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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 29, 2020 at 5:23am

Discovery will allow more sophisticated work at nanoscale

The movement of fluids through small capillaries and channels is crucial for processes ranging from blood flow through the brain to power generation and electronic cooling systems, but that movement often stops when the channel is smaller than 10 nanometers.

Researchers have reported a new understanding of the process and why some fluids stagnate in these tiny channels, as well as a new way to stimulate the fluid flow by using a small increase in temperature or voltage to promote mass and ion transport.

The work explores the movement of fluids with lower surface tension, which allows the bonds between molecules to break apart when forced into narrow channels, stopping the process of fluid transport, known as capillary wicking. 

This capillary force drives liquid flow in small channels and is the critical mechanism for mass transport in nature and technology—that is, in situations ranging from blood flow in the human brain to the movement of water and nutrients from soil to plant roots and leaves, as well as in industrial processes.

But differences in the surface tension of some fluids causes the wicking process—and therefore, the movement of the fluid—to stop when those channels are smaller than 10 nanometers. The researchers reported that it is possible to prompt continued flow by manipulating the surface tension through small stimuli, such as raising the temperature or using a small amount of voltage.

The temperature even slightly can activate movement by changing surface tension, which they dubbed "nanogates." Depending on the liquid, raising the temperature between 2 degrees Centigrade and 3 degrees C is enough to mobilize the fluid.The surface tension can be changed through different variables.

The simplest one is temperature. If you change temperature of the fluid, you can activate this fluid flow again." The process can be fine-tuned to move the fluid, or just specific ions within it, offering promise for more sophisticated work at nanoscale.

"The surface tension nanogates promise platforms to govern nanoscale functionality of a wide spectrum of systems, and applications can be foreseen in drug delivery, energy conversion, power generation, seawater desalination, and ionic separation.

Masoumeh Nazari et al. Surface Tension Nanogates for Controlled Ion Transport, ACS Applied Nano Materials (2020). DOI: 10.1021/acsanm.0c01304

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-discovery-sophisticated-nanoscale.htm...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 29, 2020 at 5:11am

New study reveals how day- and night-biting mosquitoes respond differently to colours of light and time of day

Researchers found that night- versus day-biting species of mosquitoes are behaviorally attracted and repelled by different colors of light at different times of day. Mosquitoes are among major disease vectors impacting humans and animals around the world and the findings have important implications for using light to control them.

The team studied mosquito species that bite in the daytime (Aedes aegypti, aka the Yellow Fever mosquito) and those that bite at night (Anopheles coluzzi, a member of the Anopheles gambiae family, the major vector for malaria). They found distinct responses to ultra violet and other colors of light between the two species. Researchers also found light preference is dependent on the mosquito's sex and species, the time of day and the colour of the light.

Insects are non-specifically attracted to ultraviolet light, hence the widespread use of ultraviolet light "bug zappers" for insect control. this research  found that day-biting mosquitoes are attracted to a wide range of light spectra during the daytime, whereas night-biting mosquitoes are strongly photophobic to short-wavelength light during the daytime. Therefore, timing and light spectra are critical for species-specific light control of harmful mosquitoes.

The new work shows that day-biting mosquitoes, particularly females that require blood meals for their fertilized eggs, are attracted to light during the day regardless of spectra. In contrast, night-biting mosquitoes specifically avoid ultraviolet (UV) and blue light during the day. Previous work using fruit flies (which are related to mosquitoes) has determined the light sensors and circadian molecular mechanisms for light mediated attraction/avoidance behaviours. Accordingly, molecular disruption of the circadian clock severely interferes with light-evoked attraction and avoidance behaviours in mosquitoes. At present, light-based insect controls do not take into consideration the day versus night behavioural profiles that change with daily light and dark cycles.

Light is the primary regulator of circadian rhythms and evokes a wide range of time-of-day specific behaviours. By gaining an understanding of how insects respond to short wavelength light in a species-specific manner, we can develop new, environmentally friendly alternatives to controlling harmful insects more effectively and reduce the need for environmentally damaging toxic pesticides.

Lisa S. Baik et al, Circadian Regulation of Light-Evoked Attraction and Avoidance Behaviors in Daytime- versus Nighttime-Biting Mosquitoes, Current Biology (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.010

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-reveals-day-night-biting-mosquitoes-d...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 29, 2020 at 4:47am

Randomness theory could hold key to internet security

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-07-randomness-theory-key-internet....

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Study reveals how renegade protein interrupts brain cell function in Alzheimer's disease

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-reveals-renegade-protein-bra...

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https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-airway-cells-regeneration-ag...

