102 articles from FRIDAY 3.12.2021

Understanding mouthfeel of food using physics

Our understanding of how microscopic structure and changes in the shape of food affect food texture remains underdeveloped, so researchers from Denmark and Germany conducted a series of experiments relating food microstructure and rheology to texture. They used coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy to relate the molecular makeup of the fat in foods with the rheological and mechanical...

Understanding mouthfeel of food using physics

Food texture can make the difference between passing on a plate and love at first bite. To date, most studies on food texture center on relating a food's overall composition to its mechanical properties. Our understanding of how microscopic structure and changes in the shape of food affect food texture, however, remains underdeveloped.

50 Years of X-ray Vision: Scientist Leads NASA’s Next Step in X-ray Astronomy

Portal origin URL: 50 Years of X-ray Vision: Scientist Leads NASA’s Next Step in X-ray AstronomyPortal origin nid: 475758Published: Friday, December 3, 2021 - 14:44Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: When NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission launches Dec. 9, it will be another career landmark for Martin Weisskopf, IXPE principal...

Australia and Omicron: how and when will the Covid pandemic actually end?

We were looking forward to a summer of relative normality, then along came a new coronavirus variantFollow our Australia news live blog for the latest updatesVaccine rollout tracker; Cases and data trackerGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingIt was meant to be Australia’s summer of hope.With vaccination rates against Covid-19 high, international travel restarting, and most states...

Studying our solar system's protective bubble

A multi-institutional team of astrophysicists headquartered at Boston University, led by BU astrophysicist Merav Opher, has made a breakthrough discovery in our understanding of the cosmic forces that shape the protective bubble surrounding our solar system—a bubble that shelters life on Earth and is known by space researchers as the heliosphere.

Potential new gene editing tools uncovered

Few developments have rocked the biotechnology world or generated as much buzz as the discovery of CRISPR-Cas systems, a breakthrough in gene editing recognized in 2020 with a Nobel Prize. But these systems that naturally occur in bacteria are limited because they can make only small tweaks to genes. In recent years, scientists discovered a different system in bacteria that might lead to even more...

Toys prove to be better investment than gold, art, and financial securities

Unusual ways of investment, such as collecting toys, can generate high returns. For example, secondary market prices of retired LEGO sets grow by 11% annually, which is faster than gold, stocks, and bonds, HSE University economists say. Their paper was published in the Research in International Business and Finance journal.

Using green tea as reducing reagent for the preparation of nanomaterials to synthesize ammonia

Researchers have shown that green tea can be used as a reducing reagent for the preparation of nanomaterials to synthesize ammonia. Compared with bulk graphitic carbon nitride, the optimal sample had 2.93-fold photocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia activity (2.627 mg/h/gcat), and the NH3 selectivity increased from 50.77% to 77.9%. The team published their approach on September 06 in Energy...

Lightweight space robot with precise control developed

Robots are already in space. From landers on the moon to rovers on Mars and more, robots are the perfect candidates for space exploration: they can bear extreme environments while consistently repeating the same tasks in exactly the same way without tiring. Like robots on Earth, they can accomplish both dangerous and mundane jobs, from space walks to polishing a spacecraft's surface. With space...

Printing technique creates effective skin equivalent, heals wounds

Researchers have developed an approach to print skin equivalents, which may play a future role in facilitating the healing of chronic wounds. They used suspended layer additive manufacturing, creating a gel-like material to support the skin equivalent that can then support a second phase of gel injection. During printing, the skin layers are deposited within the support gel. After printing, the...