331 articles from TUESDAY 11.5.2021

COVID-19 alters gray matter volume in the brain, new study shows

COVID-19 patients who receive oxygen therapy or experience fever show reduced gray matter volume in the frontal-temporal network of the brain, according to a new study. The study's findings demonstrate changes to the frontal-temporal network could be used as a biomarker to determine the likely prognosis of COVID-19 or evaluate treatment options for the disease.

A Private Company Is About to Send the First Paying Crew to the International Space Station

Outer space is rapidly becoming Outer Space, Inc., as the rise of private launch providers is making it increasingly easy to turn a buck in an industry that was once exclusively a not-for-profit government operation. The commercialization of low-Earth orbit took a big step forward yesterday, with NASA’s announcement that the space agency has inked a deal with Houston-based Axiom Space, in...

Could AI help recover energy and fresh water from municipal wastewater?

As city populations boom and the need grows for sustainable energy and water, scientists and engineers with the University of Chicago and partners are looking towards artificial intelligence to build new systems to deal with wastewater. Two new projects will test out ways to make "intelligent" water systems to recover nutrients and clean water.

Discovery of new geologic process calls for changes to plate tectonic cycle

Geoscientists at the University of Toronto (U of T) and Istanbul Technical University have discovered a new process in plate tectonics which shows that tremendous damage occurs to areas of Earth's crust long before it should be geologically altered by known plate-boundary processes, highlighting the need to amend current understandings of the planet's tectonic cycle.

Understanding SARS-COV-2 proteins is key to improve therapeutic options for COVID-19

COVID-19 has had a significant impact since the pandemic was declared by WHO in 2020, with over 3 million deaths and counting, Researchers and medical teams have been hard at work at developing strategies to control the spread of the infection, caused by SARS-COV-2 virus and treat affected patients. Of special interest to the global population is the developments of vaccines to boost human...

Low-temperature crystallization of phase-pure α-formamidinium lead iodide enabled by study

Though different fabrication approaches exist, two-step deposition is one of the main experimental techniques now used to make efficient, stable PSCs, especially on the industrial scale. The process involves first depositing lead iodide (PbI2) and then adding halide salts of monovalent cations such as methylammonium iodide (MAI) and formamidinium iodide (FAI) to convert it to perovskite.

How one of the oldest natural insecticides keeps mosquitoes away

A new study has identified a scent receptor in mosquitoes that helps them sniff out and avoid trace amounts of pyrethrum, a plant extract used for centuries to repel biting insects. These findings could help researchers develop new broad spectrum repellents to keep a variety of mosquito species at bay, and by extension stop them from biting people and spreading disease.

Focus on outliers creates flawed snap judgments

You enter a room and quickly scan the crowd to gain a sense of who's there - how many men versus women. How reliable is your estimate? Not very, according to new research. In an experimental study, researchers found that participants consistently erred in estimating the proportion of men and women in a group. And participants erred in a particular way: They overestimated whichever group was in the...

Rules of the road: The navigational 'strategies' of bacteria in motion

Bacteria that move around live on the edge. All the time. Their success, be it in finding nutrients, fending off predators or multiplying, depends on how efficiently they navigate through their confining microscopic habitats. Whether these habitats are in animal or plant tissues, in waste, or in other materials. In a recent paper published in PNAS, a team of researchers led by McGill University...

Sustaining technology-enhanced learning innovations in teachers' classroom practices

In the recent years Tallinn University has paid a lot of attention to becoming agile in business collaboration, including both local and international EdTech companies. Their collaboration with the company TTS Group started last year, and the common interest is to develop and implement novel STEAM and educational robotics-related teaching practices for kindergartens and primary schools. The...