Using a new approach to measure chemical contaminants in polar bears, scientists from Canada and the United States found a large variety of new chlorinated and fluorinated substances, including many new polychlorinated biphenyl metabolites. Worryingly, these previously unrecogniz … | Continue reading
"I learn", "you learn", "she learns", "they learn", yet, according to a surprising new linguistic study, in countries where the dominant language allows personal pronouns such as 'I' to be omitted, learning suffers. | Continue reading
By developing a new method for measuring isotopic ratios of water and carbon dioxide remotely, scientists have found that the water in Saturn's rings and satellites is unexpectedly like water on the Earth, except on Saturn's moon Phoebe, where the water is more unusual than on an … | Continue reading
Jellyfish undergo an amazing metamorphosis, from tiny polyps growing on the seafloor to swimming medusae with stinging tentacles. This shape-shifting has served them well, shepherding jellyfish through more than 500 million years of mass extinctions on Earth. | Continue reading
Lonesome George's species may have died with him in 2012, but he and other giant tortoises of the Galapagos are still providing genetic clues to individual longevity through a new study by researchers at Yale University, the University of Oviedo in Spain, the Galapagos Conservanc … | Continue reading
Using electrical impulses, the 'tweezers' can extract single DNA, proteins and organelles from living cells without destroying them. | Continue reading
New research by the University of Liverpool has found that prescribed burning, a controversial technique where fires are intentionally used to manage vegetation, is not as damaging to peat growth as previously thought if carried out on a sensible rotation, and can produce several … | Continue reading
An international team of scientists have detected ripples in space and time, known as gravitational waves, from the biggest known black-hole collision that formed a new black hole about 80 times larger than the Sun – and from another three black-hole mergers. | Continue reading
The quest to create affordable, durable and mass-produced 'smart textiles' has been given fresh impetus through the use of the wonder material Graphene. | Continue reading
NASA's first-ever mission designed to visit an asteroid and return a sample of its dust back to Earth arrives Monday at its destination, Bennu, two years after launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida. | Continue reading
Cancerous tumors, infections or bad fractures can make it necessary to surgically remove bones and insert implants in their place. In collaboration with European partners, Fraunhofer researchers have now developed a technique with which bone implants that are precisely fitting, s … | Continue reading
Plasmonic materials can uniquely control the electromagnetic spectrum due to nano-scale surface architecture. Recent advances in nanotechnology and materials science and their combined capacity to develop controlled geometries at the nano-scale continue to evolve, as observed wit … | Continue reading
Paternal care – where fathers care for their children – is rare among mammals (that is, animals which give birth to live young). Scientists have identified more than 6,000 mammal species, but paternal care only occurs in 5 to 10% of them. | Continue reading
This week, at the 2018 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), imec, the world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, presents a 300mm-wafer platform for MOSFET devices with 2-D materials. 2-D materials could provide the path … | Continue reading
To ensure the digital networking of production systems and the optimization of material-specific requirements, we need to measure, analyze and replicate the changes in material properties in a process in which "digital twins" of materials are created. The materials data space dev … | Continue reading
In the FOWINA project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen and the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Würzburg have developed novel color sensors with a special microlens arrangement. The sensors can be realized directly on the chip and … | Continue reading
Using HATSouth Exoplanet Survey, an international group of astronomers has discovered a low-mass brown dwarf transiting an A-type main-sequence star. The newly detected brown dwarf, designated HATS-70b, is the first such object found around a star of this type. The finding is det … | Continue reading
It's crunch time for college applications, and hopeful high school seniors are working hard to impress admissions committees to land a spot at the school of their choice. | Continue reading
A RUDN chemist has developed a new method for synthesizing "yolk-shell" nanoparticles on the basis of titanium dioxide and graphene. The complex structure of the new particles allowed the scientists to carry out a selective oxidation for aldehyde production for many hours without … | Continue reading
We've sent numerous missions into space to study the Sun; past and present solar explorers include ESA's Proba-2 (PRoject for OnBoard Autonomy 2) and SOHO (SOlar Heliospheric Observatory) probes, NASA's SDO and STEREO missions (the Solar Dynamics Observatory and Solar Terrestrial … | Continue reading
