Tech
Factories in the future will definitely look different than today. As the fourth industrial revolution transforms manufacturing from mass production to mass customization, factory workers will increasingly need to apply new ICT to work remotely, collaborate with robots or use AI-based assistants, to increase their performance while developing further their creative, innovative and improvisational skills. Advanced technologies offer factory workers unprecedented opportunities to organize their jobs in a more autonomous way.
With millions of years to experiment, nature solved the problem of efficiently converting raw materials into usable energy. Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are using nature's energy converters - enzymes - as a model to develop more efficient and less polluting energy sources. Scientists are exploring the essential features of enzymes that allow them to convert abundant raw materials like carbon dioxide into usable fuel. Harnessing that knowledge to create industrial-scale synthetic enzymes could help usher in a renewable energy future.
Emerging technologies and new strategies are opening a revitalized era in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). New discovery capabilities, along with the rapidly-expanding number of known planets orbiting stars other than the Sun, are spurring innovative approaches by both government and private organizations, according to a panel of experts speaking at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle, Washington.
The Breakthrough Listen Initiative today (Friday, Feb. 14) released data from the most comprehensive survey yet of radio emissions from the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy and the region around its central black hole, and it is inviting the public to search the data for signals from intelligent civilizations.
Cancer survivors who are diagnosed during adolescence or early adulthood (age 15-20 years) are at increased risk of premature death compared to the general population. They have an elevated risk of severe or life-threatening conditions compared to a sibling control group, according to an observational study of more than 10,000 cancer patients from 27 academic institutions in the USA and Canada, published in The Lancet Oncology journal on International Childhood Cancer Day (15 February).
Scientists have discovered thousands of exoplanets, including dozens of terrestrial -- or rocky -- worlds in the habitable zones around their parent stars. A promising approach to search for signs of life on these worlds is to probe exoplanet atmospheres for "biosignatures" -- quirks in chemical composition that are telltale signs of life. For example, thanks to photosynthesis, our atmosphere is nearly 21% oxygen, a much higher level than expected given Earth's composition, orbit and parent star.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Data from a massive search for cosmic radio emission released Feb 14. by the Breakthrough Listen Initiative--the most comprehensive survey yet of radio emissions from the Milky Way--has allowed astronomers to look for technological signatures of extraterrestrial civilizations that might be looking for us.
Every cell in our body has a computer-like control system that sends biological signals through thousands of circuits to monitor the cell's needs and regulate its responses.
But when diseases such as cancer arise, these regulatory circuits often go awry, resulting in unnatural signals and responses. The ability to accurately detect these abnormal disease signals would be a potential avenue for more precise treatments.
The left and right side of our brain are specialized for some cognitive abilities. For example, in humans, language is processed predominantly in the left hemisphere, and the right hand is controlled by the motor cortex in the left hemisphere. The functional lateralization is reflected by morphological asymmetry of the brain. Left and right hemisphere differ subtly in brain anatomy, the distribution of nerve cells, their connectivity and neurochemistry. Asymmetries of outer brain shape are even visible on endocasts.
Coral reefs account for one-third of all biodiversity in the oceans and are vital to humanity. But long-standing human stressors including agricultural run-off and overfishing and more recent ocean warming from climate change have all contributed to large-scale coral reef die-offs.
From the time that dinosaur fossils were first discovered, these creatures have fascinated scientists and laypeople alike. In the academic world, their remains provide important clues into the prehistoric world; in popular culture, dinosaurs have inspired blockbuster hits, such as Jurassic Park and King Kong.
Although it is now an "ex-tropical cyclone," Uesi continues to generate some moderate rainfall, especially in its southern quadrant as it moves toward New Zealand.
The Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM satellite provided a look at the rainfall rates on Feb. 14 at 2:11 a.m. EST (0716 UTC). GPM found heaviest rainfall south of center and in bands far south of the center falling at rates of 1 inch (25 mm) per hour. Light rain appears around the entire system, falling at less than 0.2 inches (less than 5 millimeters) per hour.
A type of fatty liver disease that commonly affects patients with HIV can be safely treated with vitamin E, a McGill-led study has found.
Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a severe form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and is characterized by liver inflammation and cell damage. It is a potentially dangerous condition that can progress to cirrhosis or liver cancer.
For some infants, a wet diaper is cause for an instant, vociferous demand to be changed, while other babies may be unfazed and happy to haul around the damp cargo for lengthy periods without complaint. But if worn too long, a wet diaper can cause painful rashes, and miserable babies -- and parents.
A team headed by Prof. Dr. Frank Stienkemeier and Dr. Lukas Bruder from the Institute of Physics at the University of Freiburg has succeeded in observing in real-time ultrafast quantum interferences -- in other words the oscillation patterns -- of electrons which are found in the atomic shells of rare gas atoms. They managed to observe oscillations with a period of about 150 attoseconds -- an attosecond is a billionth of a billionth of a second. To this end, the scientists excited rare gas atoms with specially prepared laser pulses.