Goodable

Blueberries may be even better for your gut health than previously thought, according to a new study. Researchers found that older adults who consumed about 1 1/2 cups of blueberries daily experienced significant health benefits.

The study, published in the journal Nutrients, involved participants over the age of 60 who were overweight or had obesity. They were divided into two groups: one consumed blueberry powder equivalent to 1 1/2 cups of blueberries each day, while the other received a placebo. Both groups also followed an exercise routine.

After 12 weeks, those in the blueberry group showed lower cholesterol levels and beneficial changes in blood markers related to heart health. Additionally, they had higher levels of gut bacteria that aid in digesting antioxidants.

"The polyphenols in blueberries can positively influence the gut microbiome," said Lauren Manaker, M.S., RDN, LD, CLEC. "This is crucial for overall health."

The study also noted an increase in specific gut bacteria among those consuming blueberry powder—bacteria known to help break down and absorb beneficial compounds from blueberries.

While the findings are promising, researchers caution that the small sample size limits broader applicability. The study was funded by the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council.

For those looking to support heart and gut health, incorporating blueberries into daily meals is a simple step with potential benefits. Whether added to smoothies or enjoyed as a snack, these berries offer an accessible way to enhance well-being without drastic lifestyle changes.

<div>Blueberries may be even better for your gut health than previously thought, according to a new study. Researchers found that older adults who consumed about 1 1/2 cups of blueberries daily experienced significant health benefits.</div><div><br></div><div>The study, published in the journal Nutrients, involved participants over the age of 60 who were overweight or had obesity. They were divided into two groups: one consumed blueberry powder equivalent to 1 1/2 cups of blueberries each day, while the other received a placebo. Both groups also followed an exercise routine.</div><div><br></div><div>After 12 weeks, those in the blueberry group showed lower cholesterol levels and beneficial changes in blood markers related to heart health. Additionally, they had higher levels of gut bacteria that aid in digesting antioxidants.</div><div><br></div><div>"The polyphenols in blueberries can positively influence the gut microbiome," said Lauren Manaker, M.S., RDN, LD, CLEC. "This is crucial for overall health."</div><div><br></div><div>The study also noted an increase in specific gut bacteria among those consuming blueberry powder—bacteria known to help break down and absorb beneficial compounds from blueberries.</div><div><br></div><div>While the findings are promising, researchers caution that the small sample size limits broader applicability. The study was funded by the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council.</div><div><br></div><div>For those looking to support heart and gut health, incorporating blueberries into daily meals is a simple step with potential benefits. Whether added to smoothies or enjoyed as a snack, these berries offer an accessible way to enhance well-being without drastic lifestyle changes.</div>

Scientists Just Uncovered a Big Health Perk in Blueberries

YR - Aurora News

Most people would call one cross-country trip enough. Myles Dininio spent his first one thinking about the next.

The Zephyr father of two says the idea for his latest challenge goes back to when he was 18 and riding his mountain bike across Canada.

“I came up with the idea when I was 18 years old and I was riding my mountain bike across the country,” Dininio says to Newmarket Today.

On that trip, he packed a tent and sleeping bag and headed west from Mount Albert with no training. He had no cellphone, no support and no sponsors. He rode for 49 days until he reached Nelson, British Columbia.

Instead of treating that ride as a one-time feat, Dininio decided the next cross-country trip would be on foot.

Now, 22 years after that solo bike ride, Dininio plans to start a cross-country run on April 1. This time, he says, the motivation is raising money and attention for mental health issues.

His goal is to raise $50,000 for CAMH, which the source describes as the country’s largest mental health hospital. So far he has raised $11,000 and says he is hopeful the rest will come.

“A lot has happened in that time,” he says to Newmarket Today, pointing to his home, his marriage to Jessica and their children, Oliver, 11, and Florence, 10.

Dininio, who works as a carpenter in the film industry, plans to start in St. John’s. He will dip a Mason jar in the Atlantic Ocean and begin running west. He is travelling with a camper marked with a Myles Across Canada 2026 logo and a QR code linking people to details about the trip.

