ScienceDaily: Matter & Energy News

When we speak, we use our auditory and somatosensory systems to monitor the results of the movements of our tongue or lips. Since we cannot typically see our own faces and tongues while we speak, however, the potential role of visual feedback has remained less clear. Researchers explore how readily speakers will integrate visual information about their tongue movements during a speech motor learning task.

Scientists have extensively studied how gastric juices in the stomach break down ingested food and other substances. However, less is known about how complex flow patterns and mechanical stresses in the stomach contribute to digestion. Researchers built a prototype of an artificial antrum to present a deeper understanding of how physical forces influence food digestion based on fluid dynamics. They reveal a classifying effect based on the breakup of liquid drops combined with transport phenomena.

Scientists have developed a new simple, inexpensive and fast method to analyze sulfur isotopes, which can be used to help investigate chemical changes in environments such as oceans, and freshwater rivers and lakes.

Quantum information could be behind the next technological revolution. By analogy with the bit in classical computing, the qubit is the basic element of quantum computing. However, demonstrating the existence of this information storage unit and using it remains complex, and hence limited. An international research team used theoretical calculations to show that it is possible to realize a new type of qubit, in which information is stored in the oscillation amplitude of a carbon nanotube.

Researchers have developed a powerful miniature brain platform to study the mechanistic causes of Alzheimer's disease and to test dementia drugs in development.

Researchers have reached an important milestone in their quest to produce more sustainable luminescent materials and catalysts for converting sunlight into other forms of energy. They have developed a new class of compounds, based on the cheap metal manganese, with promising properties that until now have primarily been found in noble metal compounds.

Researchers have demonstrated a new technique to generate magnetic waves in antiferromagnets that propagate through the material at a speed much larger than the speed of sound. These so-called spin waves produce a lot less heat than conventional electric currents, making them promising candidates for future electronic devices with significantly reduced power consumption.