In the next decade, NASA aims to launch humankind toward the moon and on to Mars—a monumental step in crewed space travel. Such a journey is filled with challenges and perils, not unlike those faced by the first explorers to cross the ocean. However, instead of stormy seas, these … | Continue reading
While progress has been made, improvements to companies' anti-bribery and corruption strategies are still needed, according to the 2018 Global White Collar Crime Survey, which has been launched by The University of Manchester and global law firm White & Case LLP. | Continue reading
On Sunday, Nov. 25, the scientist He Jiankui claimed the birth of the world's first genetically engineered children: twins, created by IVF, their DNA altered at fertilization. Changes like these, because they're inheritable – "editing the germline" – are widely prohibited by law … | Continue reading
Researchers have shown for the first time that investing in cycle lanes and walkways encourages people to drive less and cuts carbon emissions. | Continue reading
Most stars with the mass of the sun or larger have one or more companion stars, but when and how these multiple stars form is one of the controversial central problems of astronomy. Gravity contracts the natal gas and dust in an interstellar cloud until clumps develop that are de … | Continue reading
It seems new action to tackle plastic pollution is announced every week, from the 5p plastic bag charge to governments debating a tax on plastic packaging. Businesses are also showing their green credentials as major supermarkets pledge to reduce plastic packaging alongside some … | Continue reading
When people think of coral reefs, they typically picture warm, clear waters with brightly colored corals and fishes. But other corals live in deep, dark, cold waters, often far from shore in remote locations. These varieties are just as ecologically important as their shallow wat … | Continue reading
Researchers at the University of Adelaide have found yeasts that naturally occur on wine grapes may improve wines produced in warmer climates. Up until now the use of these 'natural' or 'wild' yeasts during the production process has mostly been discouraged by wine makers. | Continue reading
A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa Department of Botany has discovered two populations of a new species of leather mudweed or Avrainvillea erecta, a widespread tropical algae, which may pose a threat to Hawai'i's marine environments. | Continue reading
A team of researchers with the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics and the Brandenburgisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archaeologisches Landesmuseum, both in Germany, has found evidence that suggests Mesolithic people ate much better than previously … | Continue reading
Reduce, reuse, recycle. Or just stick with recycle. | Continue reading
Massey University Ph.D. graduate Dr. Fred Angels Musika set out to develop a reliable way of measuring green consumer consciousness to better understand the decision-making processes of this growing market segment. | Continue reading
Interpretability and performance of a system are usually at odds with each other, as many of the best-performing models (viz. deep neural networks) are black box in nature. In our work, Improving Simple Models with Confidence Profiles, we try to bridge this gap by proposing a met … | Continue reading
Photovoltaic (PV) systems, which harvest sustainable and clean energy from the sun, accumulate dirt or particles like dust, water and sand. This build-up leads to a reduction in the light energy reaching the solar cells and lowers their power output by up to 50%, according to som … | Continue reading
This week, at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) and the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), IBM researchers will showcase new hardware that will take AI further than it's been before: right to the edge. Our novel approaches for digital a … | Continue reading
If someone asks you why you chose the election candidate you voted for, you will likely have a good answer. Maybe you agree with the candidate's policy stances. Maybe you support his/her party. Maybe you are tired of the corruption, bad policies, or inaction of the people in powe … | Continue reading
Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology have designed a CO2 reduction method based only on commonly occurring elements. Achieving a 57 percent overall quantum yield of CO2 reduction products, it is the highest performing system of its kind reported to date, raising prospects … | Continue reading
Almost 90 years ago on a freezing January morning, the keepers of the Stockholm Zoo in Sweden discovered a dead seal pup in their seal pond. The pup was immediately recognized as a bastard—a hybrid between species that should not interbreed. Only two grey seal males and one ringe … | Continue reading
Curiosity woke up to Mr Rogers' "Please would you be my neighbour" this morning to welcome InSight, and then got busy at the Highfield drill site. Curiosity will dump the Highfield sample, which requires several MAHLI looks and an APXS operation, but the plan also requires swingi … | Continue reading
An increasing number of older Australians are living in share housing. A relatively new group to emerge on the share-housing scene, they are choosing to share for financial reasons, but finding unexpected social benefits. | Continue reading