ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

Magnetic monopoles detected in Kagome spin ice systems

Posted: 07 Apr 2020 12:08 PM PDT

Magnetic monopoles are actually impossible. At low temperatures, however, certain crystals can contain so-called quasi-particles that behave like magnetic monopoles. Now an international cooperation has proven that such monopoles also occur in a Kagome spin ice system.

Simulations show extreme opinions can lead to polarized groups

Posted: 07 Apr 2020 10:14 AM PDT

Researchers use a theoretical model to examine what effect extreme views have on making the entire system more polarized. The group's network-based model extends a popular approach for studying opinion dynamics, called the Cobb model, and is based on the hypothesis that those with opinions farther from the middle of a political spectrum are also less influenced by others, a trait known to social scientists as 'rigidity of the extreme.'

First-ever photo proof of powerful jet emerging from colliding galaxies

Posted: 07 Apr 2020 10:14 AM PDT

Researchers have reported the first detection of a relativistic on-axis jet emerging from two colliding galaxies -- the first photographic proof that merging galaxies can produce jets of fast-moving charged particles. Scientists had previously discovered that jets could be found in elliptical-shaped galaxies, which can be formed in the merging of two spiral galaxies. Now, they have an image showing the formation of a jet from two younger, spiral-shaped galaxies.

Bubble dynamics reveal how to empty bottles faster

Posted: 07 Apr 2020 10:14 AM PDT

Researchers have discovered how to make bottles empty faster, which has wide-ranging implications for many areas beyond the beverage industry. They explore this bottle-emptying phenomenon from the perspective of bubble dynamics on a commercial bottle by using high-speed photography. Image analysis allowed them to conceptualize various parameters, such as liquid film thickness, bubble aspect ratio, rise velocity and bottle emptying modes.

Engineers and chemists 'program' liquid crystalline elastomers to replicate complex twisting action simply with the use of light

Posted: 07 Apr 2020 10:14 AM PDT

Researchers designed a polymer known as a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) that can be 'programmed' to both twist and bend in the presence of light. Especially in the field of soft robotics, this is essential for building devices that exhibit controllable, dynamic behavior without the need for complex electronic components.

Disagreements help team perception

Posted: 07 Apr 2020 10:14 AM PDT

Team disagreements might be the key to helping soldiers identify objects in battle, researchers say.

Personalized microrobots swim through biological barriers, deliver drugs to cells

Posted: 07 Apr 2020 10:14 AM PDT

Biohybrid robots on the micrometer scale can swim through the body and deliver drugs to tumors or provide other cargo-carrying functions. To be successful, they must consist of materials that can pass through the body's immune response, swim quickly through viscous environments and penetrate tissue cells to deliver cargo. Researchers fabricated biohybrid bacterial microswimmers by combining a genetically engineered E. coli MG1655 substrain and nanoerythrosomes, small structures made from red blood cells.

Are gamma-ray bursts powered by a star's collapsing magnetic fields?

Posted: 07 Apr 2020 07:34 AM PDT

In its final moments of life, a distant massive star releases an intense burst of high-energy gamma radiation - a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) - the brightest sources of energy in the universe, detectable to humans through powerful telescopes. Scientists have long been divided over what powers these extraordinary explosions. Now research suggests a dying star's collapsing magnetic field may hold the answers.

Lipid gradient that keeps your eyes wet

Posted: 07 Apr 2020 04:27 AM PDT

New understandings of how lipids function within tears could lead to better drugs for treating dry eye disease.

Chemists working on drugs to treat COVID-19

Posted: 06 Apr 2020 04:05 PM PDT

In the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, chemists have focused on searching for drugs to treat COVID-19. One group identified the antiviral drug remdesivir as a viable medicine to treat COVID-19 in a research study published in late January. The drug was originally developed in response to the 2014 Ebola pandemic.

Researchers use nanotechnology to develop new treatment for endometriosis

Posted: 06 Apr 2020 04:04 PM PDT

Scientists have developed a precise, nanotechnology-based treatment to alleviate the pain and fertility problems associated with endometriosis, a common gynecological condition in women of childbearing age.

More pavement, more problems

Posted: 06 Apr 2020 04:04 PM PDT

Think your daily coffee, boutique gym membership and airport lounge access cost a lot? There may be an additional, hidden cost to those luxuries of urban living, says a new study: more flooding. For every percentage point increase in roads, parking lots and other impervious surfaces that prevent water from flowing into the ground, annual floods increase on average by 3.3%, the researchers found.

What makes Saturn's atmosphere so hot

Posted: 06 Apr 2020 04:04 PM PDT

New analysis of data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft found that electric currents, triggered by interactions between solar winds and charged particles from Saturn's moons, spark the auroras and heat the planet's upper atmosphere.

Search for new state of matter expanded

Posted: 06 Apr 2020 04:04 PM PDT

Scientists have been striving to establish the existence of quantum spin liquids, a new state of matter, since the 1970s. A recent discovery physicists could help researchers solve the mystery and result in the next generation of computing.

'Smart toilet' monitors for signs of disease

Posted: 06 Apr 2020 04:04 PM PDT

There's a new disease-detecting technology in the lab, and its No. 1 source of data is number one. And number two.

The Milky Way's satellites help reveal link between dark matter halos and galaxy formation

Posted: 06 Apr 2020 11:01 AM PDT

Just like we orbit the sun and the moon orbits us, the Milky Way has satellite galaxies with their own satellites. Drawing from data on those galactic neighbors, a new model suggests the Milky Way should have an additional 100 or so very faint satellite galaxies awaiting discovery.

Condensed matter: Bethe strings experimentally observed

Posted: 06 Apr 2020 09:55 AM PDT

90 years ago, the physicist Hans Bethe postulated that unusual patterns, so-called Bethe strings, appear in certain magnetic solids. Now an international team has succeeded in experimentally detecting such Bethe strings for the first time. They used neutron scattering experiments at various neutron facilities including the unique high-field magnet of BER II at HZB. The experimental data are in excellent agreement with the theoretical prediction of Bethe and prove once again the power of quantum physics.

Nanopore reveals shape-shifting enzyme linked to catalysis

Posted: 06 Apr 2020 08:07 AM PDT

Scientists observed the characteristics of a single enzyme inside a nanopore. This revealed that the enzyme can exist in four different folded states, or conformers, that play an active role in the reaction mechanism. These results will have consequences for enzyme engineering and the development of inhibitors.

Making biofuels cheaper by putting plants to work

Posted: 06 Apr 2020 06:28 AM PDT

One strategy to make biofuels more competitive is to make plants do some of the work themselves. Scientists can engineer plants to produce valuable chemical compounds, or bioproducts, as they grow. Then the bioproducts can be extracted from the plant and the remaining plant material can be converted into fuel. But one important part of this strategy has remained unclear -- exactly how much of a particular bioproduct would plants need to make in order to make the process economically feasible?