Tech

Imagine that you're buying a box of chocolates for a loved one on Valentine's Day, and the store is offering a free gift if you buy a slightly inferior box of chocolates instead of the best chocolates in the store. Which do you buy?

You are more likely to go for the inferior box, according to new research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, published in the Journal of Consumer Research.

In a world-first, researchers from Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) have performed cardiac MRI imaging using a 7T MRI scanner in a patient-based study. 7T MRI imaging is a powerful new technology that allows high resolution images of the beating heart, and has the capability to provide valuable information of the myocardial (heart muscle) tissue structures.

ARGONNE, Ill. (Feb. 5, 2016) - Just as a photographer needs a camera with a split-second shutter speed to capture rapid motion, scientists looking at the behavior of tiny materials need special instruments with the capacity to see changes that happen in the blink of an eye.

Radical new ways of removing CO2 from the atmosphere could prove to be a risky business -- according to an environmental scientist at the University of East Anglia.

Techniques put forward include growing crops to be burned in power stations, large-scale tree plantations, adding biochar to soil, adding nutrients to sea water to boost plankton and seaweed, and using chemicals to extract CO2 from the atmosphere -- to be buried deep underground.

Four empty lots in Chicago's South Side bear scars of the past. Their surfaces are strewn with construction debris and foundation rubble. However, the most incriminating evidence of the past lies beneath the surface, in the soil.

Alcohol itself can directly damage liver cells. Now researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report evidence that alcohol is also harmful to the liver for a second reason -- it allows gut bacteria to migrate to the liver, promoting alcohol-induced liver disease. The study, conducted in mice and in laboratory samples, is published February 10 in Cell Host & Microbe.

The growing popularity of battery-powered cars could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but they are not entirely Earth friendly. Problems can creep in when these batteries are disposed of. Scientists, in a new study in ACS' journal Chemistry of Materials, are reporting that compounds increasingly used in lithium-ion batteries are toxic to a type of soil-dwelling bacteria that plays an important environmental role.

The team of mining archaeologists was supervised by Prof. Dr Denis Morin of the University of Lorraine, connected with the UMR CNRS 5608 (UMR National Center for Scientific Research 5608) of Toulouse. The scientists employed a drone to locate above-ground installations connected to the mining. It is the first time that such complex mining infrastructure is studied.

Hiroshima, Japan -- Hiroshima University, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, and Panasonic Corporation announced the development of a terahertz (THz) transmitter capable of signal transmission at a per-channel data rate of over ten gigabits per second over multiple channels at around 300 GHz. The aggregate multi-channel data rate exceeds one hundred gigabits per second. The transmitter was implemented as a silicon CMOS integrated circuit, which would have a great advantage for commercialization and consumer use.

(Edmonton) An engineering research team at the University of Alberta has invented a new transistor that could revolutionize thin-film electronic devices.

Their findings, published in the prestigious science journal Nature Communications, could open the door to the development of flexible electronic devices with applications as wide-ranging as display technology to medical imaging and renewable energy production.

Washington, D.C., Feb. 9, 2016 - Researchers at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, CNRS, and the University of Lorraine have recently developed a design for a coiled-up acoustic metasurface which can achieve total acoustic absorption in very low-frequency ranges.

"The main advantage is the deep-subwavelength thickness of our absorber, which means that we can deal with very low-frequencies - meaning very large wavelengths - with extremely reduced size structure," said Badreddine Assouar, a principal research scientist at CNRS in Nancy, France.

Research results recently presented in the distinguished Nature Photonics journal open up new outlooks on ghost imaging in the time domain.

Around a fifth of the energy-saving benefits of fuel-efficient cars are eroded because people end up driving them more, according to a study into British motoring habits over the last 40 years.

Using data from 1970 to 2011, energy experts at the University of Sussex found a long-term 'rebound effect' among British car-drivers of around 20 per cent.

Study identifies harmful PAMP molecules in processed foods that may increase risk of diseases such as coronary artery disease and Type 2 diabetes PAMPs can be found in processed foods such as sausages, burgers, ready meals, cheeses, chocolate and ready-chopped vegetables Removal of PAMP molecules from the diet leads to weight loss and reduction in bad cholesterol Fresh food contains undetectable levels of PAMPs Researchers believe food manufacturers could use method to remove PAMPs and make food healthier without change to taste or cost

The timing of significant Great Barrier Reef coral loss captured by a series of historical photos has been accurately determined for the first time by a University of Queensland)-led study.

Professor Jian-xin Zhao from UQ's School of Earth Sciences said the photos were a powerful visual tool often used to highlight the recent decline of the Great Barrier Reef.

"These photographs taken from the late 19th Century onwards of two inshore Great Barrier Reef locations near Bowen, Queensland, reveal a dramatic loss of coral cover," Professor Zhao said.