Science & TechnologyS


Bulb

Scientists develop fabric coating that traps viruses responsible for influenza


Yahoo News
Sun, 20 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
Flu trap
Scientists have made a potential breakthrough in tackling flu
A "flu trap" that captures viruses could help prevent the spread of infection, scientists claim.

Researchers at the University of Manchester have developed a fabric coating for masks and air filters that isolates the viral particles responsible for influenza.

The technology mimics carbohydrate structures on the surfaces of cells lining respiratory airways and the oesophagus, or food pipe.

Paul Hope, director of the biotec company Virustatic that is seeking to commercialise the idea, said: "It's a whole new preventative approach to disease and if implemented could be transformative."
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Galaxy

Worlds within worlds: Multiverses, parallel universes and branes

Philip Ball
BBC
Mon, 21 Mar 2016 13:46 UTC
planets
© Mopic/Alamy Stock PhotoEarth is one of many planets .
Is our Universe one of many?

The idea of parallel universes, once consigned to science fiction, is now becoming respectable among scientists - at least, among physicists, who have a tendency to push ideas to the limits of what is conceivable.

In fact there are almost too many other potential universes. Physicists have proposed several candidate forms of "multiverse", each made possible by a different aspect of the laws of physics.

The trouble is, virtually by definition we probably cannot ever visit these other universes to confirm that they exist. So the question is, can we devise other ways to test for the existence of entire universes that we cannot see or touch?

Comment: For more on multiverses, see:

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Camcorder

Incredible real time video manipulation of facial expressions


RT
Mon, 21 Mar 2016 01:51 UTC
Real Time Facial Manipulation
© Matthias Niessner/YouTube
Researchers have developed mindblowing new video technology that allows a person to transfer their facial expressions on to another person in real-time - and it's already being tested on George W Bush, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and Vladimir Putin.

The development, which is as equally impressive as it is disturbing, is the result of a collaboration between researchers from Germany's University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, the Max-Planck Institute for Informatics, and Stanford University in California.

The study, Face2Face: Real-time Face Capture and Reenactment of RGB Videos,"animates the facial expressions of the target video by a source actor and re-renders the manipulated output video in a photo-realistic fashion," according to the researchers.

The project works with a webcam and manipulates videos in real-time.

The research team have showcased the technology in a video in which they choose some of the people one may most want to manipulate, if they had the chance.
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Alarm Clock

Linguistic description of time doesn't always involve spoken words


Science Daily
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 19:08 UTC
Amazonian time
© Simeon FloydThis image shows "11:00am" in a natural speech recording.
A new scientific study documenting the linguistic practices of the Northwestern Amazonian peoples uncovers an unusual method of communicating the human concept of time. The study, "Modally hybrid grammar? Celestial pointing for time-of-day reference in Nheengatú," by Simeon Floyd of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands, was published in the March, 2016 issue of the scholarly journal Language.

The article examines how the Nheengatú language includes both auditory and visual components to express the time of day, even though it does not have any numerical or written system for telling time. Speakers of Nheengatú talk about time of day by pointing at where the sun would be in the sky at that particular time. For speakers of Nheengatú, this is the same as saying things like "nine o'clock" in English. This practice is notable because many linguists have assumed that users of auditory languages would not also develop visual language like that seen in sign languages, but this phenomenon shows that this is not necessarily the case.
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Robot

Rise of machines: Domino's created Robot for Pizza delivery


RT
Sun, 20 Mar 2016 03:46 UTC
Domino's DRU robot
© Domino's New Zealand / YouTube
Domino's Pizza in New Zealand has created "the world's first" pizza delivery robot in what could be the beginning of the end for their underpaid human drivers.

Looking like the lovechild of Disney's Wall-E and Eve, the "Domino's Robotic Unit", or DRU, is a prototype developed for the retailer by Australian defense contractor Marathon Robotics.

But wait, it gets creepier.

Comment: See also:

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Bulb

Cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?

Bec Crew
Science Alert
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
Einstein desk
Einstein is often quoted as saying, "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?" While this was obviously meant to be a cute little quip - probably to justify Einstein's own lack of organisation in the desk department - rather than some kind of a serious, overarching observation into the human psyche, there's truth to the idea that how we organise or workspace can say a lot about us as individuals.

