak family in Pennsylvania. A character muses that it wasn't "where you were born or how you spelled your name or where your father had come from" that mattered; instead,</p>
<p style="margin-left: 20px;">It was the way you thought and felt about certain things. About freedom of speech and the equality of men and the importance of having one law—the same law—for rich and poor, for the people you liked and the people you didn't like. About the right of every man to live his life as he thought best, his right to defend it if anyone tried to change it and his right to change it himself if he decided he liked some other way of living better…. About human dignity, which helped a man live proudly and distinguished his death from animals; and finally, about the value to be put on a human life, one's enemy's no less than one's own. </p>
<p>In a 1953 <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Progress_and_Human_Dignity/i4BMAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22human+dignity%22&pg=PP8&printsec=frontcover" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">speech</a>, then Secretary of State John Foster Dulles argued that communist countries might be able to achieve short-term material gain, but "results so produced are not a glory but a shame. They are achieved by desecrating the dignity of the human individual." Dulles believed human dignity meant being entitled to a life that included physical well-being and "freedom to think, to believe, and to communicate with one's fellows," "opportunities which permit some exercise of individual choices," and "the contemplation and enjoyment of what is beautiful." </p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDg0ODU4OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTkzNDQwMX0.oF6SRe8h4isr9BMUowNloz-wDivX95L8Gr739uCooIo/img.jpg?width=980" id="363c2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f90e6b1f91456d023b5cf3f376463ede" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
American novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist James Baldwin at his home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, southern France, on November 6, 1979.
Credit: Ralph Gatti/AFP via Getty Images
<p>One hundred years after U.S. law stopped allowing Black Americans to be treated as property, Black writer James Baldwin was still <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilychamleewright/2020/06/30/living-up-to-the-liberal-promise/#784c5cc65139" target="_blank">calling</a> for Black Americans' dignity to be equally recognized. It was not enough, not nearly enough, that the 14th Amendment ensured equal protection of the laws; what mattered was how Black Americans were treated by their fellow human beings. In a 1960 Canadian television <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPaBXcEVpOE" target="_blank">interview</a>, Baldwin said, "I don't know what white people see, you know, when they look at a Negro anymore. But I do know very well—I realized when I was very young—that whatever he was looking at, it wasn't me… I was not a <em>man</em>."</p><p>In his seminal 1963 book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Next-Time-James-Baldwin/dp/067974472X" target="_blank"><em>The Fire Next Time</em></a>, Baldwin seemed to echo Dr. Hirsh's argument from a century earlier:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">I am very much concerned that American Negroes achieve their freedom here in the United States. But I am also concerned for their dignity, for the health of their souls, and must oppose any attempt that Negroes may make to do to others what has been done to them. I think I know—we see it around us every day—the spiritual wasteland to which that road leads. It is so simple a fact and one that is so hard, apparently, to grasp: <em>Whoever debases others debases himself.</em></p><p>This, then, is a common thread in our historic understanding of human dignity: Anyone who treats another human being as less than human undermines <em>their own</em> human dignity in addition to undermining the dignity of their victim.</p>A 1964 <em>New York University Law Review</em> <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Philosophical_Dimensions_of_Privacy/q_FrmXyl3hUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22human+dignity%22&pg=PA156&printsec=frontcover" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">article</a> argued that privacy was a key aspect of human dignity. "A man whose home may be entered at the will of another, whose conversation may be overheard at the will of another, whose marital and familial intimacies may be overseen at the will of another, is less of a man, has less human dignity, on that account," wrote author Edward J. Bloustein, who later became president of Rutgers University.
The future of dignity
<p>Around the world, people are still working toward the full and equal recognition of human dignity. Every year, new speeches and writings help us understand what dignity is—not only what it looks like when dignity is violated but also what it looks like when dignity is honored. In his posthumous essay, Congressman Lewis wrote, "When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war."</p> <p>The more we talk about human dignity, the better we understand it. And the sooner we can make progress toward a shared vision of peace, freedom, and mutual respect for all. </p>
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Astrophysicists: Gamma-ray jets exceed the speed of light
Scientists find that bursts of gamma rays may exceed the speed of light and cause time-reversibility.
25 September, 2019
An artist's drawing of a particle jet emanating from a black hole at the center of a blazar.
Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab (used with permission by Astronomy Picture of the Day, which is co-managed by Robert Nemiroff at Michigan Tech).
Surprising Science
- Astrophysicists propose that gamma-ray bursts may exceed the speed of light.
- The superluminal jets may also be responsible for time-reversibility.
- The finding doesn't go against Einstein's theory because this effect happens in the jet medium not a vacuum.
