171 articles from MONDAY 23.12.2019

The coolest LEGO ® in the universe

For the first time, LEGO ® has been cooled to the lowest temperature possible in an experiment which reveals a new use for the popular toy -- the development of quantum computing. A figure and four blocks were placed inside the most effective refrigerator in the world, capable of reaching 1.6 millidegrees above absolute zero (minus 273.15 Centigrade), which is about 200,000 times colder than room...

Artificial intelligence tracks down leukemia

Artificial intelligence can detect one of the most common forms of blood cancer - acute myeloid leukemia -- with high reliability. Researchers at the DZNE and the University of Bonn have now shown this in a proof-of-concept study. Their approach is based on the analysis of the gene activity of cells found in the blood. Used in practice, this approach could support conventional diagnostics and...

Development of a stretchable vibration-powered device using a liquid electret

Researchers developed a liquid electret material capable of semi-permanently retaining static electricity. They subsequently combined this material with soft electrodes to create the first bendable, stretchable vibration-powered device in the world. Because this device is highly deformable and capable of converting very subtle vibrations into electrical signals, it may be applicable to the...

How fish get their shape

Researchers investigated the science behind the formation of the 'V' patterns -- also known as chevron patterns -- in the swimming muscles of fish. The study focused on the myotome (a group of muscles served by a spinal nerve root) that makes up most of the fish body. The research team found that these patterns do not simply arise from genetic instruction or biochemical pathways but actually...

Evolutionary changes in brain potentially make us more prone to anxiety

Neurochemicals such as serotonin and dopamine play crucial roles in cognitive and emotional functions of our brain. Vesicular monoamine transporter 1 (VMAT1) is one of the genes responsible for transporting neurotransmitters and regulating neuronal signaling. A research team has reconstructed ancestral VMAT1 proteins, revealing the functional changes in neurotransmitter uptake of VMAT1 throughout...

Moving toward sustainable energy in New York City

,Over the past few years, a variety of laws have been enacted in New York State and New York City as we accelerate our transition to a more efficient and decarbonized energy system. One new rule that is bound to attract attention is a new system of grading and then displaying the energy efficiency rating of large buildings. Just as restaurants must display the grade they receive evaluating the...

Ancient secret of stone circles revealed

New evidence of a massive lightning strike at the center of a hidden stone circle in the Outer Hebrides may help shed light on why these monuments were created thousands of years ago.

An approach for constructing non-Hermitian topological invariants in real space

In physics, non-Hermitian systems are systems that cannot be described by standard (i.e., Hermitian) laws of quantum mechanics, or more precisely, that can only be described by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. Non-Hermitian systems are ubiquitous in nature. Many open systems, i.e., systems that are not fully isolated from the rest of the world, belong to this class. The topology of these systems (i.e.,...

Printing wirelessly rechargeable solid-state supercapacitors for soft, smart contact lenses

Recent advances in smart contact lenses can assist biomedical engineers to realize medical applications and vision imaging for augmented reality with wireless communication systems. Previous research on smart contact lenses were driven by a wireless system or wireless power transfer with temporal and spatial restrictions. Such power sources can limit their continuous use and require energy storage...

The birds and the bees and the bearded dragons: Evolution of a sex determination system

Sex is an ancient and widespread phenomenon, with over 99 percent of eukaryotes (cells with nuclei) partaking in some form of sexual reproduction, at least occasionally. Given the relative ubiquity and presumed importance of sex, it is perhaps surprising that the mechanisms that determine an individual's sex vary so spectacularly across organisms. Mechanisms for sex determination can depend on...

Chemist develops a way to produce new materials for solar panels

A chemist from RUDN University has synthesized new types of optically active materials with the structure of the mineral perovskite. He proposed an environmentally friendly, fast, and easily reproducible mechanochemical method, which allows obtaining hybrid materials of high purity, promising for the creation of solar cells. The article was published in the journal Nanoscale.

20 Ways the World Got Better in 2019, in Charts

The last 12 months have felt chaotic, destabilizing, and on occasion apocalyptic. Toxic nationalist movements have risen across the globe; politics in democratic nations have increasingly polarized; wealth gaps continue to expand; and the specter of climate change lurking at a remove has become an actual monster inside the house. It’s difficult, in the context…

In 2019 the public woke up to the climate crisis. When will the politicians? | Stephen Buranyi

Poll after poll shows that people now want action. But at the international level progress is being deliberately stymiedIn 1988, Time magazine selected “The Endangered Earth” as its person of the year. This December, 31 years later, the honour went to Greta Thunberg. The point of the Time exercise is to take a complex issue and locate a person through whom we can better understand it. Twenty...