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50 articles from ScienceDaily

Making 'transport' robots smarter

Imagine a team of humans and robots working together to process online orders -- real-life workers strategically positioned among their automated coworkers who are moving intelligently back and forth in a warehouse space, picking items for shipping to the customer. This could become a reality sooner than later, thanks to researchers who are working to speed up the online delivery process by...

Do voluntary corporate pledges help reduce plastic pollution?

A new analysis finds that while 72 percent of the top 300 companies on the Fortune 500 list have made voluntary pledges to reduce their plastic footprints, most are overwhelmingly focused on downstream waste-reduction strategies centered on recycling and packaging rather than on finding ways to reduce their use of virgin plastic, which is a main cause of the global plastic pollution problem.

Bats use death metal 'growls' to make social calls

Bats use distinct structures in the larynx to produce high-frequency echolocation calls and lower-frequency social calls, according to a new study. The structures used to make the low-pitched calls are analogous to those used by death metal vocalists in their growls.

Increasing crop yields by breeding plants to cooperate

A simple breeding experiment, combined with genetic analysis, can rapidly uncover genes that promote cooperation and higher yields of plant populations, according to a new study. The results have the potential to quickly increase crop productivity through conventional breeding methods.

Scientists discover secret to waking up alert and refreshed

If you're blaming your genes for morning sluggishness, think again. A new study finds that genetics plays a minor role in morning alertness. Instead, test subjects were most alert after sleeping longer and later than typical for them, exercising the previous day, and eating a low sugar breakfast high in complex carbohydrates, with only moderate amounts of protein. It's also important to pay...

1930s Dust Bowl led to extreme heat around Northern Hemisphere

The 1930s Dust Bowl affected heat extremes across much of North America and as far away as Europe and East Asia, according to new research. The study found that the extreme heating of the Great Plains triggered motions of air around the Northern Hemisphere in ways that suppressed cloud formation in some regions and contributed to record heat thousands of miles away.

Retinal cells may have the potential to protect themselves from diabetic retinopathy

About one third of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) develop diabetic retinopathy (DR), a leading cause of blindness in working-age individuals. DR typically develops after many years of DM, and some patients do not develop DR for more than 50 years. New research suggests that an endogenous system that protects human retinal endothelial cells from harmful effects of the hyperglycemia (an excess...

New method of spinal cord tissue repair

Unique new material has shown significant promise in the treatment of spinal cord injury. The new hybrid biomaterials, in the form of nanoparticles and building on existing practice in the tissue engineering field, were successfully synthesized to promote repair and regeneration following spinal cord injury, according to the researchers.

Hunting brain cancer cells

Understanding how cancer cells evolve from healthy brain cells and evade treatment could open up potential new drug therapies for glioblastomas, one of the most common and lethal brain cancers, new research has revealed. By bringing together neuroscience and oncology, the team is hopeful of finding a new method to treat the deadly disease.

Cooling down solar cells, naturally

Too much sun and too much heat can reduce the efficiency of photovoltaics. A solar farm with optimally spaced panels facing the correct direction could cool itself through convection using the surrounding wind. Researchers explored how to exploit the geometry of solar farms to enhance natural cooling mechanisms.

For memory formation, organization matters

Researchers have found that cells in the rat hippocampus -- a brain region that is essential for making memories -- are specifically organized into small clusters when fear-based memories are formed. Furthermore, when rats slept after a learning period, they had improved memory and stabilized cluster formation in the hippocampus. A better understanding of memory formation at the cellular level may...

New target in the fight against heart disease

Soon after cholesterol and fat start depositing on the lining of the blood vessels that supply your heart, the smooth muscle cells that give the blood vessels strength and flexibility start to get bigger and multiply. While scientists studying the phenomenon suspect these vascular smooth muscle cells are trying to help, this atypical behavior for these strong cells instead contributes to coronary...

Protons fix a long-standing issue in silicon carbide electronics

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a promising semiconductor material for power electronic devices, but it suffers from bipolar degradation, which severely limits its lifespan. To address this long-standing issue in a cost-effective manner, researchers have developed a proton implantation-based suppression method that can prevent the expansion of stacking faults, which lie at the root of bipolar...

High-performance and compact vibration energy harvester created for self-charging wearable devices

A research team has developed a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) piezoelectric vibration energy harvester, which is only about 2 cm in diameter with a U-shaped metal vibration amplification component. The device allows for an increase of approximately 90 times in the power generation performance from impulsive vibration. Since the power generation performance can be improved without increasing...