Science & Technology
Bad dreams could be early warning of Parkinson’s disease
Older adults who start to experience bad dreams or nightmares could be exhibiting the earliest signs of Parkinson’s disease, say researchers.
Otters learn from each other — but solve some puzzles alone
Otters learn skills from each other — but they also solve some mysteries alone, new research shows.
Immune protein may drive alcoholism relapse
Scientists find evidence that the immune protein CSF1 may contribute to feelings of anxiety during alcohol withdrawal.
Sponge-like solar cells could be basis for better pacemakers
Scientists find that holes can also improve technology, including medical devices. The article describes an entirely new way to make a solar cell: by etching holes in the top layer to make it porous.
Lab earthquakes show how grains at fault boundaries lead to major quakes
In a ‘seismological wind tunnel,’ engineers demonstrate the impact of rock gouge — ground-up rock along a fault boundary — on earthquake propogation.
Unfreezing waters in ligand binding sites
Scientists have revealed the effect of temperature on water in protein-ligand interactions, providing a way to produce structures for drug discovery that are less biased by freezing artifacts.
‘Ugly’ reef fishes are most in need of conservation support
What’s the relationship between people’s perception of beauty and animals’ conservation needs? According to a machine-learning study, the reef fishes that people find most beautiful tend to be the lowest priority for conservation support.
High-speed, efficient and compact electro-optic modulators for free space
Current technologies to modulate light in free space are bulky, slow, static, or inefficient. Now researchers have developed a compact and tunable electro-optic modulator for free space applications that can modulate light at gigahertz speed.
Rapamycin increases Alzheimer’s-associated plaques in mice, study finds
Researchers found that administration of the drug rapamycin in mice was associated with increased beta-amyloid plaques. This is one of the hallmark pathologies of Alzheimer’s disease. The study authors caution that rapamycin’s effects in beta-amyloid-a…
Yolk-shell nanocrystals with movable gold yolk: Next generation of photocatalysts
Owing to their unique permeable, hollow shell structures with inner, movable cores, yolk-shell nanocrystals are suitable for a wide variety of applications. Yolk-shell nanocrystals consisting of a gold core with various semiconductor shells have been d…
New theory of decision-making seeks to explain why humans don’t make optimal choices
A new theory of economic decision-making offers an explanation as to why humans, in general, make decisions that are simply adequate, not optimal.