His father will drive the camper for the first month.

Dininio says he wants the run to help start conversations about mental health as well as bring in donations for CAMH.

“I think it’s a good opportunity to talk about the mental health issues that people struggle with on a daily basis,” he says. “I have had no involvement with CAMH until I started this. I just have my daily struggles like most people.”

He says the lead-up has been hard as he gets ready to leave home for months.

“The build-up’s been a killer,” he adds. “I’m going to leave my wife and kids and go out and try this crazy idea. I think once it gets going, I think it will be easier.

“I’m a carpenter, I’m not a super-star runner.”

His plan is to run 60 kilometres a day for 130 days. He says there will likely be rain days and days when his body needs a break. He describes the run in simple terms.

The run, he says, will be like daily life: just pushing forward.

After the first month, his father will return home and friends will take over as his support team. On July 1, Jessica and the children plan to join him for the rest of the trip. He expects to finish in Vancouver at the end of August or the beginning of September.

He has packed a second Mason jar in the camper. After completing the 8,000-kilometre run and reaching Vancouver, he plans to dip it in the Pacific Ocean so he has a pair of mementos from the trip.

“Once the campgrounds are open, we’ll stay in campgrounds. In the beginning, it’s going to be a lot of Walmart parking lots and Crown land,” he says.

Dininio says he has done the odd race, including the Oak Ridges Moraine Adventure Relay with Jessica and others, but he describes himself as a rogue runner. He trains on the road or in the basement gym when work and life allow.

The trip also comes with costs. Dininio will not be working during that time. He says current gas prices mean it costs $250 to fill the truck with diesel. He also bought the camper for the trip and a back-up power system, and he expects to spend money on hotel rooms.

Jessica says the family is behind him.

“I think it’s great,” says Jessica, adding that it will also be an adventure for the kids to see their dad in action. “He proposed the idea for me a few years ago. Obviously, it’s going to be tough for the both of us.”

If things go as planned, the family has also talked about doing a cross-country bike ride together one day, possibly when the children are older and off to school.

📸 credit: Newmarket Today

This Man is Running 8,000 Kilometers Across Canada for Mental Health, Aiming to Raise $50,000

CTV News

If your travel wish list was already out of control, here’s some bad news, or good news, depending on how you look at it. It just got 50 stops longer.

That’s thanks to Time, which has released its 2026 edition of the World’s Greatest Places, a curated list of destinations that range from brand-new museums to remote eco retreats and even an underwater art installation you can snorkel through.

The list, built from nominations across Time’s global network of contributors, splits neatly into two halves: places to stay and places to visit. It is the latter that reads like a globe-spanning itinerary for the endlessly curious.

Some entries have been a long time coming. In Cairo, the long-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum finally reached completion in October 2025 after years of setbacks. Time Out’s North America head of content Will Gleason visited just before its official opening and described a preview that already felt historic.

“The mummified reptile in front of me is one of 15,000 fascinating cultural artefacts that have been on display over the last year during GEM’s soft opening,” he wrote. “Visitors will also be able to experience the institution’s main attraction: the Tutankhamun galleries, containing 5,000 objects discovered in the famous pharaoh’s tomb in 1922, including his iconic gold funerary mask.”

Across the world in Western Australia, another site offers a very different kind of history. The Murujuga Cultural Landscape, newly added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2025, features Indigenous rock carvings dating back as far as 50,000 years. That makes some of them older than both Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Giza, a reminder that the world still holds stories that stretch far beyond the usual tourist trail.

Then there are places that feel like they belong in the future. Off the coast of Miami Beach, The Reefline blends art and environmental design into a snorkel trail where sculptures double as a living coral reef. It is equal parts gallery and conservation project, built with low-carbon materials to help restore marine ecosystems.

Elsewhere, the list leans into variety over any single theme. In London, the V&A East Storehouse offers a behind-the-scenes look at one of the world’s most famous museum collections. In Philadelphia, Netflix House turns streaming fandom into a physical experience. And in Abu Dhabi, Surf Abu Dhabi brings artificial waves to the desert.

