254 articles from MONDAY 13.7.2020

Special filters in glasses can help the color blind see colors better, study finds

A new study found that special patented glasses engineered with technically advanced spectral notch filters enhance color vision for those with the most common types of red-green color vision deficiency ('anomalous trichromacy'). Notably, the ability to identify and experience expanded color was also demonstrated when color blind test subjects were not wearing the glasses.

The new tattoo: Drawing electronics on skin

One day, people could monitor their own health conditions by simply picking up a pencil and drawing a bioelectronic device on their skin. In a new study, engineers demonstrated that the simple combination of pencils and paper could be used to create devices that might be used to monitor personal health.

Green is more than skin-deep for hundreds of frog species

The through-and-through greenness of hundreds of frog species that can be found deep in their lymphatic fluid, soft tissues and even bones, comes from a clever biochemical workaround that combines a normally virus-fighting type of protein with a toxic byproduct of blood breakdown. The camouflage innovation has happened at least 40 times across 11 families of frog and toad.

Artificial energy source for muscle

Muscle physiologist sought an alternative energy source to replace the body's usual one, adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Such a source could control muscle activity, and might lead to new muscle spasm-calming treatments in cerebral palsy, for example, or activate or enhance skeletal muscle function in MS, ALS and chronic heart failure. They report this month that they have made a series of synthetic...

5,000 years of history of domestic cats in Central Europe

A loner and a hunter with highly developed territorial instincts, a cruel carnivore, a disobedient individual: the cat. These features make the species averse to domestication. Even so, we did it. Nowadays, about 500 million cats live in households all around the world; it is also difficult to estimate the amount of the homeless and the feral ones

Astrophysicists suggest carbon found in comet ATLAS help reveal age of other comets

Astrophysicists from Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU, Russia), South Korea, and the U.S. appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, suggesting carbon indicates time comets have spent in the Solar System—the less carbon, the longer they have been in the proximity of the Sun. The proof is their study of the comet ATLAS (C/2019 Y4) approaching the Earth in May 2020 and...

Researchers develop new technique for production of plasmonics devices

Research laboratories are constantly developing new materials that are expected to exhibit novel properties bound to revolutionize this or that technology. But it's not enough to simply create these materials; scientists also need to find efficient methods of processing and fine-tuning them. Moreover, composites are often made via the addition of nanoparticles into a base matrix, which is why it...

New solar material could clean drinking water

Providing clean water to soldiers in the field and citizens around the world is essential, and yet one of the world's greatest challenges. Now a new super-wicking and super-light-absorbing aluminum material developed with Army funding could change that.