363 articles from THURSDAY 4.2.2021

Fractals can help AI learn to see more clearly—or at least more fairly

Most image-recognition systems are trained using large databases that contain millions of photos of everyday objects, from snakes to shakes to shoes. With repeated exposure, AIs learn to tell one type of object from another. Now researchers in Japan have shown that AIs can start learning to recognize everyday objects by being “pretrained” first on computer-generated fractals. The approach...

Surface effect of electrodes revealed by operando surface science methodology

Surface and interface play critical roles in energy storage devices, thus calling for in-situ/operando methods to probe the electrified surface/interface. However, the commonly used in-situ/operando characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray spectroscopy and topography, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) are based on the structural,...

Imaging the first moments of a body plan emerging in the embryo

Egg cells start out as round blobs. After fertilization, they begin transforming into people, dogs, fish, or other animals by orienting head to tail, back to belly, and left to right. Exactly what sets these body orientation directions has been guessed at but not seen. Now researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have imaged the very beginning of this cellular rearrangement, and their...

Imaging technique provides link to innovative products

When we think about the links to the future—the global transition to solar and wind energy, tactile virtual reality or synthetic neurons—there's no shortage of big ideas. It's the materials to execute the big ideas—the ability to manufacture the lithium-ion batteries, opto-electronics and hydrogen fuel cells—that stand between concept and reality.

The strange impact of the first consumer review

If you're about to buy something online and its only customer review is negative, you'd probably reconsider the purchase, right? It turns out a product's first review can have an outsized effect on the item's future—it can even cause the product to fail.

Mysterious organic scum boosts chemical reaction efficiency, may reduce chemical waste

Chemical manufacturers frequently use toxic solvents such as alcohols and benzene to make products like pharmaceuticals and plastics. Researchers are examining a previously overlooked and misunderstood phenomenon in the chemical reactions used to make these products. This discovery brings a new fundamental understanding of catalytic chemistry and a steppingstone to practical applications that...

Switching nanolight on and off

A team of researchers led by Columbia University has developed a unique platform to program a layered crystal, producing imaging capabilities beyond common limits on demand.

In symbiosis: Plants control the genetics of microbes

Researchers from the University of Ottawa have discovered that plants may be able to control the genetics of their intimate root symbionts—the organism with which they live in symbiosis—thereby providing a better understanding of their growth.

An optical coating like no other

For more than a century, optical coatings have been used to better reflect certain wavelengths of light from lenses and other devices or, conversely, to better transmit certain wavelengths through them. For example, the coatings on tinted eyeglasses reflect, or "block out," harmful blue light and ultraviolet rays.

NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for SPHEREx Astrophysics Mission

Portal origin URL: NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for SPHEREx Astrophysics MissionPortal origin nid: 468084Published: Thursday, February 4, 2021 - 16:21Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the...

Edge of Space: The Science of AIM

Portal origin URL: Edge of Space: The Science of AIMPortal origin nid: 348922Published: Thursday, February 4, 2021 - 15:15Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: Over the course of its two-year mission, AIM will help answer these questions by documenting for the first time the entire complex life cycle of these clouds.Portal image: Artist's concept of...

Molecule from nature provides fully recyclable polymers

Plastics are among the most successful materials of modern times. However, they also create a huge waste problem. Scientists from the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) and the East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) in Shanghai produced different polymers from lipoic acid, a natural molecule. These polymers are easily depolymerized under mild conditions. Some 87 percent of...

Ultimately, beneficial fungi could be more effective than pesticides against nematodes

Over the past 30 years, the use of soil fumigants and nematicides used to protect cole crops, such as broccoli and Brussel sprouts, against cyst nematode pathogens in coastal California fields has decreased dramatically. A survey of field samples in 2016 indicated the nematode population has also decreased, suggesting the existence of a natural cyst nematode controlling process in these fields.

Scientists find a way to accelerate DNA surface hybridization

Scientists globally aim to control chemical reactions—an ambitious goal that requires identifying the steps taken by initial reactants to arrive at the final products as the reaction takes place. While this dream remains to be realized, techniques for probing chemical reactions have become sufficiently advanced to render it possible. In fact, chemical reactions can now be monitored based on the...

Molecule from nature provides fully recyclable polymers

Plastics are among the most successful materials of modern times. However, they also create a huge waste problem. Scientists produced different polymers from lipoic acid, a natural molecule. These polymers are easily depolymerized under mild conditions. Some 87 percent of the monomers can be recovered in their pure form and re-used to make new polymers of virgin quality.

Social interactions after isolation may counteract cravings

Social interaction may help reverse food and cigarette cravings triggered by being in social isolation, a study in rats has found. The study used an animal model of drug addiction to show that a return to social interaction gives the same result as living in a rich, stimulating environment in reducing cravings for both sugar and nicotine rewards.

Research could lead to injectable gels that release medicines over time

The researchers dissolved polymers and nanoparticles in water, and comingled them at room temperature to solidify a Jello-like substance that - unlike its kitchen counterpart -- did not liquify at higher heat, such as in the body. The technique kept in balance two thermodynamic concepts- enthalpy, which measures energy added to or subtracted from a material, and entropy, which describes how energy...

Researchers identify 'rescue' mechanism that helps cells survive malfunctioning split

Cells replicate their genetic material and divide into two identical clones to perpetuate life. Some cells pause in the process with a single, undivided nucleus. When the cell resumes division after such a pause, the nucleus can become caught in the fissure, splitting violently, and killing both cells. But that is not always the case. Researchers are starting to understand how active nuclear...

Can a fin become a limb?

Researchers examine what's happening at genetic level to drive patterns in fin skeleton versus limb skeleton and find mutants with modified fins in a more limb-like pattern by adding new bones, complete with muscles and joints. The results reveal the ability to form limb-like structures was present in the common ancestor of tetrapods and teleost fishes and has been retained in a latent state which...

Some sperm cells poison their competitors

Competition among sperm cells is fierce - they all want to reach the egg cell first to fertilize it. A research team now shows in mice that the ability of sperm to move progressively depends on the protein RAC1. Optimal amounts of active protein improve the competitiveness of individual sperm, whereas aberrant activity can cause male infertility.

Human immune cells have natural alarm system against HIV

Researchers have identified a potential way to eradicate the latent HIV infection that lies dormant inside infected immune cells. Studying human immune cells, the researchers showed that such cells have a natural alarm system that detects the activity of a specific HIV protein. Rather than attack the virus based on its appearance, this strategy is to attack the virus based on what it is doing --...

'Where did I park my car?' Brain stimulation improves mental time travel

A new study improved memory of complex, realistic events similar to these by applying transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the brain network responsible for memory. The authors then had participants watch videos of realistic activities to measure how memory works during everyday tasks. The findings prove it is possible to measure and manipulate realistic types of memory.

New methods for exploring the 'dark matter' of biology

New tools and methods have been described by researchers to study an unusual protein modification and gain fresh insights into its roles in human health and disease. The study - about how certain sugars modify proteins -- lays a foundation for better understanding diseases like muscular dystrophy and cancer.