Some picks are less about a single attraction and more about the journey itself. Highway 1 in California makes the list not as a new destination, but as a renewed one, a reminder that even familiar routes can feel different depending on when, and how, you travel them.

Others highlight hyper-local creativity. Dib Bangkok in Bangkok and Ephedra Restaurant in San Pedro de Atacama point to a growing appetite for experiences rooted in place, not just spectacle.

Canada makes an appearance too, with Naagan in Owen Sound earning a spot on the global list, a nod to the country’s quieter but increasingly recognized destinations.

And then there are the outliers, the ones that are harder to categorize but harder to forget. Universal Epic Universe in Orlando promises blockbuster-scale entertainment, while El Camino de Costa Rica offers a multi-day trek across one of Central America’s most biodiverse countries.

Taken together, the list does not try to define what travel should look like. Instead, it reflects how wide the definition has become. A museum can be as compelling as a mountain trail. A restaurant can carry as much weight as a historic landmark. A reef can be both art and infrastructure.

And maybe that is the point.

There is no single way to see the world anymore. Just a growing number of reasons to go.

TIME’s Greatest Places of 2026 Includes China Bridge, Egypt Museum and More

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YR - Markham Review

Getting around Markham by bike is set to get a little safer.

The federal government and the City of Markham have announced a combined investment of more than $2.2 million to build about nine kilometres of protected bike lanes on seven streets across the city.

The federal government is contributing $1,335,000 through the Active Transportation Fund, while the City of Markham is putting in $890,000.

The new protected bike lanes will be added on Allstate Parkway, between Valleywood Drive and Highway 7; Calvert Road, between Woodbine Avenue and Warden Avenue; Carlton Road, between Kennedy Road and McCowan Road; Clegg Road, between Rodick Road and South Town Centre Boulevard; Ferrier Street, between Gibson Drive and Steeles Avenue; Gillingham Avenue and Elson Street, between Hillcroft Drive and Markham Road; and Main Street Markham, between Parkway Avenue or Bullock Drive and 16th Avenue.

The project will involve reconfiguring traffic lanes to make room for cyclists, along with adding pavement markings and signage for safety and to support active transportation.

The upgrades support Markham’s priority cycling network and its Active Transportation Master Plan.

The announcement says active transportation supports more equitable, vibrant and livable communities. It also says it reduces noise pollution, improves air quality and helps cut greenhouse gas emissions as part of Canada’s response to climate change.

“Cycling is an important way of getting around for many Markham residents. Adding new bike lanes to roads across the city will make it easier and safer for cyclists, encouraging more people to grab a helmet and ride to their destinations,” said Tim Hodgson, Member of Parliament for Markham-Thornhill.

“By supporting active transportation projects like this around the country, the federal government is helping communities cut carbon emissions, promote healthy lifestyles, and reduce traffic congestion,” he said.

The city says residents across Markham will soon have more chances to cycle safely through their communities because of the funding partnership. The work will add protected bike lanes across several parts of the city, including industrial corridors, residential streets and Main Street Markham.

In total, the upgrades will cover about nine kilometres of roadway across the seven listed streets, with work focused on lane reconfigurations, pavement markings and signage. The project is backed by $1,335,000 from the federal government and $890,000 from the City of Markham.

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Markham Adds Protected Bike Lanes to Improve Cycling Safety

For 11 years, Jourdyn Koziak thought her dog was gone for good. Then the phone rang.

A man told her her long-lost pit bull, Forty-Cal, had been found. Koziak did not believe him.

"I said to him, 'This is a prank. It's not funny,'" Koziak told CBCAs It Happens host Nil Köksal. "He said, 'No ma'am, we have your dog.'"

It had been more than a decade since Koziak had seen Forty-Cal, who disappeared from the backyard of her former home in Philadelphia along with the family's second dog. That other dog came back soon after, but Forty-Cal never did.

Koziak said she had always suspected he was stolen from the yard.

After the call, staff at Animal Care and Control Team, or ACCT, Philly sent her photos of the dog.

