Solar power: Organic dyes help harvest sunlight

Darkfrog submitted, created time 5 months 4 weeks (www.nature.com)

Researchers claim that glass laced with specific dyes can channel photons into small solar cells, giving them as much power as if they covered a larger area without overheating. Researchers tried dye-enhanced solar devices years ago, but the research was full of problems. Either the dyes would break down in sunlight or the photons would be reabsorbed too quickly.

Marc Baldo of MIT claims that once the process is fine-tuned the efficiency of most of today's solar cells could be doubled. The research team believes that their work could be available commercially in as little as three years.

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Time in the Sun: How Much Is Needed for Vitamin D?

Allergic reactions more common in north

bianjie submitted, created time 1 year 5 months (www.bioedonline.org)

Potentially lethal allergic reactions are much more common in the northern United States than in the south, researchers have found. What links geography and allergy is unknown, but the team behind the discovery suggests that sunlight might be a factor.

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Adequate sun exposure no guard against low vitamin D

bianjie submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.sciam.com)

In many people, vitamin D levels can remain low despite abundant exposure to sunlight, research shows.Inadequate sun exposure is often blamed for the high prevalence of low vitamin D status, the authors explain, but the truth of this has been unclear.

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The Relation between Patterns of Vacation Sun Exposure and the Development of Acquired Melanocytic Nevi in German Children 6–7 Years of Age

badboy submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (aje.oxfordjournals.org)

"Sun exposure is the main environmental risk factor for the development of melanocytic nevi. Although the general association is not disputed, the interplay between intense intermittent and the cumulative amount of sun exposure in defining the promoting effect on melanocytic nevus development is an area of debate. "

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New studies back vitamin D for cancer prevention

addict submitted, created time 1 year 11 months (english.eastday.com)

Two new vitamin D studies have revealed new prescriptions for possibly preventing up to half of the cases of breast cancer and two-thirds of the cases of colorectal cancer in the United States. Take some Vitamin D3 through diet or supplements as well as getting somesunlight, or ultraviolet B (UVB), prevent you from breast cancer and colorectal cancer.

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Need some sun to be more healthy?

Scarlett submitted, created time 1 year 11 months (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

Latest findings implicated that a daily dose of sunlight may help the immune system guard against invading pathogens and sun-induced skin damage. Immune cells called T cells battle infections and guard against cancer. But first they need to be tipped off about the threat. The informants are a group of cells called dendritic cells, which chew up infected and damaged cells and present the regurgitated pieces to T cells. If the T cells judge the pieces to be foreign or in need of removal, they reproduce, forming an army of clones that hunt down infected and rogue cells in the body

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