Mating is the kiss of death for certain female worms
The presence of male sperm and seminal fluid causes female worms to shrivel and die after giving birth, Princeton University researchers reported this week in the journal Science. The demise of the...
View ArticleAsteroid hunter spacecraft returns first images after reactivation
(Phys.org) —NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), a spacecraft that made the most comprehensive survey to date of asteroids and comets, has returned its first set of...
View ArticleAncient cranial surgery: bioarchaeologist studies trepanation
Cranial surgery is tricky business, even under 21st-century conditions (think aseptic environment, specialized surgical instruments and copious amounts of pain medication both during and afterward).
View ArticleResearchers make powerful new microscale torsional muscle/motor from vanadium...
Vanadium dioxide is poised to join the pantheon of superstars in the materials world. Already prized for its extraordinary ability to change size, shape and physical identity, vanadium dioxide can now...
View ArticleDual catalysts help synthesize alpha-olefins into new organic compounds
Boston College chemists have developed a new chemical synthesis methodology that converts chemicals known as alpha-olefins into new organic compounds. By combining a pair of catalytic reactions in...
View ArticleNew technique measures mass of exoplanets
To date, scientists have confirmed the existence of more than 900 exoplanets circulating outside our solar system. To determine if any of these far-off worlds are habitable requires knowing an...
View ArticleJapan robot chats with astronaut on space station
The first humanoid robot in space made small talk with a Japanese astronaut and said it had no problem with zero gravity on the International Space Station.
View ArticleMore mentions in the FT linked to greater popularity of stocks
A six-year study of the Financial Times has found that the more frequently a company is mentioned in the newspaper in the morning, the greater the volume of shares traded in that company during the...
View ArticleEfforts to curb climate change require greater emphasis on livestock
While climate change negotiators struggle to agree on ways to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, they have paid inadequate attention to other greenhouse gases associated with livestock, according...
View ArticleTelegram issues $200,000 in Bitcoins challenge to crack code
(Phys.org) —Anyone able to crack the encryption code of Telegram's message text wins a handsome award, but it needs to be by Telegram's rules. To win the money, you need to decipher the message, find...
View ArticleStanford and Google team up to simulate key drug receptor
(Phys.org) —Roughly 40 percent of all medications act on cells' G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). One of these receptors, beta 2 adrenergic receptor site (B2AR), naturally transforms between two...
View ArticleJet-propelled wastewater treatment
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have developed a new method for the active degradation of organic pollutants in solution by using swimming microengines....
View ArticleIt's a negative on negative absolute temperatures
The concept of a perpetual motion machine is an enticing one: Imagine a machine that runs continuously without requiring any external energy—a feat that could make refueling vehicles a thing of the past.
View ArticleBeyond Mendel: Student DNA Barcoding Project introduces next-generation...
On a cloudless day in Dangriga, a coastal city in southern Belize, a group of students are hard at work. One wall of their sun-strewn lab is lined with the usual gear of modern genetics: thermocycler,...
View ArticleThe beat goes on with a new model for artificial flagella
(Phys.org) —Eukaryotic flagella, whip-like organelles that elegantly propel microorganisms and pump fluid, seem to embody simplicity on the microscopic scale. But appearances can be deceptive: Flagella...
View ArticleElectric fields can push droplets from surfaces
Researchers at MIT have followed up on their discovery that droplets of water acquire an electric charge when jumping from certain condenser surfaces by finding a way to make use of that effect: They...
View ArticleEffect of ocean temperature on southwestern US climate analyzed
Researchers have analyzed the relationship between a natural phenomenon in the North Atlantic and the temperature and precipitation patterns in the American Southwest. They concluded that only part of...
View ArticleChickless birds guard nests of relatives
(Phys.org) —New research has solved a mystery as to why some birds choose not to reproduce, and instead help to guard the nests of their close relatives. This occurs in about nine percent of all bird...
View ArticleEnlisting cells' protein recycling machinery to regulate plant products
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified a new way to regulate the production of phenols, a class of plant products with a wide range of applications...
View ArticleTechnique makes it possible to measure the intrinsic properties of quantum...
Transistors are one of the most important devices in electronics and lie at the heart of modern computing. The progressive miniaturization of transistors is rapidly approaching the atomic scale, where...
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