Tech
Editor's Note: The last sentence in the third graf and the fifth graf from the end of the release has been removed because they contained embargo-sensitive information.
It's 5 o'clock somewhere. And while here on Earth, "happy hour" is commonly associated with winding down and the optional cold beverage, that's when things get going on Bennu, the destination asteroid of the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx NASA mission.
The KRAS oncogene is involved in at least one fifth of all human cancers: KRAS mutations are directly responsible for 32% of lung tumours and 96% of pancreatic tumours. However, after more than thirty years of research to date, there are still no effective therapeutic strategies against this oncogene. For this reason, much of the research conducted seeks to identify other molecules that display therapeutic activity along the KRAS signalling pathway.
What if you could touch a loved one during a video call - particularly in today's social distancing era of COVID-19 - or pick up and handle a virtual tool in a video game?
Pending user tests and funding to commercialise the new technology, these ideas could become reality in a couple of years after UNSW Sydney engineers developed a new haptic device which recreates the sense of touch.
Haptic technology mimics the experience of touch by stimulating localised areas of the skin in ways that are similar to what is felt in the real world, through force, vibration or motion.
Arginine metabolism boosts to make a plant body complex, according to new research by a collaborative team from Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems (ExCELLS), National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB), RIKEN, Rikkyo University, Toyohashi University of Technology, Yamagata University, Chiba University, Hokkaido University, and University of Tokyo in Japan. The findings, now online in Cell Reports, might lead to a new understanding of amino acid metabolism with a specific role in plant morphogenesis.
A radio telescope in outback Western Australia has completed the deepest and broadest search at low frequencies for alien technologies, scanning a patch of sky known to include at least 10 million stars.
Astronomers used the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope to explore hundreds of times more broadly than any previous search for extraterrestrial life.
The evolution of sex chromosomes is of crucial importance in biology as it stabilises the mechanism underlying sex determination and usually results in an equal sex ratio. An international team of scientists, led by researchers from Uppsala University, now reports that they have been able to reconstruct the birth of a male sex chromosome in the Atlantic herring. The male-specific region is tiny and contains only three genes: a sex-determining factor and two genes for sperm proteins. The study is published in PNAS.
The Nagoya University Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (WPI-ITbM) research team of Professor Cathleen Crudden, Designated Lecturer Masakazu Nambo, JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow Yuki Maekawa and Associate Professor Daisuke Yokogawa have developed a new synthesis method for the efficient production of fluorinated alkenes. This method offers a practical solution for the shortening of the synthesis process of existing bioactive compounds through the simple addition of an organic magnesium reagent, or Grignard reagent.
The Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX®) is a widely used calculation tool that integrates clinical information in a quantitative manner to predict a 10-year probability of major osteoporotic fracture for both women and men in different countries.1
X-ray detection is becoming increasingly important in areas from daily life for industry, the military, and scientific research. The process of scintillation materials is converting the X-ray, gamma-ray, and particle radiation into visible or ultraviolet (UV) light. Among the properties of the scintillator, the large scale, stability, and quantum yield for uses in various fields from low to high energy are key performance indicators.
The escalating carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and the consequent acceleration of climate change are alarming, and it has proven challenging to find feasible ways to actively reduce the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. What if we drew inspiration from photosynthesis, the process by which plants use sunlight to convert CO2 and water into useful chemicals?
Not all fish oils are high quality oils, so scientists have developed a superior method to help produce better dietary Omega-3 health and dietary supplements.
The new process, explained in a new Nature Partner Journals (npj) Science of Food paper, defines how vortex fluidic device processing lifts the quality of active ingredients of the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in fish oil. The process was used to enrich Omega-3 fatty acid content of apple juice, remarkably without changing its sensory values which is important for the consumer.
Iron minerals and bacteria can be the main agents of carbon dioxide emissions from the soil. A soil scientist from RUDN University made this conclusion after studying the process of organic plant waste decomposition of the micro-level. Iron and hydrogen peroxide enter into a reaction, as a result of which active oxygen forms (oxygen radicals) are formed. The radicals destroy plant waste in the soil and promote carbon dioxide emissions. The results of the study were published in the Geoderma journal.
The diets of hunter-gatherers are changing at a fast pace, as in the contemporary world, they are increasingly being deprived of their access to land and natural resources and urged to adapt to sedentary lifestyle. An interdisciplinary study from the University of Helsinki brings forth the underlying causes of food and nutrition insecurity among a San group in Namibia.
As California aims to provide 60% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 and 100% by 2045, a study from California Polytechnic State University provides some good news. Offshore winds along the Central Coast increase at the same time that people start using more energy -- in the evening.
The particles that make up lithium-ion battery electrodes are microscopic but mighty: They determine how much charge the battery can store, how fast it charges and discharges and how it holds up over time - all crucial for high performance in an electric vehicle or electronic device.