Showing 20 articles starting at article 1401
< Previous 20 articles Next 20 articles >
Categories: Engineering: Biometric, Offbeat: General
Published Spike in major league home runs tied to climate change
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study identifies the influence of climate change in the greater number of home runs in major league baseball in recent years. The researchers found that more than 500 home runs since 2010 can be attributed to warmer, thinner air caused by global warming, and that rising temperatures could account for 10% or more of home runs by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated. The researchers examined how the average number of home runs per year could rise for each major league ballpark with every 1-degree Celsius increase in the global average temperature.
Published NASA's Webb scores another ringed world with new image of Uranus
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Following in the footsteps of the Neptune image released in 2022, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has taken a stunning image of the solar system's other ice giant, the planet Uranus. The new image features dramatic rings as well as bright features in the planet's atmosphere. The Webb data demonstrates the observatory's unprecedented sensitivity for the faintest dusty rings, which have only ever been imaged by two other facilities: the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it flew past the planet in 1986, and the Keck Observatory with advanced adaptive optics.
Published Technology advance paves way to more realistic 3D holograms for virtual reality and more
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have developed a new way to create dynamic ultrahigh-density 3D holographic projections. They now describe their new approach, called three-dimensional scattering-assisted dynamic holography (3D-SDH). They show that it can achieve a depth resolution more than three orders of magnitude greater than state-of-the-art methods for multiplane holographic projection.
Published Hubble sees possible runaway black hole creating a trail of stars
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source There's an invisible monster on the loose, barreling through intergalactic space so fast that if it were in our solar system, it could travel from Earth to the Moon in 14 minutes. This supermassive black hole, weighing as much as 20 million Suns, has left behind a never-before-seen 200,000-light-year-long 'contrail' of newborn stars, twice the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. It's likely the result of a rare, bizarre game of galactic billiards among three massive black holes.
Published Researchers create embryo-like structures from monkey embryonic stem cells
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Human embryo development and early organ formation remain largely unexplored due to ethical issues surrounding the use of embryos for research as well as limited availability of materials to study. Investigators now report on the creation of embryo-like structures from monkey embryonic stem cells. The investigators also transferred these embryo-like structures into the uteruses of female monkeys and determined that the structures were able to implant and elicit a hormonal response similar to pregnancy.
Published Super-sized nanocage could deliver bigger drug cargoes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Nanocages are tiny artificial containers that can be used to deliver therapeutics to a target destination in the body. But some drug molecules are like gifts that are too big for a standard-sized nanocage 'box'. Now researchers describe how they have built a super-sized nanocage that could be used to deliver larger drug cargoes. They have built a bigger box.
Published Twinkling stars fuel interstellar dust
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Of the many different kinds of stars, asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, usually slightly larger and older than our own sun, are known producers of interstellar dust. Dusty AGBs are particularly prominent producers of dust, and the light they shine happens to vary widely. For the first time, a long-period survey has found the variable intensity of dusty AGBs coincides with variations in the amount of dust these stars produce. As this dust can lead to the creation of planets, its study can shed light on our own origins.
Published Hubble unexpectedly finds double quasar in distant universe
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The early universe was a rambunctious place where galaxies often bumped into each other and even merged together. Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and other space and ground-based observatories, astronomers investigating these developments have made an unexpected and rare discovery: a pair of gravitationally bound quasars, both blazing away inside two merging galaxies. They existed when the universe was just 3 billion years old.
Published How were amino acids, one of the key building blocks of life, formed before the origin of life on Earth?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The amino acid abundances of two Ryugu particles were measured and compared with their rocky components. The results demonstrate the important role that water plays in the formation of amino acids on the giant precursors of asteroids like Ryugu. Our solar system formed from a molecular cloud, which was composed of gas and dust that was emitted into the interstellar medium (ISM), a vast space between stars. On collapse of the molecular cloud, the early sun was formed, with a large disk of gas and dust orbiting it. The dusty material collided to produce rocky material that would eventually grow in size to give large bodies called planetesimals.
Published A miniature heart in a petri dish: Organoid emulates development of the human heart
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team has induced stem cells to emulate the development of the human heart. The result is a sort of 'mini-heart' known as an organoid. It will permit the study of the earliest development phase of our heart and facilitate research on diseases.
Published Sleight-of-hand magic trick only fools monkeys with opposable thumbs
(via sciencedaily.com) An illusion involving a hidden thumb confounds capuchin and squirrel monkeys for the same reason it does humans -- it misdirects expected outcomes of actions they can carry out. However, marmosets have five equidistant digits, and were rarely fooled by the magician. The research adds to evidence that animals struggle to predict movements outside of their own 'biomechanical ability'.
Published One of Swedish warship Vasa's crew was a woman
(via sciencedaily.com) When the human remains found on board the Swedish warship Vasa (1628) were investigated, it was determined that the skeleton designated G was a man. New research now shows that the skeleton is actually from a woman. About thirty people died when Vasa sank on its maiden voyage in Stockholm, 1628. We cannot know who most of them were, only one person is named in the written sources. When the ship was raised in 1961 it was the scene of a comprehensive archaeological excavation, in which numerous human bones were found on board and examined.
Published A new measurement could change our understanding of the Universe
(via sciencedaily.com) When it comes to measuring how fast the Universe is expanding, the result depends on which side of the Universe you start from. A recent study has calibrated the best cosmic yardsticks to unprecedented accuracy, shedding new light on what's known as the Hubble tension.
Published Origami-inspired robots can sense, analyze and act in challenging environments
(via sciencedaily.com) A multidisciplinary team has created a new fabrication technique for fully foldable robots that can perform a variety of complex tasks without relying on semiconductors.
Published Galaxy clusters yield new evidence for standard model of cosmology
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study probing the structure and evolution of galaxy clusters shows good agreement with the predictions of standard cosmological models.
Published Can investigators use household dust as a forensic tool?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source It is possible to retrieve forensically relevant information from human DNA in household dust.
Published Robotic hand can identify objects with just one grasp
(via sciencedaily.com) Newly created soft-rigid robotic fingers incorporate powerful sensors along their entire length, enabling them to produce a robotic hand that could accurately identify objects after only one grasp.
Published English language pushes everyone -- even AI chatbots -- to improve by adding
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A linguistic bias in the English language that leads us to 'improve' things by adding to them, rather than taking away, is so common that it is even ingrained in AI chatbots, a new study reveals.
Published Yak milk consumption among Mongol Empire elites
(via sciencedaily.com) For the first time, researchers have pinpointed a date when elite Mongol Empire people were drinking yak milk, according to a new study.
Published Path to net-zero carbon capture and storage may lead to ocean
(via sciencedaily.com) Engineering researchers have developed a novel way to capture carbon dioxide from the air and store it in the 'infinite sink' of the ocean. The approach uses an innovative copper-containing polymeric filter and essentially converts CO2 into sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda) that can be released harmlessly into the ocean. This new hybrid material, or filter, is called DeCarbonHIX (i.e., decarbonization through hybrid ion exchange material). The research has demonstrated a 300 percent increase in the amount of carbon captured compared with existing direct air capture methods.