- PhysOrg
- 20/8/31 22:23
Florida State University researchers have developed a new material that could be used to make flexible X-ray detectors that are less harmful to the environment and cost less than existing technologies.
Florida State University researchers have developed a new material that could be used to make flexible X-ray detectors that are less harmful to the environment and cost less than existing technologies.
A team of scientists from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center has developed the first drug-like compounds to inhibit a key family of enzymes whose malfunction is associated with several types of cancer, including an aggressive form of childhood leukemia.
One common invasive species is so widespread that you can see it from space.
Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the RAS Institute for Theoretical and Applied Electromagnetics have discovered what makes vanadium dioxide films conduct electricity. Published in Physical Review B, their findings will enable thermal imaging devices with a sensitivity and reaction rate superior to those of the currently existing analogs.
MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory (PRL) scientists have characterized a sucrose transporter protein found in common beans. The recently discovered protein could help us understand how beans tolerate hot temperatures. The transporter, called PvSUT1.1, is reported in the journal Plant Direct.
In black waves, drifts and bands, crumbs of rubber are polluting miles of the Puyallup River after a spill at a dam project last month.
The Trump administration is settling a long-running dispute with South Carolina over cleaning up weapons-grade plutonium stashed in the state.
In a study published in PNAS, researchers used conservation biology and genomics to discover that the New Guinea singing dog, thought to be extinct for 50 years, still thrives. Scientists found that the ancestral dog population still stealthily wanders in the Highlands of New Guinea. This finding opens new doors for protecting a remarkable creature that can teach biologists about human vocal...
Enzymes that control a plant's response to lower oxygen levels could be manipulated to make vital crops resistant to the impacts of flooding triggered by climate change, new research shows.
About 4,000 to 5,000 parasitic plant species exist. Among these, dodders (Cuscuta, Convolvulaceae) are distributed worldwide. Compared with normal autotrophic plants, they have a unique morphology—they are rootless and leafless and carry out no or very little photosynthesis.
Eager to learn the latest in instructional practices that research says will better engage and educate her students, an assistant professor of biochemistry attends a virtual workshop devoted to exactly that.
A team led by researchers at the University of California, Davis, has discovered a missing link in the evolution of photosynthesis and carbon fixation. Dating back more than 2.4 billion years, a newly discovered form of the plant enzyme rubisco could give new insight into plant evolution and breeding.
NOAA/NASA's Suomi NPP satellite captured two images that tell the story about the smoke coming off the fires in California. One instrument on the provided a visible image of the smoke, while another analyzed the aerosol content within. The images were captured on August 30, 2020.
President Donald Trump wants to dramatically expand aquaculture production in the United States, but a coalition of environmentalists believes his plan would be bad for the oceans, unnecessary for food security and difficult to implement.
Robotic eyes and ears under the water's surface could help researchers figure out how much fish are in our oceans—and how much we can eat.
Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have developed a molecule that absorbs energy from sunlight and stores it in chemical bonds. A possible long-term use of the molecule is to capture solar energy efficiently and store it for later consumption. The current results have been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).
A team led by the University of Colorado Boulder is pioneering a new solution to the problem of spring cleaning on the moon: Why not zap away the grime using a beam of electrons?
With the highest possible spatial resolution of less than a millionth of a millimeter, electron microscopes make it possible to study the properties of materials at the atomic level and thus demonstrate the realm of quantum mechanics. Quantum-physical fundamentals can be studied particularly well by the interactions between electrons and photons. Excited with laser light, for example, the energy,...
Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology together with their international collaborators have developed a novel quantitative method to quantify the effects of plastic on marine animals. This method successfully shows that plastic ingestion by sea turtles might be causing population declines, despite a lack of strong effects on individual turtles.
Elephant trails may lead the way to better conservation approaches.
Among all the curious states of matter that can coexist in a quantum material, jostling for preeminence as temperature, electron density and other factors change, some scientists think a particularly weird juxtaposition exists at a single intersection of factors, called the quantum critical point or QCP.
The forest is struggling to cope with the largest bark beetle plague in 70 years. While the trees are suffering due to the heat and the drought, the pests are proliferating rampantly in the warm weather: A pair of European spruce bark beetles, for example, can produce up to 30,000 offspring. Starting in 2004 and most recently in the joint project "bioProtect" (2015-2020), Professor Michael...
University of Guam research has revealed that younger cycad seeds pose a greater risk for toxicity when consumed than more mature seeds, bringing the scientific community one step closer to understanding the origins of a neurodegenerative disease prevalent on Guam in World War II and closer to understanding related neurological disorders elsewhere. The research was the cover story of the June 2020...
A research group led by Prof. Wang Jian from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) proposed a continuous-scanning near-infrared sky brightness monitor (CNISBM). It can measure 2.5 to 5 μm infrared sky brightness based on an InSb detector and a linear variable filter.
Natural wetlands continue to disappear due to city and human development and are being replaced with manmade swales, ponds and canals. This degradation and replacement of natural wetlands suggest that urban areas may be imperative to wetland species, especially when natural conditions are unpredictable. Wetland birds are often seen in and around cities; however, they have been largely ignored in...
