3,533 articles from JUNE 2023

At least 13 die in extreme heat wave in US

At least 13 people have died from the extreme heat wave that has been tormenting the southern United States for two weeks, officials said Friday, with air in other parts of the country polluted by forest fires in Canada.

New ferroelectric material could give robots muscles

A new type of ferroelectric polymer that is exceptionally good at converting electrical energy into mechanical strain holds promise as a high-performance motion controller or "actuator" with great potential for applications in medical devices, advanced robotics, and precision positioning systems, according to a team of international researchers led by Penn State.

Embattled physicist files patent for unprecedented ambient superconductor

Ranga Dias, a physicist at the University of Rochester, has drawn headlines and controversy for his claims of concocting materials that superconduct at room temperature—despite the limitation that they would require extreme pressures to work. His latest creation would be by far his most sensational yet—although he has not sought any attention for it. In a little-noticed patent filing,...

Watch slow-motion tongues offer a snapshot of evolution

An early interest in reptile feeding behavior led evolutionary biologist Kurt Schwenk to study the tongues of lizards. Like Charles Darwin’s finches, the various forms and functions of lizard tongues help piece together the story how the diversity of reptiles and amphibians evolved. In this video he explains how his high-speed cameras not only capture every flick, shot, and blob, but...

Euclid set to blast off to unravel the mystery of dark energy

The universe’s expansion is speeding up, and astrophysicists want to know why. On July 1st, the European Space Agency (ESA) is set to launch a new space telescope, Euclid. With contributions from NASA, the mission will seek to understand the unknown cause for the accelerating expansion, called dark energy, and its effects on the evolutionContinue reading "Euclid set to blast off to unravel the...

After affirmative action ban, educators seek other ways to boost STEM diversity

Yesterday’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to ban the use of race in undergraduate admissions was a serious setback, say advocates of increasing minority participation in science and engineering. But they are hoping that one paragraph in the court’s ruling will accelerate adoption of alternative practices meant to accomplish the same goal: an education system that better meets the...

IceCube creates first image of Milky Way in neutrinos

In the vast expanse of space, neutrinos travel in silence, rarely interacting with the countless particles that litter its path. A few of these many billions of ghostly particles meet their end in a dim flash of light, illuminating an ice cube the size of an arena at the South Pole. Filled with well-placed detectorsContinue reading "IceCube creates first image of Milky Way in neutrinos" The post...

A new bacterial blueprint to aid in the war on antibiotic resistance

A team of scientists from around the globe, including those from Trinity College Dublin, has gained high-res structural insights into a key bacterial enzyme that may help chemists design new drugs to inhibit it and thus suppress disease-causing bacteria. Their work is important as fears continue to grow around rising rates of antibiotic resistance.