Tech
A group of researchers based at the University of Sydney has uncovered patterns that may be jeopardising the long-term success of worldwide animal breeding programs, which increasingly act as an insurance against extinction in conservation, and for food security.
The meta-analysis, led by the University of Sydney's Faculty of Science, found captive-born animals had, on average, almost half the odds of reproductive success compared to their wild-born counterparts in captivity.
Researchers have developed a super-thin, non-toxic, lightweight, edible ultra-white coating that could be used to make brighter paints and coatings, for use in the cosmetic, food or pharmaceutical industries.
The material - which is 20 times whiter than paper - is made from non-toxic cellulose and achieves such bright whiteness by mimicking the structure of the ultra-thin scales of certain types of beetle. The results are reported in the journal Advanced Materials.
A team of researchers has developed a light-activated switch that can turn genes on and off in mammalian cells. This is the most efficient so-called "optogenetic switch" activated by red and far-red light that has been successfully designed and tested in animal cells--and it doesn't require the addition of sensing molecules from outside the cells.
A study out March 13 finds that urban trees can survive increased heat and insect pests fairly well - unless they are thirsty. Insufficient water not only harms trees, but allows other problems to have an outsized effect on trees in urban environments.
Charlottesville, VA (March 13, 2018). Smartphones have changed the ways in which we live. They connect us with friends and families by phone, texts, and pictures. They warn us about what weather to expect and what traffic patterns we'll face on our way to work. They keep us abreast of all the news of the day and in touch with colleagues and clients.
BEER-SHEVA, Israel...March 13, 2018 - Off-the-shelf devices that include baby monitors, home security cameras, doorbells, and thermostats were easily co-opted by cyber researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). As part of their ongoing research into detecting vulnerabilities of devices and networks expanding in the smart home and Internet of Things (IoT), the researchers disassembled and reverse engineered many common devices and quickly uncovered serious security issues.
Farmers are the latest beneficiaries in a world of data analytics. Over the past few years, precision agriculture has been helping farmers make smarter decisions and producing a bigger yield. But most of the studies to date have been in row crops harvested by large machines, made possible by data collected by drones and other means.
When you were a kid, you might have used a magnifying glass to focus the sun's light onto a spot on the sidewalk. The lens of the magnifying glass allowed you to concentrate the sun's energy by converging the light rays on a point.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A new lightweight, low-cost agricultural robot could transform data collection and field scouting for agronomists, seed companies and farmers.
The TerraSentia crop phenotyping robot, developed by a team of scientists at the University of Illinois, will be featured at the 2018 Energy Innovation Summit Technology Showcase in National Harbor, Maryland, on March 14.
The stress of open-heart surgery significantly reduces patients' vitamin D levels, but aggressive supplementation with vitamin D3, just before and after surgery, can completely eliminate the observed drop in vitamin D, researchers have found.
People generally like to feel happy, but achieving a state of happiness takes time and effort. Researchers have now found that people who pursue happiness often feel like they do not have enough time in the day, and this paradoxically makes them feel unhappy. Aekyoung Kim of Rutgers University in the US and Sam Maglio of the University of Toronto Scarborough in Canada have investigated this effect in a study in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, which is published by Springer and is an official journal of the Psychonomic Society.
People with schizophrenia may now benefit from more effective, tailored treatments and greater self-empowerment, thanks to research establishing a link between childhood trauma and some of schizophrenia's most common symptoms.
Researchers from Orygen, the National Centre of Excellence for Youth Mental Health; the University of Melbourne; Port Phillip Prison and University Hospital of Gran Canaria Dr Negrin, Spain, have shown that childhood sexual, physical and emotional abuse are associated with severe hallucinations in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
Tasks often feel easier to perform as we gain experience with them, which can have unintended consequences when the task involves rating a series of items, according to findings published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
A team of researchers from the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University have developed a mechanically robust conductive coating that can maintain performance under heavy stretching and bending.
HOUSTON - (March 9, 2017) - Scientists at Rice University and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, have discovered a method to make atomically flat gallium that shows promise for nanoscale electronics.
The Rice lab of materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan and colleagues in India created two-dimensional gallenene, a thin film of conductive material that is to gallium what graphene is to carbon.