215 articles from FRIDAY 5.2.2021
The battle of algorithms: Uncovering offensive AI
As machine-learning applications move into the mainstream, a new era of cyber threat is emerging—one that uses offensive artificial intelligence (AI) to supercharge attack campaigns. Offensive AI allows attackers to automate reconnaissance, craft tailored impersonation attacks, and even self-propagate to avoid detection. Security teams can prepare by turning to defensive AI to fight back—using...
Fungi in the gut prime immunity against infection
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:58
Common fungi, often present in the gut, teach the immune system how to respond to their more dangerous relatives, according to new research. Breakdowns in this process can leave people susceptible to deadly fungal infections.
Study identifies 'Achilles heel' of bacteria linked to Crohn's disease
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:58
The discovery of an 'Achilles heel' in a type of gut bacteria that causes intestinal inflammation in patients with Crohn's disease may lead to more targeted therapies for the difficult to treat disease, according to investigators.
New research sheds light on vision loss in Batten disease
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:58
Progressive vision loss, and eventually blindness, are the hallmarks of juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (JNCL) or CLN3-Batten disease. New research shows how the mutation associated with the disease could potentially lead to degeneration of light sensing photoreceptor cells in the retina, and subsequent vision loss.
Me, myself and I: Little words may signal a big breakup is coming — long before you know it
New research suggests that long before a relationship comes crashing down, our word use shifts in subtle ways that may signal the end is near and we may not even know...
Out of this world: Shepard put golf on moon 50 years ago
Fifty years later, it remains the most impressive bunker shot in the history of golf, mainly because of the location.
Breakthrough in quantum photonics promises a new era in optical circuits
The modern world is powered by electrical circuitry on a "chip"—the semiconductor chip underpinning computers, cell phones, the internet, and other applications. In the year 2025, humans are expected to be creating 175 zettabytes (175 trillion gigabytes) of new data. How can we ensure the security of sensitive data at such a high volume? And how can we address grand-challenge-like problems, from...
Underwater Noise Pollution Is Disrupting Ocean Life—But We Can Fix It
The ocean soundtrack of the popular imagination is a largely silent one, interrupted only by the mournful aria of migrating whales or the acapella vocalizations of dolphin pods.
In fact, the underwater realm sounds more like an orchestra warming up, the cetaceans hitting their high notes while other marine mammals clear their throats against a background of breaking waves. A distant downpour...
New microscopy concept enters into force
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:01
The first demonstration of an approach that inverts the standard paradigm of scanning probe microscopy raises the prospect of force sensing at the fundamental limit.
New drug targets for childhood cancer neuroblastoma identified
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:01
The largest single cell study to date of the childhood cancer, neuroblastoma, has discovered that all neuroblastomas arise from a single type of embryonic cell called sympathoblasts.
Civil engineers find link between hospitals and schools key to community resilience
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:01
Health care and education systems are two main pillars of a community's stability. How well and how quickly a community recovers following a natural disaster depends on the resilience of these essential social services. New research has found hospitals and schools are interdependent, suggesting their collective recovery must be considered in order to restore a community in the wake of disaster.
Breakthrough in quantum photonics promises a new era in optical circuits
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:01
Researchers have shown that single photons can be emitted in a uniform way from quantum dots arranged in a precise pattern. The team has used such methods to create single-quantum dots, with their remarkable single-photon emission characteristics. It is expected that the ability to precisely align uniformly-emitting quantum dots will enable the production of optical circuits, potentially leading...
New way to power up nanomaterials for electronic applications
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:01
Materials scientists have discovered that perovskites, a class of promising materials that could be used for low-cost, high-performance solar cells and LEDs, have a previously unutilized molecular component that can further tune the electronic property of perovskites.
Women's voices in the media still outnumbered by those of men: study
New research from Simon Fraser University shows that women's voices continue to be underrepresented in the media, despite having prominent female leaders across Canada and internationally. Researchers in SFU's Discourse Processing Lab found that men outnumber women quoted in Canadian news media about three to one. The findings from the team's Gender Gap Tracker study were published this week in...
Long live superconductivity! Short flashes of light with sustaining impact
Superconductivity—the ability of a material to transmit an electric current without loss—is a quantum effect that, despite years of research, is still limited to very low temperatures. Now a team of scientists at the MPSD has succeeded in creating a metastable state with vanishing electrical resistance in a molecular solid by exposing it to finely tuned pulses of intense laser light. This...
NASA Highlights Science on Next Northrop Grumman Mission to Space Station
NASA will host a media teleconference Thursday, February 11, to discuss science investigations and technology demonstrations launching on Northrop Grumman’s 15th commercial resupply mission for the agency to the International Space Station.
News Article Type: Homepage ArticlesPublished: Friday, February 5, 2021 -...
Pandemic caused 'staggering' economic, human impact in developing counties, research says
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year led to a devastating loss of jobs and income across the global south, threatening hundreds of millions of people with hunger and lost savings and raising an array of risks for children, according to new research co-authored at the University of California, Berkeley.
Genes for face shape identified
Genes that determine the shape of a person's facial profile have been discovered by a UCL-led research team.
Fingerprint for the formation of nitrous oxide emissions
Scientists led by Eliza Harris and Michael Bahn from the Institute of Ecology at the University of Innsbruck have succeeded in studying emissions of the greenhouse gas N2O under the influence of environmental impacts in an unprecedented level of detail. The study, which has now been published in Science Advances, is thus also a starting point for the creation of models that could predict future...
New way to power up nanomaterials for electronic applications
UCLA materials scientists and colleagues have discovered that perovskites, a class of promising materials that could be used for low-cost, high-performance solar cells and LEDs, have a previously unutilized molecular component that can further tune the electronic property of perovskites.
Civil engineers find link between hospitals and schools key to community resilience
Health care and education systems are two main pillars of a community's stability. How well and how quickly a community recovers following a natural disaster depends on the resilience of these essential social services.
Healthy oceans need healthy soundscapes
Rain falls lightly on the ocean's surface. Marine mammals chirp and squeal as they swim along. The pounding of surf along a distant shoreline heaves and thumps with metronomic regularity. These are the sounds that most of us associate with the marine environment. But the soundtrack of the healthy ocean no longer reflects the acoustic environment of today's ocean, plagued with human-created noise.
Forests of the world in 3-D: Research team analyses complexity of forest structure
Primeval forests are of great importance for biodiversity and global carbon and water cycling. The three-dimensional structure of forests plays an important role here because it influences processes of gas and energy exchange with the atmosphere, whilst also providing habitats for numerous species. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has investigated the variety of...
How protein condensation slows down gene activity and ensures the survival of stressed cells
All life on earth evolved multiple layers and networks of ensuring survival upon catastrophic events. Even cells have their emergency plan: the heat shock response. Triggered by multiple stress stimuli such as heat, toxins, or radiation, this cellular safety program tries to prevent permanent damage to the organism. The response resembles an overall adopted 'lockdown' strategy witnessed during the...