Science News

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Argonne awarded $4 million to research new materials to develop energy-efficient microchips.

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Researchers have developed a groundbreaking point-of-care detection method for Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a bacterium responsible for a significant number of foodborne illnesses. The new platform, leveraging recombinant polymerase amplification (RPA) and the CRISPR/Cas12a system combined with an immunochromatographic test strip (ICS), offers a low-cost, simple, and visually intuitive solution for the rapid detection of this pathogen in seafood.

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From lemur poop to good old human poop, our waste has a story to tell. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory’s Environmental Sample Preparation and Sequencing Facility (ESPSF) has the tools and technology to get to the bottom of genetic mysteries from the natural world. Facility Manager Sarah Owens can help shed light on the quirkier side of genetics.

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Researchers from Binghamton University investigated how spiders listen to their environments through webs and found that the webs match the acoustic particle velocity for a wide range of sound frequencies.

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China's Earth Observation (EO) System has seen significant progress, evolving into a sophisticated network of satellites supporting various global applications. This system, vital for sustainable development, promises further advancements with new technologies enhancing its capabilities.

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Researchers have developed a groundbreaking electrostatic air sampler that enhances the rapid monitoring of airborne influenza and coronavirus. The device, capable of high air flow rates, offers significant advancements in detecting viral presence in indoor environments through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis.

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Hockey players are famous for their distinctive jargon, but while researching this phenomenon, linguist and hockey player Andrew Bray realized another interesting pattern in hockey speech: American hockey players adopted aspects of Canadian English pronunciations.

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Disc-related back pain may one day meet its therapeutic match: gene therapy delivered by naturally derived nanocarriers that, a new study shows, repairs damaged discs in the spine and lowers pain symptoms in mice.

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A recent article outlines a novel approach to understanding and reducing personal carbon emissions. By comparing daily energy use to food consumption and transportations, researchers provide clear strategies for individuals to reduce their carbon footprint effectively.

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Researchers have introduced a new quasi solid-state succinonitrile-based electrolyte for lithium-ion batteries that enhances safety and longevity. This groundbreaking work presents a leap forward in the quest for batteries that are not only safer but also perform better over extended periods.

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The Information and Intelligence Group within The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is one of more than 200 leading AI stakeholders to help advance the development and deployment of safe, trustworthy AI under new U.S. Government safety institute.

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A team of researchers including a member of the Quantum Science Center at ORNL has published a review paper on the state of the field of Majorana research. The paper primarily describes four major platforms that are capable of hosting these particles, as well as the progress made over the past decade in this area.

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.Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are developing battery technologies to fight climate change in two ways, by expanding the use of renewable energy and capturing airborne carbon dioxide. This type of battery stores the renewable energy generated by solar panels or wind turbines. Utilizing this energy when wind and sunlight are unavailable requires an electrochemical reaction that, in ORNL’s new battery formulations, captures carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and converts it to value-added products.

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Nickel monosilicide (NiSi), a material widely used to connect transistors in semiconductor circuits, was wrongly predicted by theory to be non-magnetic. Now scientists have used neutron scattering to identify an elusive form of magnetic order in NiSi. This finding could lead to improved semiconductors for computers and computer memory.

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Argonne has awarded five named postdoctoral fellowships to researchers in fields including particle physics, materials science, quantum, artificial intelligence, energy storage, and environmental science.

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Spending time in nature is good for us. And knowing more about nature’s effects on our bodies could not only help our well-being, but could also improve how we care for land, preserve ecosystems and design cities. A team of scientists is calling for more research into how odors and scents from natural settings impact our health and well-being.

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Seven African American high school students won gold medals in a science competition hosted by DuPage County ACT-SO, a community organization.

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Fire ants form rafts to survive flooding, but how do those bonds work? And what can we learn from them? A Binghamton University, State University of New York professor is researching those questions to expand our knowledge of materials science.

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Scientists at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis will explore stratospheric aerosol injection with a $1.5 million grant from the Simons Foundation International.

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Pickups can be seen as the “heart” of the electric guitar, turning vibrations from the strings into electricity for sound. The details of how the pickup coil is wound has a significant impact on the resulting sound of the instrument, and variables such as the type and thickness of the wire, the winding pattern, the shape and size of the pickup, and even the type of magnets used can all influence the guitar’s sound.

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In the emperor penguin courtship call, male vocalizations are composed of long, slow bursts with lower frequency tones than the female version. But calls of SeaWorld San Diego male penguin E-79 defied this binary. Also unusual was this penguin’s male companion, E-81. The pair “kept company” and sometimes exhibited ritual courtship displays.

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Researchers have significantly improved the accuracy of global geodetic parameters by employing Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) to a wider array of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), satellites, according to a recent study. This advancement aids crucial applications in geosciences and satellite navigation.

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New study reveals that solid-state reaction process would occur among multiphase multicomponent ceramic during ablation, thereby, resulting in their composition evolution. This composition evolution led to the improvement of thermodynamic stability of multiphase multicomponent ceramic and enhanced its ablation performance.

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Using a comprehensive global dataset including 27,297 measurements of wood density from 2,621 tree species worldwide, we test the hypothesis that the legacy of evolutionary history plays an important role in driving the variation of wood density among tree species.

