Tech | Page 1236 | Science Codex

Practice makes perfect if you have a partner's touch, according to new study

People improve their performance more when they practise with a partner rather than on their own, according to a new study.

The research could ultimately help people rehabilitating from a stroke.

Scientists from Imperial College London and two Japanese institutions explored whether physical interaction improved the way people performed in a computer-based task where they were using a joystick-like device. They were connected by a virtual elastic band to the same type of device operated by another person, who was hidden from view.

New microscopy technique improves imaging at the atomic scale

When capturing images at the atomic scale, even tiny movements of the sample can result in skewed or distorted images – and those movements are virtually impossible to prevent. Now microscopy researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new technique that accounts for that movement and eliminates the distortion from the finished product.

Detecting sickness by smell

Humans are able to smell sickness in someone whose immune system is highly active within just a few hours of exposure to a toxin, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

According to researcher Mats Olsson of Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, there is anecdotal and scientific evidence suggesting that diseases have particular smells. People with diabetes, for example, are sometimes reported to have breath that smells like rotten apples or acetone.

Computer simulation of blood vessel growth

SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 22, 2014 – University of Utah bioengineers showed that tiny blood vessels grow better in the laboratory if the tissue surrounding them is less dense. Then the researchers created a computer simulation to predict such growth accurately – an early step toward treatments to provide blood supply to tissues damaged by diabetes and heart attacks and to skin grafts and implanted ligaments and tendons.

Humans can use smell to detect levels of dietary fat

PHILADELPHIA (January 22, 2014) – New research from the Monell Center reveals humans can use the sense of smell to detect dietary fat in food. As food smell almost always is detected before taste, the findings identify one of the first sensory qualities that signals whether a food contains fat. Innovative methods using odor to make low-fat foods more palatable could someday aid public health efforts to reduce dietary fat intake.

Cooling microprocessors with carbon nanotubes

"Cool it!" That's a prime directive for microprocessor chips and a promising new solution to meeting this imperative is in the offing. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a "process friendly" technique that would enable the cooling of microprocessor chips through carbon nanotubes.

From a carpet of nanorods to a thin film solar cell absorber within a few seconds

This news release is available in German.

3-D imaging provides window into living cells, no dye required

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Living cells are ready for their close-ups, thanks to a new imaging technique that needs no dyes or other chemicals, yet renders high-resolution, three-dimensional, quantitative imagery of cells and their internal structures – all with conventional microscopes and white light.

Called white-light diffraction tomography (WDT), the imaging technique opens a window into the life of a cell without disturbing it and could allow cellular biologists unprecedented insight into cellular processes, drug effects and stem cell differentiation.

Rice University laser scientists create portable sensor for nitrous oxide, methane

Rice University scientists have created a highly sensitive portable sensor to test the air for the most damaging greenhouse gases.

The device created by Rice engineer and laser pioneer Frank Tittel and his group uses a thumbnail-sized quantum cascade laser (QCL) as well as tuning forks that cost no more than a dime to detect very small amounts of nitrous oxide and methane.

The QCL emits light from the mid- to far-infrared portion of the spectrum. That allows for far better detection of gases than more common lasers that operate in the near-infrared.

Researchers model macroscale plasmonic convection to control fluid and particle motion

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new theoretical model that explains macroscale fluid convection induced by plasmonic (metal) nanostructures. Their model demonstrates the experimentally observed convection velocities of the order of micrometers per second for an array of gold bowtie nanoantennas (BNAs) coupled to an optically absorptive indium-tin-oxide (ITO) substrate.

Deepwater Horizon: Identifying harmful elements of persisting oil

On 20 April 2010, a floating oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico called Deepwater Horizon suddenly exploded, leading to the largest accidental marine oil disaster in the world. Collaborating scientists at EPFL in Switzerland and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in the United States have analyzed the composition of eight oil-soaked sand patties that were collected along the Gulf shores from April until November in 2011. They determined and classified the chemical composition of these oil residues, showing that they contain harmful compounds.

New poll finds diabetes top health concern for Latino families

Boston, MA – A new NPR/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health poll was released today on the views of Latinos in America about their health and health care, communities, financial situation, and discrimination in their lives. The poll found that Latinos see diabetes as the biggest health problem for their own families.

UT Austin engineer converts yeast cells into 'sweet crude' biofuel

AUSTIN, Texas — Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin's Cockrell School of Engineering have developed a new source of renewable energy, a biofuel, from genetically engineered yeast cells and ordinary table sugar. This yeast produces oils and fats, known as lipids, that can be used in place of petroleum-derived products.

Staying cool in the nanoelectric universe by getting hot

BUFFALO, N.Y. – As smartphones, tablets and other gadgets become smaller and more sophisticated, the heat they generate while in use increases. This is a growing problem because it can cause the electronics inside the gadgets to fail.

Conventional wisdom suggests the solution is to keep the guts of these gadgets cool.

But a new University at Buffalo research paper hints at the opposite: that is, to make laptops and other portable electronic devices more robust, more heat might be the answer.

Many CV devices approved by process that often does not require new clinical data

Many cardiac implantable electronic device models currently in use were approved via a Food and Drug Administration review process in which the models were assumed safe and effective based on approval of prior versions of the device, according to a study in the January 22/29 issue of JAMA.