Posts

As described in Physical Review Letters, the JILA method makes spatial maps of energy shifts among the atoms in a three-dimensional strontium lattice atomic clock, providing information about each atom’s location and energy level, or quantum state. The technique rapidly measures physical effects that are important to atomic clocks, thus improving the clock’s precision, and it can add new atomic-level detail to studies of phenomena such as magnetism and superconductivity....

Scientists from the University of Exeter have studied the extent to which Arctic amplification — the faster rate of warming in the Arctic compared to places farther south — has affected the fluctuation of the jet stream’s winding course over the North Hemisphere. Recent studies have suggested the warming Arctic region has led to a “wavier” jet stream — which can lead to extreme weather conditions striking the US and Europe....

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have discovered a pair of stars orbiting each other at the center of one of the most remarkable examples of a planetary nebula. The new result confirms a long-debated theory about what controls the spectacular and symmetric appearance of the material flung out into space. The results are published in the 9 November 2012 issue of the journal Science. Planetary nebulae are glowing shells of gas around white dwarfs — Sun-like stars in the final stages of their lives....

A report by the University’s WorldPop team has found Bangkok (Thailand) is currently the city most at risk from a global spread of the virus – based on the number of air travelers predicted to arrive there from the worst affected cities in mainland China. Hong Kong (China) is second on the list, followed by Taipei (Taiwan, the Republic of China). Sydney (12), New York (16), and London (19) are among 30 other major international cities ranked in the research....

The researchers published their findings in the Norwegian Journal of Geology. The apex predator was discovered six years ago, and paleontologists Espen Knutsen, Patrick Druckenmiller and Jørn Hurum uncovered two big specimens between 2004 and 2012. The short-necked, large-mawed, four-paddled marine reptiles’ fossils were discovered on Svalbard, an Arctic island. Before this, paleontologists had only uncovered part of a tail vertebra. The regular freeze-thaw cycles at Svalbard severely fragmented the skeletons, and the fossils were further degraded in the lab as they dried....

Their findings about the aerodynamics of mosquito wings could have implications for building quieter drones and for devising nontoxic methods to trap and exterminate the pests. In a research paper published in Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, a team from the university’s Whiting School of Engineering, Rajat Mittal, a mechanical engineering professor, and Jung-Hee Seo, an associate research professor, explain the aerodynamics and acoustics of the mosquito mating ritual through computer modeling....

NEIDL, Broad Institute scientists say next-generation vaccines could stimulate another arm of the immune system, imparting better protection against coronavirus variants. A new study looking at the way human cells activate the immune system in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection could open the door to even more effective and powerful vaccines against the coronavirus and its rapidly emerging variants keeping the global pandemic smoldering. Researchers from Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard say it’s the first real look at exactly what types of “red flags” the human body uses to enlist the help of T cells—killers sent out by the immune system to destroy infected cells....

Published in the Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal on January 14, 2020, the study “Recreational Cannabis Use Impairs Driving Performance in the Absence of Acute Intoxication,” finds that in addition to chronic, heavy, recreational cannabis use being associated with poorer driving performance in non-intoxicated individuals compared to non-users, the researchers linked the earlier onset of marijuana use (under age 16) to worse performance. Recreational cannabis use has expanded across the United States in the last several decades and so has public concern about the substance’s impact on activities that present safety issues....

The research published in the journal Sex Roles identifies sports fans as a significant source of resistance to transgender participation on sports teams that match their gender identity. As several states draft legislation that would force student-athletes to play as the gender identified on their birth certificate instead of on a team that matches their gender identity, a team of political scientists investigated underlying factors that drive public opinion on transgender athletes....

In a recent study from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, scientists have used sunlight and a catalyst largely made of copper to transform carbon dioxide to methanol. A liquid fuel, methanol offers the potential for industry to find an additional source to meet America’s energy needs. The study describes a photocatalyst made of cuprous oxide (Cu­2O), a semiconductor that when exposed to light can produce electrons that become available to react with, or reduce, many compounds....

