Tech
HOUSTON -- (July 7, 2020) -- Rice University chemical engineers found an efficient catalyst for destroying PFAS "forever" chemicals where they least expected.
"It was the control," said Rice Professor Michael Wong, referring to the part of a scientific experiment where researchers don't expect surprises. The control group is the yardstick of experimental science, the baseline by which variables are measured.
The heart needs energy to pump blood. So, energy production defects in heart muscles result in a variety of cardiac diseases.
Texas A&M AgriLife scientists have now discovered a new link between calcium, heart energy production and cardiolipin, a type of fat. The discovery helps explain heart defects in the rare genetic disorder Barth syndrome.
Skoltech scientists conducted a study of milk lipids and described the unique features of human breast milk as compared to bovids, pigs, and closely related primates. Their findings could be indicative of co-evolution of milk composition and the specific needs of the developing organism.
"If you saw a Chihuahua barking as deep as a Rottweiler, you would definitely be surprised", says Andrea Ravignani, a researcher at the MPI and the Dutch Sealcentre Pieterburen. Body size influences the frequency of the sounds animals produce, but many animals found ways to sound 'smaller' or 'bigger' than expected. "Nature is full of animals like squeaky-Rottweilers and tenor-Chihuahuas", explains Ravignani. Some animals fake their size by developing larger vocal organs that lower their sound, which makes them sound larger than you would expect.
Workers in jobs that typically involve heavy lifting, frequent climbing, prolonged kneeling, squatting, and standing face an increased risk of developing knee osteoarthritis. That's the conclusion of a new analysis published in Arthritis Care & Research.
Parents may worry that spending time on their smartphones has a negative impact on their relationships with their children. However, a new comprehensive analysis published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry found that this is unlikely to be the case.
AURORA, Colo. (July 8, 2020) - In an effort to combat a growing worldwide epidemic of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), scientists have discovered a new target and a new therapy that has shown promising results in preclinical mouse models, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
Grapevine is infected by more than 90 viruses, with new viral species discovered yearly as a result of the newer technology introduced by High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS). Within the last decade, HTS is used for virome identification (the assemblage of viral genomes), which in turn helps plant pathologists with future research.
Curtin research into abnormal regeneration events in lizards has led to the first published scientific review on the prevalence of lizards that have re-generated not just one, but two, or even up to six, tails.
PhD Candidate Mr James Barr, from Curtin University's School of Molecular and Life Sciences, said while the phenomena of multiple-tailed lizards are widely known to occur, documented events were generally limited to opportunistic, single observations of one in its natural environment.
WASHINGTON, July 7, 2020 -- Sensors placed in the environment spend long periods of time outdoors through all weather conditions, and they must continuously power themselves in order to collect data. Many, like photovoltaic cells, use the sun to produce electricity, but powering outdoor sensors at night is a challenge.
WASHINGTON, July 7, 2020 -- Utility-scale photovoltaics, ground-mounted projects larger than 5 megawatts of alternating current, are the largest sector of the overall solar market within the U.S. and the fastest-growing form of renewable power generation.
This fleet of utility-scale photovoltaic projects is relatively young and hasn't been operating long enough to establish a lengthy history of operational field service. The first utility-scale photovoltaic projects in the U.S. came online in 2007, and most projects have been operating for only a few years.
Quantum information scientists have introduced a new method for machine learning classifications in quantum computing. The non-linear quantum kernels in a quantum binary classifier provide new insights for improving the accuracy of quantum machine learning, deemed able to outperform the current AI technology.
Optical singularities are key elements in modern optics and have been widely researched. In particular, phase and polarization singularities have been manipulated in various applications, such as imaging and metrology, nonlinear optics, optical tweezers, sensing, quantum information, and optical communication. In theory, both singularities can be detected simultaneously if one can detect the topological charge and photon spin at the same time.
Many animals, including dogs, cats and various species of monkeys, will move their ears to better focus their attention on a novel sound. That humans also have this capability was not known until now. A research team based in Saarland has demonstrated for the first time that we make minute, unconscious movements of our ears that are directed towards the sound want to focus our attention on. The team discovered this ability by measuring electrical signals in the muscles of the vestigial motor system in the human ear. The results have now been published in the journal eLife.
The air around us is still getting more and more polluted. No wonder many scientists strive to find a way to purify it. Thanks to the work of an international team led by prof. Juan Carlos Colmenares from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, we are a big step closer to achieve this goal. They found a way to make an efficient reactive adsorbent able to purify the air from various toxic compounds, cheaply, and effectively.