131 articles from FRIDAY 16.9.2022

Climate change from the ground up: Researchers explore sea level rise impact on building foundations

Researchers have considered how flooding from rising sea levels and storm surges will damage the built environment along the coast, but what about climate change's less noticeable impacts below the surface? A new study by civil engineers examines the hidden costs to building foundations due to sea level rise. They propose a method for inspection and repair to lower the cost associated with...

Pythons are true choke artists

Biologists have found that it's not just the size of its head and body that puts almost everything on a Burmese python's menu. They evolved super-stretchy skin between their lower jaws that allows them to consume prey up to six times larger than similar-sized snakes.

Researchers Reveal the Worst Methane Super-Emitters in the U.S.

When it comes to global warming, methane is a monster. It may represent only 11% of the share of greenhouse gasses emitted each year, but during its first 20 years in the atmosphere it is 80 times more efficient at capturing heat than the far more commonplace carbon dioxide. That’s why it’s so important to spot the worst emitters and shut them down—or at least reduce their...

Even smartest AI models don't match human visual processing

Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) don't see objects the way humans do -- using configural shape perception -- and that could be dangerous in real-world AI applications. The study employed novel visual stimuli called 'Frankensteins' to explore how the human brain and DCNNs process holistic, configural object properties.

The magneto-optic modulator

Many state-of-the-art technologies work at incredibly low temperatures. Superconducting microprocessors and quantum computers promise to revolutionize computation, but scientists need to keep them just above absolute zero (-459.67° Fahrenheit) to protect their delicate states. Still, ultra-cold components have to interface with room temperature systems, providing both a challenge and an...

Cutting edge science reveals Gribshunden's shipwrecked secrets

New excavations have coaxed more secrets from Gribshunden, the flagship of the Danish-Norwegian King Hans which mysteriously sank in 1495 off the coast of Ronneby, Sweden. The wreck is internationally significant as the world's best-preserved ship from the Age of Exploration—a proxy for the vessels of Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama.

Beads show European trade in African interior used Indigenous routes

Tiny glass beads discovered in mountain caves about 25 miles from the shores of Lake Malawi in eastern-central Africa provide evidence that European trade in the continent's hinterland was built on Indigenous trade routes from the coast to the interior that had existed for centuries, according to a study co-authored by Yale anthropologist Jessica Thompson.

When did dinosaurs go extinct? The theories on how it happened and what survived

In the film "Jurassic Park," billionaire John Hammond, played by Richard Attenborough, brings paleontologists Alan Grant, played by Sam Neill, and Ellie Sattler, played by Laura Dern, as well as mathematician Ian Malcolm, played by Jeff Goldblum, to help him bring dinosaurs back to life for his dinosaur theme park. Hammond's fascination and desire to revive dinosaurs backfires when many of them...

A third of Aussies fear losing their homes to climate change

Six in 10 Australians (62%) expect climate change will have a severe effect in their area over the next 10 years and globally across 34 countries more than 71%, including a majority in every single country, expect the same, a new study conducted by Ipsos for the World Economic Forum finds.

Decoupling engineering of formamidinium–cesium perovskites for efficient photovoltaics

Metal halide perovskites (ABX3) have emerged as promising candidates for various optoelectronic applications due to their excellent optoelectronic properties and low-cost fabrication. At present, the light-absorbing layer of the highest-efficiency single-junction perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is almost all based on FAPbI3 perovskite, achieving power conversion efficiency (PCE) that is comparable...

A new strategy to speed up cold case investigations

For nearly 37 years, she was known as Buckskin Girl—a young, anonymous murder victim found outside Dayton, Ohio, wearing a deer-hide poncho. Then, in April 2018, police announced that the mystery of her identity had been solved. Her name was Marcia L. King, and she had been identified by linking a snippet of her DNA to one of her cousins.