289 articles from WEDNESDAY 13.5.2020

Designing flexible and stretchable single crystal electronic systems

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in collaboration with a Purdue team have discovered that certain crystals are more flexible and stretchable compared to current materials used for electronic applications. These new materials could therefore be used for making sensors and in robotics.

Signs of fetal alcohol syndrome detected in womb

New images reveal the earliest impairments to nonhuman primate fetal brain development due to alcohol ingested by the mother, in a study involving rhesus macaques. Magnetic resonance imaging showed impairments to brain growth during the third trimester of pregnancy, even though the fetus was exposed to alcohol only during the first trimester.

Designing flexible and stretchable single crystal electronic systems

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in collaboration with a Purdue team have discovered that certain crystals are more flexible and stretchable compared to current materials used for electronic applications. These new materials could therefore be used for making sensors and in robotics.

Atomically thin magnets for next generation spin and quantum electronics

As our smartphones, laptops, and computers get smaller and faster, so do the transistors inside them that control the flow of electricity and store information. But traditional transistors can only shrink so much. Now, researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology have developed a new atomically thin magnetic semiconductor that will allow the development of new transistors that work in a...

Dynamics of gut bacteria follow ecological laws

The seemingly chaotic bacterial soup of the gut microbiome is more organized than it first appears and follows some of the same ecological laws that apply to birds, fish, tropical rainforests, and even complex economic and financial markets, according to a new paper in Nature Microbiology by researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Is video game addiction real?

A recent six-year study, the longest study ever done on video game addiction, found that about 90% of gamers do not play in a way that is harmful or causes negative long-term consequences. A significant minority, though, can become truly addicted to video games and as a result can suffer mentally, socially and behaviorally.

Infecting the mind: Burnout in health care workers during COVID-19

Doctors and nurses across the country are experiencing occupational burnout and fatigue from the increased stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A team of researchers and medical professionals are working together to fight two afflictions: COVID-19 and the mental strain experienced by medical professionals.

A new, highly sensitive chemical sensor uses protein nanowires

Scientists report that they have developed bioelectronic ammonia gas sensors that are among the most sensitive ever made. It uses electric-charge-conducting protein nanowires derived from the bacterium Geobacter to provide biomaterials for electrical devices. They grow hair-like protein filaments that work as nanoscale ''wires'' to transfer charges for their nourishment and to communicate with...

95,000 have entered UK from abroad during coronavirus lockdown

Government chief adviser fails to give estimate of how many have arrived with Covid-19At least 95,000 people have entered the UK from overseas since the coronavirus lockdown was imposed, one of the government’s chief scientific advisers has revealed, while repeatedly failing to provide an estimate of how many of these people had Covid-19.Appearing before MPs on the science and technology...

The Guardian view on the hybrid parliament: unfinished business | Editorial

Digital scrutiny is imperfect but it has proved that the Commons can modernise. Ending the experiment prematurely is a backwards stepThere is still much to be learnt about the coronavirus, but it is clear that transmission is efficient in crowded, enclosed spaces. On that basis a full House of Commons is unsafe.That is why “hybrid scrutiny” was introduced, with most MPs contributing to debates...

How a mint became catmint

Catmint, also known as catnip, is well-known for its intoxicating effect on cats. The chemical responsible for the cats' strange behavior is nepetalactone, a volatile iridoid produced by catmint. An international team of researchers has now found through genome analysis that the ability to produce iridoids had already been lost in ancestors of catmint in the course of evolution. Hence,...

Microscopic feather features reveal fossil birds' colors and explain why cassowaries shine

Cassowaries are big flightless birds with blue heads and dinosaur-looking feet; they look like emus that time forgot, and they're objectively terrifying. They're also, along with their ostrich and kiwi cousins, part of the bird family that split off from chickens, ducks, and songbirds 100 million years ago. In songbirds and their relatives, scientists have found that the physical make-up of...

Virus protein discovery reveals new plant-animal class of cell division disruptors

Viruses are ubiquitous pathogens that can cause severe infectious diseases in both humans and agricultural crops. As most viruses have simple genomes and encode only a few proteins, they must usurp host cell resources for propagation. Understanding what host processes are disrupted and which viral proteins are involved greatly facilitate the design of therapeutic measures for controlling viral...

3D VR blood flow to improve cardiovascular care

Biomedical engineers are developing a massive fluid dynamics simulator that can model blood flow through the full human arterial system at subcellular resolution. One of the goals of the effort is to provide doctors with a virtual reality system that can guide their treatment plans by allowing them to simulate a patient's specific vasculature and accurately predict how decisions such as stent...

