291 articles from MONDAY 5.10.2020

Turning diamond into metal

Researchers have discovered a way to tweak tiny needles of diamond in a controlled way to transform their electronic properties, dialing them from insulating, through semiconducting, all the way to highly conductive, or metallic. This can be induced dynamically and reversed at will, with no degradation of the diamond material.

Trans-Neptunian object Arrokoth: Flattening of a snowman

The trans-Neptunian object Arrokoth, also known as Ultima Thule, which NASA's space probe New Horizons passed on New Year's Day 2019, may have changed its shape significantly in the first 100 million years since its formation. Researchers now suggest that the current shape of Arrokoth could be of evolutionary origin due to volatile outgassing.

How malaria parasites withstand a fever's heat

The parasites that cause 200 million cases of malaria each year can withstand feverish temperatures that make their human hosts miserable. Now, a team is beginning to understand how they do it. The researchers have identified a lipid-protein combo that springs into action to gird the parasite's innards against heat shock. Understanding how malaria protects its cells against heat and other...

Advancing multiprincipal alloys

The most significant advances in human civilization are marked by the progression of the materials that humans use. The Stone Age gave way to the Bronze Age, which in turn gave way to the Iron Age. New materials disrupt the technologies of the time, improving life and the human condition.

What's Up - September 2020

What are some skywatching highlights in September 2020? Spot the Moon together with Mars and Venus, along with the flickering star Fomalhaut, which had itself a planet...until it didn't! News Article Type: Homepage ArticlesPublished: Monday, October 5, 2020 -...

How malaria parasites withstand a fever's heat

Even when a person suffering from malaria is burning up with fever and too sick to function, the tiny blood-eating parasites lurking inside them continue to flourish, relentlessly growing and multiplying as they gobble up the host's red blood cells.

Corn farmers can apply a fungicide just once to protect against foliar diseases

Foliar diseases, such as gray leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight, and southern rust, were estimated to cause annual losses ranging from 19,029 to 244,149 metric tons from 2012 to 2015 in Kentucky. To mitigate these damages, farmers have turned to foliar fungicides. However, as plant pathologist Carl Bradley explains, "Kentucky corn farmers had questions about the best timing to apply a foliar...

3 scientists win Nobel physics prize for black hole finds

Three scientists won this year’s Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for advancing our understanding of black holes, the all-consuming monsters that lurk in the darkest parts of the universe. Briton Roger Penrose received half of this year’s prize “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity," the Nobel Committee said. German Reinhard...

Normally an insulator, diamond becomes a metallic conductor when subjected to large strain in a new theoretical model

Long known as the hardest of all natural materials, diamonds are also exceptional thermal conductors and electrical insulators. Now, researchers have discovered a way to tweak tiny needles of diamond in a controlled way to transform their electronic properties, dialing them from insulating, through semiconducting, all the way to highly conductive, or metallic. This can be induced dynamically and...

Using physics to map the chaos of movement in living organisms

The behavior of living organisms might obey the same mathematical laws as physical phenomena, such as weather and the motion of planets, says new research from the Biological Physics Theory Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST).

Lego-like assembly of zeolitic membranes improves carbon capture

Zeolites are porous minerals that occur both naturally but also are being synthesized artificially. Because they are stable and durable, zeolites are used for chemical catalysis, purification of gases and liquids, and even in medical applications such as drug delivery and blood-clotting powders, e.g. the QuickClot trauma bandages used in the US military.

It took several million years for Arrokothn to acquire its bizarre, pancake-flat shape

The trans-Neptunian object Arrokoth, also known as Ultima Thule, which NASA's space probe New Horizons passed on New Year's Day 2019, may have changed its shape significantly in the first 100 million years since its formation. In today's issue of the journal Nature Astronomy, researchers led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) suggest...

NASA's TESS creates a cosmic vista of the northern sky

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered 74 exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system. Astronomers are sifting through some 1,200 additional exoplanet candidates, where potential new worlds await confirmation. More than 600 of these candidates lie in the northern sky.