366 articles from THURSDAY 22.10.2020

DNA in fringe-lipped bat poop reveals unexpected eating habits

Poop is full of secrets. For scientists, digging into feces provides insights into animal diets and is particularly useful for understanding nocturnal or rare species. When animals eat, prey DNA travels all the way through animal digestive tracts and comes out again. Poop contains very precise information about the prey species consumed. At the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), a...

Collaboration sparks new model for ceramic conductivity

As insulators, metal oxides—also known as ceramics—may not seem like obvious candidates for electrical conductivity. While electrons zip back and forth in regular metals, their movement in ceramic materials is sluggish and difficult to detect.

Turning streetwear into solar power plants

Researchers at Empa and ETH Zurich succeeded in developing a material that works like a luminescent solar concentrator and can even be applied to textiles. This opens up numerous possibilities for producing energy directly where it is needed, i.e. in the use of everyday electronics.

Aerial images detect and track food security threats for millions of African farmers

New research shows how a combination of imagery from mobile phones, drones and satellites can be used to clamp down on banana threats. The images of varying resolutions are fed into a platform "trained" through machine learning to identify banana crops and analyze threats with 97% overall accuracy. The findings were published in the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

These Winged Dinosaurs Hurtled Through the Trees like Haywire Hang Gliders

During a blip in time in the late Jurassic, a dinosaur that weighed no more than a chinchilla flung itself from tree to tree, spread its wings and tried to soar. In theory, it sounds beautiful -- an early attempt at flight before birds figured out the blueprint.In practice, it was chaotic.The dinosaur, Yi qi, only barely managed to glide, stretching out and shimmying its skin-flap, downy-feathered...

Ancient Maya built sophisticated water filters

Ancient Maya in the once-bustling city of Tikal built sophisticated water filters using natural materials they imported from miles away, according to new research. A multidisciplinary team of anthropologists, geographers and biologists identified quartz and zeolite, a crystalline compound consisting of silicon and aluminum, that created a natural molecular sieve. Both minerals are used in modern...

Galactic archaeology

Computational astrophysics study modeled for the first time faint supernovae of metal-free first stars, yielding carbon-enhanced abundance patterns for star formation. Study investigated formation of first stars and the origin of elements heavier than hydrogen, helium, lithium.

A promising discovery could lead to better treatment for Hepatitis C

Virologists have identified a critical role played by a cellular protein in the progression of Hepatitis C virus infection, paving the way for more effective treatment. No vaccine currently exists for Hepatitis C virus infection, which affects more than 130 million people worldwide and nearly 250,000 Canadians. Antivirals exist but are expensive and not readily available in developing countries,...

Ancient origins of speed control during movement

Movement in animals is complex. Little has been known about how spinal inhibitory interneurons work to silence other neurons and related muscle groups in coordination with the active muscle groups across changing speeds. Now a research team has discovered in a study of zebrafish that there is a very orderly relationship between when these critical inhibitory neurons are born, their participation...

AI detects hidden earthquakes

Tiny movements in Earth's outermost layer may provide a Rosetta Stone for deciphering the physics and warning signs of big quakes. New algorithms that work a little like human vision are now detecting these long-hidden microquakes in the growing mountain of seismic data.

How'd we get so picky about friendship late in life? Ask the chimps

When humans age, they tend to favor small circles of meaningful, already established friendships rather than seek new ones. People are also more likely to lean toward positive relationships rather than ones that bring tension or conflict. These behaviors were thought to be unique to humans but it turns out chimpanzees, one of our closest living relatives, have these traits, too. The study shows...