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Researchers developed a biosensing technique that eliminates the need for wires. Instead, tiny, wireless antennas use light to detect minute electrical signals in the solution around them.

A research team has revealed that to use the aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) system safely over the long term it is crucial to investigate the groundwater quality before operating the system and to continuously monitor the water quality.

Advances in solid-state battery research are paving the way for safer, longer-lasting energy storage solutions. A recent review highlights breakthroughs in inorganic solid electrolytes and their role in improving battery performance. The study also addresses key challenges, such as interfacial compatibility, while proposing innovative strategies for next-generation battery technologies.

Researchers have developed a new technology that improves the precision and integration density of synthetic genetic circuits.

One of the biggest mysteries in science -- dark energy -- doesn't actually exist, according to researchers looking to solve the riddle of how the Universe is expanding. For the past 100 years, physicists have generally assumed that the cosmos is growing equally in all directions. They employed the concept of dark energy as a placeholder to explain unknown physics they couldn't understand, but the contentious theory has always had its problems. Now a team of physicists and astronomers are challenging the status quo, using improved analysis of supernovae light curves to show that the Universe is expanding in a more varied, 'lumpier' way.

Researchers trained a large language model to read medical charts, looking for signs that kids with ADHD received the right follow-up care when using new medications.

Using field sensors, various ecological modelling technologies and deep learning algorithms, a French research team has developed a method for mapping the risk of collisions between animals and vehicles along transport infrastructures. In the future, it could contribute to collision management in autonomous vehicles thanks to connected infrastructures.

Using field sensors, various ecological modelling technologies and deep learning algorithms, a French research team has developed a method for mapping the risk of collisions between animals and vehicles along transport infrastructures. In the future, it could contribute to collision management in autonomous vehicles thanks to connected infrastructures.

Scientists have delivered the first measurements of Greenland Ice Sheet thickness change using data from ESA and NASA ice satellite missions. With global warming causing the Greenland Ice Sheet to melt and flow more rapidly, raising sea levels and disturbing weather patterns across our planet, precise measurements of its changing shape are of critical importance for tracking and adapting to the effects of climate warming.

Researchers trained a large language model to read medical charts, looking for signs that kids with ADHD received the right follow-up care when using new medications.

Artificial intelligence can provide critical insights into how complex mixtures of chemicals in rivers affect aquatic life -- paving the way for better environmental protection.

Artificial intelligence can provide critical insights into how complex mixtures of chemicals in rivers affect aquatic life -- paving the way for better environmental protection.

Quantum teleportation could provide near-instant communication over long distances. But, inside Internet cables, photons needed for teleportation are lost within the millions of light particles required for classical communications. A new study quantified light scattering to find exact areas to place photons to keep them safe from other particles. The approach successfully worked in experiments carrying regular Internet traffic.

Quantum teleportation could provide near-instant communication over long distances. But, inside Internet cables, photons needed for teleportation are lost within the millions of light particles required for classical communications. A new study quantified light scattering to find exact areas to place photons to keep them safe from other particles. The approach successfully worked in experiments carrying regular Internet traffic.

There is more research than ever focused on reflecting sunlight away from the planet to cool the climate – but there are still far more questions than answers about the effects

A US ban on the video-sharing app TikTok is set to take effect in early 2025 – but the country's Supreme Court and President-elect Donald Trump could still change that

An experiment showing that quantum and classical communication can be carried out through the same fibre at the same time may open the door to building a quantum internet with existing infrastructure

It’s another slow day as the year creeps snailwise to its end, and I’m feeling dolorous and had another bad bout of insomnia last night. The good news is that there’s nothing intellectual afoot that I feel compelled to write about.  The other good news is that you get to take a QUIZ, one pointed out in the NYT but located another site that’s free.  Here’s what the NYT says (archived here):

Now, from IDR Labs, comes the social media-friendly Food Social Class Test, a casual online survey based on a data-driven academic report published in 2020 by Silvia Bellezza and Jonah Berger at the University of Pennsylvania. That work was broadly derived from research into the connections between social class and the things we choose to put in our mouths — a link explored in the early 1980s by the French academic and intellectual Pierre Bourdieu.

Mr. Bourdieu’s work sharply skewered myths of social mobility in a postindustrial society. He found, unsurprisingly, that in many ways those at the top of the capitalist food chain go to considerable lengths to safeguard and maintain social privilege and generational wealth.

Which brings us to the twice-baked potato topped with melted Cheddar and bacon bits: Reader, I took the test.

In it, each of the 35 menu options is offered as a silhouetted photo with a bar beneath it for rating a selection. Users are encouraged to rate such things as a Cheddar-topped baked potato by indicating the degree to which they “agree” or “disagree” with it. Though there are plenty of things with which this reporter quibbles on a daily basis, seldom has a baked potato provoked him to argument.

