For The Better

The shift from manual to oral communication in our interactions with technology can affect what consumers disclose about themselves.

Nanodiamond materials have potential as low-cost photocatalysts. But until now, such carbon nanoparticles required high-energy UV light to become active. The DIACAT consortium has therefore produced and analysed variations of nanodiamond materials. The…

Until now, it has been extremely tedious to perform measurements with high sensitivity and high spatial resolution using X-ray light in the tender energy range of 1.5 — 5.0 keV. Yet this X-ray light is ideal for investigating energy materials such as …

Even the best water filters let some things through, but designing improved materials and then testing them is time consuming and difficult. Now, researchers report that artificial intelligence (AI) could speed up the development of promising materials…

Rainbows and sugar may conjure up images of a certain leprechaun-branded breakfast cereal. But now, researchers report a kaleidoscope-like film for telling different sweeteners apart that displayed multiple colors when stretched by hand. When evenly st…

In recent years, research interest in the 3D printing of metal patterns on plastic parts has grown exponentially, due to its high potential in the manufacturing of next-generation electronics. But fabricating such complex parts through conventional mea…

If one particle accelerator alone is not enough to achieve the desired result, why not combine two accelerators? Physicists have now implemented this idea. They combined two plasma-based acceleration methods for electrons, namely a laser-driven wakefie…

A new article illustrates the increases in adverse public health outcomes following tropical cyclones, especially in communities with existing health conditions. The paper explains that the focus should be on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), r…

Researchers found an existing drug may help decrease side effects of cisplatin, a widely used cancer treatment that was discovered in 1965.

Researchers have discovered a way to chemically recycle PVC into usable material, finding a way to use the phthalates in the plasticizers — one of PVC’s most noxious components — as the mediator for the chemical reaction.

Medical researchers found a new way genetics influences the body’s antiviral response by studying a life-threatening disease caused by a common virus: herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1).

New research points to the inactivation of a previously unidentified gene as a likely culprit in the development of pancreatic cancer. The findings could alter the scientific understanding of this deadly disease and inform the establishment of novel tr…

The impact experiment conducted on the asteroid Ryugu by the Japanese Hayabusa2 mission which took place two years ago resulted in an unexpectedly large crater. With the use of simulations, a team has recently succeeded in gaining new insights from the…

Testing time perception in an unusually lifelike setting — a virtual reality ride on a New York City subway train — an interdisciplinary research team found that crowding makes time seem to pass more slowly.

Astronomers discover a bright optical flare caused by a dying star’s encounter with a supermassive black hole.

Fossilized fragments of a skeleton, hidden within a rock the size of a grapefruit, have helped upend one of the longest-standing assumptions about the origins of modern birds.

Astronomers have determined the source of an incredibly bright X-ray, optical and radio signal appearing from halfway across the Universe.

Life in an ant colony is a symphony of subtle interactions between insects acting in concert, more like cells in tissue than independent organisms bunking in a colony. Now, researchers have discovered a previously unknown social interaction that unites…

Neuroscientists discovered that the adult brain contains millions of ‘silent synapses’ — immature connections between neurons that remain inactive until they’re recruited to help form new memories.

Past social trauma is encoded by a population of stress/threat-responsive brain cells that become hyperactivated during subsequent interaction with non-threatening social targets. As a consequence, previously rewarding social targets are now perceived …