Feeding birds display similar habits to human consumers shopping for food, according to research published in the current edition of the Proceedings of the Royal Society.
A two-year study has discovered it is possible to influence hummingbirds’ choice of food by changing the options available to them, in the same way supermarkets can manipulate customers’ preferences by clever positioning of products.
The study is published in the current edition of Proceedings of the Royal Society
The world’s oceans hold the key to our future electricity needs. And their potential for producing power has yet to be fully exploited in terms of sustainable energy. The EUREKA WWEC project team hopes to bring exploitation of this renewable energy source a big step forward.
“We’ve developed a device that generates energy from the sea as easily as a wind turbine would do on land,” explains William Dick, managing director of the Irish company Wavebob that led the project. “There’s an awful lo
Five spacecraft have made a remarkable set of observations, leading to a breakthrough in understanding the origin of a peculiar and puzzling type of aurora. Seen as bright spots in Earth’s atmosphere and called “dayside proton auroral spots,” they are now known to occur when fractures appear in the Earth’s magnetic field, allowing particles emitted from the Sun to pass through and collide with molecules in our atmosphere. On March 18, 2002, a jet of energetic solar protons collided
Not only can an electronic tongue monitor the prevalence and growth of microorganisms, it can also sense the difference between various forms of fungi and bacteria. This is shown in a dissertation by Charlotte Söderström submitted at Linköping University. An objective of the project as a whole is to be able to make use of an electronic tongue in the future to monitor whether foodstuffs are fit for human consumption.
Today’s monitoring methods involve taking samples from production and analyz
Within the remit of the CRAFT European projects, the Departments of Materials and Mecatronics at CIDEMCO, in conjunction with IKERLAN (E) y VTT (FI), have finalised a development project for an on-line system for the measurement and control of the thickness of varnishes. The aim was to develop equipment which would provide information about the quantity of the product applied in the various varnishing processes.
As a rule, the quantity of varnish applied is controlled only at the start of a
University of Colorado at Boulder researchers have discovered four new kingdoms of life in the high alpine environment of Colorado, findings that have potential applications in the fields of agriculture and global change.
Doctoral student Allen Meyer and Professor Steven Schmidt of the environmental, population and organismic biology department discovered the new microbe kingdoms in barren, boulder-filled tundra slopes west of Boulder.
At altitudes of 11,000 feet to 13,000 feet in
In the same way dishwashing detergents clean greasy dishes, scientists are using detergent-like surfactants to clean contaminated regions underground.
Cleaning up contaminated soil and groundwater is estimated to cost trillions of dollars in North America. The problem requires many different approaches because there are hundreds of different types of contaminants and the soils and geology differ from place to place. One approach that has shown promise for some situations can be viewed
After almost 50 years of nuclear materials production at the 586-square-mile Hanford Site in southeastern Washington, there are more than 700 waste sites with the potential to release contaminants to the soil and groundwater. These sites vary significantly in their inventories of radioactive and chemical contaminants and potential for contaminants to migrate through the soil to the groundwater and the Columbia River. Understanding which waste sites have the most significant impact and the cumulative
Ravi Kane Receives Grant From the National Institutes of Health
Ravi Kane, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is designing brand-new molecules that may one day fend off an HIV infection. Bolstering the body’s molecular defenses is a novel method that may lead to highly effective treatments for HIV, the virus that can lead to AIDS.
Kane has received a two-year, $150,000 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Di
Provides more information than conventional x-rays or other scanning methods
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, in collaboration with researchers at Rush Medical College, have demonstrated the effectiveness of a novel x-ray imaging technology to visualize soft tissues of the human foot that are not visible with conventional x-rays. The technique, called Diffraction Enhanced Imaging (DEI), provides all of the information imparted by conventio
For the first time, scientists have incorporated multiple human and natural factors into a climate projection model. They predict that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, due to changes in the carbon cycle, combined with a decrease in human-produced sulphates, may cause accelerated global warming during the 21st century, as compared with simulations without these feedback effects. Results of the study, completed by Chris D. Jones and colleagues at the Met Office’s Hadley Centre
A new anti-herpes agent derived from a common herb effectively treats and prevents the disease in animals. Researchers from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia present their data today at the 103rd General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
“Prunella vulgaris [also known as self-heal] is a perennial plant commonly found in China, the British Isles, Europe, and North America. In herbal literature, P. vulgaris has been described as a hot water infusion to treat sores in the mou
A bacteria-killing virus found in the feces of some sheep could help remove the dangerous foodborne bacteria Escherichia coli O157:H7 from livestock. Researchers from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington present their research today at the 103rd General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
“Here we report a promising new natural way of reducing pathogen concentrations in livestock. This takes advantage of bacteriophages – bacteria-killing viruses, harmless to humans a
The production of lariat RNAs is a key step in the biologically important process of splicing. Because splicing changes the protein that is made from a given gene, a fundamental understanding of splicing is critical for comprehending the connections between genes and proteins. The study of splicing, however, has been very difficult in part because lariat RNAs have been nearly impossible to make artificially.
Now, chemistry professor Scott K. Silverman and graduate student Yangming Wang at th
Low-tech ‘Main Squeeze’ compresses for snug fit inside vehicle
Three Johns Hopkins University undergraduates have invented a low-tech tool that makes it much easier to properly install child safety seats in automobiles, ensuring a snug fit and maximum protection for the child.
The device, dubbed “Main Squeeze,” is intended to simplify the difficult task of compressing a child safety seat against a car’s permanent seat during installation. Incorrectly installed, a loose
MGH research suggests strategies for improving drug delivery to cancer cells
The best cancer drugs in the world are not much good if they cannot get to tumor cells. That problem has been challenging cancer physicians and researchers for years because the physical structure of many tumors can prevent anticancer agents from reaching their targets. In a study appearing in the June issue of Nature Medicine, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) describe a new technique for
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