295 articles from TUESDAY 24.11.2020

Memories of past events retain remarkable fidelity even as we age

Even though people tend to remember fewer details about past events as time goes by, the details they do remember are retained with remarkable fidelity, according to a new study. This finding holds true regardless of the age of the person or the amount of time that elapsed since the event took place.

Microbes help unlock phosphorus for plant growth

A research team led by the University of Washington and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has shown that microbes taken from trees growing beside pristine mountain-fed streams in Western Washington could make phosphorus trapped in soils more accessible to agricultural crops.

Miniscule robots of metal and plastic

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a technique for manufacturing micrometre-long machines by interlocking multiple materials in a complex way. Such microrobots will one day revolutionize the field of medicine.

More skin-like, electronic skin that can feel

POSTECH-Stanford joint research team develops multimodal ion-electronic skin that distinguishes temperature from mechanical stimuli.This skin can detect various movements and is applicable in fields including humanoid skin and temperature sensors.

Narcissists love being pandemic 'essential workers'

There's one group of essential workers who especially enjoy being called a "hero" during the COVID-19 pandemic: narcissists.In a new study, researchers found that essential workers (including those in restaurants, grocery and retail stores) who scored higher on measures of narcissism shared more than others about their work. And this sharing on social media, in person and elsewhere increased their...

New graph-based statistical method detects threats to vehicular communications networks

Researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) have worked to create methods for improving the safety of technologically complex vehicles. Riadul Islam, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering, has worked with collaborators at UMBC and the University of Michigan-Dearborn to create a simple, easily adapted method for detecting the breaches in security.

New material 'mines' copper from toxic wastewater

A team of scientists led by Berkeley Lab has designed a new material -- called ZIOS (zinc imidazole salicylaldoxime) -- that targets and traps copper ions from wastewater with unprecedented precision and speed. The technology offers the water industry and the research community the first blueprint for a water-remediation technology that scavenges heavy metal ions with a measure of control that far...

New paper proposes framework for eliminating defects in psychiatric care

A new paper from University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center proposes a framework for eliminating defects in behavioral health treatment. The authors cite a large majority of defects result from system failures rather than individual psychiatrists. Authors propose psychiatrists need to function as "systems engineers" to help eliminate these defects in healthcare organizations.

New physical picture leads to a precise finite-size scaling of (3+1)-dimensional O(n) critical system

Logarithmic finite-size scaling of O(n) critical systems at upper critical dimensionality has been a long-standing issue. Recently, scientists based in China and US provided a new physical picture. On this basis, they established an explicit scaling form for the free energy density, which simultaneously consists of a scaling term for the Gaussian fixed point and another term with multiplicative...

New therapy for flu may help in fight against COVID-19

A new therapy for influenza virus infections that may also prove effective against many other pathogenic virus infections, including HIV and COVID-19, has been developed by Purdue University scientists. The Purdue team's approach uses a targeted therapy approach against the virus infections.

NIST AI system discovers new material

When the words "artificial intelligence" (AI) come to mind, your first thoughts may be of super-smart computers, or robots that perform tasks without needing any help from humans. Now, a multi-institutional team including researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has accomplished something not too far off: They developed an AI algorithm called CAMEO that discovered...

NSF's National Solar observatory predicts a large sunspot for Thanksgiving

On November 18 scientists from the US National Science Foundation's National Solar Observatory predicted the arrival of a large sunspot just in time for Thanksgiving. Using a special technique called helioseismology, the team has been "listening" to changing sound waves from the Sun's interior which beckon the arrival of a large sunspot.

Potential treatment against antibiotic-resistant bacteria causing gonorrhea and meningitis

A team from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has demonstrated the effectiveness of an inexpensive molecule to fight antibiotic-resistant strains of the bacteria responsible for gonorrhea and meningococcal meningitis. These two infections affect millions of people worldwide. The results of this research, led by Professor Frédéric Veyrier and Professor Annie...