The life cycle of a crawfish can be fairly straight forward. In the summer months, crawfish reproduce in underground mud burrows with a plug of mud on top of the burrow to protect them from predators. In late summer and early fall, rain softens the mud plugs so the crawfish can push their way out of the burrows and enter ponds, where they feed, molt and grow throughout Louisiana's typically mild...
Nanotheranostics, integrating diagnostic and therapeutic functions by nanoplatform, exhibits a great potential in precision and personalized medicine, and also raises the requirement on multifunctional nanomaterials in pursuit of both good biocompatibility and high theranostic performance.
Holographic movies, like the one R2D2 projected of Princess Leia in "Star Wars: A New Hope," have long been the province of science fiction, but for most of us, the extent of our experience with holograms may be the dime-sized stamps on our passports and credit cards. By using 'metasurface' materials that can manipulate light in ways that natural materials cannot, researchers reckon they have...
About half of the individuals of cowslip (Primula veris) have flowers with a short style, while the other half of individuals produce flowers with a long style. Recent discoveries have suggested that the loss and fragmentation of habitats may shake this optimal balance of morphologically different plants. This, in turn, decreases the reproductive success of plants and jeopardizes their future...
"Food systems have the potential to nurture human health and support environmental sustainability; however, they are currently threatening both." This sentence, the opening statement of the EAT-Lancet Report published last year, reflects a growing consensus among global experts on food, nutrition and the environment: Our food system is broken and we need to fix it, fast.
Plastic pollution has been found in practically every environment on the planet, with especially severe effects on ocean life. Plastic waste harms marine life in many ways—most notably, when animals become entangled in it or consume it.
Hurricane Laura plowed through the heart of Louisiana's oil and chemical industries as a powerful Category 4 storm, leaving a chlorine plant on fire and the potential for more hazardous damage in its wake.
Electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) is a promising approach to convert CO2 into useful chemicals.
It's another hot and sweaty summer day, and you see an ad for a sports T-shirt claiming it is made out of a material that will instantly make your skin feel cool. Intriguing, but does it work, and if so, how?
A study of camera-trap data from Serengeti National Park in Tanzania found that leopard population densities in the 3.7-million-acre park are similar to those in other protected areas but vary between wet and dry seasons. The fluctuations appear to be driven by the abundance of prey and how this affects interactions with other large carnivores like lions, researchers report.
The West African nation of Burkina Faso was once the poster child for genetically modified (GM) crop advocates. Its 2008 adoption of GM cotton for smallholder farmers was hailed as an example of how these technologies could alleviate poverty and food insecurity by protecting crops from pests and increasing yields.
Informal urban water markets—as opposed to piped water—have long supported many of Kenya's urban areas. Those that use them are either unserved, or inadequately served, by public utilities.
Imagine drinking endless orange juice from concentrate because you're convinced this is the best way to lose weight. In moderation, orange juice is fine, but it wouldn't be a doctor's first recommendation for a patient wanting to shed pounds.
Most of us can remember a favorite teacher. Some of us can also remember a teacher we didn't get on with or with whom we always seemed to get in trouble.
California is ablaze, again. Currently, the second and third largest fires in the US state's history are burning at the same time, and are only partially controlled. Already, seven people have died and 2,144 structures are damaged—and their fire season still has months to run.
Rice is the most consumed staple food in the world. It is especially common in Asia, where hunger concerns are prevalent.
Radio astronomers have detected jets of hot gas blasted out by a black hole in the galaxy at the heart of the Phoenix Galaxy Cluster, located 5.9 billion light-years away in the constellation Phoenix. This is an important result for understanding the coevolution of galaxies, gas, and black holes in galaxy clusters.
In work that could have a major impact on several industries—from pharmaceuticals to cosmetics and even food—MIT engineers have developed a novel platform for the controlled delivery of certain important drugs, nutrients, and other substances to human cells.
A pair of researchers, one with Instituto Argentino de Nivología, the other Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, has found fossil evidence of an ancient giant ground sloth living in proto-Amazonian swamps. The fossil has shinbone bite marks from a Miocene caiman Purussaurus, a large crocodilian species from the period. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, François Pujos and...
A sizable proportion of junior high school students whose first language is not English are falling behind in oral language and literacy skills, according to a recent U of A linguistics study.
An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a supermassive black hole residing at the core of a galaxy that is accreting material. The accretion occurs in the vicinity of the hot torus around the nucleus, and it can generate rapidly moving jets of charged particles that emit bright, variable radiation as material ccelertes as it falls inward. Quasars are perhaps the best-known luminous AGN, and their...
NASA has selected five proposals for concept studies of missions to help improve understanding of the dynamics of the sun and the constantly changing space environment with which it interacts around Earth. The information will improve understanding about the universe as well as offer key information to help protect astronauts, satellites, and communications signals—such as GPS—in space.
Researchers at Michigan Tech have mapped a noise-reducing magneto-optical response that occurs in fiber-optic communications, opening the door for new materials technologies.
Two cows. Same University of Wyoming McGuire Ranch pasture northeast of Laramie near Sybille Canyon.
The 2020/21 fire season will be driven by vastly different climate drivers than the previous two fire seasons, according to the Australian Seasonal Bushfire Outlook: September–November 2020, released today by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Center.