Past research has found that people with messy desks are linked to higher salaries, and a 2013 study by scientists at the University of Minnesota found that those with messy desks were more prone to creative thinking and risk-taking, while those who kept cleaner and more organised desks were more likely to follow rules and schedules, and were less likely take risks. "Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights," the researchers concluded.
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Info

Toxic legacy of gold mining: Flooding causes mercury in dry river sediment to become toxic


Phys.org
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 15:41 UTC
mercury yuba river
© University of California - Santa BarbaraYuba Fan: Red circles indicate mercury sediment sampling locations and the yellow line is the longitudinal transect along which mining sediment travels from the Sierra to San Francisco Bay-Delta.
Gold mining in California in the 19th century was a boon for the state's economy but not so much for the environment. Mining left a protracted legacy that impacts the natural landscape even today. Mercury, used in the gold extraction process, has been detected throughout the Lower Yuba/Feather River system in the state's Central Valley, and its presence could prove dangerous to local wildlife.

That mercury, which will remain in dry river sediment for thousands of years, generally poses a problem only when exposed to extreme water conditions. Flooding triggers a process called methylation, which causes a portion of the mercury to become toxic. When ingested by wildlife, this so-called methylmercury can negatively affect cardiovascular and central nervous systems.

A new study by UC Santa Barbara researchers Michael Singer, Lee Harrison and colleagues from the University of Michigan has identified how flooding frequency and duration affect mercury biogeochemistry along a 40-mile stretch of the Yuba/Feather River system. They found that about 5 percent of the total mercury in this lower section has the potential to become toxic. Their research appears in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
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Satellite

Jason-3 now mapping oceans, observes ongoing El Niño


Phys Org
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
Jason-3
© NASA/JPL Ocean Surface Topography TeamMap shows sea level anomalies from February 12-22, 2016. Higher-than-normal sea levels are red; lower-than-normal sea levels are blue. El Nino is visible as the red blob in the eastern equatorial Pacific.
Just over a month after its launch, Jason-3 has produced its first complete science map of global sea surface height, capturing the current signal of the 2015-16 El Niño in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The map was generated from the first 10 days of data collected once Jason-3 reached its operational orbit of 1,336 kilometers on Feb. 12. It shows the continuing evolution of the ongoing El Niño event that began early last year. After peaking in January, the high sea levels in the eastern Pacific are now beginning to shrink.

Launched Jan. 17 from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, Jason-3 is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in partnership with NASA, the French Space Agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).

Its nominal three-year mission will continue nearly a quarter-century record of monitoring changes in global sea level. These measurements of ocean surface topography are used by scientists to help calculate the speed and direction of ocean surface currents and to gauge the distribution of solar energy stored in the ocean. Information from Jason-3 will be used to monitor climate change and track phenomena like El Niño. It will also enable more accurate weather, ocean and climate forecasts, including helping global weather and environmental agencies more accurately forecast the strength of tropical cyclones.

Jason-3 data will also be used for other scientific, commercial and operational applications, including monitoring of deep-ocean waves; forecasts of surface waves for offshore operators; forecasts of currents for commercial shipping and ship routing; coastal forecasts to respond to environmental challenges like oil spills and harmful algal blooms; coastal modeling crucial for marine mammal and coral reef research.
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Battery

Japanese unveil electric car that won't need a battery


RT
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 12:56 UTC
Japan car factory
© Toru Hanai / Reuters
Japan has made another technological leap - Toyohashi University of Technology and Taisei Corp has unveiled the first electrical car in the world that will run without a battery, receiving its charge from an electrified road.

The unveiling on Friday was in the form of a test drive in Toyohashi, in the Aichi Prefecture. The small vehicle moved over the electrified surface, which had two rail-like steel paths spaced to match the car's special tires. The charge is derived from steel wires embedded in them, which serve as a conduit.

The drive lasted for 30 meters at a speed of 10km/h, and, according to Professor Takashi Ohira, as cited by Kyodo: "Acceleration was smooth, and the ride was comfortable."
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Heart

Bonobos, unlike humans and chimpanzees focus on bonding instead of danger

Bob Yirka
Phys.org
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
bonobos
© Finbarr O'Reilly / Reuters
A small team of researchers in The Netherlands has found that Bonobos, unlike humans and chimpanzees, tend to focus more on feel-good images than on images featuring danger or aggression. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team describes experiments they conducted with several captive bonobos and what they learned about both the bonobos and us humans.

Bonobos are apes that look very much like chimpanzees, but unlike chimps, they are rarely aggressive, preferring to settle their differences by engaging in non-reproductive sexual encounters and other bonding experiences. Bonobos are also different from chimps and humans in that they live in a matriarchal-type society—the females run things. Because of their gentle good nature, bonobos have been the subject of much study, as we humans try to understand why we are so much more violent.

Comment: Buddy, Can You Spare a Banana? Study Finds That Bonobos Share Like Humans

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