Centuries before Monopoly, there was Patolli, a high-stakes Mesoamerican game of strategy and luck where players wagered crops and wealth as they raced their opponents around a cross-shaped board.
A key objective of electronics engineers is to further reduce the size of devices, while also boosting their speed, performance and efficiency. Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, single-layer and thin materials with a controllable electrical conductivity, have been found to be particularly promising for the development of smaller electronics.
Quantum ground states are the states at which quantum systems have the minimum possible energy. Quantum computers are increasingly being used to analyze the ground states of interesting systems, which could in turn inform the design of new materials, chemical compounds, pharmaceutical drugs and other valuable goods.
A new analysis published in the journal BioScience challenges conventional conservation approaches by demonstrating that traditional livestock grazing on rangelands represents a crucial but often overlooked strategy for protecting global biodiversity.
Researchers at Northern Arizona University and the Smithsonian found an unconventional method to understand how rainforests will survive with climate change—making tea with living leaves at the top of the rainforest canopy.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, along with collaborators at Northwestern University, have developed a noninvasive approach to treat one of the most aggressive and deadly brain cancers. Their technology uses precisely engineered structures assembled from nano-size materials to deliver potent tumor-fighting medicine to the brain through nasal drops. The novel delivery method is less invasive than similar treatments in development and was shown in mice to effectively treat glioblastoma by boosting the brain's immune response.
As this month's string of powerful X-class solar flares sparked brilliant auroras that lit up skies across an unusually wide swath of the globe—from northern Europe to Florida—researchers at NJIT's Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR) captured a less visible, but crucial, record of the storm's impact on Earth's upper atmosphere.
When militia attacks disrupted shipping lanes in the Red Sea, few imagined the ripple effects would reach the clouds over the South Atlantic. But for Florida State University atmospheric scientist Michael Diamond, the rerouting of cargo ships offered a rare opportunity to clarify a pressing climate question—How much do cleaner fuels change how clouds form?
The varied topography of the Western United States—a patchwork of valleys and mountains, basins and plateaus—results in minutely localized weather. Accordingly, snowfall forecasts for the mountain West often suffer from a lack of precision, with predictions provided as broad ranges of inch depths for a given day or storm cycle.
In January, a team led by Jim Schuck, professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia Engineering, developed a method for creating entangled photon pairs, a critical component of emerging quantum technologies, using a crystalline device just 3.4 micrometers thick.
In industrial pipes, mineral deposits build up the way limescale collects inside a kettle ⎯ only on a far larger and more expensive scale. Mineral scaling is a major issue in water and energy systems, where it slows flow, strains equipment and drives up costs.
The information needed to decipher the last remaining unsolved secret message embedded within a sculpture at CIA headquarters in Virginia sold at auction for nearly $1 million, the auction house announced Friday.
A yearslong effort to purchase two of the most powerful water rights on the Colorado River has cleared another hurdle after the state water board agreed to manage the rights alongside Western Slope water officials.
In associate professor Mauro Tambasco's lab, researchers at all levels work together to develop innovative approaches to fighting cancer.
Alzheimer's disease (AD), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, is one of the leading causes of dementia worldwide, and currently has no definitive cure. Although antibody-based therapies that target amyloid β (Aβ) have recently been developed, their clinical effectiveness remains limited. These treatments can be costly and cause immune-related side effects, highlighting the need for safer, affordable, and widely accessible approaches that can slow the progression of AD.
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is one of the world's most dangerous yet overlooked infectious diseases. Spread by ticks and livestock, the virus causes sudden fever, organ failure, and internal bleeding, killing up to 40% of those infected. Outbreaks have been reported across parts of Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. Despite decades of research, no approved vaccines or treatments exist.
University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have shown that reducing chronic inflammation can significantly protect against age-related macular degeneration (AMD)-like pathology in preclinical models. The findings were recently published in Cell Death & Disease.
In Black adults, computed tomography colonography (CTC) is cost-effective for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, according to a study published online Nov. 12 in Cancer Medicine.
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, today presented a 26-member team with the ACM Gordon Bell Prize for Climate Modeling in recognition of their project "Computing the Full Earth System at 1 km Resolution." The award honors innovative contributions to parallel computing toward solving the global climate crisis.
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) impacts nearly two million Americans, and by the time most people learn they have it, most of the body's insulin-producing cells are destroyed. Now, pinpointing a hidden group of immune "attack" cells in the pancreatic lymph nodes that appear earlier in the disease could offer the first real chance to detect—and even stop—T1D, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania detailed in Science Immunology.
Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest form of cancer worldwide, mainly because the disease is often discovered late. Symptoms associated with these tumors are often non-specific, so patients and doctors do not immediately suspect cancer. Moreover, these tumors are difficult to detect in the early stages on abdominal CT scans. Once the diagnosis is made, curative treatment is usually no longer possible. Only 10% of patients survive beyond five years.
