3,551 articles frome SEPTEMBER 2022

NSF hopes big data will finger grantees not reporting foreign support

The National Science Foundation (NSF) will soon begin crunching several large databases to see whether there are scientists who failed to disclose ties to foreign institutions in their grant applications. It is arguably the boldest of several steps federal research agencies are taking to comply with a new law that aims to boost U.S. technological innovation–and prevent...

Exploring Jupiter's moon, Europa, possible with silicon-germanium transistor technology

Europa is more than just one of Jupiter's many moons -- it's also one of most promising places in the solar system to look for extraterrestrial life. Under 10 kilometers of ice is a liquid water ocean that could sustain life. But with surface temperatures at -180 Celsius and with extreme levels of radiation, it's also one of the most inhospitable places in the solar system. Exploring Europa could...

Slave traders’ names are still stamped on native plants. It’s time to ‘decolonise’ Australia’s public gardens | Brett Summerell

For too long we’ve dismissed Indigenous knowledge of the natural world. At Sydney’s botanic garden, signage is starting to reflect Aboriginal namesLike all botanic gardens, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is a classic artefact of the activities that took place during the colonisation of Australia in the 18th and 19th century.It was established to create a patch of landscape that mirrored those...

Why Atlantic Hurricanes Are Getting Stronger Faster Than Other Storms

Hurricane Ian, which peaked as a Category 4 storm in the Gulf of Mexico, hammered Southwest Florida this week, flooding the coastal areas around Fort Myers, leaving millions of people without power, and causing an unknown number of deaths. Ian lost some of its intensity as it crossed the state, but began regaining strength over the Atlantic, before veering back inland to slam Georgia and the...

Most Twitter users don't follow political elites, researchers suggest

While social media platforms are the primary source of political information for a growing number of people, a majority of Twitter users do not follow either members of Congress, their president or news media, a new study suggests. They are much more likely to follow Tom Hanks or Katie Perry than an elected official.

New tech could provide cheaper, less-polluting way to refine crude oil

Despite efforts to pivot toward renewable sources of energy, oil remains the backbone of modern society. It provides fuels for heat and transportation, and chemicals for everything from plastics to pharmaceuticals. But all these uses require separating crude oil into its various components. That separation process—which traditionally relies on heat—takes a tremendous amount of energy...

Webb, Hubble capture detailed views of DART impact

Two of NASA's Great Observatories, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, have captured views of a unique NASA experiment designed to intentionally smash a spacecraft into a small asteroid in the world's first-ever in-space test for planetary defense. These observations of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact mark the first time that Webb and Hubble...

The road to future AI is paved with trust

The place of artificial intelligence, AI, in our everyday life is increasing and many researchers believe that what we have seen so far is only the beginning. However, AI must be trustworthy in all situations. A new project has drawn up a research-based roadmap intended to guide research funding bodies and decision-makers towards the trustworthy AI of the future.

SuperAger brains contain 'super neurons'

Neurons in an area of the brain responsible for memory were significantly larger in SuperAgers compared to cognitively average peers, individuals with early-stage Alzheimer's disease and even individuals 20 to 30 years younger than SuperAgers -- who are aged 80 years and older, reports a new study. The study of was the first to show that these individuals carry a unique biological signature that...

Researchers unveil mystery inside lithium oxygen batteries

With a high energy density, Li-O2 batteries have become a state-of-the-art battery technology. Inside the Li-O2 battery, the generation and disintegration of the discharged product solid lithium peroxide (Li2O2) have a significant effect on the battery's performance. Previous research has shed little light on Li2O2 's form and distribution inside, leaving questions regarding the trend and...

Capturing extracellular vesicles: A new technology for isolating disease markers

Biophysicists from Skoltech, MIPT and their colleagues from the company Prostagnost have created a new technology for isolating extracellular vesicles (EV) from biological fluids. Studying vesicles is essential for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases, including cancer. The new technique not only outperforms methods known to date in purity and yield of EVs, but also is simple, fast,...

Delayed slow ocean response to carbon dioxide removal causes asymmetric tropical rainfall change

Using fossil fuels causes large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) to be emitted, which is one of the major greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. The climate changes under increasing CO2 radiative forcing (called "CO2 ramp-up") have been widely projected using numerical experiments. For a carbon-neutral world, more studies have begun to focus on the regional climate responses under...

What caused the holes in SUE the T. rex's jaw? Probably not an infection

SUE the T. rex is one of the most complete, best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever found. That level of preservation helps reveal details about SUE's life. For instance, SUE lived to a ripe old age of about thirty-three, and in those years, suffered their fair share of injuries. SUE's most mysterious ailment might be the holes in their jawbone.

For scientists, Hurricane Ian is posing threats—and opportunities

Forrest Masters, a civil engineer from the University of Florida (UF), spent much of Wednesday hunkered down at the Punta Gorda Airport near Fort Myers, Florida, as 185-kilometer-per-hour winds from Hurricane Ian lashed the building—and nearby instruments collected data. At the same time, marine ecologist Eric Milbrandt was sitting in a hotel across the state in West Palm...

Achieving stable K-storage performance of carbon sphere-confined antimony via electrolyte regulation

Potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) have been considered one of the most promising alternatives to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) because of their competitive energy density with significantly low production costs. Moreover, alloy-type materials are expected to be the high-performance anode of PIBs owing to their intrinsic chemical stability and high theoretical specific capacity. Unfortunately, severe...

Targeted reimbursement: A just price for carbon dioxide

"It is crucial that the revenues from CO2 pricing are returned, and in a targeted manner: Distributing them back in shotgun-mode is only the second-best solution," explains Martin Hänsel, an economist at PIK and lead author of a new study, which appeared in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.

Disease outcomes differ by new host species in virus spillover experiments

Why has the SARS-CoV-2 virus ravaged the global human population, but many other animal viruses haven't? Using nematode worms as a model, researchers at Penn State conducted a set of experiments to investigate the factors influencing the disease outcomes of virus spillover events. They found that the species of the host influences whether a virus will take off in a new population. For example,...

Single-cell tools give insight into active antibiotic resistome in soils

Soil antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is posing increasing health risks due to possible transmission to humans through direct contact and through the food chain. However, soil AMR studies have relied mostly on environmental DNA that could come from dead/dominant cells and extracellular DNA, leading to potential overestimation of AMR and associated risks because the vast majority of soil microbes are...

Surface microstructures of lunar soil reveal an intermediate stage in space weathering process

A study conducted by a joint team from Chinese Academy of Sciences used aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Electron-energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) to examine the microstructures and chemical compositions at nano/atomic scales of 25 soil grains (1-3 μm in size) from lunar sample CE5C0400YJFM00507 (1.5 g).

Layer Hall effect and hidden Berry curvature in antiferromagnetic insulators

Every time a new Hall effect is discovered, a wave of research is inspired. The first experiment on a new type of Hall effect, the layer Hall effect, had been reported by Xu's group at Harvard University. In the layer Hall effect, electrons from the top and bottom layers are deflected in opposite directions and were measured by applying an out-of-plane electric field to break the PT symmetry,...