Culture
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new method that doesn't require any special equipment and works in just minutes to create soft, flexible, 3D-printed robots.
The innovation comes from rethinking the way soft robots are built: instead of figuring out how to add soft materials to a rigid robot body, the UC San Diego researchers started with a soft body and added rigid features to key components. The structures were inspired by insect exoskeletons, which have both soft and rigid parts--the researchers called their creations "flexoskeletons."
Social media should be used to chart the economic impact and recovery of businesses in countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research published in Nature Communications. University of Bristol scientists describe a 'real time' method accurately trialled across three global natural disasters which could be used to reliably forecast the financial impact of the current global health crisis.
In Swahili, red-billed oxpeckers are called Askari wa kifaru, or "the rhino's guard." Now, a paper appearing April 9 in the journal Current Biology suggests that this indigenous name rings true: red-billed oxpeckers may act as a first line of defense against poachers by behaving like sentinels, sounding an alarm to potential danger. By tracking wild black rhinos, researchers found that those carrying oxpeckers were far better at sensing and avoiding humans than those without the hitchhiking bird.
Quantum computers that are exponentially faster than any of our current classical computers and are capable of code-breaking applications could be available in 12 to 15 years, posing major risks to the security of current communications systems, according to a new RAND Corporation report.
The security risks posed by this new category of computers can be managed if the U.S. government acts quickly, and a centrally coordinated, whole-of-nation approach is the best way to manage those challenges, according to RAND researchers.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego and the University of Cambridge have 3D printed coral-inspired structures that are capable of growing dense populations of microscopic algae. The work, published Apr. 9 in Nature Communications, could lead to the development of compact, more efficient bioreactors for producing algae-based biofuels. It could also help researchers develop new techniques to repair and restore coral reefs.
The discovery of the oldest known direct evidence of fibre technology -- using natural fibres to create yarn -- is reported in Scientific Reports this week. The finding furthers our understanding of the cognitive abilities of Neanderthals during the Middle Palaeolithic period (30,000-300,000 years ago).
Contrary to popular belief, Neanderthals were no less technologically advanced than Homo sapiens. An international team, including researchers from the CNRS, have discovered the first evidence of cord making, dating back more than 40,000 years (1), on a flint fragment from the prehistoric site of Abri du Maras in the south of France (2). Microscopic analysis showed that these remains had been intertwined, proof of their modification by humans. Photographs revealed three bundles of twisted fibres, plied together to create one cord.
An international team of scientists led by the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, has been able to reconstruct, in the smallest details, the skulls of some of the world's oldest known dinosaur embryos in 3D, using powerful and non-destructive synchrotron techniques at the ESRF, the European Synchrotron in France. They found that the skulls develop in the same order as those of today's crocodiles, chickens, turtles and lizards. The findings are published today in Scientific Reports.
Philadelphia, April 9, 2020 - Approximately five percent of women experience two or more miscarriages, a condition known as recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). Although genetic testing is important for evaluating RPL, current tests have revealed shortcomings in clinical practice.
Liquid meltwater can sometimes flow deep below the Greenland Ice Sheet in winter, not just in the summer, according to CIRES-led work published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters today. That finding means that scientists seeking to understand sea-level rise and the future of the Greenland Ice Sheet need to collect data during the dark Arctic winter with scant hours of daylight and temperatures that dip below -40 degrees.
Dark matter, which cannot be physically observed with ordinary instruments, is thought to account for well over half the matter in the Universe, but its properties are still mysterious. One commonly held theory states that it exists as 'clumps' of extremely light particles. When the earth passes through such a clump, the fundamental properties of matter are altered in ways that can be detected if instruments are sensitive enough.
Jean and Peter Medawar wrote in 1977 that a virus is "simply a piece of bad news wrapped up in proteins." The "bad news" in the SARS-CoV-2 case is the genome made of a very long ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecule. Grappling with COVID-19 pandemic, the world seems to be lost with no sense of direction in uncovering what this coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) is composed of. Being an RNA virus, SARS-Cov-2 enters host cells and replicates its genomic RNA and produces many smaller RNAs (called "subgenomic RNAs").
A pioneering study has shed new light on how a group of novel organelle-based disorders affect cells.
The study led by Professor Michael Schrader from the University of Exeter, and featuring an international, multi-disciplinary team of scientists, has explored on peroxisome alterations and their contribution to the disease.
Kanazawa, Japan - Hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) is an acute viral infection that usually affects infants and children below five years. In a study published in Scientific Reports in January 2020, an international research team including Kanazawa University, the Vietnam National Hospital of Pediatrics, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Nagasaki University and Hanoi Medical University, has demonstrated the emergence of a new enterovirus (EV) A71-C4 lineage during the 2015-2016 outbreak of HFMD in northern Vietnam.
It's time to encourage people to wear face masks as a precautionary measure on the grounds that we have little to lose and potentially something to gain, say experts in The BMJ today.
Professor Trisha Greenhalgh at the University of Oxford and colleagues say despite limited evidence, masks "could have a substantial impact on transmission with a relatively small impact on social and economic life."
The question of whether masks will reduce transmission of covid-19 in the general public is contested.