"Immediately, I could remember his markings from a mile away," she said. "That's him."

In the years since Forty-Cal vanished, Koziak got married, had a new child and moved to Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

She said she never stopped updating Forty-Cal's microchip with her contact information.

"I never gave up hope because, obviously, I'm relentless," she said.

Koziak said a little girl in Philadelphia found Forty-Cal.

"He's super docile and friendly. Always has been. And he walked right up to her. He made a friend," Koziak said.

"She brought him into the house with her parents and they made him some hotdogs. They could not keep him because they have another animal. So they called Animal Control."

Koziak said ACCT Philly scanned Forty-Cal's microchip and contacted her.

In an email, ACCT Philly spokesperson Mikayla Allen said the case also carried a message for pet owners.

"This reunion is emotional and inspiring, but it’s also an important reminder: microchipping your pet is one of the simplest and most effective ways to help ensure they can find their way back home," Allen said.

Koziak drove to Philadelphia on Sunday to bring Forty-Cal home. She brought her family with her, including her three children.

She said her hands were shaking on the way there and she was caught up in a rush of emotions. But when she saw Forty-Cal coming down the hall, everything else dropped away.

Shelter staff told her the dog might feel overwhelmed at first and might take time to recognize his old family, so they approached him carefully.

"We put our hands out, he sniffed us, and then proceeded to pull us towards the door, like, 'Let's go,'" she said.

The reunion marked the end of an 11-year gap that had stretched across major changes in Koziak's life, but she said Forty-Cal has settled back in quickly.

She said he was sick and sleepy on the first day home, but has since returned to "his normal self."

"He acts like he's a puppy again," she said. "He wants to go for a walk. He's wagging his tail."

Koziak said bringing Forty-Cal into her current household has been especially meaningful because of the bond they had before he went missing.

"I had other animals in the house, as well, that were family pets, but Forty was my dog," she said. "I paid for him with my own money at 16 years old."

She said she still has hard moments, especially late at night, when she thinks about all the years they lost.

But that feeling changes in the morning, when she sees him at home again.

"I'm over the moon," she said. "It's like Christmas morning every day."

📸 credit: Jourdyn Koziak

It Took 11 Years, but a Philadelphia Woman Has Finally Reunited With Her Missing Dog

It started with a lunchroom snack and turned into a lesson in quick thinking.

An 8-year-old student at Norwood Intermediate School in Pennsylvania is thanking his classmates and a teacher after choking on a chip during lunch.

"I was looking forward to eating my chips, and the chip went sideways, and it got stuck in my throat," said Damian Pascale, a third-grade student to 6abc.

The incident happened Tuesday while Damian was eating a salt-and-vinegar chip at lunch. His friends noticed right away that something was wrong.

"I was looking at him; his face was all red," said Jaxson Chin, a third-grade student.

Jaxson and two other classmates, who are also Damian's friends, moved quickly to help.

"I went to go pat his back, then I told the other kids to go get the teacher," Jaxson said.

"I was looking for a teacher, and I ran over, and I was panicking and told her Damian needs help, and Lincoln said he's choking," said Hunter Shields, another third-grade student.

Health and Physical Education teacher Tara Vaughn was on lunch duty nearby when the students called for help.

"I ran over, quickly assessed the situation. Tried to ask Damian some questions, and he wasn't able to answer me, so I immediately knew he was choking," Vaughn said.

Vaughn then performed the Heimlich maneuver to remove the chip.

"I didn't want to scare him anymore, but I knew that's what needed to be done in a minute to get that chip dislodged from his throat," Vaughn said.

Vaughn said she teaches the skill to her eighth-grade students, but had never needed to use it in her 24-year career.

"Thankful that she could do it," said Lincoln Thomas, a third-grade student.

Damian said he was grateful for everyone who stepped in.

"I feel good, and I feel thankful for them and my teacher," Damian said.

Afterward, Damian gave Vaughn flowers at school to thank her. School leaders also recognized the students for their quick response and presented them with a "superhero award."

