Tech
Several studies in recent years have reported that low-calorie sweeteners in foods and beverages disrupt the human metabolism, promoting the development of diabetes and obesity. But other studies have found that consuming low-calorie drinks and food has little impact on metabolism and might actually aid in weight loss.
A new study by Yale researchers published March 3 in the journal Cell Metabolism may help reconcile these conflicting findings.
Excessive weight around our middle gives our brain's resident immune cells heavy exposure to a signal that turns them against us, setting in motion a crescendo of inflammation that damages cognition, scientists say.
It's known this visceral adiposity, characterized by an apple-shaped physique, is considered particularly bad for our bodies and brains.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego developed a wearable technology that can hide its wearer from heat-detecting sensors such as night vision goggles, even when the ambient temperature changes--a feat that current state of the art technology cannot match. The technology can adapt to temperature changes in just a few minutes, while keeping the wearer comfortable.
SAN ANTONIO -- March 3, 2020 -- Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) conducted room burn comparisons to better understand how country-specific fire codes in the U.S., France and the United Kingdom affect the fire safety of home furnishings and their contributions to flashover. Reducing the rate for flashover in a room burn can significantly save lives translating to more time for people to escape a fire. Flashover occurs when temperatures at the ceiling reach 1,000 degrees C and all the combustibles in the room ignite.
Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) discover a novel mechanism by which claudin-1 contributes to the progression of tongue squamous cell carcinoma
There are different solutions for storing electrical energy: Lithium-based electrochemical batteries, for example, store large amounts of energy, but require long charging times. Supercapacitors, on the other hand, are able to absorb or release electrical energy extremely quickly - but store much less electrical energy.
Pseudocapacitors MXene
Graphene Flagship researchers at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and its spin-off, Graphene Flagship Associate Member BeDimensional, in cooperation with ENEA have successfully combined graphene with tandem perovskite-silicon solar cells to achieve efficiencies of up to 26.3%. Moreover, they envisioned a new manufacturing method that, thanks to the versatility of graphene, allows to reduce production costs and could lead to the production of large-area solar panels.
An insect's compound eye has superior visual characteristics such as wide viewing angle, high motion sensitivity, and large depth of field while maintaining a small volume of visual structure with a small focal length. Among them, Xenos peckii, an endoparasite of paper wasps, eyes have hundreds of photoreceptors in a single lens unlike conventional compound eyes with a few light-sensing cells in an individual eyelet. This unique structure offers higher visual resolution than other insect eyes.
Tokyo, Japan - The importance of the microorganisms that live on and in our bodies has long been recognized, and their complex synergistic impact on our systemic health is elucidated. Now, researchers from Japan have shown the importance of normal eating for the composition and balance of our individual oral and gut microbiota.
Playing back recorded audio from a digital storage allows us to enjoy music without the physical presence of a musical instrument to generate resonating sound. In a seemingly unrelated area called metamaterials, scientists design different physical structures also resonating with sound or light, to achieve many intriguing phenomena such as negative refraction and invisibility.
It has probably never been easier to find a partner who is compatible with you - at least in theory. Internet dating platforms feed algorithms with information about those seeking a relationship in order to find the best match for them. But can this predictability be applied to a relationship? Is it possible to foresee from the start whether it will last?
A study led by the University of Turku, Finland, has found that small, fiercely predatory damselflies catch and eat hundreds of thousands of insects during a single summer - in an area surrounding just a single pond. In terms of weight, this equates to a total prey mass of just under a kilo. Dragonflies mostly catch different kinds of midges, but also large numbers of other insects.
Our world has no dearth of complex networks--from cellular networks in biology to intricate web networks in technology. These networks also form the basis of various applications in virtually all fields of science, and to analyze and manipulate these networks, specific "search" algorithms are required. But, conventional search algorithms are slow and, when dealing with large networks, require a long computational time. Recently, search algorithms based on the principles of quantum mechanics have been found to vastly outperform classical approaches.
Immune system T-cells are more able to destroy skin cancer cells when a T-cell regulator called SLAMF6 is missing, a new study in eLife shows.
Immunotherapies, which boost the immune system's ability to destroy cancer cells, have become an important type of cancer treatment, but they are only successful for about half of patients treated with them. The new study in mice suggests that immunotherapies that turn off SLAMF6 might add an option that could be used alone or in combination with other immunotherapies to treat cancer more effectively.
Following the latest research in the field of obtaining single-molecule magnets (SMMs), scientists have taken another step on the way toward obtaining super-dense magnetic memories and molecular neural networks, in particular the construction of auto-associative memories and multi-criterion optimization systems operating as the model of the human brain. Interestingly, this was achieved by using methods available in an average chemical laboratory.