188 articles from TUESDAY 27.9.2022

Disadvantaged workers face more challenges in retirement, too

American workers with limited job opportunities during their working years face obstacles in retirement too, perpetuating inequities among demographic groups. That's according to research conducted by Emma Aguila, a USC Price School associate professor and expert on the economics of aging.

Linguistic cues could be key to exposing fake news

After the revelations about the 2016 U.S. presidential election being influenced by Russian-generated "fake news," many people became more critical towards news on social media. "Fake news" was subsequently coined by several dictionaries and language organizations, such as the Language Council of Norway, as being the 2017 word of the year. In Norway many of us learned that if something appears to...

Armored worm reveals the ancestry of three major animal groups

An international team of scientists, including from the Universities of Bristol and Oxford, and the Natural History Museum, have discovered that a well-preserved, fossilized worm dating from 518 million years ago resembles the ancestor of three major groups of living animals.

How robots and AI are helping develop better batteries

Around the start of the year, Carnegie Mellon researchers used a robotic system to run dozens of experiments designed to generate electrolytes that could enable lithium-ion batteries to charge faster, addressing one of the major obstacles to the widespread adoption of electric vehicles The system of automated pumps, valves, and instruments, known as Clio, mixed various solvents, salts, and...

AI grain assessment sows seeds for better returns

South Australian artificial intelligence (AI) company GoMicro is rolling out its new grain assessment technology in Australia, paving the way towards more consistent quality controls and stable grain and pulse prices.

Webb's icy instrument reveals complex structures

These spectacular images feature the spiral galaxy IC 5332, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (above) and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (below). The images display the powerful capabilities that both world-leading space telescopes provide, especially when combining their data.

Zhurong rover finds evidence of possible flooding on Mars billions of years ago

A team of researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, working with a colleague from Peking University, has found evidence of a layered subsurface in the Utopian Basin on Mars. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes studying radar data from the Zhurong rover and what it revealed about the ground beneath the Utopia Planitia basin on Mars.

Scientists achieve a new understanding of the nucleotide excision repair process

Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a major conserved DNA repair pathway, which repairs various types of damage in the genome, such as those induced by ultraviolet light and environmental agents. Dysfunction in this pathway can be detrimental to human health. For example, individuals with defects in NER suffer from xeroderma pigmentosum, a disease characterized by an extreme disposition to...

New findings on the effects of COVID-19 on the colon

Researchers have analyzed the manifestations of COVID-19 in the lungs and colon and pinpointed the differences at a molecular level. Their findings form the basis for the identification of novel biomarkers and the development of new treatment strategies.

Quantum technology reaches unprecedented control over captured light

Researchers in quantum technology have succeeded in developing a technique to control quantum states of light in a three-dimensional cavity. In addition to creating previously known states, the researchers are the first ever to demonstrate the long-sought cubic phase state. The breakthrough is an important step towards efficient error correction in quantum computers.

New strategy to precisely target subtypes of key protein

Cyclosporine is one of the most common and effective immunosuppressant drugs used to treat chronic diseases like arthritis and psoriasis, but it comes with a risk of serious side effects. Scientists think that may be because the drug broadly targets cyclophilins, a family of 17 regulatory proteins that play different roles in promoting cellular health. Although each individual cyclophilin subtype...

Improving performance for efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a promising green technique for renewable hydrogen production. To construct a practical PEC system, it is of great significance to develop efficient photoanodes. BiVO4 has been identified as the most promising photoanode material because of its narrow band gap and favorable band positions for hydrogen and oxygen evolution. Nevertheless, BiVO4 has...

Turning the polymerization process on and off using a switchable template

Regulating the polymerization process is of great interest for both industrial and medical applications. In an article published in Angewandte Chemie, TU/e researchers show they not only can control the process and are able to switch it on and off, but they can also control the properties of the resulting polymer materials.