How airway cells work together in regeneration and aging

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https://phys.org/news/2020-07-billion-animals-affected-australia-bu...

Estimated 3 billion animals affected by Australia bushfires: study

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** Medieval medicine remedy could provide new treatment for modern day infections

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-medieval-medicine-remedy-treatment-mo...

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 First Meta-Analysis Confirms Link Between Lithium in Drinking Water And Suicide Rates

https://www.sciencealert.com/first-meta-review-of-its-kind-confirms...

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AI Analysed Over 11,000 Couples' Relationships. This Is What It Found

https://www.sciencealert.com/ai-analysed-over-11-000-couples-relati...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 28, 2020 at 5:18am

A scientist's mesmerizing animation shows how our entire solar system orbits an unseen center — and it's not the sun

A scientist's mesmerizing animation shows how our entire solar system orbits an unseen center — and it's not the sun: That center of mass is called the barycenter

Theoretical issues in deep networks

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 28, 2020 at 5:08am

 Study: Mask-Wearing Moms with COVID-19 Can Safely Nurse Babies

None of the breastfed infants in the study tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 within the first two weeks of life.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/study-mask-wearing-moms-...

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Microbial Signatures in Blood Are Associated with Various Cancers

A study suggests the potential for a noninvasive diagnostic that could detect tumors early and differentiate between disease types.

https://www.the-scientist.com/the-literature/microbial-signatures-i...

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https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-our-plastic-waste-problem-...

Scientists Show How Bad Our Plastic Waste Problem Could Get by 2040

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 28, 2020 at 4:56am

Testing Chernobyl fungi as a radiation shield for astronauts

How can astronauts survive high radiations during interplanetary travel? 

A team of researchers has tested the viability of using a type of fungus found growing in some of the destroyed nuclear reactors at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant site to shield astronauts from radiation.

Some fungi are able to flourish in a very highly radioactive place here on Earth—inside the destroyed reactors at the Chernobyl site in Ukraine. Testing of several types of the fungi has showed that they not only survive in the former reactors, but actually flourish. They have the ability to absorb radiation and to convert it into energy for their own use. To look into the possibility of using such types of fungus as a shield for humans, the researchers arranged with NASA to send a sample of one of the types of fungus found at Chernobyl—cladosporium sphaerospermum—to the International Space Station.

Once the fungus sample arrived at the ISS, astronauts monitored the petri dish set up by the researchers. One side of the petri dish was coated with the fungus; the other side had no fungus and served as a control. A detector was affixed to the back of the petri dish to measure radiation coming through. The detector was monitored for 30 days. The researchers found that the side of the petri dish that was covered with fungus reduced radiation levels coming through the dish by approximately 2% compared to the control side. That alone is inadequate as a safety shield, but the experiment serves as an indicator of what might be possible. On its own, the fungus is known to grow, which means a rocket carrying humans could carry just a small amount with them. Once on Mars, the fungus could be cultivated on a shield structure and allowed to thicken, offering perhaps one layer of protection very nearly free of charge.

Graham K. Shunk et al. A Self-Replicating Radiation-Shield for Human Deep-Space Exploration: Radiotrophic Fungi can Attenuate Ionizing Radiation aboard the International Space Station, bioRxiv (2020). DOI: 10.1101/2020.07.16.205534

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-chernobyl-fungi-shield-astronauts.htm...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 28, 2020 at 4:44am

Researchers create 'decoy' coatings that trick infrared cameras

Light can sometimes play tricks on our eyes. If you look at a shiny surface, what you see will largely depend on the surrounding environment and lighting conditions.

Researchers have now taken ocular distortion a step further, finding a way to imbed visual "decoys" into surfaces of objects in a way that can fool people into thinking they detect a specific image in the infrared that actually isn't there.

Infrared light is invisible to the human eye, but can be detected by a range of devices, such as night-vision goggles and thermal-imaging cameras. In this work,researchers can effectively tune target objects into emitting the same infrared radiation as the surrounding environment, making them invisible to infrared detection devices.

 

But what makes the researchers' work particularly novel is that they can manipulate the coatings in a way that a person trying to view the object with such a device would instead see a false image.

"This structure offers a general platform for unprecedented manipulation and processing of infrared signals. 

 this method provides better, more consistent camouflage because the product is mechanically flexible, power free and inherently self-adaptive to temporal fluctuation as well as spatial variation of the target temperature.

Additionally, by manipulating the configuration and composition of tungsten-doped vanadium dioxide on coatings applied to the PE tape, researchers can create an infrared decoy.

"How we grow the material changes the image people ultimately think they see.

