Tech

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found a new way of using mid-infrared lasers to turn regions of molecules in the open air into glowing filaments of electrically charged gas, or plasma. The new method could make it possible to carry out remote environmental monitoring to detect a wide range of chemicals with high sensitivity.

Anyone who's gone camping has seen birds foraging for picnic crumbs, and according to new research in The Condor: Ornithological Applications, the availability of food in campgrounds significantly alters jays' behavior and may even change how they interact with other bird species.

Sheffield engineers make major breakthrough in developing silk 'micro-rockets' that can be used safely in biological environments.

By using an innovative 3D inkjet printing method, researchers from Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield have taken the biggest step yet in producing microscopic silk swimming devices that are biodegradable and harmless to a biological system.

This means that these devices have the potential to be used in the human body in the future in applications such as drug delivery and locating cancer cells.

Honesty is a fundamental building block for cooperation in human societies, and hence also for their economic prosperity. But people do not always behave honestly. Markets for so called credence goods such as repair costs or medical therapies give sellers strong incentives for dishonesty. Since the buyer often cannot assess the quality of the rendered services, the seller can cheat more easily than in the case of other goods.

DURHAM, N.C. -- As oil palm production expands from Southeast Asia into Central Africa, a new Duke University-led study warns that converting Africa's tropical forests into monoculture palm plantations will cause a significant spike in climate-warming carbon emissions. The authors urge regional governments to enact mandatory policies regulating which forests can be cleared and how much remaining forest must be set aside for conservation.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Camera-equipped smartphones, laptops and other devices make it possible to share ideas and images with anyone, anywhere, often in real-time. But in our cameras-everywhere culture, the risk of accidentally leaking sensitive information is growing.

Computer scientists at Duke University have developed software that helps prevent inadvertent disclosure of trade secrets and other restricted information within a camera's field of view by letting users specify what others can see.

UPTON, NY-Lignin is a natural component of plant cell walls, the scaffolding that surrounds each cell and plays a pivotal role in plants' ability to grow against gravity and reach heights ranging from stubbly grasses to the sky-scraping splendor of redwoods. But lignin is a problem for scientists interested in converting plant biomass to biofuels and other sustainable bio-based products. Lignin makes it hard to break down the plant matter so its carbon-rich building blocks can be converted into forms suitable for generating energy or running automobiles.

As oil producers struggle to adapt to lower prices, getting as much oil as possible out of every well has become even more important, despite concerns from nearby residents that some chemicals used to boost production may pollute underground water resources.

Researchers from the University of Houston have reported the discovery of a nanotechnology-based solution that could address both issues - achieving 15 percent tertiary oil recovery at low cost, without the large volume of chemicals used in most commercial fluids.

Scientists and doctors in recent decades have made vast leaps in the treatment of cardiac problems - particularly with the development in recent years of so-called "cardiac patches," swaths of engineered heart tissue that can replace heart muscle damaged during a heart attack.

Thanks to the work of Charles Lieber and others, the next leap may be in sight.

Perovskite is a material with an almost ideal structure. The majority of high-temperature superconductors are perovskite-based due to their non-ideal structure. The material can also be used to produce flexible solar batteries without rare-earth metals, which would help to reduce costs and enable large-scale manufacture.

PRINCETON, N.J.--A new laser-based uranium enrichment technology may provide a hard-to-detect pathway to nuclear weapons production, according to a forthcoming paper in the journal Science & Global Security by Ryan Snyder, a physicist with Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security.

For some people, the human body isn’t a temple. Instead they see it as a source of frustration thanks to the considerable limitations compared to the powerful technology available today. In the last few years, a new community of biohackers or “grinders” has sprung up to experiment with enhancing the human body with technology. Largely outside of the mainstream disciplines of science or philosophy, it is a raw, exciting field that turns longstanding ethical beliefs on their head.

COLUMBUS, Ohio--It's one of life's little annoyances: that last bit of shampoo that won't quite pour out of the bottle. Or the last bit of hand soap, or dish soap, or laundry detergent.

Now researchers at The Ohio State University have found a way to create the perfect texture inside plastic bottles to let soap products flow freely. They describe the patent-pending technology in a paper to appear in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society on June 27.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- The growth and evolution of the electronic environment in health care is taking a toll on U.S. physicians. That's according to a national study of physicians led by Mayo Clinic which shows the use of electronic health records and computerized physician order entry leads to lower physician satisfaction and higher rates of professional burnout. The findings appear in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

HAMILTON, ON, June 27, 2016 - The peat bogs of the world, once waterlogged repositories of dead moss, are being converted into fuel-packed fire hazards that can burn for months and generate deadly smoke, warns a McMaster researcher who documents the threat -- and a possible solution -- in a paper published today in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

Since the glaciers receded about 12,000 years ago, the humble bog has acted as a storage vault for atmospheric carbon, packed with dead moss and topped by a green layer of living moss that can come back after a burn.