Scientists have long noted that people suffering from Parkinsons disease commonly exhibit a specific personality type characterized by, among other things, a lower-than-average tendency to seek out new experiences. In explanation, investigators suggested that this trait was rooted in an inability to reap the pleasurable rewards of increased dopamine levels normally brought about by new stimuli because the disease destroys the neurotransmitter. Previous studies of personality and dopamine activi
New light-sensitive glass can be recycled cleanly.
Researchers in Japan have developed recyclable light-sensitive glass. The new ’ecoglass’ does not contain the environmentally damaging halogen elements chlorine, bromine or iodine. These elements are essential to the photochromic glass that is currently used for car windscreens, sunglasses and visual display units.
Like photographic film, today’s photochromic glasses darken because they contain compounds of silver and halog
Army ants team little with large to lift heavy loads.
If you can’t see the point of the miniature back wheel on a penny-farthing bicycle, try riding a unicycle or watch an ant colony. Ants have realized that, to carry a heavy load, two supports are better than one – even if they seem comically mismatched.
When army ants partner up to carry a lump of food too big for a single ant to transport, an unusually large worker ant takes the front, and an unusually small one, the back
Ozone miniholes over the North Atlantic follow the unsteady pulse of climate fluctuations.
Recurring fluctuations in the North Atlantic climate are punching miniholes in the ozone layer, exposing Scandinavia and northern Europe to higher levels of ultraviolet radiation than normal, say two climatologists.
Seesawing air pressure over Greenland and the subtropical north Atlantic Ocean stirs the atmosphere and wafts ozone-depleted air towards populated high-latitude regions in
The smart money is on global warming.
An Alaskan sweepstake has become a record of global warming. The competition to predict when ice will melt reveals that, on average, the thaw comes more than five days earlier now than it did 84 years ago 1 .
In the winter of 1917, railway engineers working in Nenana, Alaska whiled away the long winter nights by erecting a wooden tripod on the frozen Tenana River and placing bets on the exact moment in spring when it would
Draft Fugu genome will help find human genes.
A draft sequence of the puffer-fish genome is complete. The fishs compact genetics should accelerate the discovery of human genes and their key controlling sequences.
Gene-prediction programs struggle to find genes in the 3 billion letters of the human sequence, which includes swathes of junk DNA and defunct pseudogenes.
The bony fish Fugu rubripes shares our gene repertoire but has a genome one-eighth of the size.
Teleoperated robots for gathering moon dust are a step closer, according to new research by scientists at the University of Bristol. The team were able to complete a sample collection…
Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe the ‘inside-out’ growth of a galaxy in the early universe, only 700 million years after the Big Bang….
Experimental findings about plasma wave reflection could answer questions about high temperatures. There is a profound mystery in our sun. While the sun’s surface temperature measures around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit,…
New types of sensors could help to develop plant protection products that are safe for bees. The increasing global demand for plant-based foods makes the use of pesticides necessary in…
Plants have a sophisticated mechanism for monitoring the production of new proteins. The “U1 snRNP” complex ensures that the protein blueprints are fully completed. This is important because cells tend…
Tiny transmitters provide first insights into precise migration routes of bats. Some bat species are among the world champions of seasonal migration in the animal kingdom. Leisler’s bat, for example,…
Researchers from Univ. of British Columbia and Drexel University Use Kirigami to Create Tunable Radio Antennas from MXene Nanomaterials. The future of wireless technology — from charging devices to boosting…
Using mechanisms inspired by nature to create new technological innovations is a signature of one Virginia Tech research team. The group led by Associate Professor Michael Bartlett has created an octopus-inspired adhesive,…
Materials researchers have created a new composite material that combines two incompatible properties: stiff yet with a high damping capacity. In brief Oscillations and vibrations damage machines and buildings, while…
New research achieves significant bandwidth in frequency conversion, paving the way for more efficient quantum information transfer and integrated photonic systems. Advancements in quantum information technology are paving the way…
Researchers will unveil the app on Oct. 15, at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. Northwestern University engineers have developed a new system for full-body motion capture…
UDDC Ensures Seamless Transmission of Image Data to Microdisplays. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS have developed a Universal Display Data Converter (UDDC). This enables the transfer…