Culture
ADELPHI, Md. (March 19, 2020) - A quantum sensor could give Soldiers a way to detect communication signals over the entire radio frequency spectrum, from 0 to 100 GHz, said researchers from the Army.
Such wide spectral coverage by a single antenna is impossible with a traditional receiver system, and would require multiple systems of individual antennas, amplifiers and other components.
North Carolina State University researchers have demonstrated that composite metal foams (CMFs) can pass so-called "simulated pool fire testing" with flying colors, moving the material closer to use in applications such as packaging and transportation of hazardous materials. In addition, researchers used this experimental data to develop a model for predicting how variations in the CMF would affect its performance.
Korea Brain Research Institute (KBRI, President: Pann-Ghill Suh) announced on February 10 that its research team led by Dr. Ja Wook Koo and Dr. Sukwon Lee proved that the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) of the cerebrum plays a role in fear renewal occurring in a novel context.
Posterior parietal cortex (PPC): The posterior parietal cortex is a part of the parietal lobe located in the upper-rear part of the brain and is related to high-level cognitive functions of the brain, including spatial reasoning and decision-making.
For vampire bats, sharing blood with a roostmate is the mark of a true bond. Though these relationships are uncommon, they demonstrate behavior akin to what some might call friendship. In a paper appearing March 19 in the journal Current Biology, researchers show how social grooming and food sharing can build up trust among unrelated vampire bats to form life-saving bonds that can last a lifetime.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - We humans can explain how our relationships with college roommates and co-workers have formed over the years, but scientists haven't had a good grip on how friendly connections among strangers are made between animals - until now.
A new study of vampire bats living in captivity with strangers supports the "raising-the-stakes" model of the development of cooperative relationships, which suggests that trust builds over time through the gradual acceleration of smaller mutual investments in each other's well-being.
monstrated new chip-based devices that contain all
the optical components necessary for quantum key distribution while increasing real-world security. The fast and cost-effective platform is poised to facilitate implementation of extremely secure data communication that can be used to protect everything from emails to online banking information.
Fiddler crabs have a simple solution to life's daily perils: run.
University of Cincinnati biologists are using this compulsion to test the crabs' color vision using simple modified electronics.
Most people can detect a huge variety of colors - more than 1 million. We can even tell when one shade is slightly different from another. UC biologist John Layne wants to know if crabs can do likewise.
Human motor control has always been efficient at executing complex movements naturally, efficiently, and without much thought involved. This is because of the existence of motor synergy in the central nervous system (CNS). Motor synergy allows the CNS to use a smaller set of variables to control a large group of muscles; thereby simplifying the control over coordinated and complex movements.
Now, researchers at Tohoku University have observed a similar concept in robotic agents using deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms.
A revolutionary new technology has been applied to reveal the inner workings of individual cancer cells - potentially identifying more effective treatment combinations for people with cancer.
A joint Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and Stanford University team used a technique called mass cytometry (also called CyTOF) to simultaneously analyse the levels of more than 20 different proteins in millions of individual blood cancer cells. This revealed how these cells responded to different anti-cancer medicines, even suggesting potential new treatment combinations.
Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found a way to turn pollen, one of the hardest materials in the plant kingdom, into a soft and flexible material, with the potential to serve as 'building blocks' for the design of new categories of eco-friendly materials.
The findings, published in Nature Communications today, show how they used a simple chemical process akin to conventional soap-making to turn pollen grains from sunflowers and other types of plants into soft microgel particles that respond to various stimuli.
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found striking orbital geometries in protoplanetary disks around binary stars. While disks orbiting the most compact binary star systems share very nearly the same plane, disks encircling wide binaries have orbital planes that are severely tilted. These systems can teach us about planet formation in complex environments.
For exploring the nanoscale far beyond the optical resolution limit, tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) is widely recognized as an essential yet still emergent technique. Using this marker-free spectroscopic method scientists gain insights into the structural and chemical composition of surfaces with nanoscale resolution, which are not accessible with other methods. Examples where such nanoscale resolution spectroscopies are crucial are structure investigations, of novel materials (e.g.
Though COVID-19 so far appears to be largely sparing children, researchers are cautioning that it is critical to understand how the virus affects kids to model the pandemic accurately, limit the disease's spread and ensure the youngest patients get the care they need.
March 19, 2020 -- A comprehensive review of U.S. social policies evaluated for their health outcomes found suggestive evidence that early life, income, and health insurance interventions have the potential to improve health. Scientists have long known that "social" risk factors, like poverty, are correlated with health. However, until this study, there was little research carried out to understand whether it was actually possible to improve population health by addressing these risk factors with social policies.
Giraffes that are being translocated for conservation purposes should be moved in groups that contain at least 30 females and 3 males to ensure long-term population success. In two new studies, an international team of researchers identifies the ideal composition of a group to be moved and provides guidelines for all aspects of the translocation process, including decision-making and planning, transportation and monitoring of animals, and evaluation of success.