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13 articles from ScienceDaily

Effective as a collective: Researchers investigate the swarming behavior of microrobots

Miniaturization is progressing rapidly in just any field and the trend towards the creation of ever smaller units is also prevalent in the world of robot technology. In the future, minuscule robots used in medical and pharmaceutical applications might be able to transport medication to targeted sites in the body. Statistical physics can contribute to the foundations for the development of such...

'A blessing in disguise!' Physics turning bad into good

Light is a very delicate and vulnerable property. Light can be absorbed or reflected at the surface of a material depending on the matter's properties or change its form and be converted into thermal energy. Upon reaching a metallic material's surface, light also tends to lose energy to the electrons inside the metal, a broad range of phenomena we call 'optical loss.' Production of ultra-small...

Development of iron complex catalyst for selective and efficient conversion of methane to methanol

A new iron complex has been developed as a catalyst for the oxidation of methane to selectively convert it to methanol. This complex can efficiently oxidize methane by internally trapping methane while preventing the overoxidation of the produced methanol. Using this complex, the direct and selective conversion of methane to methanol has been successfully achieved in an aqueous solution.

Unexpected wins in both humans and monkeys increase risk taking

Researchers have developed 'Dynamic Prospect Theory,' which integrates the most popular model in behavioral economics -- prospect theory and a well-established model from neuroscience -- reinforcement learning theory. In doing so, they created a dynamic model that successfully explains decision-to-decision changes in the gambling behavior of humans and monkeys. In particular, they found that after...