. . .Simply select menu items with caloric values in the low triple digits and you are quickly aligned with high-class culinary ways. If it is true that you can never be too rich or too thin, as the Duchess of Windsor is believed to have remarked, it goes without saying that you cannot achieve the latter benchmark by scarfing down Sloppy Joes. We live, after all, in an Ozempic era.

So never mind the fried fish sticks, the potato chips, the defrosted pizza, the chicken nuggets, or the hot dog with all the trimmings. Forget the Mac ’n Cheese or even the Truffle Mac ’n Cheese, presumably featured on the survey as a snob trap. Adding two small discs of fragrant fungus to a dish that is otherwise a gloppy, glutinous cholesterol nightmare does not significantly elevate it on the class scale.

That seems rather snobbish to me; I just like food that tastes good, and that’s how I rated them.

Here’s the site and the first example. Click on the “Food Test” icon below to take the quiz (and you know you will!):

One example: here’s the first of 35 items I chose. You have five choices for each item: really bad, bad, so-so (leave it in the middle), tasty, and REALLY tasty. Just move the cursor to one of the four spaces or leave it in the middle:

And here’s my result: I have “upper middle class” food choices. I don’t know what to think about that (I added the arrow).

In truth, I liked nearly everything, but somethings more than others (I wasn’t keen on the truffle mac ‘n’ cheese, which is like putting a pig in a fur coat, or on the tuna tartare tacos, a bad concept). Take it yourself and let us know how you did in the comments below. I wonder if anybody will come out “lower class”.  I urge readers to take the test because I want to know how people do!

Neutrinos are tricky little blighters that are hard to observe. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica was built to detect neutrinos from space. It is one of the most sensitive instruments built with the hope it might help uncover evidence for dark matter. Any dark matter trapped inside Earth, would release neutrinos that IceCube could detect. To date, and with 10 years of searching, it seems no excess neutrinos coming from Earth have been found!

Neutrinos are subatomic particles which are light and carry no electrical charge. Certain events, such as supernovae and solar events generate vast quantities of neutrinos. By now, the universe will be teeming with neutrinos with trillions of them passing through every person every second. The challenge though is that neutrinos rarely interact with matter so observing and detecting them is difficult. Like other sub-atomic particles, there are different types of neutrino; electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos and tau neutrinos, with each associated with a corresponding lepton (an elementary particle with half integer spin.) Studying neutrinos of all types is key to helping understand fundamental physical processes across the cosmos. 

Chinese researchers are working on a new neutrino observatory called TRIDENT. They built an underwater simulator to develop their plan. Image Credit: TRIDENT

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory began capturing data in 2005 but it wasn’t until 2011 that it began full operations. It consists of over 5,000 football-sized detectors arranged within a cubic kilometre of ice deep underground. Arranged in this fashion, the detectors are designed to capture the faint flashes of Cherenkov radiation released when neutrinos interact with the ice. The location near the South Pole was chosen because the ice acts as a natural barrier against background radiation from Earth. 

A view of the IceCube Lab with a starry night sky showing the Milky Way and green auroras. Photo By: Yuya Makino, IceCube/NSF

Using data from the IceCube Observatory, a team of researchers led by R. Abbasi from the Loyola University Chicago have been probing the nature of dark matter. This strange and invisible component of the universe is thought to make up 27% of the mass-energy content of the universe. Unfortunately, dark matter doesn’t emit, absorb or reflect light making it undetectable by conventional means. One train of thought is that dark matter is made up of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs.) They can be captured by objects like the Sun leading to their annihilation and transition into neutrinos. It’s these, that the team have been hunting for. 

The paper published by the team articulates their search for muon neutrinos from the centre of the Earth within the 10 years of data captured by IceCube. The team searched chiefly for WIMPs within the mass range of 10GeV to 10TeV but due to the complexity and position of the source (the centre of the Earth,) the team relied upon running Monte Carlo simulations. The name is taken from casino’s in Monaco and involves running many random simulations. This technique is used where exact calculations are unable to compute the answer and so the simulations are based on the concept that randomness can be used to solve problems.

After running many simulations of this sort, the team found no excess neutrino flux over the background levels from Earth. They conclude however that whilst no evidence has been found yet, that an upgrade to the IceCube Observatory may yield more promising results as they can probe lower neutrino mass events and hopefully one day, solve the mystery of the nature of dark matter. 

Source : Search for dark matter from the centre of the Earth with ten years of IceCube data

The post IceCube Just Spent 10 Years Searching for Dark Matter appeared first on Universe Today.

A new type of norovirus is causing a very high number of cases in countries like England, just as a large trial of an mRNA vaccine is starting up