Welcome to the “Phys.org” update from Hawaii Science Digest.
Views expressed in this science and technology news summary are those of the reporters and correspondents.
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Accessed on 19 April 2019, 1931 UTC.
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ExAG: An image-guessing game to evaluate the helpfulness of machine explanations
In recent years, researchers have been trying to make artificial intelligence (AI) more transparent by developing algorithms that can explain their actions and behavior, as this could encourage greater trust in machines and …
5 HOURS AGO
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Thermodynamic magic enables cooling without energy consumption
Physicists at the University of Zurich have developed an amazingly simple device that allows heat to flow temporarily from a cold to a warm object without an external power supply. Intriguingly, the process initially appears …
56 MINUTES AGO
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New method to detect off-target effects of CRISPR
Since the CRISPR genome editing technology was invented in 2012, it has shown great promise to treat a number of intractable diseases. However, scientists …
BIOTECHNOLOGY
3 HOURS AGO
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40
Scientists uncover a link between RNA editing and chloroplast-to-nucleus communication
What will a three-degree-warmer world look like? How will plants fare in more extreme weather conditions? When experiencing stress or damage from various …
BIOTECHNOLOGY
3 HOURS AGO
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Through thick and thin: Neutrons track lithium ions in battery electrodes
Lithium-ion batteries are expected to have a global market value of $47 billion by 2023. They are used in numerous applications, because they offer relatively …
MATERIALS SCIENCE
5 HOURS AGO
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Researchers report high performance solid-state sodium-ion battery
Solid-state sodium-ion batteries are far safer than conventional lithium-ion batteries, which pose a risk of fire and explosions, but their performance has been too weak to offset the safety advantages. Researchers Friday …
MATERIALS SCIENCE
2 HOURS AGO
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Researchers find adding rare-earth element to piezoelectric crystals dramatically improves performance
A team of researchers from China, the U.S. and Australia has found that adding the rare-earth element samarium to piezoelectric crystals can dramatically improve their performance. In their paper published in the journal …
Fuel cells in bacteria
The exchange of nitrogen between the atmosphere and organic matter is crucial for life on Earth because nitrogen is a major component of essential molecules such as proteins and DNA. One major route for this exchange, discovered …
CELL & MICROBIOLOGY
6 HOURS AGO
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Adding guanidinium thiocyanate to mixed tin-lead perovskites to improve solar cell efficiency
A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. has found a way to improve the efficiency of perovskite-based solar cells—by adding guanidinium thiocyanate to the mix. In their paper published in …
Discovery may help explain why women get autoimmune diseases far more often than men
It’s one of the great mysteries of medicine, and one that affects the lives of millions of people: Why do women’s immune systems gang up on them far more than men’s do, causing nine times more women to develop autoimmune …
IMMUNOLOGY
3 HOURS AGO
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Researchers discover critical RNA processing aberrations
Research by a Barrow Neurological Center scientist on mechanisms of dysfunctional RNA processing in ALS and frontaltemporal dementia (FTD) was published in the April issue of Acta Neuropathologica. The research was conducted …
NEUROSCIENCE
3 HOURS AGO
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Snake-inspired robot slithers even better than predecessor
Bad news for ophiophobes: Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a new and improved snake-inspired soft robot that is faster and more precise than its …
ROBOTICS
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Inequalities in the UK can be detected using deep learning image analysis
Social, economic, environmental and health inequalities within cities can be detected using street imagery. The findings, from scientists at Imperial College London, are published in Scientific Reports this week.
SOFTWARE
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Medical Xpress
Gut microbe helps thwart Salmonella
Metabolite may play a role in nicotine addiction
Study finds that quitting smoking during pregnancy lowers risk of preterm births
Researchers find correlation between blood type and susceptibility to severe malaria
Two-wave US flu season is now the longest in a decade
Anxiety ‘epidemic’ brewing on college campuses, researchers find
Researchers find high-risk genes for schizophrenia
Risk of congenital Zika syndrome greater than previously thought
New study shows how your moral behavior may change depending on the context
Group, telephone, guided CBT treatment effective for depression
Commentary: Modifications to Medicare rules could support care innovation for dialysis
‘Hibernating’ research studies on standby to tackle next flu pandemic
Tech Xplore
ExAG: An image-guessing game to evaluate the helpfulness of machine explanations
Researchers use 3-D printer to print glass
A neural network can read scientific papers and render a plain-English summary
Adding human touch to unchatty chatbots may lead to bigger letdown
Apple may sweeten macOS 10.15 with iPad external display support
Explainer: What is quantum machine learning and how can it help us?
