Новости за 03.09.2021

On Aug. 14, 2021, a small near-Earth asteroid (NEA) designated 2021 PJ1 passed our planet at a distance of over 1 million miles (about 1.7 million kilometers). Between 65 and 100 feet (20 and 30 meters) wide, the recently discovered asteroid wasn't a threat to Earth. But this asteroid's approach was historic, marking the 1,000th NEA to be observed by planetary radar in just over 50 years.

In eastern Belgium, an abandoned highway is almost completely buried under kilometres of piled-up rubbish: crushed refrigerators, splintered furniture, torn curtains, twisted metal, stuffed toys, defunct electronics and shards of glass.

The role of climate change in New York's deadly flash floods and the city's creaking infrastructure were under the spotlight Friday after torrential rains left at least 47 people dead across the US northeast.

For the past 20 years, it's been Les Shaw's mission to unravel the mysteries of drug-resistant bacterial pathogens.

A joint project team in Japan have started field testing for Asset-Based Lending (ABL) applicability at Kuroshima Sakura Farm in Kuroshima island, Okinawa prefecture, which is known for the world-famous "Wagyu" cattle industry. The ABL approach employs cattle behavior monitoring system "PETER" developed by the project team aimed for labor-saving grazing management using edge-AI and LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) technologies. PETER, a remote state-estimation system on the edge, is expected to contribute... Читать дальше...

What started as a casual dinner conversation between two very different researchers in 2016—one a data scientist and engineer, the other an expert in economic models—has since turned into a journal article quantifying the effects of the "beauty premium," the notion that those who are more physically attractive tend to have a greater income.

The University of Helsinki's Environmental Change Research Unit (ECRU) took part in an international study investigating the millennia-long history of the most important oasis in the Arctic and the potential effects of climate change on its future.

Researchers have presented a strategy for simultaneously introducing light-switchable oxygen vacancy and doping Mo into Bi5O7Br nanosheets for efficient photocatalytic N2 fixation. The modified photocatalyst has achieved elevated N2 fixation photoactivities by virtue of the optimized conduction band position, enhanced light availability, improved N2 adsorption and charge carrier separation.

The common analogy for CRISPR gene editing is that it works like molecular scissors, cutting out select sections of DNA. Stanley Qi, assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, likes that analogy, but he thinks it's time to reimagine CRISPR as a Swiss Army knife.

A simple mechanism could underlie the growth and self-replication of protocells—putative ancestors of modern living cells—suggests a study publishing September 3 in Biophysical Journal. Protocells are vesicles bounded by a membrane bilayer and are potentially similar to the first unicellular common ancestor (FUCA). On the basis of relatively simple mathematical principles, the proposed model suggests that the main force driving protocell growth and reproduction is the temperature difference that... Читать дальше...

At sunset, a buffalo calf's distressed grunts reverberate through the bush.

A grain of sand buried for an extended period of time in earthworks or on the bottom of the ocean, accumulate a luminescence signal. Scientists use this signal to determine how long a particular grain of sand has been buried. With a new, highly sensitive camera, they can photograph these signals with pinpoint accuracy. In fact, they are even trying to determine where the grain of sand comes from and how it has spread across the ocean floor.

Breanna Seibel was riding a four-wheeler alongside her alfalfa field in northern Wisconsin when she started seeing monarch butterflies. The bright orange visitors were swooping, fluttering and dancing in pairs, quartets and trios. They were landing in the trees that line the field, with up to 100 clustered on a single branch.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has recently funded both DOE's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana (UIUC) in a new project related to quantum information science. The Argonne team will bring to the project its expertise in coupling superconducting and magnetic systems. The UIUC team will contribute its world-class capabilities for developing new magnetic materials for quantum systems.

Materials for aerospace applications face many challenges. The structure of an aircraft must be light yet strong. Structural components such as the wings or fuselage must resist damage while at the same time in some areas be able to handle high temperatures from engine exhaust. An aircraft's electronic components must also be shielded from electrical surges due to lightning strikes or other interference.

Politicians and activists should be cautious in their use of climate and biodiversity emergency declarations as their impact can be harmful as well as helpful in tackling the world's biggest problems, new research co-authored by the University of Sussex Business School warns.

New research has shed light on how an understanding of human emotions by man's best friend can help them predict our behavior and informs their decision making.

Nature provides unique insights into design strategies evolved by living organisms to construct robust materials. In this case, the research group was able to create a new impact-resistant material inspired by the dactyl club of the mantis shrimp. The new material could be used in applications that require withstanding repetitive high strain-rate impacts while maintaining structural integrity. The research results were published on 1 September 2021 in Advanced Materials.

Scientists from the Faculty of Engineering, Information, and Systems at the University of Tsukuba analyzed video from top-level judo matches to systematically determine the aspects of posture, just before executing a throw, that lead to success. This work may help in quantitative measurements of other biomechanical processes, as well as improving coaching methods.

Astronomers can't touch the stars they study, but astrophysicist Nia Imara is using 3-dimensional models that fit in the palm of her hand to unravel the structural complexities of stellar nurseries, the vast clouds of gas and dust where star formation occurs.

In an effort to curtail how much time young people spend playing video games, China has banned students from playing them during the school week and limits them to just one hour per day on Fridays, weekends and holidays.

A team of researchers from the University of Vienna working with a colleague at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences has observed wild Goffin's cockatoos making and using tools to crack open and eat sea mangos—the first-ever example of a wild non-primate making and using a set of tools. They've published their observations in the journal Current Biology.

Many natural polysaccharides have significant anti-cancer activity with low cytotoxicity and side effects. They are considered as good substitutes for synthetic antitumor agents.

Graphene, hexagonally arranged carbon atoms in a single layer with superior pliability and high conductivity, could advance flexible electronics according to a Penn State-led international research team. Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Professor in Penn State's Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM), heads the collaboration, which recently published two studies that could inform research and development of future motion detection, tactile sensing and health monitoring devices.

Sarbecoviruses have crossed into humans twice in the last decade, leading to the deadly SARS-CoV-1 outbreak in 2002-04 and the current COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A new Oxford University study, published today, shows that the most recent common ancestor of these viruses existed more than 21,000 years ago, nearly 30 times older than previous estimates.