Other Sciences News

This scanning electron microscope image shows ultrafine diamond needles (cone shapes rising from bottom) being pushed on by a diamond tip (dark shape at top). These images reveal that the diamond needles can bend as much as 9% and still return to their original shape. Image credit: Banerjee et al.

Diamonds Can Turn Flexible when Made into Nanoscale Needles

Apr 20, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and the United States has demonstrated that nanoscale (300 nm) single-crystalline...

If an industrial civilization had existed on Earth many millions of years prior to human era, what traces would it have left and would they be detectable today? Image credit: Michael Osadciw, University of Rochester.

Silurian Hypothesis: Were There Industrial Civilizations on Earth before Humans?

Apr 17, 2018 by News Staff

How do we really know there weren’t previous civilizations on our planet that rose and fell long before humans appeared? That’s the question posed...

The researchers use powerful X-rays to see inside a gas turbine combustor during ignition. Image credit: David McNally.

Scientists Conduct First-Ever Combustion Experiment with X-Rays

Apr 17, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign made an historic first with their experiment...

A cold and windy spring night on the vast landscape of the Devon Ice Cap where two subglacial lakes are lurking 1,805 to 2,460 feet (550-750 m) below the surface. Image credit: Anja Rutishauser.

Geophysicists Discover Two Salty Subglacial Lakes in Canadian Arctic

Apr 12, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of geophysicists has discovered two hypersaline lakes beneath the Devon Ice Cap, one of the largest ice caps in the Canadian Arctic. A...

The Al Wusta-1 finger bone from Saudi Arabia. Image credit: Ian Cartwright.

90,000-Year-Old Finger Bone Found in Saudi Arabia Could Rewrite Human Migration History

Apr 11, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has discovered a fossilized human finger bone in the Nefud Desert of Saudi Arabia estimated to be about 90,000 years...

A Homo heidelbergensis, a Neanderthal and a Cro-Magnon. Image credit: SINC / José Antonio Peñas.

Mobile Eyebrows Played Important Role in Human Survival, Research Suggests

Apr 10, 2018 by News Staff

New research published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution contributes to a long-running debate about why archaic hominins had gigantic brow...

According to Jung et al, risk tolerance was positively associated with functional connectivity between amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex and negatively associated with structural connectivity between these regions. Image credit: University of Pennsylvania.

Risk Tolerance Linked to Two Brain Regions

Apr 6, 2018 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Neuron links willingness to take risks to brain structure and function, specifically the amygdala and the prefrontal...

MacLean et al suggest that smoking status is associated with poor diet quality. Image credit: Quick Fix / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Smokers Have Worse Quality Diets than Former Smokers or Non-Smokers, Says New Study

Apr 5, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Fairfield University and Yale University has evaluated data from 5,293 U.S. adults and found that smokers consumed around 200...

Neanderthals consumed plants, too. Image credit: University of Utah via kued.org.

Fluted Spear Points Prove Early Native Americans Liked to Travel

Apr 3, 2018 by News Staff

Analyses of numerous spear points with fluted edges found in northern Alaska and Yukon, and artifacts from further south in Canada, the Great Plains,...

Xu et al achieved a breakthrough, inventing a stretchy new material modeled after both squid skin and Hollywood dinosaurs with remarkable properties. Image credit: Xu et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aar5191.

Scientists Create Infrared Camouflage Material

Apr 2, 2018 by News Staff

Thermal vision cameras detect differences in temperature by sensing infrared wavelengths. If a coating could be developed that showed dynamic tuning of...

An aqueous spiral, 6.8 cm long, thread thickness 100 μm, in silicone oil. Scale bar - 2 mm. Image credit: Forth et al, doi: 10.1002/adma.201707603.

Researchers 3D Print All-Liquid Objects

Mar 30, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States and China has found a way to print 3D structures composed entirely of liquids. The team’s all-liquid material...

Ashwanikumar et al have developed a drug delivery system using cell-penetrating self-assembling peptide nanomaterials (CSPNs); these drilled-shaped nanomaterials traverse cellular membranes to deliver drugs and can be fine-tuned into different shapes to optimize delivery. Image credit: Ashwanikumar et al, doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2018.02.041.

Scientists Develop Drug-Delivering ‘Nanodrills’ that Penetrate Cell Membranes

Mar 30, 2018 by Zvi Cramer

Researchers have created new drill-shaped nanomaterials that infiltrate cellular membrane and deliver drugs inside the cell, providing a versatile means...

The team’s model reproduces key features of melting snowflakes that have been observed in nature: first, meltwater gathers in any concave regions of the snowflake’s surface; these liquid-water regions merge as they grow and eventually form a shell of liquid around an ice core, finally developing into a water drop. Image credit: Free-Photos.

Researchers Develop First-Ever 3D Numerical Model of Melting Snowflake

Mar 30, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has developed a numerical 3D model for the melting of single snowflakes. A better understanding of how snow melts can...

The interstitium is seen here beneath the top layer of skin, but is also in tissue layers lining the gut, lungs, and urinary systems, as well as those surrounding blood vessels and the fascia between muscles; the organ is a body-wide network of interconnected, fluid-filled compartments supported by a meshwork of strong, flexible proteins. Image credit: Jill Gregory / Mount Sinai Health System.

Interstitium: ‘New’ Organ Found in Human Body

Mar 28, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from New York University School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research...

Millimeter-scale transient-electroluminescent device. Top row, from left to right: schematic of a millimeter-scale device, showing the grid source electrode structure to increase active emission area; photographs of a packaged, 3 mm x 2 mm, device in the off and on state. Bottom row: photograph of a millimeter-scale transparent device; photograph of a large area (3 mm x 2 mm) transparent device in the off and on state. Image credit: Lien et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-03218-8.

New Electroluminescent Device Opens Possibility for ‘Invisible’ Displays, Light-Emitting Tattoos

Mar 28, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has developed a bright-light emitting...

Periods of extreme cold winter weather and perilous snowfall could be linked to the solar cycle. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Extreme Cold Winter Weather Can Be Linked to Solar Cycle

Mar 26, 2018 by News Staff

Pioneering new research from the University of Exeter, UK, has revealed when the 11-year solar cycle is in its ‘weaker’ phase, there are warm spells...

Adipose tissue. Image credit: Blausen.com Staff / Medical Gallery of Blausen Medical 2014 / WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2), doi: 10.15347/wjm/2014.010.

Study: Low Temperatures Activate ‘Good’ Fat Formation at Cellular Level

Mar 26, 2018 by News Staff

A new study from the University of Nottingham, UK, shows that the way in which fat is made within the body is not ‘pre-programmed’ during the early...

2-Billion-Year-Old Sea Salt Captures Earth’s ‘Great Oxidation’

Mar 23, 2018 by News Staff

An international research team led by a Princeton University scientist has found that the rise in oxygen that occurred about 2.3 billion years ago (Paleoproterozoic...

Cellulose nanofibrils affect the colloidal network structure of ice cream. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

Cellulose Nanofibers from Banana Plant Waste Could Be Key to Ideal Ice Cream

Mar 22, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from Colombia and Canada has found that adding a fibrous extract from banana fruit stems (rachis) to ice cream could...