Overconsumption of alcohol can lead to errors in judgment, causing, for example, some people to get behind the wheel when they are impaired. To help imbibers easily and quickly know when they've had enough, scientists have developed a flexible, wearable patch that can detect a person's blood-alcohol level from his or her sweat. The monitor, reported in the journal ACS Sensors, works quickly and can send results wirelessly to a smartphone or other device.
Heavens
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (August 3, 2016) Mantis shrimp, often brightly colored and fiercely aggressive sea creatures with outsized strength, use the ultraviolet reflectance of their color spots as well as chemical signals to assess the likelihood of victory in combat, according to research led by a Tufts University doctoral candidate.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The newest Airbus and Boeing passenger jets flying today are made primarily from advanced composite materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastic -- extremely light, durable materials that reduce the overall weight of the plane by as much as 20 percent compared to aluminum-bodied planes. Such lightweight airframes translate directly to fuel savings, which is a major point in advanced composites' favor.
Infrared data from NASA's Terra satellite has revealed that Tropical Storm Howard is weakening quickly as it continues to move over cooler waters in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
UCLA astronomers have made the first accurate measurement of the abundance of oxygen in a distant galaxy. Oxygen, the third-most abundant chemical element in the universe, is created inside stars and released into interstellar gas when stars die. Quantifying the amount of oxygen is key to understanding how matter cycles in and out of galaxies.
This research is published online in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, and is based on data collected at the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, in Hawaii.
University of Utah anthropologists counted the number of carbon-dated artifacts at archaeological sites and concluded that a population boom and scarce food explain why people in eastern North America domesticated plants for the first time on the continent about 5,000 years ago.
San Antonio -- Aug. 2, 2016 -- A Southwest Research Institute-led team has documented atmospheric changes on Io, Jupiter's volcanically active satellite, as the giant planet casts its shadow over the moon's surface during daily eclipses.
NASA's Aqua satellite provided forecasters with visible and infrared imagery of Tropical Storm Howard as it continued moving west through the waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean on Aug. 1 and 2.
NASA's Terra satellite flew over Typhoon Nida shortly after it made landfall just north of Hong Kong.
On Aug. 1 at 11p.m. EDT (Aug. 2 3 a.m. UTC) the Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued its final bulletin on Typhoon Nida. By that time, Nida had already made landfall and was located about 49 nautical miles northwest of Hong Kong, near 22.8 degrees north latitude and 113.5 degrees east longitude. Nida was moving to the west-northwest. Maximum sustained winds were near 74.8 mph (65 knots/120.4 kph) making it a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale.
Bringing "virtual dental homes" to schools, nursing homes and long-term care facilities can keep people healthy - reducing school absenteeism, lessening the need for parents to leave work to care for an ailing child, and helping to prevent suffering for millions of people who have no access to a dentist, a six-year study by University of the Pacific demonstrates.
BINGHAMTON, NY - Poor communication systems at nursing homes can lead to serious injury for residents who are not tended to in a timely manner. A new smartwatch app being developed at Binghamton University could help certified nursing assistants (CNAs) respond to alerts more quickly and help prevent falls.
The universe is 13.8 billion years old, while our planet formed just 4.5 billion years ago. Some scientists think this time gap means that life on other planets could be billions of years older than ours. However, new theoretical work suggests that present-day life is actually premature from a cosmic perspective.
"If you ask, 'When is life most likely to emerge?' you might naively say, 'Now,'" says lead author Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "But we find that the chance of life grows much higher in the distant future."
NASA satellites provided a look at Typhoon Nida's size, clouds, rainfall and cloud heights as it approached southeastern China.
The fifth named tropical cyclone, Nida, known as Carina in the Philippines, formed in the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines on July 29, 2016 (UTC). After moving over Luzon in the northern part of the country, Nida emerged in the South China Sea where it re-strengthened as moved toward southeastern China.
Infrared data from NASA's Aqua satellite showed strong thunderstorms within the ninth tropical depression of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, as the storm was strengthening. Early on Aug. 1 Tropical Depression 9E intensified into a tropical storm and was renamed Howard.
Tropical Storm Howard, the ninth tropical cyclone to develop in 30 days in the Eastern Pacific is also the eighth named storm of the 2016 season. Tropical Depression 1E in June was the only tropical cyclone that developed this season and did not reach tropical storm status.
WASHINGTON -- The photovoltaic (PV) cells in traditional solar cells convert sunlight efficiently within a narrow range of wavelengths determined by the material used in the PV cells. This limits their efficiency, as long wavelengths of sunlight are not converted at all and the energy of short wavelength light is largely wasted. Scientists have sought to increase the efficiency of photovoltaics by creating "multi-junction" solar cells, made from several different semiconductor materials that absorb at varying wavelengths of light.