Tech

As Iowa farmers have planted more acres of corn to meet the demand driven by the corn-based ethanol industry, many models predicted that nitrate concentrations in Iowa streams would increase accordingly. However, recent IIHR research based on water monitoring and published in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation casts doubt on these predictions.

Black carbon aerosols--particles of carbon that rise into the atmosphere when biomass, agricultural waste, and fossil fuels are burned in an incomplete way--are important for understanding climate change, as they absorb sunlight, leading to higher atmospheric temperatures, and can also coat Arctic snow with a darker layer, reducing its reflectivity and leading to increased melting.

Heat treatment has proved to be an effective method of improving some of the useful properties of wood. Recent developments of the technology have allowed to achieve, among other things, increased hydrophobic properties, better elasticity, and improved dimensional stability.

RUSTON, La. - Dr. Ben Choi, associate professor of computer science at Louisiana Tech University, will present his research on a groundbreaking new technology that has the potential to revolutionize the computing industry during a keynote speech next month at the International Conference on Measurement Instrumentation and Electronics.

Long-term exposure to air pollution has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, but the biological process has not been understood. A major, decade-long study of thousands of Americans found that people living in areas with more outdoor pollution -- even at lower levels common in the United States -- accumulate deposits in the arteries that supply the heart faster than do people living in less polluted areas.

The study is published May 24 online in The Lancet.

A relatively unknown molecule that regulates metabolism could be the key to boosting an individual's immunity to the flu - and potentially other viruses - according to research reported today in the journal Immunity.

The study, led by University of Vermont (UVM) College of Medicine doctoral student Devin Champagne and Mercedes Rincon, Ph.D., a professor of medicine and an immunobiologist, discovered that a protein called methylation controlled J - or MCJ - can be altered to boost the immune system's response to the flu.

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 24, 2016 -- The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, with facilities in Florida and New Mexico, offers scientists access to enormous machines that create record-setting magnetic fields. The strong magnetic fields help researchers probe the fundamental structure of materials to better understand and manipulate their properties. Yet large-scale facilities like the MagLab are scarce, and scientists must compete with others for valuable time on the machines.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A family of compounds known as perovskites, which can be made into thin films with many promising electronic and optical properties, has been a hot research topic in recent years. But although these materials could potentially be highly useful in applications such as solar cells, some limitations still hamper their efficiency and consistency.

Noninvasive cell-tracking methods are indispensable for assessing the safety and efficacy of stem-cell based therapy. Thus, the research of noninvasive cell-tracking methods for determining in vivo the translocation and long-term viability of the transplanted stem cells have received considerable attention. A recent review article summarized the recent progress in tracking the viability of the transplanted stem cells in vivo.

ECDC has updated its rapid risk assessment on the Zika epidemic that continues to evolve in the Americas and the Caribbean.

The risk assessment synthesises the main scientific developments from the past month, considers the main risks for the EU and its citizens and sets out a range of options for EU/EEA Member States' consideration.

In our computer chips, information is transported in form of electrical charge. Electrons or other charge carriers have to be moved from one place to another. For years scientists have been working on elements that take advantage of the electrons angular momentum (their spin) rather than their electrical charge. This new approach, called "spintronics" has major advantages compared to common electronics. It can operate with much less energy.

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed the first flexible wearable device capable of monitoring both biochemical and electric signals in the human body. The Chem-Phys patch records electrocardiogram (EKG) heart signals and tracks levels of lactate, a biochemical that is a marker of physical effort, in real time. The device can be worn on the chest and communicates wirelessly with a smartphone, smart watch or laptop. It could have a wide range of applications, from athletes monitoring their workouts to physicians monitoring patients with heart disease.

LAUREL, Md. -- New U.S. Geological Survey-led research suggests that even though amphibians are severely declining worldwide, there is no smoking gun - and thus no simple solution - to halting or reversing these declines.

Light waves could in principle be used to drive future transistors. Since the electromagnetic waves of light oscillate approximately one million times in a billionth of a second, i.e. at petahertz (PHz) frequencies, optoelectronic computers could attain switching rates 100,000 times higher than current digital electronic systems. However, to achieve this goal, we will need a better understanding of the sub-atomic electron motion induced by the ultrafast electric field of light.

Humans use fire for heating, cooking, managing lands and, more recently, fueling industrial processes. Now, research from the University of Colorado has found that these various means of using fire are inversely related to one another, providing new insight into how people are changing the face of fire.

The results were published today in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B and presented at a meeting of the Royal Society in London as part of a discussion on fire and mankind.