More than 66 million years ago, an asteroid impact led to the extinction of almost three-quarters of life on Earth. The little life that was left had to struggle, and research into its tenacity can provide key insights into how organisms survive environmental challenges. In a new study, scientists at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences discovered how some species of single-celled algae lived through the mass extinction, a finding that could change how we understand global ocean processes. Coccolithophores, like…
How can humans instantly estimate the slipperiness of a surface and adjust their gripping, for instance when picking up a wet glass? Researchers from Delft University of Technology have, together with French and Australian colleagues, demonstrated that a (radial) strain of the skin of the fingertip is involved in the perception of slipperiness during initial contact. Robotics could use this information, for instance to improve prosthetics and grippers. The results have been been published in PNAS. Slippery ‘Humans have the…
Three in four sepsis survivors experience new-onset memory problems, psychological impairments or physical diagnoses. This also applies to more than half of sepsis survivors under the age of 40 at the time of their discharge from hospital. These are just two of the findings of a retrospective analysis of anonymized health claims data conducted by a team of researchers from Jena University Hospital, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Research Institute of the Local Health Care Funds (AOK). The study,…
Swanson School collaborators Kurt Beschorner and Tevis Jacobs will use a NIOSH award to measure floor-surface topography and create a predictive model of friction. Friction is the resistance to motion of one surface or object moving relative to another. The frictional relationship between two objects has beneficial effects: when you strike a match, friction lights a flame; when you use your vehicle’s brakes, friction helps bring it to a stop. This same relationship, when leveraged properly, can help prevent slips…
A new study from Swansea University has introduced a framework to calculate the material properties of a new class of two-dimensional curved hexagonal lattices that could be used in the production of improved mechanical metamaterials found in bio-engineering, stretchable electronics, impact absorption and soft robots. The research published in the Composite Structures journal, outlines how the research team from the university’s Faculty of Science and Engineering pioneered the new framework of calculations, known as generalised closed-form expressions. Dr Shuvajit Mukherjee who…
Monsoons are not found only in South Asia, but they are part of a global-scale circulation that affects almost all tropical regions (e.g. Australian monsoon, African monsoon, etc.). One occurs in North America too, the North American monsoon, which affects western Mexico and the southwestern United States, in particular, Arizona and New Mexico. To date, this monsoon was considered similar to other monsoons, although smaller. However, new research published in Nature by two scientists from the University of California, Berkeley…
A new NASA-led study is the first to document changing atmospheric ammonia (NH3) concentrations in Africa over an extended period. Ammonia is an air pollutant which can lead to heart and lung related illness. When present in excess in an ecosystem, it can make soil more acidic and hinder plant growth. Ammonia is emitted naturally from soils and vegetation fires, but agricultural activities such as raising livestock and using fertilizer are also major sources. As agriculture scales up to meet…
Climate change may affect the production of maize (corn) and wheat as early as 2030 under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, according to a new NASA study published in the journal, Nature Food. Maize crop yields are projected to decline 24%, while wheat could potentially see growth of about 17%. Using advanced climate and agricultural models, scientists found that the change in yields is due to projected increases in temperature, shifts in rainfall patterns, and elevated surface carbon dioxide concentrations from…
Johns Hopkins Medicine study also suggests longer interval between virus exposure and first vaccine dose may enhance antibody response. In what is believed to be one of the largest studies of its kind, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have shown that antibody levels against SARS-CoV-2 (the COVID-19 virus) stay more durable — that is, remain higher over an extended period of time — in people who were infected by the virus and then received protection from two doses of messenger RNA…
A thorough review of the history of sage grouse hunting and populations across the Intermountain West shows that declines in the bird’s numbers have prompted significant reductions in hunting opportunities in recent decades — with mixed results for grouse populations. Research led by University of Wyoming Professor Jeff Beck and Oregon State University Assistant Professor Jonathan Dinkins, a former UW postdoctoral researcher, examined the history of grouse hunting regulations in 11 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces — and the…
New finding could help inform how zeolites are used in carbon capture and storage. Zeolites could be considered as nature’s workhorse. Filled with microscopic holes and channels, these ultraporous minerals can soak up environmental contaminants, filter drinking water, manage nuclear waste and even absorb carbon dioxide (CO2). Now, in the first study of its kind, Northwestern University researchers have analyzed ancient zeolite specimens collected from the edges of East Iceland to discover that zeolites separate calcium isotopes in a wholly…
TU Graz, the University of Leoben, the Austrian Fire Brigade Association and ILF Consulting Engineers have investigated the effects of e-vehicle fires in tunnel systems. The results are reassuring for passenger cars, but not for commercial vehicles. For the latter, as well as for fires in multistorey car parks, further investigations are urgently needed. The actual potential danger in the event of an accident with an e-car is still relatively unknown, but unsettling images of e-vehicles on fire are already…
New study from The University of Texas at Austin improves method for tracking drought severity and impact. In 2011, Texas experienced one of its worst droughts ever. The dry, parched conditions caused over $7 billion in crop and livestock losses, sparked wildfires, pushed power grids to the limit, and reduced reservoirs to dangerously low levels. And according to a recent study led by geoscientists at The University of Texas at Austin, the drought was worse than previously thought. The study,…
How resilient is our food supply? Temporarily empty shelves during the Corona crisis showed that the answer to this question is more urgent than ever. Guaranteeing people a supply of food that is both safe in terms of health and of high quality is an essential system-relevant tasks that is affected by complex factors and that needs to be rethought in many respects in view of several weaknesses in the system. Researchers from six Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Institutes have set themselves this…
Scientists are working hard to engineer the properties of nanostructures, such as atoms and molecules, to realize efficient logic devices that can operate at the fundamental scale of matter – the scale of atoms. To make “engineering” possible at that scale, researchers have to be able to look at the internal structure of an atom, the so-called orbital structure, where electrons are confined in a series of shells. In a study published this week in ACS Nano, the research led…
Crucial steps for adding chemical tag to transfer RNA revealed. The chemical steps in an important cellular modification process that adds a chemical tag to some RNAs have been revealed in a new study. Interfering with this process in humans can lead to neuronal diseases, diabetes, and cancers. A research team, led by chemists at Penn State, has imaged a protein that facilitates this RNA modification in bacteria, allowing the researchers to reconstruct the process. A paper describing the modification…
Feedback
