Tech
Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have developed a new method to analyse particulate matter more precisely than ever before. With its help, they disproved an established doctrine: that molecules in aerosols undergo no further chemical transformations because they are enclosed in other suspended particulate matter. In the smog chamber at PSI, they analysed chemical compounds directly in aerosols and observed how molecules dissociated and thus released, for example, gaseous formic acid into the atmosphere.
A novel technology, capable of analyzing nanomaterials in our daily lives with the use of common 'salt' has been developed. This allows various molecules to amplify up to hundreds of times the signals they produce in response to light, thereby making them very useful for nanomaterial research.
LA JOLLA--(March 13, 2020) Just like humans and other animals, plants have hormones. One role of plant hormones is to perceive trouble--whether an insect attack, drought or intense heat or cold--and then signal to the rest of the plant to respond.
Silicon photonics is known as a key technology for modern optical communications at the near infrared wavelength-band, i.e., 1.31/1.55 μm. Currently silicon photonics has been desired to be extended to the wavelength-band beyond 1.55 μm, e.g., 2 μm, for important applications in optical communications, nonlinear photonics, and on-chip sensing. However, the realization of high-performance silicon-based waveguide photodetectors beyond 1.55 μm still faces challenges since there are some fabrication issues as well as wavelength-band limitations.
University of Massachusetts Amherst food scientists produced a lower-salt processed turkey that consumers in a blind sensory test preferred to a full-salt version, according to a study published in the international journal LWT-Food Science and Technology.
"This isn't the holy grail, but it is one strategy that can help reduce salt content in processed foods," says senior author Amanda Kinchla, extension associate professor of food science.
A Washington State University research team has found that nanoscale particles of the most commonly used plastics tend to move through the water supply, especially in fresh water, or settle out in wastewater treatment plants, where they end up as sludge, in landfills, and often as fertilizer.
Neither scenario is good.
Transmitted by an insect known as the beet leafhopper, curly top disease is a viral disease affecting many crops, including melons, peppers, sugar beets, and tomatoes. Curly top can kill or stunt the plants or result in poorly developed fruit or no fruit at all.
Researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) have developed a process that allows for the production and degradation of almost any object within a circular economy using additive manufacturing and urban waste, the largest by-product of civilization.
Metal-Air Batteries (MABs), which use oxygen from ambient air as recourses to store and convert energy, have received considerable attention for their potential use in electric vehicles (EVs) owing to their large storage capacity, lightweight, and affordability. A research team, affiliated with UNIST has announced that a new catalyst that could boost MAB performance, such as discharge and charge efficiency, was developed recently.
When it comes to batteries, there are always areas for improvement: the race is on to develop batteries that are cheaper, safer, longer lasting, more energy dense, and easily recyclable.
German researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin found that even a short test can reliably predict students' success within their first year of study in Economics - much better than an intelligence test or predictions based on school grades. Motivated by the high number of dropouts in this study domain, the researchers investigated whether and how study success in Economics can be predicted reliably already at the beginning of a degree course.
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have discovered differences in brain circuitry that contribute to starvation and weight loss in people with anorexia nervosa (AN).
The findings, published in the March 12, 2020 online issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry, shed new light on the neurobiology of starvation and emaciation -- primary characteristics of AN.
Fifty years ago, Monty Python's famous sketch, "The Ministry of Silly Walks," first aired on BBC One. The sketch pokes fun at the inefficiency of government bureaucracy. It opens with the Minister (John Cleese) walking in a rather unusual manner to his work, the Ministry of Silly Walks, where Mr. Pudey (Michael Palin) is waiting to meet with him to apply for a government grant to develop his silly walk. In the spirit of Monty Python's humor, based on an actual gait analysis, a Dartmouth research team finds that the Minister's silly walk is 6.7 times more variable than a normal walk.
Joana Neves is the 2019 grand prize winner of the Sartorius & Science Prize for Regenerating Medicine & Cell Therapy, for work in mice that offers a promising approach to improve the outcome of regenerative stem cell-based therapies aimed at delaying age-related degenerative diseases. The findings help to address a major roadblock imposed by the natural aging processes, which has limited the clinical application of regenerative medicine approaches to treat those most likely to suffer from chronic and often debilitating degenerative conditions - elderly patients.
AMHERST, Mass. - Ecologists in England and Scotland, collaborating with ecologists Christopher Sutherland and Joseph Drake at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, report this week on a new method of identifying an "entire community of mammals" - including elusive and endangered species that are otherwise difficult to monitor - by collecting DNA from river water.