Tech
Science fiction stories are chock full of terraforming schemes and oxygen generators for a very good reason--we humans need molecular oxygen (O2) to breathe, and space is essentially devoid of it. Even on other planets with thick atmospheres, O2 is hard to come by.
So, when we explore space, we need to bring our own oxygen supply. That is not ideal because a lot of energy is needed to hoist things into space atop a rocket, and once the supply runs out, it is gone.
On the heels of the first definitive signs of the ozone layer recovery last year, an international team of scientists discovered that production and emission of a banned, potent ozone-depleting chemical is on the rise again. A new research finding, published in Nature on May 23, locates the source region for about half of those new emissions. Since 2013, they found that an increase of about 7000 tons per year of trichlorofluromethane, or CFC-11, added to the atmosphere originates from eastern China.
Researchers from UBC Okanagan have determined motorists tended to give cyclists wearing high-visibility vests more room on the road, compared to cyclists without high-visibility clothing.
The vests, with arrows directing traffic away from pedestrians and cyclists, have shown to reduce the number of traffic accidents involving these groups.
Gordon Lovegrove, a UBC Okanagan associate professor in the School of Engineering, suggests a bit of visual reinforcement, combined with driver education ingrained into safety apparel, may curb unnecessary accidents and fatalities.
Space vehicles like SpaceX's Falcon 9 are designed to be reusable. But this means that, like Olympic gymnasts hoping for a gold medal, they have to stick their landings.
Landing is stressful on a rocket's legs because they must handle the force from the impact with the landing pad. One way to combat this is to build legs out of materials that absorb some of the force and soften the blow.
A technique that introduces carbon-hydrogen molecules into a single atomic layer of the semiconducting material tungsten disulfide dramatically changes the electronic properties of the material, according to Penn State researchers at Penn State who say they can create new types of components for energy-efficient photoelectric devices and electronic circuits with this material.
Canadian neuroscientists are using novel experimental approaches to understand autism spectrum disorder, from studying multiple variation in a single gene to the investigation of networks of interacting genes to find new treatments for the disorder.
Activity trackers and mobile phone apps are all the rage, but do they really help users increase and maintain physical activity? A new study has found that one mobile phone app designed for inactive women did help when combined with an activity tracker and personal counseling.
Materials by design: Argonne researchers use genetic algorithms for better superconductors.
Owners of thoroughbred stallions carefully breed prizewinning horses over generations to eke out fractions of a second in million-dollar races. Materials scientists have taken a page from that playbook, turning to the power of evolution and artificial selection to develop superconductors that can transmit electric current as efficiently as possible.
Washington, DC - May 24, 2019 - Using paper stickers to collect pathogens on surfaces where antisepsis is required, such as in food processing plants, is easier, and less expensive than swabbing, yet similarly sensitive. The research is published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
Leonardo da Vinci produced some of the world's most iconic art, but historical accounts show that he struggled to complete his works. 500 years after his death, King's College London researcher Professor Marco Catani suggests the best explanation for Leonardo's inability to finish projects is that the great artist may have had Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Cells in the body are wired like computer chips to direct signals that instruct how they function, research suggests.
Unlike a fixed circuit board, however, cells can rapidly rewire their communication networks to change their behaviour.
The discovery of this cell-wide web turns our understanding of how instructions spread around a cell on its head.
It was thought that the various organs and structures inside a cell float around in an open sea called the cytoplasm.
The global spread of antibiotic resistance is a major public health issue and a priority for international microbiology research. In his paper to be published in the journal Science, Christian Lesterlin, Inserm researcher at Lyon's "Molecular Microbiology and Structural Biochemistry" laboratory (CNRS/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1), and his team were able to film the process of antibiotic resistance acquisition in real time, discovering a key but unexpected player in its maintenance and spread within bacterial populations.
A team of polymer chemists and engineers from Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new methodology that can be used to create a class of stretchable polymer composites with enhanced electrical and thermal properties. These materials are promising candidates for use in soft robotics, self-healing electronics and medical devices. The results are published in the May 20 issue of Nature Nanotechnology.
The Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology last week revealed the findings of a 2016 pilot study that measured pregnant women's exposure to environmental contaminants in northeastern British Columbia, an area of intensive natural-gas production through hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
With aims of bringing more human-like reasoning to autonomous vehicles, MIT researchers have created a system that uses only simple maps and visual data to enable driverless cars to navigate routes in new, complex environments.