Tech
SAN ANTONIO -- Nov. 10, 2020 -- Last week NASA snagged a sample from the surface of asteroid Bennu, an Empire State Building-sized body that Southwest Research Institute scientists have helped map with nearly unprecedented precision. Using orbital data from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, researchers measured centimeter- to meter-sized craters on the boulders scattered around its rugged surface to shed light on the age of the asteroid.
According to a new Finnish study, different groups of insectivores compete for the same type of food. Researchers of the University of Turku, Finland, and the Finnish Museum of Natural History made a discovery by comparing birds, bats and dragonflies that forage in the same area in Southwest Finland. These very distantly related predators consumed the same insect groups, such as flies, mosquitoes, and other dipterans. The results shed new light on the decline in insect populations, because a remarkable portion of insectivores may actually be in greater danger than previously believed.
From 'The Terminator' and 'Blade Runner' to 'The Matrix', Hollywood has taught us to be wary of artificial intelligence. But rather than sealing our doom on the big screen, algorithms could be the solution to at least one issue presented by the climate crisis.
Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science have successfully created a new type of machine learning model to predict the power-conversion efficiency (PCE) of materials that can be used in next-generation organic solar cells, including 'virtual' compounds that don't exist yet.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The universe is getting hotter, a new study has found.
The study, published Oct. 13 in the Astrophysical Journal, probed the thermal history of the universe over the last 10 billion years. It found that the mean temperature of gas across the universe has increased more than 10 times over that time period and reached about 2 million degrees Kelvin today -- approximately 4 million degrees Fahrenheit.
AMES, Iowa - A new study shows diversifying agricultural systems beyond a narrow selection of crops leads to a range of ecosystem improvements while also maintaining or improving yields. But a professor of agronomy at Iowa State University who co-authored the study said some marketing and agricultural policy considerations will have to change for farmers to adopt diversification practices more widely.
Mount Sinai researchers have developed machine learning models that predict the likelihood of critical events and mortality in COVID-19 patients within clinically relevant time windows. The new models outlined in the study--one of the first to use machine learning for risk prediction in COVID-19 patients among a large and diverse population, and published November 6 in the Journal of Medical Internet Research--could aid clinical practitioners at Mount Sinai and across the world in the care and management of COVID-19 patients.
LAWRENCE -- Cities across the country have sought ways to improve neighborhood safety and in recent years have pointed to demolishing abandoned housing as a way to achieve the goal. While millions of dollars have been spent on the efforts, a recent University of Kansas study found a program demolishing more than 500 abandoned residential properties in Kansas City, Missouri, did not significantly reduce nearby violent or property crime.
UC San Francisco scientists have developed a single clinical laboratory test capable of zeroing in on the microbial miscreant afflicting patients hospitalized with serious infections in as little as six hours -- irrespective of what body fluid is sampled, the type or species of infectious agent, or whether physicians start out with any clue as to what the culprit may be.
New research by LSU sociologists indicate it wasn't Christian nationalism that drove churchgoers' Trump vote in 2016. Rather, surprisingly, Christian nationalism was important among non-churchgoers. Christian nationalism is thought to have been an important factor in the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in 2016--and likely drove many of his supporters to the polls in 2020. Now, new research shows Christian nationalist support of Trump isn't tied to religious institutions or attending church on a regular basis. Instead, it's tied to not attending church.
'I've worked in this field for more than 10 years and have not seen anything like this.'
A new synthetic protein nanoparticle capable of slipping past the nearly impermeable blood-brain barrier in mice could deliver cancer-killing drugs directly to malignant brain tumors, new research from the University of Michigan shows.
The study is the first to demonstrate an intravenous medication that can cross the blood-brain barrier.
INDIANAPOLIS -- The frantic swirl of coronavirus-related information sharing that took place this year on social media is the subject of a new analysis led by researchers at the School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI.
We live in a battery-powered world, and as electronics steadily invade its every corner, the need to find robust batteries grows increasingly important. Today, most devices run on lithium-ion batteries; and while these are generally safe, sometimes they have been known to catch fire or explode.
Lightning struck a bourbon warehouse, setting fire to a cache of 800,000 gallons of liquor in the Bardstown countryside of Kentucky in 2003. Some of it spilled into a nearby creek, spawning a massive fire tornado, or "bourbonado," as reported locally.
Aerial video of it inspired scientists to investigate fire whirls, tornados of fire, as something promising for oil spill remediation because the hydrocarbons burned with relatively little soot.
An artificial intelligence technique -- machine learning -- is helping accelerate the development of highly tunable materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that have important applications in chemical separations, adsorption, catalysis, and sensing.
UPTON, NY--Three-dimensional (3-D) nanostructured materials--those with complex shapes at a size scale of billionths of a meter--that can conduct electricity without resistance could be used in a range of quantum devices. For example, such 3-D superconducting nanostructures could find application in signal amplifiers to enhance the speed and accuracy of quantum computers and ultrasensitive magnetic field sensors for medical imaging and subsurface geology mapping.