149 articles from TUESDAY 2.11.2021

An artificial material that can sense, adapt to its environment

Researchers have developed an artificial material which can respond to its environment, independently make a decision, and perform an action not directed by a human being. For example, a drone making a delivery might evaluate its environment including wind direction, speed or wildlife, and automatically change course in order to complete the delivery safely. The material incorporates 3 main...

Unexpected antibody type found in people with malaria infections

Malaria, a pathogen transmitted into blood by mosquitoes in tropical climates, is typically thought of as a blood and liver infection. However researchers have detected antibodies primarily made in response to infections in the mucous membranes -- in such areas as the lungs, intestines, or vagina -- in study participants with malaria.

Pinniped craniofacial musculature provides insight on its role in aquatic feeding

Pinnipeds—a group including seals, sea lions and walruses—are relatively recently derived marine mammals that evolved from terrestrial carnivorans and reentered the marine environment. Their recent adaptations to an amphibious lifestyle make their evolutionary anatomy of particular interest to Baylor University researcher Sarah Kienle, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology.

Rocky exoplanets are even stranger than we thought

An astronomer from NSF's NOIRLab has teamed up with a geologist from California State University, Fresno, to make the first estimates of rock types that exist on planets orbiting nearby stars. After studying the chemical composition of "polluted" white dwarfs, they have concluded that most rocky planets orbiting nearby stars are more diverse and exotic than previously thought, with types of rocks...

Researchers quantify the role of the pandemic in the 2020 US elections

In the media, a prevalent narrative is that Donald Trump lost the 2020 elections because of the way he handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Several researchers determined that Trump would have won the electoral vote and lost the popular vote, as he did in 2016, if the pandemic had not occurred or if it had been mitigated.

What's Up - November 2021

Enjoy the Moon and planets after sunset all month, plus a lunar eclipse! A partial lunar eclipse will be visible to much of the world on Nov. 18 and 19. Also, the familiar stars of Northern Hemisphere winter (or Southern summer) are returning to late night skies. In particular, note that several destinations of NASA's Lucy mission are located near the Pleiades. Additional information about...

NASA’s new rovers will be a fleet of mobile robots that work together

NASA is exploring a concept for a new fleet of mini-rovers that can work together to solve problems and make decisions as a unit. If one fails or gets stuck somewhere, the others could carry on without it. As part of the Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) project, NASA engineers are designing compact, mobile robots the size of a shoebox (for comparison, Perseverance...

Hybrid cloud adoption demands a holistic cybersecurity posture

This is the second article in a series of three. The first focused on the importance of making businesses more future-ready and how to work through common obstacles on the path to digitization. We also discussed how modernizing on-premises infrastructure as part of a hybrid cloud approach can best be managed via hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), enabling modernization that blends the best of...

A sequence change in a single protein allowed a tomato virus to become a global crop pandemic

In the last years, a new viral tomato disease has emerged, threatening tomato production worldwide. This is caused by the Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV), a member of a devastating group of plant viruses called tobamoviruses. ToBRFV overcomes all known tobamovirus resistance in tomato, including the one conferred by Tm-22, a resistance gene responsible for the stable resistance to these...

Movement of plankton between tropical marine ecosystems drives 'sweet spots' for fishing

A new analysis suggests that the movement of plankton and plankton-eating fish play a central role in driving local spikes of extreme biological productivity in tropical coral reefs, creating "sweet spots" of abundant fish. Renato Morais of James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, and colleagues present these findings in a study publishing November 2nd in the open-access journal PLOS...

Geert Jan van Oldenborgh obituary

Dutch physicist who helped to identify the links between human-induced climate change and extreme weather disastersGeert Jan van Oldenborgh, who has died aged 59 of multiple myeloma, was co-founder and member of a team of scientists who identified — at speed and while politically a hot topic — the links between human-induced climate change and forest fires, heatwaves, drought, flood and other...

Towards self-restoring electronic devices with long DNA molecules

The potential of DNA structural properties in single-molecule electronics has finally been harnessed by researchers in a single-molecule junction device that shows spontaneous self-restoring ability. Additionally, the device, based on a 'zipper' DNA configuration, shows unconventionally high electrical conductivity, opening doors to the development of novel nanoelectronic devices.

Creating an artificial material that can sense, adapt to its environment

Move over, Hollywood—science fiction is getting ready to leap off the big screen and enter the real world. While recent science fiction movies have demonstrated the power of artificially intelligent computer programs, such as the fictional character J.A.R.V.I.S. in the Avenger film series, to make independent decisions to carry out a set of actions, these imagined movie scenarios could now be...

Potential strategy for fighting obesity

Scientists may have identified a method of safely mimicking the weight-loss benefits of a plant compound that -- despite its harmful side effects -- hold critical answers to developing therapies for obesity.

Better models of atmospheric ‘detergent’ can help predict climate change

Earth's atmosphere has a unique ability to cleanse itself by way of invisible molecules in the air that act as minuscule cleanup crews. The most important molecule in that crew is the hydroxyl radical (OH), nicknamed the 'detergent of the atmosphere' because of its dominant role in removing pollutants. New research will aid in building more accurate computer models of OH. The study has important...

Number of premature deaths worldwide caused by consumption in G20 nations

The haze that blurs a blue sky or a beautiful skyline is caused by particulate matter, often made from pollution, less than 2.5 microns wide. Despite their microscopic size, PM2.5 are responsible for more than 4 million premature deaths every year. A new study shows that the pollution caused by consumption in the world's biggest economies leads to half of those deaths.

Not silent yet; the shifting sounds of spring

Natural sounds, and bird song in particular, play a key role in building and maintaining our connection with nature - but a major new study reveals that the sounds of spring are changing, with dawn choruses across North America and Europe becoming quieter and less varied. An international team of researchers led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) developed a new technique, combining...