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.

For red abalone, resisting ocean acidification starts with mom

Red abalone mothers from California's North Coast give their offspring an energy boost when they're born that helps them better withstand ocean acidification compared to their captive, farmed counterparts, according to a study from the Bodega Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Davis.

Disproportionate extinction of South American mammals when Americas collided evident today

When the Isthmus of Panama rose from the sea to connect North and South America millions of years ago, mammals could cross the bridge in both directions. But the result of this massive migration—a large proportion of mammals with North American origins in South America, but not the other way around—has long puzzled paleontologists. To explore the origins of this drastic asymmetry, researchers...

Snakes reveal the origin of skin colours

The skin color of vertebrates depends on chromatophores—cells found in the superficial layers of the epidermis. A team of specialists in genetic determinism and color evolution in reptiles from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) is studying the wide variety of colors sported by different individuals within the corn snake species. The research, published in the journal PNAS, demonstrates that the...

Safe resumption of research is important, feasible

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, just as public institutions and businesses closed, research programs performing human participant research (HPR) also largely ceased operations. Now, universities and healthcare organizations conducting HPR are considering reopening.

How long does the preschool advantage last?

Children who attend preschool enter kindergarten with greater skills than those who don't, but that advantage is nearly halved by the end of the year as their counterparts quickly begin to catch up, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

Air stable intrinsically stretchable color-conversion layers for stretchable displays

The development of a stretchable display that can be bent, stretched, and attached to the skin as a free-standing film appeared in science fiction films is expected to be one step closer. The research team led by Prof. Tae-Woo Lee from Seoul National University announced on the 29th that they have successfully achieved a stretchable color conversion layer (SCCL) using perovskite nanocrystals...

On the trail of causes of radiation events during space flight

Scientists have made significant progress in understanding the sources of radiation events that could impact human space-flight operations. Relativistic electron precipitation (REP) events are instances when high energy electrons move through areas of space at significant fractions of the speed of light. These REP events may pose challenges to human spaceflight, specifically during extravehicular...

Dog brains do not prefer faces

Even though dogs gaze into man's eyes, dog brains may not process faces as human brains do. A new study suggests that the canine visual system is organized differently: the face network found in primates may not extend to all mammals.