Tech
Humanity's greatest risk: Cascading impacts of climate, biodiversity, food, water crises: scientists
The greatest threat to humanity hides in the potential cascading of impacts of five highly-related, highly-likely risks -- a collision that can amplify these effects catastrophically, according to a new survey of 222 leading scientists from 52 countries.
When illuminated by electromagnetic waves, subwavelength-scale particles of metasurface can couple the incident energy to free space with controllable amplitude, phase and polarizations, such that the transmitted wave can be manipulated flexibly with predesigned functionalities. In recent years, rapid developments of digital and information metasurfaces have stimulated many information processing applications, such as computational imaging, wireless communications, and performing mathematical operations.
Floods are the natural disaster to cause most damage each year across the world. Valerio Lorini (JRC-UPF), Javier Rando (UPF), Diego Saez-Trumper (Wikimedia), and Carlos Castillo (UPF) are the authors of a study they are to present at the 17th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM 2020), Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia (USA), from 24 to 27 May, entitled: "Uneven Coverage of Natural Disasters in Wikipedia: the Case of Floods".
Ferroelectric materials possessing high photoelectric, piezoelectric and dielectric response are widely applied in industrial products, such as transducers, capacitors and memory devices. However, as the development of technology, miniaturization, integration and flexibility are of great importance, which could hardly be fulfilled by traditional bulk ferroelectric materials. Hence, nanoscale ferroelectric domain walls (DWs), with recently found dramatic mechanical, electrical, optical and magnetic properties aside from ferroelectric domains, have become a hotspot.
Since the discovery of two ferromagnetic (FM) atomically thin CrI3 and Cr2Ge2Te6 in 2017 (Nature 2017, 546, 270?Nature 2017, 546, 265), intrinsic ferromagnetism in two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdWs) materials, maintaining long-range magnetic orders at the atomic monolayer limit, has received growing attention. Each individual layer is FM; however adjacent layers are antiferromagnetically (AFM) coupled together.
Young people make intensive use of digital networks to read, write and comment on literary texts. But their reading behavior varies considerably depending on whether the title is from the world of popular or classic literature, as revealed by a new study that takes the reading platform Wattpad as an example. This computer-aided analysis under the direction of the University of Basel was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Geographers from Staffordshire University are stepping into the virtual world of computer games to develop exciting new ways of assessing landscapes.
Ruth Swetnam, Professor of Applied Geography, has spent years analysing geographical landscapes and determining what features people from different countries find most appealing.
Scientists from Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU, Vladivostok, Russia), together with colleagues from FEB RAS, China, Hong Kong, and Australia, manufactured ultra-compact bright sources based on IR-emitting mercury telluride (HgTe) quantum dots (QDs), the future functional elements of quantum computers and advanced sensors. A related article is published in "Light: Science and Applications".
In a groundbreaking study, research carried out between the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and the University of Lausanne (UNIL, Switzerland) has compiled data on homicide victims in Spain, disaggregated by gender, from 1910 to 2014. Unlike previous studies, which have focused on particular regions of the country or shorter time periods, this study gathers and analyses data corresponding to more than a century in Spain. Although it takes a look at both male and female victimization, the analysis has centred particularly on female victims.
Fusion - Squeezing the code
The prospect of simulating a fusion plasma is a step closer to reality thanks to a new computational tool developed by scientists in fusion physics, computer science and mathematics at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Harnessing fusion power on Earth requires strong magnetic fields to hold and squeeze a super-heated gas, and the large scale experiments capable of such extreme conditions can take decades to build.
An online version of a pioneering therapy aimed at reducing the lingering symptoms of depression can offer additional benefits for patients receiving care, according to a new U of T Scarborough study.
When added to regular depression care, the online version of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) can help treat depression symptoms and help prevent its return, notes U of T Scarborough Professor Zindel Segal, a clinical psychologist and lead author of the study.
ROCHESTER, Minn. ? Men and women differ in the way their vascular systems age and the rate at which atherosclerosis ? the hardening of artery walls or buildup of arterial blockage ? progresses over time. These sex- and age-related differences have a direct bearing on a woman's risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
A nanoscale gold butterfly provides a more precise route for growing/synthesizing nanosized semiconductors that can be used in nano-lasers and other applications.
Hokkaido University researchers have devised a unique approach for making nanosized semiconductors on a metal surface. The details of the method were reported in the journal Nano Letters and could further research into the fabrication of nanosized light and energy emitters.
Imagine a loudspeaker is placed in a room with a few microphones. When the loudspeaker emits a sound impulse, the microphones receive several delayed responses as the sound reverberates from each wall in the room. These first-order echoes--heard after sound impulses have bounced only once on a wall--then bounce back from each wall to create second-order echoes and so on.
In the last decade, thousands have been killed or injured as a result of mass violence in the United States. Such acts take many forms, including family massacres, terrorist attacks, shootings, and gang violence. Yet it is indiscriminate mass public shootings, often directed at strangers, that has generated the most public alarm.