New comet discovered by solar observatory

In late May and early June, Earthlings may be able to glimpse Comet SWAN. The comet is currently faintly visible to the unaided eye in the Southern Hemisphere just before sunrise. The new comet was first spotted in April 2020, by an amateur astronomer named Michael Mattiazzo using data from the SOHO satellite.

Chemistry job seekers face tough outlook during pandemic

Even though it's been over a decade, the 2008 recession and its effects still loom over the chemistry enterprise. And now with the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down labs and universities across the world, chemistry students and professionals are again facing hiring freezes, reduced pay and other career obstacles. Chemical & Engineering News spoke with chemists about how they're navigating the...

The discovery of Comet SWAN by solar-watcher SOHO

Currently crossing the skies above Earth, Comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) has the potential to become a more prominent naked eye object by late May or early June. Yet it wasn't discovered by someone looking up at the night sky. Instead, the person was looking at a computer screen.

Bacterial injection system with a light-controlled molecular switch

When bacteria such as Salmonella or Yersinia cause fever, diarrhoea or abdominal pain, tiny 'injection needles' are at work: their type 3 secretion system, or T3SS for short, shoots bacterial virulence proteins directly into the eukaryotic host cells. Researchers have thought of using bacterial injection devices to introduce proteins into eukaryotic cells. A Max Planck research team has now...

CRISPR plants: new non-GMO method to edit plants

An NC State researcher has developed a new way to get CRISPR/Cas9 into plant cells without inserting foreign DNA. This allows for precise genetic deletions or replacements, without inserting foreign DNA. Therefore, the end product is not a genetically modified organism, or GMO.

Grounded aircraft could make weather forecasts less reliable

Thanks to travel restrictions and plummeting customer demand, the number of flights in the first week of April 2020 was down 61% compared with the same period in 2019. The pandemic has emptied the skies of aircraft, but it's not just the airline industry that's reeling from the sudden change.

Unique polymer-based fabrication process for low-cost, higher yield reprogrammable photonic integrated circuits

The future looks bright for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) as they look destined for use in quantum computing and deep learning technologies. As PICs carry light signals rather than electrical signals, accurate control of their refractive properties is essential. Traditional techniques for programming photonic devices rely on exposure to light and heat. However, this leads to high power...

How did the old masters make their ultramarine?

Researchers at the Rijksmuseum, the University of Amsterdam, VU Amsterdam and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) have developed a method that reveals how the costly pigment ultramarine was prepared from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. Thanks to X-ray examinations of paint samples, they can now look back more than four hundred years to determine whether the blue stones were...

'Building' sustainability for buildings

The Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development was pleased to host John Mandyck, the CEO of Urban Green Council as part of the Spring 2020 Speaker Series. With a mission to transform buildings for a more sustainable future in New York City and around the world, the Urban Green Council researches and educates on policy solutions to enhance the sustainability of buildings.

The children being left behind by America’s online schooling

Like most children in the US, Juana* hasn’t been to school in two months. Her mother, Dilma, left school after first grade and doesn’t speak English. Until recently, the family in Oakland, California, only had a very simple cell phone they used to make calls home to family in Guatemala.  Without a computer to connect to her teachers and friends, Juana started to fall behind. While...

Expandable foam for 3-D printing large objects

It's a frustrating limitation of 3-D printing: Printed objects must be smaller than the machine making them. Huge machines are impractical for printing large parts because they take up too much space and require excessive time to print. Now, a new material reported in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces can be used to 3-D print small objects that expand upon heating. The foam could find...

'The head-tail of tadpoles': The dynamics of polymers with a very unique shape

They are in the shape of a tadpole and interact with each other by harpooning between head and tail, thus presenting interesting and unexpected physical properties. Tadpoles are the large molecules at the centre of new research just published in the journal ACS Macro Letters, and the result of an international collaboration between SISSA and the Universities of Vienna, Warwick and Edinburgh. In...

Pofatu: A new database for geochemical 'fingerprints' of artefacts

Due to the improvement and increased use of geochemical fingerprinting techniques during the last 25 years, the archaeological compositional data of stone tools has grown exponentially. The Pofatu Database is a large-scale collaborative project that enables curation and data sharing. The database also provides instrumental details, analytical procedures and reference standards used for calibration...

Pictures and gestures are effective support methods in foreign language teaching for children

Foreign language teaching in primary schools literally opens up new worlds for primary school children: with a large portion of curiosity, willingness to learn and impartiality, they encounter not only new languages but also new cultures. Early foreign language teaching takes advantage of the special learning conditions at this age. It is therefore all the more important that the learned content...