Tech

Former tropical depression Erin has made the transition into an extra-tropical system off the eastern coast of the U.S. Infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite provided temperature data on storms associated with Erin and the weather system it is merging with.

WASHINGTON -- Researchers have developed the first fully-integrated, non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) gas sensor enabled by specially engineered synthetic materials known as metamaterials. The sensor has no moving parts, requires little energy to operate and is among the smallest NDIR sensors ever created.

The sensor is ideal for new Internet of Things and smart home devices designed to detect and respond to changes in the environment. It also could find use in future medical diagnostics and monitoring equipment.

The behavior of giraffe groups with calves is influenced more strongly by the risk of predators than is the behavior of all-adult groups, which is mostly determined by the availability of food. An international team of researchers from Penn State and the University of Zürich studied giraffe behavior in a 2,000 square kilometer region of Africa and pinpointed some of the special requirements needed by mother giraffes to keep their babies safe.

Researchers[1] at the University of Bristol and Imperial College London have established a new model system that uses red blood cells grown in the laboratory to study how malaria parasites invade red blood cells.

Ice sheet dynamics of the past likely caused fault movements in the Earth's crust, resulting in seabed methane release in ~1200 m water depth offshore Svalbard, an archipelago in the Norwegian Arctic.

- Our results show similar patterns over the last two ice ages, from 160,000 years ago through today. The new data suggest a link between changing continental ice volumes and deep-sea methane emission in the Arctic, says Tobias Himmler, researcher at the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) and principle author of the study.

Seabed and sub-seabed samples reveal the past

Watching paint dry may seem like a boring hobby, but understanding what happens after the paint dries can be key in preserving precious works of art.

The formation of metal soaps in artwork composed with oil paints can cause "art acne" - including pimpling and more severe deterioration - which poses a pressing challenge for art conservation around the globe.

It is affecting the works of Georgia O'Keefe, Vincent Van Gogh, Francisco de Goya, and Jackson Pollock, among many others, and researchers haven't yet found a good solution to stop its effects.

Legend states that after the Greek army defeated the invading Persian forces near the city of Marathon in 490 B.C.E., the courier Pheidippides ran to Athens to report the victory and then immediately dropped dead. The story — and the distance Pheidippides covered — inspired the modern marathon, a grueling 26.2-mile contest that attracts some 1.3 million runners annually to compete in the more than 800 races held worldwide.

University of Alberta researchers have identified a unique biological marker that can be used to identify the presence of the rare autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis, predict the course of the disease and identify new, personalized treatments.

New York, N.Y., Aug. 29, 2019 - A 2019 Airline Water Study released today by DietDetective.com and the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center at the City University of New York reveals that the quality of drinking water varies by airline, and many airlines have possibly provided passengers with unhealthy water.

BOSTON - Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)--the accumulation of liver fat in people who drink little or no alcohol--is increasingly common around the world, and in the United States, it affects between 30 and 40 percent of adults. Currently, there are no approved drugs for the treatment of NAFLD, which is predicted to soon become the main cause of chronic liver problems and the need for liver transplantation.

A study conducted by researchers from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore and the School of Biological Sciences at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) revealed a common deficiency in existing artificial intelligence methods used to predict enhancer-promoter interactions, that may result in inflated performance measurements. The findings, published in scientific journal Nature Genetics in July 2019, provides an enhanced road map for the understanding of gene regulation.

Tiny nanobots flowing through the body to repair damaged cells. Once supposed to be considered as science fiction, these microrobots are becoming a reality with a slew of experimental trials. It is generally thought that nanoparticles are so tiny that they can roam freely all over the body after administration. However, this is only partly true. In a tumor, nanoparticles can make inroads into tumors only as deep as 100 μm from the vessels.

Low-cost, active teaching techniques--particularly group work and worksheets--substantially improve learning in university science classes, according to a new study involving 3,700 University of British Columbia (UBC) biology students.

"Many university STEM classes continue to rely on conventional lectures, despite substantial research that suggests active teaching techniques like peer instruction and group discussion are more effective," said UBC researcher Patricia Schulte, senior author of the study, published this week in PLOS ONE.

Over the last two decades, there has been a rise in head and neck cancers in the oropharynx, a region in the back of the throat that includes the tonsils and the base of the tongue. The rise of this type of cancer has been linked to the human papillomavirus (HPV), a very common sexually transmitted disease.

Experts have managed to mimic the colour of the Cyphochilus beetle's scales one of the brightest whites in nature

Findings show the colour is created by the structure of the beetles' scales, not by pigments and dyes

By managing to replicate this structure in the lab using plastic, researchers hope to pave the way for sustainable, ultra-white paints made from recycled plastic waste

New paints would have a much lower carbon footprint and help tackle the challenge of recycling single-use plastics