Spotlight Science News. 29-30 November 2018.
Accessed on 29 November 2018, 2315 UTC.
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Comment: Here are today’s top science news stories from https://phys.org. Views expressed in this science news summary are those of the reporters and correspondents.
Thanks for joining us today.
Until next time,
Russ Roberts
https://hawaiisciencedigest.com
Spotlight Science News
Using machine learning for audio-based identification of beehive states
Researchers at Università Politecnica delle Marche, Queen Mary University of London and the Alan Turing Institute have recently collaborated on a research project aimed at identifying beehive states using machine learning. …
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Microneedle patch shows promise as a means for repairing muscle after heart attack
A team of researchers from China and the U.S. has found that applying a specially designed microneedle patch to cardiac muscle damaged during a heart attack can promote the growth of myocytes. In their paper published in …
Gas clouds whirling around black hole form heart of extremely distant luminous astronomical object
In 1963, astronomer Maarten Schmidt identified the first quasi-stellar object or “quasar,” an extremely bright but distant object. He found the single quasar, the active nucleus of a far-away galaxy known to astronomers as …
Switching identities: Revolutionary insulator-like material also conducts electricity
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have made a material that can transition from an electricity-transmitting metal to a nonconducting insulating material without changing its atomic structure.
Scientists measure all of the starlight ever produced by the observable universe
From their laboratories on a rocky planet dwarfed by the vastness of space, Clemson University scientists have managed to measure all of the starlight ever produced throughout the history of the observable universe.
Whales lost their teeth before evolving hair-like baleen in their mouths
Rivaling the evolution of feathers in dinosaurs, one of the most extraordinary transformations in the history of life was the evolution of baleen—rows of flexible hair-like plates that blue whales, humpbacks and other marine …
Hubble uncovers thousands of globular star clusters scattered among galaxies
Gazing across 300 million light-years into a monstrous city of galaxies, astronomers have used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to do a comprehensive census of some of its most diminutive members: a whopping 22,426 globular …
Safely on Mars, InSight unfolds its arrays and snaps some pics
After safely landing on Mars following its nearly seven month journey, NASA has released the first pictures taken by its InSight spacecraft, which has opened it solar arrays to charge batteries.
Scientists find a way to enhance the performance of quantum computers
USC scientists have demonstrated a theoretical method to enhance the performance of quantum computers, an important step to scale a technology with potential to solve some of society’s biggest challenges.
With these nanoparticles, a simple urine test could diagnose bacterial pneumonia
Pneumonia, a respiratory disease that kills about 50,000 people in the United States every year, can be caused by many different microbes, including bacteria and viruses. Rapid detection of pneumonia is critical for effective …
Decoding sleeping sickness signals could aid quest for treatments
Key insights into how the parasites behind sleeping sickness boost their ability to spread could aid efforts to beat the disease.
Insight into swimming fish could lead to robotics advances
The constant movement of fish that seems random is actually precisely deployed to provide them at any moment with the best sensory feedback they need to navigate the world, Johns Hopkins University researchers found.
Shape-shifting protein protects bacteria from invaders
When foreign bodies attack, the molecular militia that comprises our immune system goes to war. In the chaos of battle, this cavalry must be careful to not to fire on its own soldiers; and organisms ranging from humans to …
Effective new target for mood-boosting brain stimulation found
Researchers have found an effective target in the brain for electrical stimulation to improve mood in people suffering from depression. As reported in the journal Current Biology on November 29, stimulation of a brain region …
Triple combination cancer immunotherapy improves outcomes in preclinical melanoma model
Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) is a promising cancer immunotherapy that involves isolating T cells from cancer patients that are capable of targeting their tumor, selecting the more active T cells and expanding those in the …
New catalyst material produces abundant cheap hydrogen
QUT chemistry researchers have discovered cheaper and more efficient materials for producing hydrogen for the storage of renewable energy that could replace current water-splitting catalysts.
High-speed camera shows incoming particles cause damage by briefly melting surfaces as they strike
When tiny particles strike a metal surface at high speed—for example, as coatings being sprayed or as micrometeorites pummeling a space station—the moment of impact happens so fast that the details of process haven’t …
New tools illuminate mechanisms behind overlooked cellular components’ critical roles
Creating new tools that harness light to probe the mysteries of cellular behavior, Princeton researchers have made discoveries about the formation of cellular components called membraneless organelles and the key role these …
Study explores how the sounds going into our ears become the words going through our brains
You’re walking along a busy city street. All around you are the sounds of subway trains, traffic, and music coming from storefronts. Suddenly, you realize one of the sounds you’re hearing is someone speaking, and that you …
Some blood cells have a surprising source—your gut
The human intestine may provide up to 10 percent of blood cells in circulation from its own reservoir of blood-forming stem cells, a surprising new study from researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians …
Researchers develop tool for speedy diagnosis of bacterial infections
Using a small and inexpensive biosensor, researchers at UBC Okanagan, in collaboration with the University of Calgary, have built a diagnostic tool that provides health care practitioners almost instant diagnosis of a bacterial …
Moon rocks sell for $855,000 in New York: Sotheby’s
Three moon rocks brought to Earth nearly half a century ago and the only known documented lunar samples in private hands, sold for $855,000 in New York on Thursday, Sotheby’s said.
New methods could improve, expand 3-D imaging using X-rays
Researchers report two new approaches to producing three-dimensional (3-D) images using X-rays that could improve disease-screening, study of very fast processes and enable analysis of the properties of materials and structural …
Adding graphene to jute fibres could give natural alternative to man-made materials
Scientists from The University of Manchester have combined graphene with the natural fibre jute, to create a world’s first for graphene-strengthened natural jute fibre composites.
Oldest-known ancestor of modern primates may have come from North America, not Asia
About 56 million years ago, on an Earth so warm that palm trees graced the Arctic Circle, a mouse-sized primate known as Teilhardina first curled its fingers around a branch.
Stone tools linked to ancient human ancestors in Arabia have surprisingly recent date
Beginning more than 1.5 million years ago, early humans made stone hand axes in a style known as the Acheulean—the longest lasting tool-making tradition in prehistory. New research led by the Max Planck Institute for the …
Magnetic materials for motors of the future
According to a statistic from the University of Chicago, 50 percent of U.S. power goes through a motor. Vehicles like cars and planes rely on motors to transform power, as do household appliances like vacuums and refrigerators. …
Rise in meth and opioid use during pregnancy
Amphetamine and opioid use in pregnancy increased substantially over the last decade in the United States, a new Michigan Medicine-led study finds. And a disproportionate rise occurred in rural counties.
A new way to create Saturn’s radiation belts
A team of international scientists from BAS, University of Iowa and GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences has discovered a new method to explain how radiation belts are formed around the planet Saturn.
Moviemaking mimics nature for creative control and a more realistic look
A new theory based on the physics of cloud formation and neutron scattering could help animators create more lifelike movies, according to a Dartmouth-led study. Software developed using the technique focuses on how light …