Damian said that after the choking scare, he just wanted to go back to class. He has since eaten chips again, but his family has told him to take smaller bites.

 📸credit: 6abc

School Teacher Performs Heimlich Maneuver, Saves Choking 8-Year-Old

Sunny Skyz

In Cordova, a family dog is getting a new nickname after a violent run-in with a bear left her badly hurt but alive.

Honey, a 12-year-old dog who is half-blind, is being celebrated by the Martinez family after what they say was a fight to protect their rural property and the animals on it.

Earlier this month, Honey was outside on the family’s land, where the Martinezes keep chickens, horses and other animals, when Denise Martinez noticed she had locked onto something.

“She was tracking something at the time. We didn’t know what, but we knew she was tracking something,” Denise Martinez said.

The next morning, the family found Honey lying in the driveway with serious injuries. Around the property, they saw what they described as signs of a struggle, including scratches on fences and trees that pointed to a bear coming onto the land.

Leanna Martinez said the extent of Honey’s injuries became clear right away.

“Her face was swollen on the left… and that’s when I saw, like her whole neck was just ripped from the back all the way down,” she said.

Despite those injuries, Honey had made it back to the house.

The family rushed her to an emergency veterinarian, where she stayed overnight for treatment.

“It was just devastating. You know, I never thought I would ever see our dog in that shape,” Darren Martinez said.

As medical costs grew, the family sought help from Española Humane. The clinic treated Honey’s deep neck wound and continued her care with bandage changes and medication at a lower cost.

Mattie Allen described how severe Honey’s condition was when she arrived.

“Her face was so hugely swollen I mean you couldn’t even tell features in her face,” Allen said.

Honey is still recovering, and the family says she has a long way to go. Her wound remains open and is expected to take months to heal fully.

Still, the Martinezes say what happened that night showed exactly what kind of dog Honey is. They believe she stepped in to protect not only the family, but the animals that live on the property.

“She’s our little savior,” Denise said. “She’s been nicknamed the bear slayer.”

The family’s praise for Honey comes with one detail they say makes the story even sweeter.

“She’s afraid of the vacuum cleaner.”

📸 credit: KOB 4 News

A Half-Blind Senior Dog Fought a Bear To Protect Her Family, Earns New Nickname

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People

For some new mothers, feeding a baby can quickly become the hardest part of the day.

At the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Norfolk, England, a team of volunteers is helping women who are struggling to breastfeed after giving birth, according to the BBC. The group shares tips and offers support to mothers facing problems with nursing their newborn babies.

Jen Rudd, a volunteer support coordinator, said the extra help can matter at a difficult time.

"The moms are emotional, they're tired, they've possibly had a long labor or a complicated recovery, and that's where we can step in to really help support that," she told the BBC.

The volunteers are trained with the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers, a U.K.-based charity, the BBC reported.

One of the volunteers is Elizabeth Judge, who helps mothers on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital's Brancaster Ward. Judge, 33, has three children, aged 11, six and three.

She successfully breastfed her second and third children, but said she had problems when trying to do the same with her eldest child.

"I was really stressed, because I was just looking at my baby, and I thought, 'Why won't you just feed? What am I doing wrong?' " Judge told the BBC.

Now she is providing the kind of support she said she wanted when she was having her own breastfeeding difficulties.

"I can give them all the time that they want, and I think that does really help, to just say to them that it's okay, it will be okay," Judge said.

According to the U.K.'s National Health Service, breastfeeding issues can happen for several reasons. The NHS says they can be caused by sore or cracked nipples, infection, mastitis or a breast abscess.

The NHS also lists a blocked milk duct, breast engorgement, or having too much breast milk as possible causes.

At the hospital, volunteers can spend long periods with mothers during feeds. Catherine Hood, manager of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital's Brancaster Ward, said that gives them time to provide close support.

The breastfeeding volunteers offer "focused support for a prolonged period," Hood said.

"We know a feed can last up to an hour, and, as a volunteer, you can absolutely sit with that mom for that whole hour, which means you can watch a whole feed, and you can amend things along the way," she added.

