Scientists may one day be able to destroy viruses in the same way that opera singers break wine glasses. New research mathematically determined the frequencies at which simple viruses could be shaken to death.

The capsid (壳) of a virus is something like the shell of a turtle, said physicist Otto Sankey of Arizona State University. "If the shell can be damaged by mechanical vibrations (震动), the virus can be destroyed. "

Recent experimental evidence has shown that laser (激光) pulses with the right frequency can kill certain viruses. However, locating these resonant (共振的) frequencies is a bit of trial and error. "Experiments must try various conditions, " Sankey said.

To further this search, Sankey and his student Eric Dykeman have developed a way to calculate the vibrations of every atom in a virus shell. From this, they can determine the lowest resonant frequencies. An experiment has recently shown that pulses of laser light can cause destructive vibrations in virus shells. Sankey said, "Like pushing a child on a swing from rest, one sudden push gets the virus shaking. "

However, it is difficult to calculate what sort of push will kill a virus, since there can be millions of atoms in its shell structure. A direct calculation of each atom's movements would take several hundred thousand Gigabytes of computer memory, Sankey explained.

The team plans to use their technique to study other, more complicated viruses. However, it is still a long way from using this to destroy the viruses in infected people. "This is such a new field, and there are so few experiments that the science has not yet had enough time to prove itself, " Sankey said. "We remain skeptical but remain hopeful at the same time. "

On the day he almost died, Kimbal Musk had food on the brain. The Internet startup talent and restauranteur had just arrived in Jackson Hole from a conference where chef Jamie Oliver had spoken about the benefits of healthy eating. This was something Musk thought about a lot—how he might make a difference to the food industry—but beyond expanding his farm-to-table movement along with his restaurant, Musk hadn't yet broken the code. Then he went sailing down a snowy slope and fell over, breaking his neck. The left side of his body was paralyzed.

Musk eventually made a full recovery, but it involved spending two months on his back, which gave him plenty of time to come up with a plan. Since then, he has launched an initiative to put" learning gardens" in public schools across America; attracted Generation Z to the farming profession by changing shipping containers into high-tech, data-driven, year-round farms; and this year, is kicking off a new campaign to create one million at-home gardens.

Aimed at reaching low-income families, the Million Gardens Movement was inspired by the pandemic, as both a desire to feel more connected to nature and food insecurity have been at the forefront of so many people's lives. "We were getting a lot of inquiries about gardening from people that had never gardened before," says Musk." People were looking to garden for a bunch of reasons: to supplement their budget, to improve the nutritional quality of their diets, or just to cure the boredom that came with the lockdown."

The program offer s free garden kits that can be grown indoors or outdoors, and will be distributed through schools that Musk's non-profit, Big Green, has already partnered with. It also offers free courses on how to get the garden growing and fresh seeds and materials for the changing growing seasons." I grew up in the projects when I was young, in what we now call food deserts," says EVE, one of the many celebrities who have teamed up with the organization to encourage people to pick up a free garden." What I love about this is that it's not difficult. We are all able to grow something."

A team of researchers at ETH Zurich has the perfect long-lasting solution to our fog problem. They have developed a very thin and gold-based transparent coating that can transform sunlight into heat, which can be applied to glass to prevent it from fogging.

The special coating is developed using titanium oxide(氧化钛) and gold particles. It selectively absorbs infrared(红外线的) radiations from the sunlight and creates a heating effect that is powerful enough to keep fog away from the surface of glass. The coating basically employs heat to stop fogging. The coating absorbs a large part of the infrared radiation, which causes it to heat up—by up to 8℃.

Previously, products like anti-fogging sprays create a very thin film of water on the surface to remove fog. The problem with such surfaces is pollution. Along with water, the sprays also soak up dirt, dust, oil, and various other dirty substances, and just a little dirt on the surface makes it useless. However, the new coating repels(排斥) water. Furthermore, the coating is significantly thinner, which makes it more transparent as well as flexible. It is heated passively and requires, during daytime, no additional energy source.

Gold might be expensive, but the researchers stress that their coating requires so little that the material costs remain low. Their coating is produced with standardized and readily scalable(可称量的) methods, all cost-effectively. However, although this product can work at very low levels of solar irradiation, it does rely on a certain amount of light.

The researchers will develop the coating further for other applications. In the process, they will examine whether other metals work just as well as gold. There is no need to fear, however, this would cause a car or a building to heat up more in the summer. The researchers have already filed a patent. Hopefully, this groundbreaking product will soon be available on the market.