Tech
Researchers from the University of Basel have developed a sensitive testing system that allows the rapid and reliable detection of resistance in bacteria. The system is based on tiny, functionalized cantilevers that bend due to binding of sample material. In the analyses, the system was able to detect resistance in a sample quantity equivalent to 1-10 bacteria.
Curved glass façades can be stunningly beautiful, but traditional construction methods are extremely expensive. Panes are usually made with "hot bending", where glass is heated and formed using a mold or specialized machines, an energy-intensive process that generates excess waste in the form of individual molds. Cold-bent glass is a cheaper alternative in which flat panes of glass are bent and fixed to frames at the construction site. However, given the fragility of the material, coming up with a form that is both aesthetically pleasing and manufacturable is extremely challenging.
Females who participate in competitive sport during adolescence have better fitness at midlife than do females with no competitive sport background in adolescence, reveals a study conducted at the University of Jyväskylä. Higher lean mass and bone density and better physical performance at midlife were associated with competitive sport participation at the age of 13 to 16 years. The study also found that bone density was lower if the woman has had her first period at age 14 years or older.
In Finland, the majority of the glacial and warm interval records have been interpreted to represent only the last, Weichselian, glacial cycle that took place 11,700-119,000 years ago. Finnish researchers have now revised the crucial part of the existing stratigraphic documentation in southern Finland. The new findings show that a considerable part of the warm interval records extends further back in time than earlier thought. The new results change the established conceptions about glacial history in the area.
The MIAMI-2 - Microscopes and Ion Accelerators for Materials Investigations - facility has helped Dr Matheus Tunes investigate a new alloy that will harden aluminium without increasing its weight significantly.
HOUSTON - (Dec. 7, 2020) - A phenomenon first detected in the solar wind may help solve a long-standing mystery about the sun: why the solar atmosphere is millions of degrees hotter than the surface.
Images from the Earth-orbiting Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, aka IRIS, and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, aka AIA, show evidence that low-lying magnetic loops are heated to millions of degrees Kelvin.
TROY, N.Y. -- In order for future lunar exploration missions to be successful and land more precisely, engineers must equip spacecraft with technologies that allow them to "see" where they are and travel to where they need to be. Finding specific locations amid the moon's complicated topography is not a simple task.
The bacterial plant pathogen Xylella fastidiosa is a worldwide threat to perennial tree and vine crops and has been linked to Pierce's disease of grapevine in California, olive quick decline in Italy, and citrus variegated chlorosis in South America.
Storytelling - the oldest form of teaching - is the most effective way of teaching primary school children about evolution, say researchers at the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath.
A randomised controlled trial found that children learn about evolution more effectively when engaged through stories read by the teacher, than through doing tasks to demonstrate the same concept.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A hacker can reproduce a circuit on a chip by discovering what key transistors are doing in a circuit - but not if the transistor "type" is undetectable.
Purdue University engineers have demonstrated a way to disguise which transistor is which by building them out of a sheet-like material called black phosphorus. This built-in security measure would prevent hackers from getting enough information about the circuit to reverse engineer it.
The findings appear in a paper published Monday (Dec. 7) in Nature Electronics.
Stem rust is one of the most devastating fungal diseases of wheat and historically has caused dramatic, widespread crop failures resulting in significant yield losses around the world. Stem rust epidemics in major wheat growing areas could cause a major threat to global food security. Scientists have identified a resistance gene, Sr22, as one of the few characterized genes that protects against a large array of stem rust races.
Almost 200 years after French physicist Jean Peltier discovered that electric current flowing through the junction of two different metals could be used to produce a heating or cooling effect, scientists continue to search for new thermoelectric materials that can be used for power generation.
Researchers writing in Nature Materials, however, say it is time to step up efforts to find new materials for thermoelectric cooling.
A new study shows that strong and rapid action to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will help to slow down the rate of global warming over the next twenty years.
This highlights that immediate action on climate change can bring benefits within current lifetimes, and not just far into the future.
Scientists already agree that rapid and deep emissions reductions made now will limit the rise in global temperatures during the second half of the century.
In a new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a research team co-led by the University of Minnesota, examined the risks to human well-being and prosperity stemming from ongoing environmental degradation.
Our ability to feel and understand the emotions of others, or "empathy," is at the core of our prosocial behaviors such as cooperation and caregiving. Scientists have recognized two types of empathy: cognitive and affective. Cognitive empathy involves understanding another person's emotions on an intellectual level, taking into consideration someone's situation and how they would react (for example, "putting yourself in someone else's shoes").