Tech

Scientists have developed a new test to identify patients who are at risk of suffering a relapse from testicular cancer.

Assessing just three features of a common kind of testicular cancer - called non-seminomatous germ cell tumor - can identify those at most at risk of relapse even where there is no evidence of tumor spread.

The researchers believe the test could be used in the clinic to make decisions about which patients should be given chemotherapy.

In by far the majority of cancer cases, the doctor can quickly identify the source of the disease, for example cancer of the liver, lungs, etc. However, in about one in 20 cases, the doctor can confirm that the patient has cancer -- but cannot find the source. These patients then face the prospect of a long wait with numerous diagnostic tests and attempts to locate the origin of the cancer before starting any treatment.

Physicists have wondered in recent years if they could control how atoms interact using light. Now they know that they can, by demonstrating games of quantum billiards with unusual new rules.

In an article published in the Oct. 5 issue of Physical Review Letters, a team of University of Chicago physicists explains how to tune a laser to make atoms attract or repel each other in an exotic state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate.

A new experimental revelation about black phosphorus nanoribbons should facilitate the future application of this highly promising material to electronic, optoelectronic and thermoelectric devices. A team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has experimentally confirmed strong in-plane anisotropy in thermal conductivity, up to a factor of two, along the zigzag and armchair directions of single-crystal black phosphorous nanoribbons.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Seven out of 10 college students say it is somewhat or very easy to obtain controlled stimulants without a prescription, according to a new survey conducted on eight U.S. campuses.

About 18 percent of undergraduates reported misusing prescription stimulants such as Adderall, the 2015 College Prescription Drug Study (CPDS) found. The great majority (83 percent) received them from friends and most said they used the drug to help them study or improve their grades.

Using flexible organic circuits and specialized pressure sensors, researchers have created an artificial "skin" that can sense the force of static objects. Furthermore, they were able to transfer these sensory signals to the brain cells of mice in vitro using optogenetics. For the many people around the world living with prosthetics, such a system could one day allow them to feel sensation in their artificial limbs.

CHICAGO- Antioxidants are often added to fresh and processed meat and meat products to prevent lipid oxidation (decomposition), stop the development of off-flavors, and improve color stability. Recently food manufacturers have moved towards using natural antioxidants such as plant extracts, herbs, spices and essential oils, instead of synthetic ones in order to meet consumer demand for more natural products.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory this week released a pair of studies on the efficiency of shale oil production excavation. The reports show that shale oil production generates greenhouse gas emissions at levels similar to traditional crude oil production.

Peering into a grocery store bin, it's hard to tell if a peach or tomato or avocado is starting to go bad underneath its skin.

But an affordable camera technology being developed by the University of Washington and Microsoft Research might enable consumers of the future to tell which piece of fruit is perfectly ripe or what's rotting in the fridge.

Use of a qualification test within a retinal practice appeared to be effective in predicting which patients with intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD) would be good candidates to initiate use of a home monitoring device for progression to more severe AMD, according to a study published online by JAMA Ophthalmology.

An international team of scientists have identified potential 'tipping points' where abrupt regional climate shifts could occur due to global warming.

In the new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), the scientists analysed the climate model simulations on which the recent 5th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports are based.

Computers have scanned aerial photographs and conducted the first automated mass-crowd count in the world, thanks to the work of researchers at the University of Central Florida.

Counting large-scale crowds (such as the Million Man March in Washington, D.C.) has been a long, tedious process involving people examining aerial photographs one at a time. Until now, each photograph had to be divided into sections and the examiners counted the number of heads per inch.

Magnetic nanostructures - or rather: the interaction between charge, spin and current flow as a function of a temperature gradient in such structures - this is what the fast growing research area named "spin caloritronics" deals with. And this area of research has already come up with a number of newly discovered interesting effects and promising applications. Scientists from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) have, for the first time, succeeded in measuring the thermoelectric properties of a single magnetic domain wall.

Amsterdam, October 15, 2015 - Paper sensors that can be analyzed using an Android program on a smartphone could be used to detect pesticides rapidly and cheaply, according to a new study published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

As the role of pesticides in the decline of pollinator populations and their potential effect on health becomes clearer, it is increasingly important to be able to detect them in the environment and on foods. Usually the equipment used to detect pesticides and other chemicals is large, expensive and slow, making on-the-spot detection challenging.

Miss Georgia tripped in the final round of the 2015 Miss America Pageant. Jennifer Lawrence stumbled on her way to accept an Oscar. Even rock stars, world leaders and presidential candidates have fallen in front of the crowd or completely off stage.

And robots can too.