When designing membranes that separate industrial gases, scientists often incorporate structures that attract the gas they want to obtain. This attraction can enhance the membrane's permeability, and help isolate the desired gas more efficiently.
The understanding of complex many-body dynamics in laser-driven polyatomic molecules is crucial for any attempt to steer chemical reactions by means of intense light fields. Ultrashort and intense X-ray pulses from accelerator-based free electron lasers (FELs) now open the door to directly watch the strong reshaping of molecules by laser fields.
We owe a lot to tissue resident memory T cells (TRM). These specialized immune cells are among the body's first responders to disease.
A vast region of our solar system, called the Kuiper belt, stretches from the orbit of Neptune out to 50 or so astronomical units (AU), where an AU is the distance between Earth and the sun. This region consists mostly of icy objects and small rocky bodies, like Pluto. Scientists believe Kuiper belt objects (KPOs) are remnants left over from the formation of the solar system.
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified a brain circuit that can drive repetitive and compulsive behaviors in mice, even when natural rewards such as food or social contact are available. The study has been published in the journal Science Advances and may contribute to increased knowledge about obsessive-compulsive disorder and addiction.
At low temperatures, hydrogen atoms move less like particles and more like waves. This characteristic enables quantum tunneling, the passage of an atom through a barrier with a higher potential energy than the energy of the atom. Understanding how hydrogen atoms move through potential barriers has important industrial applications. However, the small size of hydrogen atoms makes direct observation of their motion extremely challenging.
Researchers from the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have uncovered how soil food webs promote the transformation and storage of photosynthetic carbon in farmlands. Their results were published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
A joint research team from NIMS and Toyo Tanso has developed a carbon electrode that enables stable operation of a 1-Wh-class stacked lithium-air battery, achieving higher output, longer life and scalability simultaneously.
An international study led by Mayo Clinic researchers has found that for people with severe carotid artery narrowing who haven't experienced recent stroke symptoms, a minimally invasive procedure called carotid artery stenting, combined with intensive medical therapy, significantly lowered stroke risk compared with medical therapy alone. Traditional surgery (carotid endarterectomy) did not show the same benefit. The research is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Ancient Mars boasted abundant water, but the cold and dry conditions of today make liquid water on the Red Planet seem far less probable. However, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) detected strong radar reflections from a 20-kilometer-wide area over the base of Mars's southern polar ice cap, hinting at the possibility of liquid water below the icy surface. Such a finding would have major implications for the planet's possible habitability.
Cornell researchers have found that a new DNA sequencing technology can be used to study how transposons move within and bind to the genome. Transposons play critical roles in immune response, neurological function and genetic evolution, and implications of the finding include agricultural advancements and understanding disease development and treatment.
A research team from Prof. Benjamin List's department at the Max Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung has solved a long-elusive riddle of chemistry: the synthesis of stable, open-chain amines that carry their chirality on nitrogen. This marks the first achievement of its kind, enabled by a newly developed catalytic reaction and a precisely engineered, highly confined catalyst. The work of the Mülheim scientists is fundamental in nature but also opens up new avenues for active ingredients, catalysts, and materials.
Pfizer's mRNA flu vaccine worked better than a standard flu shot in a large Phase 3 trial, researchers reported.
For patients recovering from opioid use disorder, particularly from drugs like fentanyl or heroin, the days immediately following a hospital stay are among the most dangerous. A new multi-state study led by researchers at CU Anschutz found that nearly half of patients discharged with take-home methadone successfully connected to follow-up treatment within 72 hours. That window can be the difference between relapse and recovery or even life and death.
Combining genetic risk with cardiovascular disease risk factors—such as high LDL cholesterol, obesity, and hypertension—may predict who is more likely to develop dementia, according to a new study led by UC San Francisco.
In the search for a way to measure different forms of a condition called sensory processing disorder, neuroscientists are using imaging to see how young brains process sensory stimulation.
A new study led by Clarkson University Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy Kwadwo Appiah-Kubi shows that too much sitting and too little physical activity can weaken balance and walking ability, even in healthy young adults. The research, published in Applied Sciences, highlights why moving more and sitting less is important for long-term mobility and everyday safety.
Three times as many lung cancer deaths could be prevented if everyone eligible for screening got a chest CT scan, a new study says.
Scientists have been able to measure the electrical signals in the "second brain in our guts" for the first-ever time, giving renewed understanding to its interconnection with the brain.
Researchers at the University of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine have found widespread genetic and protein changes in the brain cells of people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which may help shed light on mechanisms of the disease.
New York City's thousands of traffic cameras capture endless hours of footage each day, but analyzing that video to identify safety problems and implement improvements typically requires resources that most transportation agencies don't have.
