Tech
The ancient city of Pompeii (in the south of Italy) ended up buried under ash and volcanic material in 79 CE as a consequence of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. That fateful event made the unprecedented conservation of the archaeological site in the area possible because the pyroclastic materials spewed out by Vesuvius have protected the remains from external damage. So not only in cultural but also in scientific terms they are in fact highly prized sites where tourists and professionals of archaeology and even chemistry mingle.
By embedding titanium-based sheets in water, a group led by scientists from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science has created a material using inorganic materials that can be converted from a hard gel to soft matter using temperature changes.
A new study looking at seven centuries of water flow in south Asia's mighty Brahmaputra River suggests that scientists are underestimating the river's potential for catastrophic flooding as climate warms. The revelation comes from examinations of tree rings, which showed rainfall patterns going back centuries before instrumental and historical records.
The aim of smart homes is to make life easier for those living in them. Applications for environment-aided daily life may have a major social impact, fostering active ageing and enabling older adults to remain independent for longer. One of the keys to smart homes is the system's ability to deduce the human activities taking place. To this end, different types of sensors are used to detect the changes triggered by inhabitants in this environment (turning lights on and off, opening and closing doors, etc.).
Chemical compounds in foods or beverages like green tea, muscadine grapes and dark chocolate can bind to and block the function of a particular enzyme, or protease, in the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to a new study by plant biologists at North Carolina State University.
Proteases are important to the health and viability of cells and viruses, says De-Yu Xie, professor of plant and microbial biology at NC State and the corresponding author of the study. If proteases are inhibited, cells cannot perform many important functions - like replication, for example.
DURHAM, N.C. - A form of artificial intelligence designed to interpret a combination of retinal images was able to successfully identify a group of patients who were known to have Alzheimer's disease, suggesting the approach could one day be used as a predictive tool, according to an interdisciplinary study from Duke University.
The novel computer software looks at retinal structure and blood vessels on images of the inside of the eye that have been correlated with cognitive changes.
TU Dresden Freigeist fellow Dr Juliane Simmchen is investigating with her multidisciplinary junior research group the motion of synthetic microswimmers in liquids. Her goal is to enable these inanimate microparticles to move in a certain direction of their own accord and thus, in future, to be used in sensor technology or biological cleaning.
"Actually, it's a bit like playing computer games in the laboratory," the chemist describes her extraordinary research work in an interview with the Volkswagen Foundation.
Construction workers in Alberta who work with hazardous insulation materials are much more likely to be affected by repeated chest infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to new research published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
The emerging services such as data center cloud interconnection services, ultra-bandwidth video services, and 5G mobile services stimulate the fast development of Photonic integrated circuits (PIC), which can meet the increasing demand of communication systems for internet.
However, PICs today are largely perceived as planar structures, able to guide light in a single plane. This planarity arises because of the traditional top-down fabrication processes.
A new hybrid X-ray detector developed by the University of Surrey outperforms commercial devices - and could lead to more accurate cancer therapy.
In a study published by the Advanced Functional Material journal, researchers from Surrey's Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) demonstrate a new hybrid X-ray detector architecture with slightly higher sensitivity for X-rays than typically used for radiotherapy.
Amputations, deformed bones and disfigured skin. At worst, death. These are the potential consequences of a venomous snake bite.
Kanazawa, Japan - Pharmaceuticals, plastics, and many other chemical products have transformed human life. To prepare these products, chemists often use a catalyst--frequently based on rare metals--at various points in their syntheses. Although rare-metal catalysts are incredibly useful, their limited supply means that their use is unsustainable in the long term. Synthetic chemists need an alternative.
Scientists have developed a new biomaterial that helps bones heal faster by enhancing adults' stem cell regenerative ability.
The study, led by researchers from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences and CHI at Temple Street, is published in the current edition of Biomaterials, the highest ranked journal in the field of biomaterials science.
In a paper published in NANO, researchers study the role of memristors in neuromorphic computing. This novel fundamental electronic component supports the cloning of bio-neural system with low cost and power.
By analyzing the gene expression of single cells, algorithms are able to not only reconstruct their original location in the tissue, but also to determine details about their function. Teams led by Kai Schmidt-Ott and Nikolaus Rajewsky have published their findings in JASN, using the kidney as an example.