Tech

Scientists at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have made an object disappear by using a composite material with nano-size particles that can enhance specific properties on the object's surface.

Researchers from QMUL's School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, worked with UK industry to demonstrate for the first time a practical cloaking device that allows curved surfaces to appear flat to electromagnetic waves.

With over two-thirds of U.S. adults owning a smartphone, and the rise in miniaturized sensors and low-power body area networks that are used for remote health monitoring, mobile health (mHealth) is beginning to experience a boom.

As seen in diverse applications, such as the refinement of petrol, their use in batteries and fuel cells for electric cars and to aid in the cleanup of hazardous agricultural waste, a variety of catalysts are in constant development to fulfill economic and environmental demands. To maximize the catalytic reaction, a great deal of research effort is made to reveal its mechanism. As a key to understanding catalysis, hot electrons are of great interest in the field.

UPV/EHU (University of the Basque Country) researchers have managed to identify the materials used to build the Punta Begoña Galleries (Getxo, Bizkaia), one of the most significant, early 20th-century buildings in the province of Bizkaia and the Basque Country and which are now in a state of deterioration. In addition to characterising the materials, the deterioration problems the galleries have been suffering have also been analysed.

Ants, it turns out, are extremely good at estimating the concentration of other ants in their vicinity. This ability appears to play a role in several communal activities, particularly in the voting procedure whereby an ant colony selects a new nest.

Biologists have long suspected that ants base their population-density estimates on the frequency with which they -- literally -- bump into other ants while randomly exploring their environments.

Playing action-based video games may boost players' ability to coordinate incoming visual information with their motor control, a skill critical to many real-world behaviors including driving, new research shows. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

BROOKLYN, New York -- Additive manufacturing (AM), commonly called 3D printing, is a $4 billion business set to quadruple by 2020. One day, manufacturers may print everything from cars to medicines, disrupting centuries-old production practices. The Federal Aviation Administration recently certified the first 3D-printed part for GE commercial jet engines, and companies like Ford Motor Company are using AM to build products and prototypes.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 14, 2016)- Nearly 80 percent of drivers expressed significant anger, aggression or road rage behind the wheel at least once in the past year, according to a new study released today by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The most alarming findings suggest that approximately eight million U.S. drivers engaged in extreme examples of road rage, including purposefully ramming another vehicle or getting out of the car to confront another driver.

There has been a long debate about why dinosaurs were so successful. Say dinosaur, and most people think of the great flesh-eaters such as Tyrannosaurus rex, but the most successful dinosaurs were of course the plant-eaters.

A new study from the University of Bristol, led by Masters of Palaeobiology student Eddy Strickson, has presented clear evidence about how plant-eating dinosaurs evolved.

UBC biologists are digging under vineyards to see if the Okanagan's grape industry is affecting soil quality.

Miranda Hart, an associate professor of biology at UBC's Okanagan campus, her PhD candidate Taylor Holland, along with Agriculture Canada research scientist Pat Bowen, has spent the better part of three years studying soil samples from more than 15 vineyards throughout the Okanagan.

Trying to think green when buying a car? Whether your new fuel-efficient engine helps or hurts the warming planet depends on where you live and what you're putting in the tank.

New cars aim to deliver high performance with maximum fuel efficiency, making them easier on both the environment and the wallet. To do this, auto manufacturers are adopting a smaller, more fuel-efficient engine type, called gasoline direct-injection (GDI) -- between model years 2009 to 2015, the percentage of new vehicles sold with GDI engines jumped from five to 46 per cent.

Auto industry experts predict that more than 50 percent of cars on the road by 2020 will use a relatively new type of fuel-efficient engine. This transition, however, has raised questions about its ultimate effect on the climate. A study published in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology has found that because the newer engines emit higher levels of the climate-warming pollutant black carbon than traditional engines, their impact on the climate is uncertain.

With over two-thirds of U.S. adults owning a smartphone, and the rise in miniaturized sensors and low-power body area networks that are used for remote health monitoring, mobile health (mHealth) is beginning to experience a boom.

Reciprocal food-sharing is more prevalent in stable hunter-gatherer camps, shows new UCL research that sheds light on the evolutionary roots of human cooperation.

The research explores patterns of food-sharing among the Agta, a population of Filipino hunter-gatherers. It finds that reciprocal food-sharing is more prevalent in stable camps (with fewer changes in membership over time); while in less stable camps individuals acquire resources by taking from others - known as 'demand sharing'.

WASHINGTON, July 12, 2016 -- If you have ever seen objects "glow" under a black light, you're familiar with fluorescence. But have you ever wondered why some materials fluoresce while others don't? Reactions explains how fluorescence works, along with its importance for applications in forensics, medicine and nanotech. This week, we're also throwing in a bonus video on how to grow a fluorescent flower for that special someone. It's all here in these videos: