Tech

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, in which nearly three million barrels of crude oil got released in 2010 into the northern Gulf of Mexico, is the worst oil disaster in US history, contaminating the spawning habitats for many fishes. A research team led by an environmental scientist at the University of California, Riverside has now found that ultraviolet light is changing the structure of the DWH oil components into something more toxic, further threatening numerous commercially and ecologically important fishes.

Aalto University scientists have broken the world record by fourteen fold in the energy resolution of thermal photodetection.

The record was made using a partially superconducting microwave detector. The discovery may lead to ultrasensitive cameras and accessories for the emerging quantum computer.

World-wide, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is responsible for the vast majority of tuberculosis (TB) cases. However, there are several other closely related mycobacterial species that cause TB, all part of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (Mtbc). One of them, Mycobacterium africanum (Maf), causes up to 40% of TB cases in West Africa. TB diagnosis across Africa relies largely on tests optimized to detect Mtb.

When early terrestrial animals began moving about on mud and sand 360 million years ago, the powerful tails they used as fish may have been more important than scientists previously realized. That's one conclusion from a new study of African mudskipper fish and a robot modeled on the animal.

Researchers have created a robotic mimic of a stingray that's powered and guided by light-sensitive rat heart cells. The work exhibits a new method for building bio-inspired robots by means of tissue engineering. Batoid fish, which include stingrays, are distinguished by their flat bodies and long, wing-like fins that extend from their heads. These fins move in energy-efficient waves that emulate from the front of the fin to the back, allowing batoids to glide gracefully through water. Inspired by this design, Sung-Jin Park et al.

As early vertebrates emerged from the water, their tails may have played a crucial role in helping them move across land, a new study reports. The results, based on animal and robot models, as well as mathematical analysis, may shed light on the origins of terrestrial life on Earth. Life first dwelled in the watery depths of the oceans - until roughly 385 to 360 million years ago when early tetrapods made a move to land.

AMES, Iowa -- The adolescent years can be full of changes, whether physical, emotional, or familial. A new study by Iowa State University researchers suggests that when these years include prolonged periods of food insecurity coupled with harsh parenting practices, females are prone to obesity in early adulthood.

Aging, deterioration and extreme events like earthquakes and hurricanes can take a toll on roads, bridges and other structures. With damage and defects often invisible, the search is on for systems that can monitor the health of structures and alert their owners to potential problems and even impending catastrophic failure.

Several years ago, Erik Thostenson and Thomas Schumacher, both affiliated faculty members in the University of Delaware's Center for Composite Materials, began to explore the use of carbon nanotube composites as a kind of "smart skin" for structures.

Chewed bark, leaves and fruit discarded by mountain gorillas provide a simple way to test the endangered apes for viruses without disturbing them, according to scientists from the University of California, Davis, studying mountain gorillas and golden monkeys in East-Central Africa.

Boston (July 6, 2016) - Neurons in the brain that control hunger are regulated by AMPK, a protein activated during fasting, report researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Neuron on July 6, 2016.

Lasers have become indispensable to modern life since they were invented more than fifty years ago. The ability to generate and amplify light waves into a coherent, monochromatic and well-focused beam has yielded applications too numerous to count: laser scanners, laser printers, laser surgery, laser-based data storage, ultrafast data communications via laser light, and the list goes on.

An international team of researchers has demonstrated a new way to increase the robustness and energy storage capability of a particular class of "lithium-rich" cathode materials -- by using a carbon dioxide-based gas mixture to create oxygen vacancies at the material's surface. Researchers said the treatment improved the energy density -- the amount of energy stored per unit mass -- of the cathode material by up to 30 to 40 percent.

BROOKLYN, New York - Individuals and corporations spend millions of dollars every year on software that sniffs out potentially dangerous bugs in computer programs. And whether the software finds 10 bugs or 100, there is no way determine how many go unnoticed, nor to measure the efficacy of bug-finding tools.

Boston, MA - Consuming higher amounts of unsaturated fats was associated with lower mortality, according to a study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In a large study population followed for more than three decades, researchers found that higher consumption of saturated and trans fats was linked with higher mortality compared with the same number of calories from carbohydrates. Most importantly, replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats conferred substantial health benefits.

Mimicking nature is not easy, but new insights by researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could help create a viable artificial system of photosynthesis.