Although advertised as tools for supervising minors and employees using company-owned devices, spyware apps are often exploited by abusers to secretly monitor a spouse or partner. These applications demand minimal technical knowledge from the perpetrators, provide comprehensive installation guidance, and merely require temporary access to the target’s device. Once installed, they discreetly document the victim’s device usage—including text messages, emails, images, and phone calls—enabling abusers to remotely access this information via a web portal....

The work represents a collaboration among researchers at Nemours, the University of Delaware (UD), and Genome Profiling LLC (GenPro for short). Co-authors of the paper include Robert Akins, Ph.D., the project principal investigator, who directs the Center for Pediatric Clinical Research and Development at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children; UD molecular biologist Adam Marsh, Ph.D., who is chief science officer at GenPro; and Karyn Robinson, MS and Stephanie Yeager, MS, of Nemours Biomedical Research....

What do fireflies, nanorods, and Christmas lights have in common? Someday, consumers may be able to purchase multicolor strings of light that don’t need electricity or batteries to glow. Scientists at Syracuse University found a new way to harness the natural light produced by fireflies (called bioluminescence) using nanoscience. Their breakthrough produces a system that is 20 to 30 times more efficient than those produced during previous experiments. It’s all about the size and structure of the custom, quantum nanorods, which are produced in the laboratory by Mathew Maye, assistant professor of chemistry in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences; and Rebeka Alam, a chemistry Ph....

Published today (January 12) in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, the research led by Safiyyah Okoye, PhD, an assistant professor at Drexel, and Jennifer L. Wolff, PhD, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, examined a comprehensive set of potential fall-risk factors — including environmental factors, in addition to health and function — in older community-living adults in the United States, both with and without dementia....

Documented cases of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the New York–New Jersey metro region increased by as much as 500 percent between 2000 and 2016, with the highest increase among children without intellectual disabilities, according to a Rutgers University study. This is the opposite of past findings, which have suggested that autism typically co-occurs with intellectual impairment. “One of the assumptions about ASD is that it occurs alongside intellectual disabilities,” said Josephine Shenouda, an adjunct professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and lead author of the study published today (January 26) in the journal Pediatrics....

“When applied to the bleeding site, the new adhesive uses suction to absorb blood, clear the surface for adhesion, and bond to the tissue providing a physical seal. The entire application process is quick and pressure-free, which is suitable for non-compressible hemorrhage situations, which are often life-threatening,” says lead author Guangyu Bao, a recently graduated Ph.D. student under the supervision of Professor Jianyu Li of the Department of Mechanical Engineering....

Scientists have measured the highest toughness ever recorded, of any material, while investigating a metallic alloy made of chromium, cobalt, and nickel (CrCoNi). Not only is the metal extremely ductile – which, in materials science, means highly malleable – and impressively strong (meaning it resists permanent deformation), its strength and ductility improve as it gets colder. This runs counter to most other materials in existence. The team, led by researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, published a study describing their record-breaking findings in the journal Science on December 1, 2022....

The central quasar goes by the name PKS1353-341 and is intensely bright — so bright that for decades astronomers observing it in the night sky have assumed that the quasar was quite alone in its corner of the universe, shining out as a solitary light source from the center of a single galaxy. But as the MIT team reports today in the Astrophysical Journal, the quasar’s light is so bright that it has obscured hundreds of galaxies clustered around it....

The collection of fragmented stones that results from this process is both significant in size and extensively distributed across the terrain. Furthermore, numerous artifacts exhibit the same traits typically associated with purposefully crafted stone tools found at some of the earliest archaeological sites in East Africa. “The ability to intentionally make sharp stone flakes is seen as a crucial point in the evolution of hominins, and understanding how and when this occurred is a huge question that is typically investigated through the study of past artifacts and fossils....

One of the unsolved mysteries of contemporary science is how highly organized structures can emerge from the random motion of particles. This applies to many situations ranging from astrophysical objects that extend over millions of light years to the birth of life on Earth. The surprising discovery of self-organized electromagnetic fields in counter-streaming ionized gases (also known as plasmas) will give scientists a new way to explore how order emerges from chaos in the cosmos....