This kind of technology could prove useful for military and intelligence agencies, as they seek to thwart increasingly sophisticated surveillance technologies that pose a threat to national security. It might also incubate future encryption technology, allowing information to be safely concealed from unauthorized access.

Kechao Tang et al. A Thermal Radiation Modulation Platform by Emissivity Engineering with Graded Metal–Insulator Transition, Advanced Materials (2020). DOI: 10.1002/adma.201907071

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-decoy-coatings-infrared-cameras.html?...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 28, 2020 at 4:39am

Psychologists show that embedding primes in a person's speech can influence people's decision making

psychologists found that embedding primes in a person's speech and gestures can influence people's decision-making

In both psychology and magic circles, primes are known as actions or words that unconsciously influence the thinking of another person One example is a policeman interrogating a witness tapping his ring while inquiring about jewelry a suspect might have been wearing. It is a technique magicians have used for years. They prime a person or audience by giving them subtle verbal or physical clues to get them to choose a number during a guessing trick, or a card during a card trick. In this new effort, the researchers tested the practice to see if it actually works.

The experiments involved asking volunteers to watch a live or taped performance of a person who, unbeknownst to them, was trying to prime them. The research began with 90 volunteers who were split into two groups. One group watched Pailhès (who is also an amateur magician) perform a live magic act—the other group watched a video version of the same act on a laptop. The act consisted of attempting to get the crowd of observers to pick a predesignated card—the three of diamonds.

As part of the routine, she mimicked an act by British illusionist Derren Brown in which he asks a member of the crowd to mentally transmit the correct card to the others in the crowd. He also asks the crowd to think about a bright, vivid colored card (more descriptive of a red card than a black one). He also mimes the shape of a diamond with his hands and asks the audience to think of the little numbers at the corners (ruling out double digits and face cards) and even draws the number "3" in the air with his hands—and asks the audience to imagine things in the middle as he says, "boom, boom, boom."

After mimicking this act, the researchers asked the audience members to write down a card by suit and number, which they turned in. Inspection of the cards showed that 17.8 percent of the audience members chose the three of diamonds—38.9 percent chose a three of any suit and 33.3 percent chose a diamond of any number, results that were far better than chance.

Alice Pailhès et al. Influencing choices with conversational primes: How a magic trick unconsciously influences card choices, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2000682117

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-psychologists-embedding-prim...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 28, 2020 at 4:33am

Seismic waves help scientists 'see' chemical changes beneath a watershed

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-seismic-scientists-chemical-beneath-w...

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Designer nanozymes for reactive-oxygen species scavenging anti-inflammatory therapy

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https://phys.org/news/2020-07-high-capacity-oil-adsorbing-mats-depl...

High-capacity oil-adsorbing mats could be deployed in oil spill emergencies to limit ecological damage

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https://phys.org/news/2020-07-scientists-publish-seminal-impact-nan...

Scientists publish seminal study into impact of nanoparticles on living species

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https://phys.org/news/2020-07-strategy-therapies-brain.html?utm_sou...

Developing a new strategy to selectively deliver therapies to the brain

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https://physicsworld.com/a/earths-atmosphere-rings-like-a-giant-bel...

Earth’s atmosphere rings like a giant bell, say researchers

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https://elifesciences.org/articles/60080?utm_source=content_alert&a...

Meta-Research: The growth of acronyms in the scientific literature

Abstract

Some acronyms are useful and are widely understood, but many of the acronyms used in scientific papers hinder understanding and contribute to the increasing fragmentation of science. Here we report the results of an analysis of more than 24 million article titles and 18 million article abstracts published between 1950 and 2019. There was at least one acronym in 19% of the titles and 73% of the abstracts. Acronym use has also increased over time, but the re-use of acronyms has declined. We found that from more than one million unique acronyms in our data, just over 2,000 (0.2%) were used regularly, and most acronyms (79%) appeared fewer than 10 times. Acronyms are not the biggest current problem in science communication, but reducing their use is a simple change that would help readers and potentially increase the value of science.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 27, 2020 at 4:48am

To prevent the next pandemic, we might need to cut down fewer trees

Study weighs costs of reducing virus spillover from animals against the toll of disease outbreak

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-p...

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https://phys.org/news/2020-07-phage-therapy-potential-prosthetic-jo...

Phage therapy shows potential for treating prosthetic joint infections

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https://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-find-a-new-way-to-show-mass...

Physicists Find a New Way to Reveal The Strange, Wave-Like Nature of Massive Molecules

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/sunscreen-chemicals-accumulate-in-body...

Sunscreen Chemicals Accumulate in Body at High Levels

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