The support comes after birth, when women may be dealing with exhaustion and recovery while trying to feed a newborn. Rudd said that is the point where volunteers can help.

At Brancaster Ward, that help includes sharing advice and being present with mothers as they feed their babies, according to the BBC.

Judge said the time she can give is part of what helps. She told the BBC that being able to stay with a mother and reassure her can make a difference when feeding is difficult.

The volunteers' role is centered on support for women who are trying to breastfeed and running into problems listed by the NHS, including pain, infection, blocked ducts and engorgement.

Hood said a single feed can last up to an hour, and volunteers can stay for the whole time to observe and adjust things as the feed continues.

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A Breastfeeding Volunteers Team is Helping Struggling New Mothers After Birth

Euro News

For a few euros, students in Amsterdam can swap the library for one of Europe’s best-known concert halls, open a laptop under the red plush seats of the Concertgebouw, and study while live classical music plays above them.

The sessions are organised by Entree, the youth association of the Concertgebouw. They are designed to help students concentrate while also bringing younger audiences into the historic venue.

In the main auditorium, rows of students sit with laptops and notebooks as violinist Hyunjin Cho and cellist Efstratia Chaloulakou perform. The point is not for students to stop and watch. At these events, they are there to study, and the music is meant to help rather than interrupt.

The idea has grown out of an initiative first conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Entree looked for ways to support students studying remotely and introduce them to classical music at the same time.

Since then, the sessions have kept drawing students back to the Concertgebouw to prepare for exams or work on dissertations.

Simon Reinink, the general director of the Concertgebouw, said the format is also part of a wider effort to bring younger people into the building.

“Well, it's one of the many ways to welcome younger audiences to the Concertgebouw, and it's such an inspiring place to study with great music in this wonderful, beautiful environment, and it's one of the ways to more or less seduce younger audiences to discover the Concertgebouw and hopefully they will be enthusiastic that it will come back,” he says.

The sessions are cheap by design. Tickets cost €2.50 and include free access to the venue’s Wi-Fi network.

For students who do not usually listen to classical music, the setup can still work.

“It’s actually very calming and helps in concentrating on the work that we have to do, which is something that surprises me because normally I don’t really listen to classical music, so that’s a new experience for me,” says Kyra Mulder, a 21-year-old student of occupational therapy.

Professor Bas Bloem, a neurologist at the Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen, says background music does not affect everyone in the same way. For some people, it can be distracting, but for others, it can support concentration.

“I think the reason why music in the background can be so soothing almost is that it creates a state of flow," he says.

He says that state sits in a balance between skill and challenge.

"Flow is this mysterious balance between your level of skills and being challenged, and you want to be in that sweet spot. You don't want to be overchallenged, you don't want to be underchallenged, and I think music in the background can help you to reach a state of flow, and everybody knows when you reach a state of flow, you can go on endlessly and be enormously productive."

Students attending the sessions say the quiet setting helps them handle more than one thing at once.

Thijmen Broekman, a medical student, says the combination of the hall and the performance makes concentrating easier.

"I don't think it's difficult to multitask here because it's really quiet environment and nice quiet music so that helps me to concentrate and I'm not having any difficulties multitasking," he says.

The study sessions bring together two aims in one format: giving students a place to work and introducing younger audiences to live classical music in the Concertgebouw. The concerts continue in the background while laptops stay open and notebooks fill up.

Tickets for the sessions cost just €2.50, with free access to the venue's Wi-Fi network.

📸 credit: © Jasmijn de Graaff

Amsterdam Students Use Live Classical Music Sessions to Focus During Exams

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Science Daily

Solar panels do a lot of heavy lifting in the push away from fossil fuels, but they still leave a lot of sunlight on the table.

Scientists from Kyushu University in Japan, working with collaborators at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany, say they have found a way past a long-standing physical limit in solar energy conversion. In research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on March 25, the team used a molybdenum-based metal complex known as a "spin-flip" emitter to capture extra energy produced through singlet fission, or SF.

