Tech
Everyone is talking about global warming. A team of palaeontologists at GeoZentrum Nordbayern at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) has recently investigated how prehistoric organisms reacted to climate change, basing their research on belemnites. These shrunk significantly when the water temperature rose as a result of volcanic activity approximately 183 million years ago, during the period known as the Toarcian. The FAU research team published their results in the online publication Royal Society Open Science.
A research group led by Prof. QIAO Botao from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed a new method for large-scale production of thermally stable single-atom catalysts (SACs) with high metal loading. Their findings were published in Nature Communications on Mar. 9.
SACs can maximize precious metal utilization and generate well-defined and uniform active sites. However, large-scale production of thermally stable SACs, especially in a simple way, remains a challenge.
In numerical weather forecasting research, how to improve short-term forecasts of tropical cyclone intensity is a challenging problem that has long plagued meteorologists and operational forecasters, despite meteorologists having greatly increased the accuracy of the initial field through increasing observations.in either quantity or quality. So, what else are we missing?
Current air pollution studies largely rely upon aerosol mass spectrometers, most of which can only measure submicron aerosol (PM1) species--particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 1 μm. In many studies, PM1 aerosol species are therefore used to validate those of PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm) in chemical transport models, and estimate particle acidity (pH) and aerosol water content which are key parameters in studying heterogeneous reactions. However, are there chemical differences between PM1 and PM2.5?
Extreme temperature can do strange things to metals. In severe heat, iron ceases to be magnetic. In devastating cold, lead becomes a superconductor.
For the last 30 years, physicists have been stumped by what exactly happens to uranium ruthenium silicide (URu2Si2) at 17.5 kelvin (minus 256 degrees Celsius). By measuring heat capacity and other characteristics, they can tell it undergoes some type of phase transition, but that's as much as anyone can say with certainty. Plenty of theories abound.
BUFFALO, N.Y. - It's curious how an issue like climate change remains unsettled in segments of the population despite the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is responsible for the Earth's current warming trend.
Pick another science-based debate: Intelligent design and evolution? Crop circles and the possibility of extraterrestrial visits? How about information concerning the public health threat posed by the novel coronavirus?
Florida State University researchers working in an international collaboration have identified new genetic variants that cause heart disease in infants, and their research has led to novel insights into the role of a protein that affects how the heart pumps blood. It is a discovery that could lead to new treatments for people suffering from heart disease.
For decades, scientists have wondered why specific cells in the brain that control movement fire when people simply plan or imagine making a movement, or observe someone else making a movement - but do not actually move themselves.
Now, University of Chicago scientists working on this mystery have discovered that signals in the motor cortex act like a series of clutches when it comes to moving, and that these signals can be disrupted to slow the brain's initiation of movement.
Researchers of research institute AMOLF and TU Delft have seen light propagate in a special material without it suffering from reflections. The material, a photonic crystal, consists of two parts that each have a slightly different pattern of perforations. Light can propagate along the boundary between these two parts in a special way: it is 'topologically protected' and, therefore, does not bounce back at imperfections. Even when the boundary forms a sharp corner, the light follows it without a problem.
March 6, 2020 - Digital technologies, especially smartphone apps, have great promise for increasing access to care for patients with serious mental illness such as schizophrenia. A new training program, called DOORS, can help patients get the full benefit of innovative digital mental health tools, reports a study in the March issue of
The West Coast Dungeness crab fishery doesn't just support the most valuable annual harvest of seafood on the West Coast. It's a fishery that just keeps on giving.
Fishermen from California to Washington caught almost all the available legal-size male Dungeness crab each year in the last few decades. However, the crab population has either remained stable or continued to increase, according to the first thorough population estimate of the West Coast Dungeness stocks.
Following a benefit assessment in 2016 and an addendum in 2018, the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has again examined biomarker-based tests for women with primary breast cancer. These tests aim to identify patients who could omit adjuvant chemotherapy because they have a low risk of recurrence, i.e. they can assume that the cancer will not return after successful initial treatment.
Training interactive robots may one day be an easy job for everyone, even those without programming expertise. Roboticists are developing automated robots that can learn new tasks solely by observing humans. At home, you might someday show a domestic robot how to do routine chores. In the workplace, you could train robots like new employees, showing them how to perform many duties.
Photoacoustic imaging has gained global attention for capturing images without causing pains or using ionizing radiation. Recently, many researchers have heavily studied on observing deep tissues to apply the photoacoustic imaging to clinical diagnosis and practices.
In a paper published in NANO, a group of researchers from Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea provide a comprehensive review of heterogeneously integrated two dimensional (2D) materials from an extensive library of atomic 2D materials with selectable material properties to open up fascinating possibilities for the design of functional novel devices.