144 articles from FRIDAY 25.10.2019

Improved avenues to train plastic surgeons in microsurgery

Microsurgery is an intricate and challenging surgical technique that involves using miniature instruments and sutures as fine as a hair strand aided by sophisticated microscopes. In plastic surgery, microsurgery is used to repair small damaged vessels and nerves following trauma, or in reconstructive procedures by moving a component of living tissue from one place of the body to another and...

Engineers develop a new way to remove carbon dioxide from air

A new way of removing carbon dioxide from a stream of air could provide a significant tool in the battle against climate change. The new system can work on the gas at virtually any concentration level, even down to the roughly 400 parts per million currently found in the atmosphere.

Platform for scalable testing of autonomous vehicle safety

In the race to manufacture autonomous vehicles (AVs), safety is crucial yet sometimes overlooked as exemplified by recent headline-making accidents. Researchers are using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to improve the safety of autonomous technology through both software and hardware advances.

New study finds taxi drivers improve earnings through trip selection

A new research study published in the October edition of the INFORMS journal Marketing Science (Editor's note: The source of this research is INFORMS) has revealed how taxi drivers use mobile hailing technology to select longer, more profitable trips to optimize their earnings, rather than seeking to increase the number of trips or working hours to achieve higher earnings.

Study casts doubt on carbon capture

One proposed method for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere—and reducing the risk of climate change—is to capture carbon from the air or prevent it from getting there in the first place. However, research from Mark Z. Jacobson at Stanford University, published in Energy and Environmental Science, suggests that carbon capture technologies can cause more harm than good.

Tiny beetle named after climate activist Greta Thunberg

Scientists at Natural History Museum honour teenager’s ‘outstanding contribution’A tiny species of beetle discovered more than 50 years ago has been named after environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg.Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London have officially called the insect Nelloptodes gretae to honour the 16-year-old Swedish activist’s “outstanding contribution” in raising...

A Forecast for a Warming World: Learn to Live With Fire

SAN FRANCISCO -- Facing down 600 wildfires in the past three days alone, emergency workers rushed to evacuate tens of thousands of people in Southern California on Thursday as a state utility said one of its major transmission lines broke near the source of the out-of-control Kincade blaze in Northern California.The Kincade fire, the largest this week, tore through steep canyons in the wine...

Discovery in monkeys could lead to treatment for blindness-causing syndrome

A genetic mutation that leads to a rare, but devastating blindness-causing condition called Bardet-Biedl Syndrome has been discovered in monkeys for the first time. The finding offers a promising way to develop gene and cell therapies that could treat people with the condition, which leads to vision loss, kidney disfunction, extra fingers or toes, and other symptoms.

Micromotors push around single cells and particles

A new type of micromotor -- powered by ultrasound and steered by magnets -- can move around individual cells and microscopic particles in crowded environments without damaging them. In one demonstration, a micromotor pushed around silica particles to spell out letters. Researchers also controlled the micromotors to climb up microsized blocks and stairs, demonstrating their ability to move over...

Electrospun fibers weave new medical innovations

Scientist are developing new applications for a fabrication process called coaxial electrospinning, which combines two or more materials into a fine fiber for use in industry, textiles or even medicine. Electrospinning combines the amazing properties of one material with the powerful benefits of another.

NASA plans to send water-hunting robot to moon surface in 2022

NASA will send a golf cart-sized robot to the moon in 2022 to search for deposits of water below the surface, an effort to evaluate the vital resource ahead of a planned human return to the moon in 2024 to possibly use it for astronauts to drink and to make rocket fuel, the U.S. space agency said on Friday. "VIPER is going to assess where the water ice...

Small magnets reveal big secrets

An international research team led by a physicist at the University of California, Riverside, has identified a microscopic process of electron spin dynamics in nanoparticles that could impact the design of applications in medicine, quantum computation, and spintronics.

The Real History Behind The Current War

One irony of history is that while Thomas Edison invented the first practical and affordable light bulb, he didn’t invent a practical and affordable system for keeping those lights on nationwide. The distinction for developing the system for transporting electricity that way goes jointly to George Westinghouse, the inventor of the railroad air brake, and to Nikola Tesla, a visionary...