<p><br></p></div>
<p>According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. Yet in space many strange things happen, including a new proposal by two astrophysicists that blasts creating bursts of gamma rays may be able to speed up faster than light, going <strong>superluminal</strong>. </p><p>Yet, this research by the astrophysicists <strong>Jon Hakkila</strong> of the College of Charleston and <strong>Robert Nemiroff</strong> of the Michigan Technological University is not going against Einstein's theory. What the scientists found is that while these bursts surpass the speed of light in surrounding gas clouds, that only happens in the jet mediums, not in a vacuum. </p><p>The astrophysicists also think that these superluminal jets can create the time-reversibility that can be observed in gamma-ray burst light curves.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMTE0NTY0Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1OTA1NzM1M30.ICvbYf95MO_q5VbgTeoKCnBbkJ72nq2CzoPZrd_zjOY/img.jpg?width=980" id="1c99e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2ff3eea36d705c9e39be498d1fa7fc19" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Jet bursting out of a blazar. Black-hole-powered galaxies called blazars are the most common sources detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
NASA
<p>Jon Hakkila likens what they found to skipping stones across the pond. If someone was to throw such a stone into the water towards you, the stone would go through the air in between hops faster than the waves that it causes are moving through the water. As it gets closer, you will see the waves that are produced by each skip in reverse order. The most recently created ones will get to you first and those from the early skips along the water would come last. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Standard gamma-ray burst models have neglected time-reversible light curve properties," <a href="https://today.cofc.edu/2019/09/23/faster-than-the-speed-of-light-new-research-looks-at-gamma-ray-bursts/" target="_blank">Hakkila explained.</a> "Superluminal jet motion accounts for these properties while retaining a great many standard model features."</p><p>Check out the new paper <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ab3bdf" target="_blank">here</a>, published in <em>The Astrophysical Journal.</em></p>
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Cosmic death beams: Understanding gamma ray bursts
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Scientists find the "magic number" that links forces of the universe
Researchers dramatically improve the accuracy of a number that connects fundamental forces.
03 December, 2020
The Universe and the fine-structure constant.
Credit: Adobe
Surprising Science
- A team of physicists carried out experiments to determine the precise value of the fine-structure constant.
- This pure number describes the strength of the electromagnetic forces between elementary particles.
- The scientists improved the accuracy of this measurement by 2.5 times.
<p>Physicists determined with tremendous accuracy the value of what's been called "a magic number" and <a href="https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/number-137-physics" target="_self">considered</a> one of the greatest mysteries in physics by famed scientists like Richard Feynman. The<strong> fine-structure constant </strong>(denoted by the Greek <em>α </em>for "alpha"<em>)</em> shows the strength of the electromagnetic forces between elementary particles like electrons and protons and is utilized in formulas pertaining to matter and light. </p><p>This pure number, with no units and dimension, is key to the workings of the standard model of physics. Scientists were able to improve its precision 2.5 times or 81 parts per trillion (p.p.t.), determining the value of the constant to be <em>α</em> = <strong>1/137.03599920611</strong> (with the last two digits still being uncertain). </p>
<p>As the researchers <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2964-7" target="_blank">write</a> in their paper, pinpointing the fine-structure constant with remarkable exactitude is not just a complex undertaking but holds crucial importance "because discrepancies between standard-model predictions and experimental observations may provide evidence of new physics." Getting a very precise value for a fundamental constant can help make more accurate predictions and open up new paths and particles, as physicists look to reconcile their science with the fact that they still don't fully understand dark matter, dark energy, and the discrepancy between matter and antimatter.</p><p>The fine-structure constant,<em> </em>first introduced in 1916, describes the strength of the electromagnetic interaction between light and charged elementary particles, like electrons and muons. Confirming the constant with such accuracy further cements the calculations at the basis of the standard model of physics. Other conclusions also stem from this knowledge, like the fact that an electron has no substructure and is indeed an elementary particle. If it could be broken down any further, it would exhibit a magnetic moment that would not conform to what was observed.</p><p>In an <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-measure-the-magic-fine-structure-constant-20201202/" target="_blank">interview</a> with <em>Quanta Magazine</em>, Nobel-Prize-winning physicist Eric Cornell (who was not involved in the study), explained that there are ratios of bigger objects to smaller ones that show up in "the physics of low-energy matter — atoms, molecules, chemistry, biology." And amazingly, "those ratios tend to be powers of the fine-structure constant," he added.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDg2MTkwNy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MDYxODI0NX0.jkJgejLQsF8Nq0eio-ng8jhZuTabFMxWolSCfMEGdJU/img.png?width=980" id="f3a2b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="201df03775acd72ec473b89ed68f60dd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The process for measuring the fine-structure constant involved a beam of light from a laser that caused an atom to recoil. The red and blue colors indicate the light wave's peaks and troughs, respectively.
