Tech
Usain Bolt's 200m record has not been beaten for ten years and Florence Griffith Joyner's for more than thirty years. And what about if the secret behind beating records was to use mathematics? Thanks to a mathematical model, Amandine Aftalion, CNRS researcher at the Centre d'analyse et de mathématique sociales (CNRS/EHESS), and Emmanuel Trélat, a Sorbonne Université researcher at the Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions (CNRS/Sorbonne Université/ Université de Paris) have proved that the geometry of athletic tracks could be optimised to improve records.
Trees and other plants lead the way: they produce cellulose themselves and use it to build complex structures with extraordinary mechanical properties. That makes cellulose attractive to materials scientists who are seeking to manufacture sustainable products with special functions. However, processing materials into complex structures with high cellulose content is still a big challenge for materials scientists.
WASHINGTON (March 25, 2020) -- Nutrition and diet have a profound impact on microbial composition in the gut, in turn affecting a range of metabolic, hormonal, and neurological processes, according to a literature review by scientists from the George Washington University (GW) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The article is published in Nutrition Reviews.
In a recently published fundamental review dedicated to the diagnostics of viral infections, a Russian research team featuring MIPT researchers was the first to systematically describe and summarize the cutting-edge technologies in the rapidly developing field of genetics. A number of new effective methods of virus detection have been developed over the past few years, including those targeted at unknown pathogens. The authors described the so-called high-throughput next-generation sequencing as a potent new approach.
An international group of scientists, including some from ITMO University, has proposed a method that allows for significantly increasing the efficiency of solar cells and light-emitting diodes. The scientists managed to achieve this result by augmenting the auxiliary layers of the devices responsible for electron transport rather than working with the main active layer. The work has been published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
Magnetic bacteria might soon be used for the production of novel biomaterials. A team of microbiologists at the University of Bayreuth led by Prof. Dr. Dirk Schüler developed a modular system for the genetic reprogramming of bacteria, thereby turning the organisms into cell factories for multifunctional magnetic nanoparticles that combine various useful functions and properties. Because of their exceptional magnetic properties and good biocompatibility, these nanoparticles might be a promising new material in the biomedical and biotechnological field.
A new study in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution suggests that birds have two alternative strategies for coping with the difficulties of humanity's increasingly chaotic cities - either by having large brains or through more frequent breeding.
Municipal solid waste is trash -- such as plastic, food scraps and lawn clippings -- that goes into garbage bins and doesn't get recycled. Most of this waste is buried in landfills or is incinerated. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology have shown that when disposed of in this way, municipal solid waste can be an important source of antibiotic-resistance genes in the air.
Spilled coffee forms a ring as the liquid evaporates, depositing solids along the edge of the puddle. This "coffee ring effect" has fascinated scientists for decades, but now a team says they have uncovered the mechanism behind an even more striking, web-like pattern that forms when drops of American whiskey dry up. The results, reported in ACS Nano, suggest that these distinctive 'whiskey webs' could someday be used to identify counterfeit spirits.
(Philadelphia, PA) - The immune system is like a carefully regulated machine, complete with its own built-in "brakes" that prevent it from overreacting and causing excess inflammation in otherwise healthy tissues. This preventative safety net, however, is highly vulnerable, particularly in cancer, where tumor cells step on the brakes constantly, because doing so allows the tumor cells to escape immune detection.
To understand what happens in the brain when Alzheimer's disease develops, researchers need to be able to study the molecular structures in the neurons affected by Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have tested a new imaging method for this purpose. The research is published in the journal Advanced Science.
Highlight
In an analysis of information on adults who began treatment for kidney failure at any Georgia, North Carolina, or South Carolina dialysis facility, the distance from a patient's residence to the nearest transplant center did not appear to affect the likelihood of transplant-related referrals and evaluations.
DURHAM, N.C. - Contaminants that occur together naturally in groundwater under certain geological conditions may heighten health risks for millions of North Carolinians whose drinking water comes from private wells, and current safety regulations don't address the problem, a new Duke University study finds.
How do animals that help their brethren manage to prioritize those most in need? A study publishing March 24 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Karin Schneeberger and colleagues of the Universities of Bern in Switzerland and Potsdam in Germany, shows that rats can use odor cues alone to determine how urgently to provide food assistance to other rats in need.
Transistors in computer chips work electrically, but data can be transmitted more quickly by using light. For this reason, researchers have long been looking for a way to integrate lasers directly in silicon chips. Scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich have now come a step closer to achieving this.