Scientists have created synthetic soft surfaces with tongue-like textures for the first time using 3D printing, opening new possibilities for testing oral processing properties of food, nutritional technologies, pharmaceutics and dry mouth therapies. UK scientists led by the University of Leeds in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh have replicated the highly sophisticated surface design of a human tongue and demonstrated that their printed synthetic silicone structure mimics the topology, elasticity and wettability of the tongue’s surface. These factors are…
Increasingly, biologists are turning to computational modeling to make sense of complex systems. In neuroscience, researchers are adapting the kinds of algorithms used to forecast the weather or filter spam from your email to seek insight into how the brain’s neural networks process information. New research from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Assistant Professor Tatiana Engel offers crucial guidance to biologists using such models. Testing various computational models of the nervous system, she and postdoctoral researcher Mikhail Genkin have found that…
Chemists prepare single-molecule racecars in anticipation of 2022 competition. Nanomechanics at Rice University and the University of Houston are getting ready to rev their engines for the second international Nanocar Race. While they’ll have to pump the brakes for a bit longer than expected, as the race has been bumped a year to 2022, the Rice-based team is pushing forward with new designs introduced in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Organic Chemistry. The work led by chemists James Tour…
Presentation at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America. Microplastics (plastics <5mm) and their negative health impacts have been studied in oceans, rivers, and even soils, and scientists are beginning to grapple with the myriad human health impacts their presence might have. One understudied, but critical, link in the cycle is groundwater, which is often a source of drinking water. While microplastics in groundwater likely affect human health, only a handful of studies have examined the abundance…
An international multi-institution team of scientists has synthesized graphene nanoribbons – ultrathin strips of carbon atoms – on a titanium dioxide surface using an atomically precise method that removes a barrier for custom-designed carbon nanostructures required for quantum information sciences. Graphene is composed of single-atom-thick layers of carbon taking on ultralight, conductive and extremely strong mechanical characteristics. The popularly studied material holds promise to transform electronics and information science because of its highly tunable electronic, optical and transport properties. When…
Research presented at the 2020 GSA Annual Meeting Floating gardens sound so idyllic. Now, a study proves that they are more than just a pretty place. The study, by researchers at Illinois State University, demonstrates that such constructed gardens can have a measurable, positive impact on water quality. Floating gardens are essentially rafts built on a frame of plastic caging, wrapped in coconut husks, and filled in with native plantings. As plants grow, they extend their roots into the water,…
Researchers at National University of Science and Technology MISIS (NUST MISIS) have managed to develop a unique method to process bulk metallic glasses. According to the authors of the study, they have managed to find processing conditions that significantly improve the quality of this promising material. The research results were published in Journal of Alloys and Compounds. Metallic glasses (amorphous metals) are materials which, unlike crystalline forms, don’t have a long range atomic order. According to the scientists, this makes…
Today around 60% of the world’s population have no access to the Internet. That is why we are intensively looking for solutions to guarantee error-free and smooth data communication with a high bandwidth. Satellite communication networks, the so-called Internet of Space, are ideal for this. With the aim of shifting part of the processing load into the RRAM memory in the sense of an intelligent in-memory computing concept, the joint DFG project starts: “Memristive In-Memory Computing: Radiation hard memory for…
For the first time, the SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) flying observatory has provided direct and unambiguous evidence of water molecules on the moon beyond the permanent shadow at the poles. The infrared observatory, which is owned jointly by the US space agency NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) was able to detect the molecules in the moon’s southern hemisphere using the FORCAST instrument. The research results were published on the 26th of October 2020 in the scientific…
This is the first report for the syntheses of water-soluble polyimides which are Interestingly derived from bio-based resources, showing high transparency, tunable mechanical strength and the highest thermoresistance in water-soluble polymers reported ever. Water-soluble polymers are of great interest in many areas of soft materials. These soft materials have been widely used in application related to aqueous solutions, such as dispersants, aggregation agents, thickeners, moisturizers, binders, and hydrogels. With increase in global awareness about environmental concerns, the importance of water-soluble…
How much can we intensify? A first assessment of the effects of land management on the links between biodiversity, ecosystem functions and ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are crucial for human well-being and they depend on a well-functioning ecosystem and complex interactions among many organisms. However, human activities are resulting in biodiversity loss and changes to ecosystems, which threatens the supply of key services. An international team of 32 scientists, from 22 institutions, led by Dr Maria Felipe-Lucia (UFZ, iDiv) and…
The dynamic change in root growth of plants plays an important role in their adjustment to soil conditions. Depending on the location, nutrients or moisture can be found in higher or lower soil layers. This is why, depending on the situation, a short or a long root is advantageous. Caroline Gutjahr, Professor of Plant Genetics at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and her team investigate how plant hormones influence the growth of roots. Roots are essential for reaching water…
Findings showed coral has core immune response regardless of disease type. As the world enters a next wave of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are aware now more than ever of the importance of a healthy immune system to protect ourselves from disease. This is not only true for humans but corals too, which are in an ongoing battle to ward off deadly diseases spreading on a reef. A new study led by researchers at the University of Miami (UM)…
A fish school is a striking demonstration of synchronicity. Yet centuries of study have left a basic question unanswered: do fish save energy by swimming in schools? Now, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB), the University of Konstanz, and Peking University have provided an answer that has long been suspected but never conclusively supported by experiments: yes. Using biomimetic fish-like robots, the researchers show that fish could take advantage of the swirls of water generated by…
Through an effort to characterize the color receptors in the eyes of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, University of Minnesota researchers discovered the spectrum of light it can see deviates significantly from what was previously recorded. “The fruit fly has been, and continues to be, critical in helping scientists understand genetics, neuroscience, cancer and other areas of study across the sciences,” said Camilla Sharkey, a post-doctoral researcher in the College of Biological Sciences‘ Wardill Lab. “Furthering our understanding of how…
IM30 loses its complex ring structure under stress conditions and forms a protective carpet on the membrane surface / Surface structure observed for the first time Stress is present everywhere, even bacteria and plant cells have to cope with it. They express various specific stress proteins, but how exactly this line of defense works is often not clear. A group of scientists headed by Professor Dirk Schneider of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has now discovered a protective mechanism in…
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