295 articles from WEDNESDAY 19.8.2020
The most sensitive instrument in the search for life beyond Earth
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 18:07
Researchers have developed the highly sensitive ORIGIN instrument, which can provide proof of the smallest amounts of traces of life, for future space missions. The instrument may be used on missions to the ice moons of Europa (Jupiter) and Enceladus (Saturn), for example.
Words used to describe alcohol intoxication may give clues to drinking habits
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 18:07
Research suggests the language young adults use to describe the effects they feel from drinking may give insight into their drinking habits.
Team creates better tool to aid COVID-19 diagnosis
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 18:07
A radiologist and an evolutionary anatomist have teamed up to show the same techniques used for research on reptile and bird lungs can be used to help confirm the diagnosis of COVID-19 in patients. Their paper demonstrates that 3D models are a strikingly clearer method for visually evaluating the distribution of COVID-19-related infection in the respiratory system.
Toward a coronavirus breathalyzer test
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 18:07
Researchers have developed a prototype device that non-invasively detected COVID-19 in the exhaled breath of infected patients.
New insights into how skin can regenerate after severe burns
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 18:07
New research has made an exciting leap forward in understanding how skin heals, which could lead to drug treatments to vastly improve wound healing.
Speeding up nerve regrowth for trauma patients
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 18:07
Researchers have found a treatment that increases the speed of nerve regeneration by three to five times, leading to much better outcomes for trauma surgery patients.
If sustainably managed, wild fisheries and mariculture could help meet rising demand for food
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 18:07
Demand for food is set to rise substantially in the coming decades, which raises a question: How well can the ocean fill the gap between current supply and future need?
Study sheds new light on certainty of opinions
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 18:07
Researchers for years have understood how attitudes held with certainty might predict behavior, but psychologists now suggest there may be a more general disposition at work that predicts the certainty of newly formed evaluations, just as they do for pre-existing opinions.
Deep learning will help future Mars rovers go farther, faster, and do more science
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 18:07
NASA JPL are developing autonomous capabilities that could allow future Mars rovers to go farther, faster and do more science. Training machine learning models on the Maverick2, their team developed and optimized models for Drive-By Science and Energy-Optimal Autonomous Navigation.
Termite-fishing chimpanzees provide clues to the evolution of technology
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 18:06
Unlike chimpanzees in East and West Africa, who use a single tool to extract termites, chimpanzees in Central Africa's Congo Basin use tool sets -- puncturing sticks or perforating twigs plus fishing probes -- to harvest the insects from underground nests or towering earthen mounds scattered across lowland forests.
COVID-19 Could Threaten Firefighters As Wildfire Season Ramps Up
Jon Paul was leery entering his first wildfire camp of the year late last month to fight three lightning-caused fires scorching parts of a Northern California forest that hadn’t burned in 40 years.
The 54-year-old engine captain from southern Oregon knew from experience that these crowded, grimy camps can be breeding grounds for norovirus and a respiratory illness that firefighters call...
Understanding the inner workings of the human heart
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 17:09
Researchers used artificial intelligence and genetic analyses to examine the structure of the inner surface of the heart using 25,000 MRI scans. They found that the complex network of muscle fibers lining the inside of the heart, called trabeculae, allows blood to flow more efficiently and can influence the risk of heart failure. The study answers very old questions in basic human physiology and...
First immune-evading cells created to treat type 1 diabetes
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 17:09
Scientists have made a major advance in the pursuit of a safe and effective treatment for type 1 diabetes, an illness that impacts an estimated 1.6 million Americans with a cost of $14.4 billion annually. Using stem cell technology, researchers generated the first human insulin-producing pancreatic cell clusters able to evade the immune system. These 'immune shielded' cell clusters controlled...
The secret of lymph: How lymph nodes help cancer cells spread
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 17:09
For decades, physicians have known that many kinds of cancer cells often spread first to lymph nodes before traveling to distant organs through the bloodstream. New research provides insight into why this occurs, opening up new targets for treatments that could inhibit the spread of cancer.
Bacteria can defuse dangerous chemical in Rassaic River
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 17:09
Bacteria that can help defuse highly toxic dioxin in sediments in the Passaic River - a Superfund hazardous waste site - could eventually aid cleanup efforts at other dioxin-contaminated sites around the world, according to scientists.
Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 17:09
New research from the TABLET project recruited 12-month-old infants who had different levels of touchscreen usage.
Mystery gas discovered near center of Milky Way
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 17:09
Researchers have discovered a dense, cold gas that's been shot out from the center of the Milky Way 'like bullets'.
A touch of gold sends crystals electric with excitement
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 17:09
A touch of gold - or another noble metal - can change the structure of a crystal and its intrinsic properties, physicists have demonstrated in a display of modern-day alchemy.
Liquid sulfur changes shape and goes critic under pressure
- ScienceDaily
- 20/8/19 17:09
Scientists have found the proof for a liquid-to-liquid transition in sulfur and of a new kind of critical point ending this transition.
New research highlights 'challenging nature' of vested interests in the energy transition
Pioneering new research has highlighted some of the political difficulties with the UK's energy transition, in particular around vested fossil fuel interests.
Researchers develop tillandsia-inspired hygroscopic photothermal organogels for atmospheric water harvesting
As a typical representative of air plants, Tillandsia species can absorb moisture from the air with their leaves. Inspired by this hygroscopic foliage, Prof. Chen Tao's team at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), has developed a new type of hygroscopic photothermal organogel (POG).
Pumice arrives delivering 'vitamin boost' to the reef
The giant pumice raft created by an underwater volcanic eruption last August in Tonga has begun arriving on the Australian eastern seaboard, delivering millions of reef-building organisms that researchers say could be a 'vitamin boost' for the Great Barrier Reef.
Unconventional monetary policy and bank risk taking
Unconventional monetary policy does not lead to greater risk-taking by banks, according to new research. This will be welcome news for central banks and policymakers as they ramp up efforts to limit the economic fallout of the pandemic.
Controlling the electron spin: Flip it quickly but carefully
Over the past two decades, a new area at the interface of semiconductor physics, electronics and quantum mechanics has been gaining popularity among theoretical physicists and experimenters. This new field is called spintronics, and one of its main tasks is to learn how to control the spin of charge carriers in well known semiconductor structures. Many theoretical efforts are always required...
World record: Plasma accelerator operates right around the clock
A team of researchers at DESY has reached an important milestone on the road to the particle accelerator of the future. For the first time, a so-called laser plasma accelerator has run for more than a day while continuously producing electron beams. The LUX beamline, jointly developed and operated by DESY and the University of Hamburg, achieved a run time of 30 hours. "This brings us a big step...