Why language technology can’t handle Game of Thrones (yet)
Vehicle-to-vehicle Volvo style to swing big in Europe
Here’s why electric cars have plenty of grunt, oomph and torque
BRB-seq: The quick and cheaper future of RNA sequencing
RNA sequencing is a technique used to analyze entire genomes by looking at the expression of their genes. Today, such genome-wide expression analyses are a standard tool for genomic studies because they rely on high-throughput …
BIOTECHNOLOGY
7 HOURS AGO
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An exotic microbe and an unusual extraction process may add up to an economical way to make a promising biofuel
Taking a step closer to a “green” replacement for fossil fuels, a research team that includes a chemical engineer at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has developed a novel process using an unusual solvent and an exotic …
MATERIALS SCIENCE
8 HOURS AGO
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Taming the genome’s ‘jumping’ sequences
The human genome is fascinating. Once predicted to contain about a hundred thousand protein-coding genes, it now seems that the number is closer to twenty thousand, and maybe less. And although our genome is made up of about …
MOLECULAR & COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
7 HOURS AGO
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Chemists take a closer look at the spot where water meets air
Water, despite its central place in so many processes vital to life on Earth, remains a chemical mystery in many respects. One of those mysteries is the nature of water at the exact point where it comes into contact with …
MATERIALS SCIENCE
9 HOURS AGO
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328
Using the past to shape future construction: Slabs that rock, tilt and roll
If you are interested in hearing out novel concepts about the future of construction, a must-see video is “Walking Assembly.” Dependencies on the sizes of materials vis a vis the human body do not seem to apply any longer.
Gut microbe helps thwart Salmonella
Salmonella enterica is the name of a group of rod-shaped bacteria that can cause gastroenteritis in humans and other animals. Salmonella infections can have serious consequences for certain high-risk groups, such as babies, …
DISEASES, CONDITIONS, SYNDROMES
7 HOURS AGO
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Metabolite may play a role in nicotine addiction
A substance that scientists identify to screen people for nicotine use may also play a role in smokers becoming addicted to tobacco.
NEUROSCIENCE
7 HOURS AGO
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Study finds that quitting smoking during pregnancy lowers risk of preterm births
There is an important association between maternal cigarette smoking cessation during pregnancy and risk of preterm birth, according to a new Dartmouth-led study published in JAMA Network Open.
OBSTETRICS & GYNAECOLOGY
2 HOURS AGO
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Light physical activity reduces brain aging
Incremental physical activity, even at light intensity, is associated with larger brain volume and healthy brain aging.
HEALTH
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Researchers find correlation between blood type and susceptibility to severe malaria
Abraham Degarege Mengist is making malaria his mission.
DISEASES, CONDITIONS, SYNDROMES
9 HOURS AGO
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How NASA Earth data aids America, state by state
For six decades, NASA has used the vantage point of space to better understand our home planet and improve lives. A new interactive website called Space for U.S. highlights some of the many ways that NASA’s Earth observations …
Hurricane Michael gets an upgrade to rare Category 5 status
Hurricane Michael, which devastated a swath of the Florida Panhandle last fall, was actually stronger than initially measured, prompting forecasters to upgrade it from a Category 4 storm to a Category 5 storm, the National …
The role of digital technologies in mobilizing the alt-right
In “Misogynistic Men Online: How the Red Pill Helped Elect Trump,” published in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Pierce Alexander Dignam and Deana A. Rohlinger examine the transformation of online alt-right …
Mesopotamian King Sargon II envisioned ancient city Karkemish as western Assyrian capital
In “A New Historical Inscription of Sargon II from Karkemish,” published in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Gianni Marchesi translates a recently discovered inscription of the Assyrian King Sargon II found at the ruins …
Salt takes a quick step before falling out of water
When a drop of sea spray lands on a rock and heats under the midday sun, the salt crystalizes and falls out of the evaporating water as a crystal—helping to power the Earth’s atmosphere and leaving a delicious kernel of …
Creating a cloak for grid data in the cloud
Delivering modern electricity is a numbers game. From power plant output to consumer usage patterns, grid operators juggle a complex set of variables to keep the lights on. Cloud-based tools can help manage all of these data, …
Bringing the border closer to home, one immersion trip at a time
Many if not most Americans have never crossed the U.S. border with Mexico by land or spent any time in that region.