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STScI assistant astronomer John Wu has been named 2024 Outstanding Young Scientist by the Maryland Academy of Sciences. Using machine-learning methods that he developed, he has pioneered the discovery of low-mass galaxy candidates and contributed to theoretical models of galaxies, dark matter halos, and their cosmic surroundings.

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The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering the most promising innovators in science and technology, has announced 18 recipients of the 2024 Hertz Fellowships in applied science, engineering and mathematics.

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Leptospirosis is an illness caused by a bacteria called leptospira that can be present in soil and stagnant water. Rodents and other wildlife carry the bacteria and spread it through their urine. Both humans and dogs can become sick with leptospirosis, while cats are considered disease-resistant. For both people and dogs, the result of infection can range from mild to deadly serious.

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An interdisciplinary team of scientists from Jefferson Lab, Old Dominion University and the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a conceptual device for quantum computing that could rival – or even outperform – other systems being developed. The “core” of this computer would be based on a compact, spin-transparent storage ring, which can maintain the entangled states of ions as they travel along a figure-eight path.

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Restoring motor control and sensation from an artificial hand in a natural way remains a scientific “holy grail.” Researchers have developed a novel biohybrid neuro-prosthetic research platform comprised of a dexterous artificial hand electrically interfaced with biological neural networks. Ultimately, this could lead to a better understanding of the complex sensation of touch, which is necessary for refined control of the hand.

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New research employs shutter speed analogies to validate 55-year-old theory about chemical reaction rates.

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As the world presses forward with urgency towards reaching global biodiversity and climate targets by 2030, there must be increased attention to center equity in dialogue and practice when designing ocean conservation, adaptation and development interventions.

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The Department of Defense (DOD) has announced that a researcher at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has won a Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR) award for $600,000 to study how high-energy density lithium-ion batteries degrade over a range of temperatures. The work is particularly relevant to power applications for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).

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At Image Creators salon in Maryland, employees and customers noticed they had to work hard to understand each other’s words, but they couldn’t put their finger on exactly why.

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A collaborative NIH-funded team is using AI to mine common chest CT scans to predict mortality. Their research identified a collection of cardiac factors that were predictive of death in a large group of patients, potentially setting the stage for improved cardiac screening.

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Diffusion in solids is the process by which atoms move throughout a material. The production of steel, ions moving through a battery and the doping of semiconductor devices are all things that are controlled by diffusion.

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Information systems professor Kunpeng Zhang will direct a deep dive into the technical framework behind the large language model in an initiative tailored for professionals in public-facing and commercial sectors.

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University of Utah researchers document a close association between the pest’s spread and warming temperatures. Their study includes an online tool that forecasts the adelgid spread across the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest based on various climate scenarios.

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The DOE’s CyberForce Adventure Competition 2024 awarded Cameron Whitehead from University of Central Florida as the winner, one of 112 students who competed in this event, as part of the CyberForce program aiming to bridge the growing cybersecurity workforce gap in the United States.

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Groundbreaking initiative funded by Department of Energy poised to shape future of sustainable mobility by advancing decarbonization of trucks, locomotives, marine vessels and more.

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The Pacific Offshore Wind Consortium (POWC) is a joint effort between three university research centers: the Schatz Energy Research Center at Cal Poly Humboldt, the Pacific Marine Energy Center at Oregon State University, and the Center for Coastal Marine Sciences at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. These universities are housed in and support the coastal communities in California and Oregon which are anticipated to host floating offshore wind development.

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A team led by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory explored training strategies for one of the largest artificial intelligence models to date with help from Frontier, the world’s fastest supercomputer.

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Microtoroid resonators are one of the most sensitive biochemical sensors, capable of detecting single molecules. Light is most commonly coupled into these sensors using a fragile and vibration-sensitive tapered optical fiber, preventing translation to field-portable sensing. Scientists from the University of Arizona have achieved far-field coupling of light to ultra-high quality factor microtoroids using a single objective lens. This is the foundation of a fully on-chip multiplexed microtoroid sensing platform.

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Understanding the solid target ultrafast phase transitions induced by a high-intensity ultra-short laser pulse is crucial to many applications as laser-induced ablation or laser-driven ion acceleration. Scientists from Germany and France have used a single-shot probing technique that reveals the transition dynamics of the target from cold solid to overdense plasma.

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Sleep Consortium, in partnership with leading sleep-related patient advocacy organizations, the global patient community, and key industry stakeholders, is thrilled to announce the launch of the Sleep Data Collection Platform (DCP).

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In traditional Indigenous Southern Plains culture, a love story begins with an original ballad performed on the flute. In order to win a lover’s affection, and respect among the tribe, each pursuer must compose one good flute serenade.

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With the re-opening of Prospect Park Zoo set for Saturday, May 25 after being closed due to flooding from Tropical Storm Ophelia in 2023, city, state and borough officials welcomed the news.

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Advanced information processing technologies offer greener telecommunications and strong data security for millions, a study led by University of Maryland researchers revealed. A new device that can process information using a small amount of light could enable energy-efficient and secure communications.