ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

Keeping the energy in the room

Posted: 01 Jul 2022 01:33 PM PDT

Researchers are developing precision optical sensors for telescopes and observatories. The team has now improved the spectra resolution of their superconducting sensor, a major step in their ultimate goal: analyzing the composition of exoplanets.

Advocating a new paradigm for electron simulations

Posted: 01 Jul 2022 08:31 AM PDT

Researchers improve a widely used simulation method for high-performance computing clusters.

Capturing the onset of galaxy rotation in the early universe

Posted: 01 Jul 2022 07:27 AM PDT

After the Big Bang came the earliest galaxies. Due to the expansion of the universe, these galaxies are receding away from us. This causes their emissions to be redshifted (shifted towards longer wavelengths). By studying these redshifts, it is possible to characterize the 'motion' within the galaxies as well as their distance. In a new study, astronomers have now revealed a likely rotational motion of one such distant galaxy.

Hearing better with skin than ears

Posted: 01 Jul 2022 07:27 AM PDT

A research team develops a sound-sensing skin-attachable acoustic sensor. The new sensor decreased in size and increased in flexibility and is applicable as auditory electronic skin.

Machine-learning algorithms can help health care staff correctly diagnose alcohol-associated hepatitis, acute cholangitis

Posted: 01 Jul 2022 07:27 AM PDT

New research finds that machine-learning algorithms can help health care staff distinguish the two conditions. Researchers show how algorithms may be effective predictive tools using a few simple variables and routinely available structured clinical information.

Bacteria for blastoff: Using microbes to make supercharged new rocket fuel

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 01:00 PM PDT

Biofuel scientists used an oddball molecule made by bacteria to develop a new class of sustainable biofuels powerful enough to launch rockets. The candidate molecules have greater projected energy density than any petroleum product, including the leading aviation and rocket fuels, JetA and RP-1.

Gemini North spies ultra-faint fossil galaxy discovered on outskirts of Andromeda

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 01:00 PM PDT

An unusual ultra-faint dwarf galaxy has been discovered on the outer fringes of the Andromeda Galaxy thanks to the sharp eyes of an amateur astronomer. Follow-up by professional astronomers revealed that the dwarf galaxy -- Pegasus V -- contains very few heavier elements and is likely to be a fossil of the first galaxies.

Signaling molecule potently stimulates hair growth

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 11:22 AM PDT

Researchers have discovered that a signaling molecule called SCUBE3 potently stimulates hair growth and may offer a therapeutic treatment for androgenetic alopecia, a common form of hair loss in both women and men.

Dissolving implantable device relieves pain without drugs

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 11:21 AM PDT

Researchers have developed a small, soft, flexible implant that relieves pain on demand and without the use of drugs. The first-of-its-kind device could provide a much-needed alternative to opioids and other highly addictive medications. It works by softly wrapping around nerves to deliver precise, targeted cooling, which numbs nerves and blocks pain signals to the brain. After the device is no longer needed, it naturally absorbs into the body -- bypassing the need for surgical extraction.

Floating in space might be fun, but study shows it's hard on earthly bodies

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 10:48 AM PDT

Bone loss happens in humans -- as we age, get injured, or any scenario where we can't move the body, we lose bone. Understanding what happens to astronauts and how they recover is incredibly rare. It lets us look at the processes happening in the body in such a short time frame. We would have to follow someone for decades on Earth to see the same amount of bone loss.

Cosmological thinking meets neuroscience in new theory about brain connections

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 10:48 AM PDT

A collaboration between a former cosmologist and a computational neuroscientist generates a new way to identify essential connections between brain cells.

Optical fiber imaging method advances studies of Alzheimer's disease

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 10:48 AM PDT

An optical fiber as thin as a strand of hair holds promise for use in minimally invasive deep-tissue studies of patients' brains that show the effects Alzheimer's disease and other brain disorders. The challenge is efficiently increasing image resolution at the subcellular level, because loss of information is inevitable from light scrambling.

Building explainability into the components of machine-learning models

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 10:48 AM PDT

Researchers have created a taxonomy and outlined steps that developers can take to design features in machine-learning models that are easier for decision-makers to understand.

Breaking AIs to make them better

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 08:45 AM PDT

Current AIs are very accurate but inflexible at image recognition. Exactly why this is remains a mystery. Researchers have developed a method called 'Raw Zero-Shot' to assess how neural networks handle elements unknown to them. The results have the potential to help researchers identify the common features that make neural networks 'non-robust,' and develop methods to make AIs more reliable.

Algorithm predicts crime a week in advance, but reveals bias in police response

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 08:45 AM PDT

A new computer model uses publicly available data to predict crime accurately in eight U.S. cities, while revealing increased police response in wealthy neighborhoods at the expense of less advantaged areas.

Tonga volcano eruption among the most powerful ever observed, triggering atmospheric gravity waves that reached the edge of space

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 08:44 AM PDT

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai submarine volcano in January 2022 was one of the most explosive volcanic events of the modern era, a new study has confirmed.

Common gene used to profile microbial communities

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 08:44 AM PDT

Computer scientists develop Emu, an algorithm that uses long reads of genomes to identify the species of bacteria in a community. The program could simplify sorting harmful from helpful bacteria in microbiomes like those in the gut or in agriculture and the environment.

Laser writing may enable 'electronic nose' for multi-gas sensor

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 06:57 AM PDT

Environmental sensors are a step closer to simultaneously sniffing out multiple gases that could indicate disease or pollution. Researchers combined laser writing and responsive sensor technologies to fabricate the first highly customizable microscale gas sensing devices.

Pioneering recycling turns mixed waste into premium plastics with no climate impact

Posted: 30 Jun 2022 05:33 AM PDT

Only a fraction of the material that could be turned into new plastic is currently recycled. Researchers have now demonstrated how the carbon atoms in mixed waste can replace all fossil raw materials in the production of new plastic. The recycling method is inspired by the natural carbon cycle and could eliminate the climate impact of plastic materials, or even clean the air of carbon dioxide.

Study paves the way towards a more precise use of CRISPR

Posted: 29 Jun 2022 09:10 AM PDT

The results of a Danish research study may be the key to a more effective use of the revolutionary gene technology CRISPR.

Making dark semiconductors shine

Posted: 27 Jun 2022 09:49 AM PDT

The energy-levels of semiconductors can be rearranged by coupling between light particles (photons) and excited electrons so that a formerly dark material becomes optically active. In their experiments, the researchers succeeded in manipulating the energy-level structure in an ultra-thin sample of the semiconductor tungsten diselenide. This material, which normally has a low luminescence yield, began to shine, the team reports.