With that approach, they reported energy conversion efficiencies of about 130 percent, above the traditional 100 percent limit.

Solar cells generate electricity when photons from sunlight hit a semiconductor and transfer energy to electrons, setting them in motion and creating an electric current. The process can be compared to a relay, with energy passed from one particle to another.

But some of that sunlight goes to waste. Low-energy infrared photons do not have enough energy to activate electrons. High-energy photons, such as blue light, lose their extra energy as heat. Because of that, solar cells can use only about one-third of the incoming sunlight.

That limit is known as the Shockley-Queisser limit.

"We have two main strategies to break through this limit," says Yoichi Sasaki, Associate Professor at Kyushu University's Faculty of Engineering. "One is to convert lower-energy infrared photons into higher-energy visible photons. The other, what we explore here, is to use SF to generate two excitons from a single exciton photon."

Under normal conditions, each photon produces one spin-singlet exciton after excitation. In singlet fission, that single exciton can split into two lower-energy spin-triplet excitons. The process could effectively double the available energy.

Some materials, including tetracene, can support singlet fission. But collecting those excitons efficiently has been difficult.

"The energy can be easily 'stolen' by a mechanism called Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) before multiplication occurs," Sasaki explains. "We therefore needed an energy acceptor that selectively captures the multiplied triplet excitons after fission."

To deal with that, the researchers turned to metal complexes, which they said can be precisely engineered. They identified a molybdenum-based "spin-flip" emitter as a working answer.

In that system, an electron changes its spin during absorption or emission of near-infrared light. That lets it capture the triplet energy generated by singlet fission.

The researchers said they carefully adjusted the energy levels to cut losses from FRET and allow efficient extraction of the multiplied excitons.

"We could not have reached this point without the Heinze group from JGU Mainz," Sasaki says.

The collaboration began after Adrian Sauer, a graduate student from the group who was visiting Kyushu University on exchange and is the paper's second author, drew attention to a material long studied there.

When the molybdenum-based system was combined with tetracene-based materials in solution, the team said it successfully harvested energy with quantum yields of about 130 percent.

The researchers said that meant roughly 1.3 molybdenum-based metal complexes were activated for every photon absorbed. In turn, that exceeded the usual limit and showed that more energy carriers were produced than incoming photons.

The work is still at the proof-of-concept stage. The team said it now wants to integrate the materials into solid-state systems to improve energy transfer and move closer to practical solar cell applications.

The findings could also prompt more research that combines singlet fission and metal complexes. According to the researchers, this could have uses in solar energy, LEDs and emerging quantum technologies.

For now, the result is a laboratory demonstration that singlet fission energy can be harvested with a molybdenum-based "spin-flip" emitter, with quantum yields of about 130 percent.

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Scientists Break Solar Efficiency Limit With 130% Energy Breakthrough

ABC11 NC - Localish

A piece of computing history is sitting inside a university classroom in Pennsylvania.

At the University of Pennsylvania's Moore Building in Philadelphia, part of ENIAC remains on display. ENIAC stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, and it is known as the first programmable, electronic computer. Its construction was finished in 1945.

Historian Paul Shaffer told ABC11, "The University of Pennsylvania is very proud to have started all this and we like to think this was the start of the information age!"

Four of ENIAC's panels and one instrument table are housed in the Moore Building at the University of Pennsylvania. The computer was unveiled in 1946 and originally took up an entire laboratory. It had 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighed more than 30 tons.

ENIAC was designed and built to handle computations for the military's artillery firing table. Before ENIAC, that work would take hours.

Newspapers at the time called it "Giant Brain." It remained in operation until 1955 and was eventually moved to Aberdeen, Maryland.

The university also chose six women to be programmers of ENIAC. They played an important role in the development and usage of the computer through the years.

Today, students walk by and study next to this piece of computing history every day.

While Silicon Valley in California is known for the tech industry's giants, ENIAC's history is tied to Pennsylvania. More information on ENIAC is available at https://www.seas.upenn.edu.

 📸credit: Paul W. Shaffer, University of Pennsylvania

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