Mindfulness-based interventions may reduce burnout among nurses and midwives and among a mixture of health care professionals (HCPs), but professional coaching appears to be most effective for reducing burnout among physicians, according to a review published online Nov. 18 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Chemerin is a key adipokine that regulates lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity, and thus is involved in many metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. In addition, it plays a critical role in inflammation as a chemoattractant adipokine by guiding immune cell trafficking to inflammatory sites.
In research, induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are derived from skin, urine, or blood samples and developed into other cells, like heart tissue, that researchers want to study. Because of the similarities between certain dog and human diseases, canine iPS cells have potential uses in regenerative medicine and drug discovery.
Japanese local authorities approved the restart of the world's biggest nuclear plant on Friday for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Researchers have discovered that ferroelectric fluids can harness an overlooked transverse electrostatic force (TEF) to rise over 80 mm, without magnets or high voltages. By exploiting the fluid's spontaneous polarization and exceptionally high dielectric constant, they achieved a strong TEF, previously thought unattainable in conventional electrostatics.
A research team affiliated with UNIST has unveiled a novel thermoelectric (TE) film, capable of powering LED lights using a mere 1.5°C temperature difference between the human body and ambient air. This innovative technology promises new possibilities for self-powered wearable devices and energy-harvesting applications.
Solar panels made from silicon already adorn rooftops and vast fields around the world—but they are reaching their performance limits. Researchers are now pairing silicon with a promising material called perovskite to capture more sunlight and generate more electricity within the same area.
The ability to analyze the brain's neural connectivity is emerging as a key foundation for brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies, such as controlling artificial limbs and enhancing human intelligence. To make these analyses more precise, it is critical to quickly and accurately interpret the complex signals from many neurons in the brain.
A new Australian study has smashed the myth that generative AI systems such as ChatGPT could soon replace society's most creative playwrights, authors, songwriters, artists and scriptwriters.
OpenAI and Taiwan electronics giant Foxconn have agreed to a partnership to design and manufacture key equipment for artificial intelligence data centers in the U.S. as part of ambitious plans to fortify American AI infrastructure.
The shipbuilding industry is on the verge of a major leap forward. Timo Alho's doctoral dissertation at the University of Vaasa introduces a pioneering power management strategy that prevents ship blackouts. In Alho's management principle, the vessel's electrical equipment is capable of independently supporting the ship's grid without centralized commands. This makes the vessel's power systems significantly more fault-tolerant than before.
You've just put a dollar into a machine to play a song and it stopped playing after a few seconds. You put in another dollar and the tune stops after a minute. You can't get your dollars back and can't listen to the song you want. But what if you had known ahead of time what would happen, and could have saved yourself the money and frustration?
Soon, researchers may be able to create movies of their favorite protein or virus better and faster than ever before. Researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have pioneered a new machine learning method—called X-RAI (X-Ray single particle imaging with Amortized Inference)—that can "look" at millions of X-ray laser-generated images and create a three-dimensional reconstruction of the target particle. The team recently reported their findings in Nature Communications.
By studying the theoretical limits of how light can be used to perform computation, Cornell researchers have uncovered new insights and strategies for designing energy-efficient optical computing systems.
Researchers at the Institute of Science Tokyo have developed a neural-network-based 3D imaging technique that can precisely measure moving objects—a task long considered extremely challenging for conventional optical systems.
Reducing the U.K.'s energy demand could help the country reach its net zero target faster and at half the cost compared to relying mainly on supply-side technologies, according to new research by energy experts.
The poplar (Populus alba) has a unique survival strategy: when exposed to hot and dry conditions, it curls its leaves to expose the ventral surface, reflecting sunlight, and at night, the moisture condensed on the leaf surface releases latent heat to prevent frost damage. Plants have evolved such intricate mechanisms in response to dynamic environmental fluctuations in diurnal and seasonal temperature cycles, light intensity, and humidity, but there have been few instances of realizing such a sophisticated thermal management system with artificial materials.
Paper packaging is a sustainable alternative to plastic. However, as it is permeable to air, food packaged in paper loses its flavor over time, and undesirable substances such as solvents can penetrate the packaging. Up to now, extensive tests were necessary for each type of paper to determine to what extent and how quickly this happens.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published a report identifying strategies for developing a more efficient, sustainable and resilient U.S. metals processing infrastructure, where metals are used and reused more efficiently throughout the economy. The report highlights key challenges that must be addressed to achieve this goal, including a lack of robust standards for recycled content and supply chain vulnerabilities for critical materials.
It's becoming increasingly difficult to make today's artificial intelligence (AI) systems work at the scale required to keep advancing. They require enormous amounts of memory to ensure all their processing chips can quickly share all the data they generate in order to work as a unit.
Around a quarter of UK homes lie on disused coalfields. These abandoned coal mines are flooded with water that is naturally heated by the Earth.
How can components be designed for an optimal balance of minimal weight and maximum robustness? This is a challenge faced by many industries, from medical device manufacturing to the automotive and aeronautics sectors.
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