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A smart 'insect screen' for sun protection and cool comfort

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:26am
A research team unveils a next-generation transparent cooling film using the principles of radiative cooling.
Categories: Science

Use of 'genetic scissors' carries risks

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:26am
The CRISPR tool is capable of repairing the genetic defect responsible for the immune disease chronic granulomatous disease. However, researchers have now shown that there is a risk of inadvertently introducing other defects.
Categories: Science

Investigating performance limitations in cost-effective materials for perovskite solar cells

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:26am
Researchers investigated the internal properties of low-cost materials used in perovskite solar cells, which are attracting attention for their high efficiency, using electron spin resonance (ESR) to analyze these materials at a microscopic level. The results clarify the underlying causes for reduced device performance, despite high local charge mobility, offering critical insights for designing improved solar cells.
Categories: Science

Earthquake prediction techniques lend quick insight into strength, reliability of materials

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:25am
Materials scientists can now use insight from a very common mineral and well-established earthquake and avalanche statistics to quantify how hostile environmental interactions may impact the degradation and failure of materials used for advanced solar panels, geological carbon sequestration and infrastructure such as buildings, roads and bridges.
Categories: Science

Scientists unveil strategies to make self-driven vehicles passenger-friendly

Computers and Math from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:24am
Automated vehicles promise to improve urban mobility, but passenger trust remains a challenge. Providing timely, passenger-specific explanations for automated vehicle decisions can bridge this trust gap. To address this, researchers introduced TimelyTale, a dataset designed to capture real-world driving scenarios and passenger explanation needs. It would be nice to see this multimodal dataset approach for in-vehicle explanation generation improving passengers' trust and confidence in automated vehicles.
Categories: Science

Interstellar methane as progenitor of amino acids?

Space and time from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:24am
Gamma radiation can convert methane into a wide variety of products at room temperature, including hydrocarbons, oxygen-containing molecules, and amino acids, reports a research team. This type of reaction probably plays an important role in the formation of complex organic molecules in the universe -- and possibly in the origin of life. They also open up new strategies for the industrial conversion of methane into high value-added products under mild conditions.
Categories: Science

Detecting evidence of lung cancer in exhaled breath

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:24am
Exhaled breath contains chemical clues to what's going on inside the body, including diseases like lung cancer. And devising ways to sense these compounds could help doctors provide early diagnoses -- and improve patients' prospects. Researchers report developing ultrasensitive, nanoscale sensors that in small-scale tests distinguished a key change in the chemistry of the breath of people with lung cancer.
Categories: Science

Quantum vortices confirm superfluidity in supersolid

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:22am
Supersolids are a new form of quantum matter that has only recently been demonstrated. The state of matter can be produced artificially in ultracold, dipolar quantum gases. A team has now demonstrated a missing hallmark of superfluidity, namely the existence of quantized vortices as system's response to rotation. They have observed tiny quantum vortices in the supersolid, which also behave differently than previously assumed.
Categories: Science

Imaging nuclear shapes by smashing them to smithereens

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:22am
Scientists have demonstrated a new way to use high-energy particle smashups at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) to reveal subtle details about the shapes of atomic nuclei. The method is complementary to lower energy techniques for determining nuclear structure. It will add depth to scientists' understanding of the nuclei that make up the bulk of visible matter.
Categories: Science

AI-driven mobile robots team up to tackle chemical synthesis

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:22am
Researchers have developed AI-driven mobile robots that can carry out chemical synthesis research with extraordinary efficiency. Researchers show how mobile robots that use AI logic to make decisions were able to perform exploratory chemistry research tasks to the same level as humans, but much faster.
Categories: Science

AI-driven mobile robots team up to tackle chemical synthesis

Computers and Math from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:22am
Researchers have developed AI-driven mobile robots that can carry out chemical synthesis research with extraordinary efficiency. Researchers show how mobile robots that use AI logic to make decisions were able to perform exploratory chemistry research tasks to the same level as humans, but much faster.
Categories: Science

New haptic patch transmits complexity of touch to the skin

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:22am
Thin, flexible device could help people with visual impairments 'feel' surroundings. Device comprises a hexagonal array of 19 actuators encapsulated in soft silicone. Device only uses energy when actuators change position, operating for longer periods of time on a single battery charge.
Categories: Science

New haptic patch transmits complexity of touch to the skin

Computers and Math from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:22am
Thin, flexible device could help people with visual impairments 'feel' surroundings. Device comprises a hexagonal array of 19 actuators encapsulated in soft silicone. Device only uses energy when actuators change position, operating for longer periods of time on a single battery charge.
Categories: Science

Breakthrough in energy-efficient avalanche-based amorphization could revolutionize data storage

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:21am
Researchers have developed a new method for disrupting the crystal structure of a semiconductor that requires as little as one billion times less power density. This advancement could unlock wider applications for phase-change memory (PCM) -- a promising memory technology that could transform data storage in devices from cell phones to computers.
Categories: Science

Breakthrough in energy-efficient avalanche-based amorphization could revolutionize data storage

Computers and Math from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:21am
Researchers have developed a new method for disrupting the crystal structure of a semiconductor that requires as little as one billion times less power density. This advancement could unlock wider applications for phase-change memory (PCM) -- a promising memory technology that could transform data storage in devices from cell phones to computers.
Categories: Science

Asteroid grains shed light on the outer solar system's origins

Space and time from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:21am
Tiny grains from asteroid Ryugu are revealing clues to the magnetic forces that shaped the far reaches of the solar system over 4.6 billion years ago. The findings suggest the distal solar system harbored a weak magnetic field, which could have played a role in forming the giant planets and other objects.
Categories: Science

Mighty radio bursts linked to massive galaxies

Space and time from Science Daily Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:21am
Researchers have uncovered where FRBs are more likely to occur in the universe -- massive star-forming galaxies rather than low - mass ones.
Categories: Science

Ze Frank: True facts about parasitoid wasps

Why Evolution is True Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:15am

Matthew sent in this latest “True Facts” video from Ze Frank; it’s about some of the most amazing and nefarious insects around: parasitoid wasps. (There’s an ad in the middle.)

There are a lot of questions and “I don’t know” answers here. The gall wasps are especially fascinating from an evolutionary viewpoint, as they somehow modify a plant’s gene expression to make the plant grow a gall that can house the wasp.

We don’t know how they do this, but even the gall wasps inside their houses can themselves be parasitized by other species of gall wasps (Again, we don’t know how these “hyperparasitoids” detect and find a larval host inside a gall). Finally, we don’t understand how natural selection has modified a parasitoid wasp so that it injects stuff into its host that modifies the host’s behavior, making iot a “zombie host.”

The photography is amazing; it seems to get better with every one of ZeFrank’s videos.

Do watch this; you’ll learn some natural history and, I hope, be amazed at the achievements of natural selection.

Categories: Science

How can I help a friend who is relentlessly negative about life?

New Scientist Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:00am
From just listening to reframing the situation, there are a few ways you can help someone with a negative outlook, says advice columnist David Robson
Categories: Science

In satire Rumours, diplomatic communiques collide with the end times

New Scientist Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:00am
A stellar cast play leaders of G7 countries facing an existential crisis in Rumours, a smart film about communication, diplomatic nonsense and not coping, says Simon Ings
Categories: Science

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