Tech

An international team of scientists - recently returned from a 47-day research expedition to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean - have collected an unprecedented sequence of rock samples from the shallow mantle of the ocean crust that bear signs of life, unique carbon cycling, and ocean crust movement. Led by Co-Chief Scientists Dr. Gretchen Früh-Green (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) and Dr.

Have you ever rubbed a balloon in your hair to make it stick to the wall? This electrostatic stickiness called electroadhesion may change robotics forever.

EPFL scientists have invented a new soft gripper that uses electroadhesion: flexible electrode flaps that act like a thumb-index duo. It can pick up fragile objects of arbitrary shape and stiffness, like an egg, a water balloon or paper.

A team of Korean researchers, affiliated with UNIST has recently pioneered in developing a new simple nanowire manufacturing technique that uses self-catalytic growth process assisted by thermal decomposition of natural gas. According to the research team, this method is simple, reproducible, size-controllable, and cost-effective in that lithium-ion batteries could also benefit from it.

HANOVER, N.H. - Forest soils across New England will store fewer nutrients and metals - some beneficial, some harmful -- as climate change prompts maples and other deciduous trees to replace the region's iconic evergreen conifers, a Dartmouth College study finds.

The study appears in the journal Plant and Soil. A PDF is available on request.

Menlo Park, Calif. -- Scientists have been trying for years to make a practical lithium-ion battery anode out of silicon, which could store 10 times more energy per charge than today's commercial anodes and make high-performance batteries a lot smaller and lighter. But two major problems have stood in the way: Silicon particles swell, crack and shatter during battery charging, and they react with the battery electrolyte to form a coating that saps their performance.

Along with the fast development of modern information technology, charge-based memories, such as DRAM and flash memory, are being aggressively scaled down to meet the current trend of small size devices. A memory device with high density, faster speed, and low power consumption is desired to satisfy Moore's law in the next few decades. Among the candidates of next-generation memory devices, cross-bar-shaped non-volatile resistive memory (memristor) is one of the most attractive solutions for its non-volatility, faster access speed, ultra-high density and easier fabrication process.

Imagine communicating with your bank, the IRS or your doctor by way of an Internet that was perfectly secure. Your most private data would be protected with absolute certainty and, better yet, if any bad actor were to try to eavesdrop you would know immediately. Such is the promise of secure quantum communication.

WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 26, 2016 -- Daughters of interracial parents are more likely than sons to identify as multiracial, and this is especially true for children of black-white couples, according to a new study in the February issue of the American Sociological Review.

Eating fruit and vegetables that contain high levels of flavonoids, such as apples, pears, and berries, may be associated with less weight gain, suggests findings from a study published in The BMJ today.

Dietary flavonoids are natural compounds found in fruits and vegetables. These have been linked to weight loss, but most studies have looked at a particular flavonoid found in green tea, and have mostly been limited to small samples.

An international research team has simplified the steps to create highly efficient silicon solar cells by applying a new mix of materials to a standard design. Arrays of solar cells are used in solar panels to convert sunlight to electricity.

The special blend of materials--which could also prove useful in semiconductor components--eliminates the need for a process known as doping that steers the device's properties by introducing foreign atoms to its electrical contacts. This doping process adds complexity to the device and can degrade its performance.

Computer simulations help researchers see what works and what doesn't work in the Mediterranean and helps explore future impact of humans

Tempe, Ariz., - Humans have been working the land to sustain our lives for millennia, cultivating plants or herding animals. This has created socio-ecological systems and landscapes that are a product of both human actions and natural forces.

Avatars are all around us: they represent real people online and colonise new worlds in the movies. In science, their role has been more limited. But avatars can be extremely useful in linguistics, new research shows. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics use virtual avatars to investigate how real people behave in interaction. The method makes it possible to study with great precision how people adjust to each other in conversation.

A team of researchers at Stanford University and the University of California-Berkeley has combined two technologies to create a health monitoring device that is noninvasive, doesn't interfere with strenuous outdoor activities and can continuously track a user's health at molecular levels.

The two-part system of flexible sensors and microprocessors sticks to the skin and then detects and analyzes a profile of chemicals in sweat.

Berkeley -- When engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, say they are going to make you sweat, it is all in the name of science.

Specifically, it is for a flexible sensor system that can measure metabolites and electrolytes in sweat, calibrate the data based upon skin temperature and sync the results in real time to a smartphone.

Alexandria, VA - The challenge of feeding our planet's growing population is one of critical importance - it will perhaps be the most important challenge of the 21st century. As the human population continues to rise, geoscience is informing experts, suggesting major shifts in agriculture must be taken to prevent rampant food insecurity by the year 2050.