Credit: Nature
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">For the new measurement, the </span><span style="background-color: initial;">team of four physicists led by <a href="http://www.lkb.upmc.fr/metrologysimplesystems/saida-guellati-khelifa/" target="_blank">Saïda Guellati-Khélifa</a> at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory in Paris, </span><span style="background-color: initial;">used the technique of matter-wave <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-is-interferometer" target="_blank">interferometry</a>. This approach involves superimposing electromagnetic waves to cause an interference pattern, which is then studied for new information. In the particular experiment to obtain the new fine-structure constant value, the scientists directed a laser beam at super-cooled rubidium atoms to make them recoil while absorbing and emitting photons. By measuring the kinetic energy of the recoil, the scientists deduced the atom's mass, which was then used to figure out the electron's mass. The constant</span> <em>α</em> was found in the next step, taken from the electron's mass and the binding energy of a hydrogen atom, which was arrived at by spectroscopy.</p><p>Check out the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2964-7" target="_blank">new paper</a> published in the journal <em>Nature</em>. </p>
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A new system separates oxygen and hydrogen from Mars’ water
Scientists at Washington University are patenting a new electrolyzer designed for frigid Martian water.
03 December, 2020
Illustration of Mars' long-gone Jezero Lake
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Technology & Innovation
- Mars explorers will need more oxygen and hydrogen than they can carry to the Red Planet.
- Martian water may be able to provide these elements, but it is extremely salty water.
- The new method can pull oxygen and hydrogen for breathing and fuel from Martian brine.
<p>When people finally get to Mars, there are a two things they're going to need lots of: oxygen and fuel. (Drinking water, too, but that's another story.) They'll need more than they could reasonably bring with them. Fortunately—<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080731.html" target="_blank">we now know</a>—there's plenty of water on Mars that could potentially serve as a source of oxygen and of fuel in the form of hydrogen that could get our explorers back home at mission's end.</p><p>On Earth, we can extract the elements from pure water using a process called electrolysis. On Mars, though, the water contains a fair amount of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_perchlorate" target="_blank">magnesium perchlorate</a> — salt. It is too "dirty" for electrolysis, and that process also requires heat, an issue in Mars' frigid climate. Engineers at Washington University (WashU) in St. Louis may have the solution. They've developed and are in the process of patenting a method for extracting oxygen and hydrogen from water like Martian brine, and it works perfectly well in sub-zero temperatures.</p><p>"Our Martian brine electrolyzer radically changes the logistical calculus of missions to Mars and beyond," says WashU's <a href="https://engineering.wustl.edu/faculty/Vijay-Ramani.html?_ga=2.58599209.222648116.1607009225-368110336.1607009225" target="_blank">Vijay Ramani</a>.</p><p>The system is described in a paper published in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/11/24/2008613117" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">PNAS</a>. </p>
The WashU electrolyzer
<iframe src='https://mars.nasa.gov/layout/embed/model/?s=6' width='800' height='450' scrolling='no' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe><p>The WashU electrolyzer—it has no snappy acronym yet—will not be the first device capable of extracting oxygen from Martian water. That honor goes to the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/moxie/" target="_blank">MOXIE</a>, which is en route to Mars onboard NASA's <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/" target="_blank">Perseverance</a> rover. The rover was launched on July 30, 2020. It will arrive on February 18, 2021, and will perform high-temperature <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis_of_water" target="_blank">electrolysis</a> to extract pure oxygen, but no hydrogen.</p><p>In addition to being able to capture hydrogen, the WashU system can even do a better job with oxygen than MOXIE can, extracting 25 times as much from the same amount of water.</p><p>The new system has no problem with Mars' magnesium perchlorate-laced water. On the contrary, the researchers say it ultimately makes their system work better since such high concentrations of salt keep water from freezing on such a cold a planet by lowering the liquid's freezing temperature to -60 °C. He adds it may "also improve the performance of the electrolyzer system by lowering the electrical resistance."</p><p>Cold itself is no issue for the WashU system. It's been tested in a sub-zero (-33 ⁰F, or -36 ⁰C) environment that simulates Mars'.</p><p>"Our novel brine electrolyzer incorporates a lead <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0926337318311299" target="_blank">ruthenate pyrochlore</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anode" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">anode</a> developed by our team in conjunction with a platinum on carbon <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode" target="_blank">cathode</a>," explains Ramani. He adds, "These carefully designed components coupled with the optimal use of traditional electrochemical engineering principles has yielded this high performance."</p>Back home
<p>"This technology is equally useful on Earth where it opens up the oceans as a viable oxygen and fuel source," Ramani notes. His colleagues forsee potential applications such as producing oxygen in deep-sea habitats with ample water available, such as underwater research facilities and submarines.</p><p>The study's joint first author Pralay Gayen says that "having demonstrated these electrolyzers under demanding Martian conditions, we intend to also deploy them under much milder conditions on Earth to utilize brackish or salt water feeds to produce hydrogen and oxygen, for example, through seawater electrolysis."</p>
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Coronavirus
How officials will ensure the COVID-19 vaccine stays cold enough in transit
Pfizer's vaccine needs to be kept at -100°F until it's administered. Can caregivers deliver?
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