131 articles from FRIDAY 16.9.2022
Drone surveillance and crowdfunded ransom: How tech is changing borders and those who cross them
Millions of people are on the move today, in the biggest forced displacement since the Second World War. And unlike in decades past, new technologies are changing the narratives of their movement — both by reinforcing and extending borders, and acting as a lifeline for those trying to cross...
Climate change from the ground up: Researchers explore sea level rise impact on building foundations
- ScienceDaily
- 22/9/16 22:17
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...
Algorithm sheds new light on ICU patients' consciousness
- ScienceDaily
- 22/9/16 22:17
Researchers have developed a new algorithm that can accurately track a patient's level of consciousness, easing strain on clinicians and enabling new treatments.
Pythons are true choke artists
- ScienceDaily
- 22/9/16 22:17
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...
NASA's Perseverance rover investigates geologically rich Mars terrain
- ScienceDaily
- 22/9/16 21:37
NASA's Perseverance rover is well into its second science campaign, collecting rock-core samples from features within an area long considered by scientists to be a top prospect for finding signs of ancient microbial life on Mars.
Novel analysis shows the experience of reward increases connectivity between the default mode network and other brain regions
- ScienceDaily
- 22/9/16 20:46
In line with other studies, during the reward-processing task, researchers observed decreased activation of the default mode network (DMN) and relative increased activation of other networks.
Even smartest AI models don't match human visual processing
- ScienceDaily
- 22/9/16 20:46
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.
Namibian cheetahs head for India, 70 years after local extinction
Eight Namibian cheetahs were on Friday airlifted to India, part of an ambitious project to reintroduce the big cats after they were driven to extinction there decades ago, officials and vets said.
On thinning ice: This summer I got up close and personal with glaciers
Bob McDonald's blog: This summer I ventured into the land of ice at the top of the world. I wandered among towering icebergs, and came face to face with calving...
The magneto-optic modulator
- ScienceDaily
- 22/9/16 19:40
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.
Pythons are true choke artists: Size alone doesn't explain how they can eat such big prey
Burmese pythons are not just big snakes, growing to more than 18 feet and 200 pounds, but big eaters, taking on prey as large as deer.
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...
Support for art and other cultural objects can be strengthened by highlighting their collective value
New research into the sacredness of artistic objects shows that it's possible to get people to see just about any artwork as sacred—even an amateur drawing—so long as they believe that the art connects humanity to something bigger than itself. And when people do that, they are more willing to put themselves out to ensure it's protected.
Recreating 'ghost neighborhoods' destroyed by highways
The building of the interstate highway system in Columbus split and sometimes destroyed entire neighborhoods, mostly those housing African Americans, immigrants and other minorities.
Differential impacts of adult trees on offspring and non-offspring recruits in a subtropical forest
An important mechanism promoting species coexistence is conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD), which inhibits conspecific neighbors by accumulating host-specific enemies near adult trees and thus promoting species coexistence by freeing up space for heterospecific species.
Genetically-modified purple tomatoes might be coming to a US grocery store near you
Some gardeners grow tomatoes in a rainbow of colors including red, yellow, orange, green and even burgundy.
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.
Decoding canine cognition: Machine learning gives glimpse of how a dog's brain represents what it sees
Scientists have decoded visual images from a dog's brain, offering a first look at how the canine mind reconstructs what it sees. The Journal of Visualized Experiments published the research done at Emory University.
Did life ever exist on Mars? NASA's Perseverance rover finds organic matter in rock samples
NASA's Perseverance rover is investigating signs of ancient life on Mars, and has now collected some of the most promising samples from the Red Planet yet.
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...
Researchers reveal reactive gallium-hydride species on gallium oxide surface
Metal hydrides (M-H), critical but ubiquitous intermediates in a broad variety of catalytic reactions, are important in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. However, the comprehensive characterization and understanding of M-H species are still challenging.
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.