Tech
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (December 16, 2019) -- Researchers led by engineers at Tufts University have developed a novel, significantly more efficient fabrication method for silk that allows them to heat and mold the material into solid forms for a wide range of applications, including medical devices. The end products have superior strength compared to other materials, have physical properties that can be "tuned" for specific needs, and can be functionally modified with bioactive molecules, such as antibiotics and enzymes.
An electronic biosensor powered using the glucose in bodily fluids has been developed by KAUST researchers. The device pairs an electron-transporting polymer with an enzyme that extracts electrons from its reaction with glucose to drive its circuitry. The plastic biosensor could act as a continuous monitor of key health indicators, such as blood sugar levels in diabetes patients.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Any economic and conservation benefits associated with time-of-use electricity billing could be achieved at the expense of some of the most vulnerable citizens in our society: people with disabilities and the elderly, new research suggests.
Under a time-of-use system, energy prices are higher during high-demand "on-peak" times, a practice intended in part to create incentive for people to reduce their electricity use when it's more expensive.
Thousands of Australian students will get their Higher School Certificates this week - how many will choose the 'right career'?
According to new research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, understanding the hidden personality dimensions of different roles could be the key to matching a person and their ideal occupation.
Drilling and fracking for oil under the seabed produces 100 billion barrels of oil-contaminated wastewater every year by releasing tiny oil droplets into surrounding water.
Most efforts to remove oil from water focus on removing large oil slicks from industrial spills but these aren't suitable for removing tiny droplets. Instead, scientists are looking for new ways to clean the water.
A new chemical process described in the journal Nature Communications does in the lab what trees do in nature - it converts carbon dioxide into usable chemicals or fuels.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- At first glance, Garra surinbinnani looks like a stout, brown minnow with the face of a boxer who's gone one too many rounds. But the deep gash in its forehead studded with blue spikes is a natural feature whose function remains a mystery.
Discovered by Florida Museum of Natural History researchers, this freshwater fish makes its home in the fast-flowing, rocky streams of Western Thailand, a region that the species' namesake, the late conservationist Surin Binnan, devoted himself to protecting.
A new artificial intelligence (AI) tool could help social media networks and news organizations weed out false stories.
The tool, developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo, uses deep-learning AI algorithms to determine if claims made in posts or stories are supported by other posts and stories on the same subject.
"If they are, great, it's probably a real story," said Alexander Wong, a professor of systems design engineering at Waterloo. "But if most of the other material isn't supportive, it's a strong indication you're dealing with fake news."
Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have partnered up with engineers from Corning Inc., U.S., and T8, Russia, and developed a system for high-throughput data transfer over great distances without the need for signal repeating along the way. Systems of this kind could be used to provide internet connection and other communication services in remote communities. The study is reported in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.
Artificial Intelligence may be just the thing to accelerate spray-on solar cell technology, which could revolutionize how consumers use energy.
A research team at the University of Central Florida used Machine Learning, aka Artificial Intelligence to optimize the materials used to make perovskite solar cells (PSC). The Organic-Inorganic halide perovskites material used in PSC converts photovoltaic power into consumable energy.
What we do to one part of our Earth system does not just add to what we do to other parts: "We found a dense network of interactions between the planetary boundaries," says Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and co-author of the study. Two core boundaries - climate change and biosphere integrity - contribute more than half the combined strengths of all the interactions in that network, the scientists find. "This highlights how careful we should be in destabilizing these two," says Rockström.
A multidisciplinary group of engineers and scientists has discovered a new method for water filtration that could have implications for a variety of technologies, such as desalination plants, breathable and protective fabrics, and carbon capture in gas separations. The research team, led by Manish Kumar in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, published their findings in the latest issue of Nature Nanotechnology.
HOUSTON - (Dec. 16, 2019) - The river may rage or gently roll, but in the end the sand and silt will have their way.
Rice University Earth scientists and their colleagues have defined a surprising breakpoint at which the grain size of riverbed sediment exercises extraordinary control over how much material will be transported downstream, nourishing deltas and coastlines.
Boston, MA -- Nearly half of all patients who suffer migraines report sleep disturbance as a trigger for their headaches. But the relationship between sleep and migraine headaches is not well understood or well-studied. Investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have conducted the largest prospective study using objective measures of sleep to date to evaluate the relationship between sleep and migraine headaches. The team's findings generally support patients' reports of sleep disturbance as a trigger for migraines.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - An Oregon State University chemistry researcher who made history a decade ago with the accidental discovery of the first new blue inorganic pigment in more than two centuries is again pushing forward the science of color.
Analyzing the crystal structure of pigments based on hibonite, a mineral found in meteorites, Mas Subramanian of the OSU College of Science has paved the way toward designing more pigments that are stable, durable and non-toxic with vivid hues.