War games shed light on real-world strategies
Want to try your hand at negotiating during a crisis? Think you have a plan that could get the U.S. out of Afghanistan? Confident you could keep a nation secure when multi-party international diplomacy is more important than …
Why mass shootings don’t lead to gun control
Mass shootings happen with numbing frequency in the United States. Despite the extraordinary tragedy of these events, such as the shooting at Columbine High School twenty years ago this week, little progress has been made …
Successful tests of a cooler way to transport electricity
Like a metal python, the huge pipe snaking through a CERN high-tech hall is actually a new electrical transmission line. This superconducting line is the first of its kind and allows vast quantities of electrical current …
Daily grind: The biography of a stone axe
Tom Breukel analysed some 250 stone axes from the Caribbean and reconstructed their biographies, thus increasing our knowledge of production and trade in the period around the arrival of Columbus. His Ph.D. defence is on …
Tiny pinholes in thin film could pave the way for 3-D holographic displays
Researchers in Korea have designed an ultrathin display that can project dynamic, multi-colored, 3-D holographic images, according to a study published in Nature Communications.
Scientists discover sustainable way to increase seed oil yield in crops
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) scientists have developed a sustainable way to demonstrate a new genetic modification that can increase the yield of natural oil in seeds by up to 15 per cent in …
On-chip drug screening for identifying antibiotic interactions in eight hours
A KAIST research team developed a microfluidic-based drug screening chip that identifies synergistic interactions between two antibiotics in eight hours. This chip can be a cell-based drug screening platform for exploring …
When coastal hazards threaten your Outer Banks trip
A trip to the Outer Banks is a tradition for some North Carolina families and a bucket-list destination for other tourists. A new study from North Carolina State University asked visitors for their reactions to having travel …
People with heart disease at risk when pharmacies close
New research from the University of Illinois at Chicago shows that when pharmacies close, people stop taking widely used heart medications—like statins, beta-blockers and oral anticoagulants—that have known cardiovascular …
CARDIOLOGY
2 HOURS AGO
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Next frontier in study of gut bacteria: mining microbial molecules
The human gut harbors trillions of invisible microbial inhabitants, referred to as the microbiota, that collectively produce thousands of unique small molecules. The sources and biological functions of the vast majority of …
CELL & MICROBIOLOGY
10 HOURS AGO
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Two-wave US flu season is now the longest in a decade
Three months ago, this flu season was shaping up to be short and mild in the U.S. But a surprising second viral wave has made it the longest in 10 years.
DISEASES, CONDITIONS, SYNDROMES
2 HOURS AGO
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India could meet air quality standards by cutting household fuel use
India could make a major dent in air pollution by curbing emissions from dirty household fuels such as wood, dung, coal and kerosene, shows a new analysis led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the …
ENVIRONMENT
11 HOURS AGO
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Things are stacking up for NASA’s Mars 2020 spacecraft
For the past few months, the clean room floor in High Bay 1 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has been covered in parts, components and test equipment for the Mars 2020 spacecraft, scheduled for …
SPACE EXPLORATION
12 HOURS AGO
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Anxiety ‘epidemic’ brewing on college campuses, researchers find
The number of 18- to 26-year-old students who report suffering from anxiety disorder has doubled since 2008, perhaps as a result of rising financial stress and increased time spent on digital devices, according to preliminary …
PSYCHOLOGY & PSYCHIATRY
11 HOURS AGO
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Researchers find high-risk genes for schizophrenia
Using a unique computational framework they developed, a team of scientist cyber-sleuths in the Vanderbilt University Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute (VGI) has identified …
PSYCHOLOGY & PSYCHIATRY
11 HOURS AGO
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Risk of congenital Zika syndrome greater than previously thought
Zika virus infection during pregnancy was first linked to birth defects during the outbreak in the Americas in 2015 and 2016; however, the Zika virus was discovered decades ago. Why then were adverse outcomes during pregnancy …
DISEASES, CONDITIONS, SYNDROMES
5 HOURS AGO
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A magnetic personality, maybe not. But magnets can help AI get closer to the efficiency of the human brain
Computers and artificial intelligence continue to usher in major changes in the way people shop. It is relatively easy to train a robot’s brain to create a shopping list, but what about ensuring that the robotic shopper can …
MACHINE LEARNING & AI
11 HOURS AGO
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Molecular target UNC45A is essential for cancer but not normal cell proliferation
Identifying a protein that plays a key role in cancer cell growth is a first step toward the development of a targeted cancer therapy. It is especially promising when this protein is dispensable for the growth of normal cells. …
BIOCHEMISTRY
13 HOURS AGO
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