Latest News

Very low lead levels linked with IQ deficits, according to NEJM study

A new study suggests that lead may be harmful even at very low blood concentrations. The study, funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, will appear in the April 17 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine.

The five-year study found that children who have blood lead concentration lower than 10 micrograms per deciliter suffer intellectual impairment from the exposure. The researchers also discovered that the amount of impai

Scientists returning to field of eerie thermal spires

The bizarre hydrothermal vent field discovered a little more than two years ago surprised scientists not only with vents that are the tallest ever seen – the one that’s 18 stories dwarfs most vents at other sites by at least 100 feet – but also because the fluids forming these vents are heated by seawater reacting with million-year-old mantle rocks, not by young volcanism.

The remarkable Lost City hydrothermal vent field, so named partly because it sits on a seafloor mountain named the

Team designs twist on software

Virtual shapes created on a computer screen by manipulating ShapeTape, a flexible tape-like tool

U of T researchers have created software that will enable users to twist, bend, push and pull shapes in two and three dimensions.”

Our work represents a completely different way of interacting with computers,” says Professor Ravin Balakrishnan of U of T’s Department of Computer Science, who led the research. “It moves away from the ’one-size-fits-all’ keyboard and

Nanometer-thick clay may yield groundbreaking technology

An ultrathin film containing 1-nanometer thick clay particles has been created for the first time, an accomplishment that may yield new materials and devices for medicine, electronics and engineering, according to Purdue University and Belgian scientists.

Using a method that captures clay particles on a crystal, Purdue and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven research partners were able to produce, see and manipulate a single layer of clay. It would take 70,000 of these layers to equal the thickn

Gene variation in immune system cells lowers heart disease risk

In a serendipitous spin-off of HIV/AIDS research, scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and colleagues have found strong evidence that a genetic variation affecting immune system cells protects against heart disease. Details of the work, which also provides further evidence for the role of inflammation in heart disease, will appear in the April 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

“This work demonstrates how NIAID’s commitment to

NC State Researchers Develop New Plastic Recycling Process

Plastics are everywhere these days, but current recycling techniques allow only a very limited portion to be reclaimed after initial use. Researchers in the Department of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University, working to change that, have developed a unique recycling process for some of the most common kinds of polymers.

The familiar soda bottle is made of a plastic called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). These bottles are ubiquitous, yet recycling them poses challenges, p

Page
1 17,527 17,528 17,529 17,530 17,531 18,029

Physics and Astronomy

Extreme weather events and climate resilience in 2024.

Facing the Storm: A Prepped Up Future Against Extreme Climatic and Weather Changes

From the persistent droughts of southern Africa and Central America in the early part of the year to the more recent devastating extreme rainfall in Spain and the deadly Hurricane…

Bismuth–antimony crystals demonstrating topological thermoelectrics under a weak magnetic field.

Magnetic Effect: Groundbreaking Discovery for Low-Temperature Thermoelectric Cooling

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, in collaboration with Chongqing University and the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, have achieved a breakthrough in topological…

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe makes history with closest pass to Sun

Operations teams have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024. Breaking its previous record by flying just…

Life Sciences and Chemistry

Illustration of RNA modifications contributing to fungal drug resistance

Tackling Life-Threatening Fungal Infections Using RNA Modifications

Importance of RNA modifications for the development of resistance in fungi raises hope for more effective treatment of fungal infections. An often-overlooked mechanism of gene regulation may be involved in…

RNA-binding protein RbpB regulating gut microbiota metabolism in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.

Trust Your Gut—RNA-Protein Discovery for Better Immunity

HIRI researchers uncover control mechanisms of polysaccharide utilization in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) and the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) in Würzburg have identified a…

Diagram of lithium titanium phosphate crystal lattice structure showing its negative thermal expansion properties for enhanced lithium-ion battery performance.

Recharging the Future: Batteries Built for Extreme Cold Using Negative Thermal Expansion

Most solids expand as temperatures increase and shrink as they cool. Some materials do the opposite, expanding in the cold. Lithium titanium phosphate is one such substance and could provide…

Materials Sciences

Spintronics memory innovation: A new perpendicular magnetized film

Long gone are the days where all our data could fit on a two-megabyte floppy disk. In today’s information-based society, the increasing volume of information being handled demands that we…

Materials with a ‘twist’ show unexpected electronic behaviour

In the search for new materials that can enable more efficient electronics, scientists are exploring so-called 2-D materials. These are sheets of just one atom thick, that may have all…

Layer by Layer

How simulations help manufacturing of modern displays. Modern materials must be recyclable and sustainable. Consumer electronics is no exception, with organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) taking over modern televisions and portable…

Information Technology

Illustration of multiferroic heterostructures enabling energy-efficient MRAM with giant magnetoelectric effect.

Magnetic Memory Unlocked with Energy-Efficient MRAM

Researchers from Osaka University introduced an innovative technology to lower power consumption for modern memory devices. Stepping up the Memory Game: Overcoming the Limitations of Traditional RAM Osaka, Japan –…

Framework for automating RBAC compliance checks using process mining and policy validation tools.

Next-Level System Security: Smarter Access Control for Organizations

Cutting-Edge Framework for Enhancing System Security Researchers at the University of Electro-Communications have developed a groundbreaking framework for improving system security by analyzing business process logs. This framework focuses on…

NTU and NUS spin-off cutting-edge quantum control technology

AQSolotl’s quantum controller is designed to be adaptable, scalable and cost-efficient. Quantum technology jointly developed at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and National University of Singapore (NUS) has now…