ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Lab-created heart valves can grow with the recipient
• Nanotech scientists create world's smallest origami bird
• Double-duty catalyst generates hydrogen fuel while cleaning up wastewater
• A new view on plate tectonics
• Icy ocean worlds seismometer passes further testing in Greenland
• Modelling speed-ups in nutrient-seeking bacteria
• 'Time lost is brain lost'
• Missing baryons found in far-out reaches of galactic halos
• Arctic was once lush and green, could be again
• Rivers across the US are losing flow to aquifers
• Ocean areas that, if strongly protected, would help solve climate, food and biodiversity crises
• How to speed up muscle repair
• Abundant and stable rocks are critical egg-laying habitat for insects in restored streams
• Magnetism meets topology on a superconductor's surface
• Researchers find a better way to measure consciousness
• Researchers enhance quantum machine learning algorithms
• Spontaneous superconducting currents in Sr2RuO4
• Crucial step in formation of deadly brain diseases discovered
• Melting glaciers could speed up carbon emissions into the atmosphere

Lab-created heart valves can grow with the recipient Posted: 17 Mar 2021 03:16 PM PDT Groundbreaking discovery could potentially reduce multiple pediatric heart valve replacement surgeries.

Nanotech scientists create world's smallest origami bird Posted: 17 Mar 2021 03:16 PM PDT Researchers have created micron-sized shape memory actuators that enable atomically thin two-dimensional materials to fold themselves into 3D configurations. All they require is a quick jolt of voltage. And once the material is bent, it holds its shape - even after the voltage is removed.

Double-duty catalyst generates hydrogen fuel while cleaning up wastewater Posted: 17 Mar 2021 11:17 AM PDT Hydrogen is a pollution-free energy source when it's extracted from water using sunlight instead of fossil fuels. But current strategies for 'splitting' or breaking apart water molecules with catalysts and light require the introduction of chemical additives to expedite the process. Now, researchers have developed a catalyst that destroys medications and other compounds already present in wastewater to generate hydrogen fuel, getting rid of a contaminant while producing something useful.

A new view on plate tectonics Posted: 17 Mar 2021 11:17 AM PDT Along submarine mountain ranges, the mid-ocean ridges, forces from the Earth's interior push tectonic plates apart, forming new ocean floor and thus moving continents about. However, many features of the processes summarized under the term plate tectonics are still unclear. New research assigns transform faults which offset mid-ocean ridges a completely new role in plate tectonics.

Icy ocean worlds seismometer passes further testing in Greenland Posted: 17 Mar 2021 11:17 AM PDT The Seismometer to Investigate Ice and Ocean Structure (SIIOS) performed well in seismic experiments conducted in snowy summer Greenland, according to a new study.

Modelling speed-ups in nutrient-seeking bacteria Posted: 17 Mar 2021 11:17 AM PDT Researchers have produced a model which accurately accounts for the combined influences of chemotaxis and chemokinesis in bacteria swimming towards nutrients. The team's findings deliver new insights into how self-swimming microbes survive, particularly in harsher environments like soils and oceans.

'Time lost is brain lost' Posted: 17 Mar 2021 11:17 AM PDT A new study finds that mobile stroke units (MSUs) - state-of-the-art ambulances built to provide stroke patients with emergency neurological diagnosis and treatment prior to hospital arrival -- improve patient outcomes and lessen the chance for disability by delivering care faster than standard stroke care.

Missing baryons found in far-out reaches of galactic halos Posted: 17 Mar 2021 11:16 AM PDT Researchers have channeled the universe's earliest light - a relic of the universe's formation known as the cosmic microwave background - to solve a missing-matter mystery and learn new things about galaxy formation. Their work could also help us to better understand dark energy and test Einstein's theory of general relativity by providing new details about the rate at which galaxies are moving toward us or away from us.

Arctic was once lush and green, could be again Posted: 17 Mar 2021 11:16 AM PDT Recent analysis of ancient DNA gathered from lake beds in the Arctic may not only be a glimpse of the past but a snapshot of our potential future.

Rivers across the US are losing flow to aquifers Posted: 17 Mar 2021 11:16 AM PDT Water is an ephemeral thing. It can emerge from an isolated spring, as if by magic, to birth a babbling brook. It can also course through a mighty river, seeping into the soil until all that remains downstream is a shady arroyo, the nearby trees offering the only hint of where the water has gone.

Ocean areas that, if strongly protected, would help solve climate, food and biodiversity crises Posted: 17 Mar 2021 11:16 AM PDT From climate change and carbon emissions to biodiversity and global hunger, humanity faces so many challenges that tackling them quickly is a daunting task. One solution that potentially addresses multiple issues could provide the impetus society needs to make significant progress.

How to speed up muscle repair Posted: 17 Mar 2021 11:16 AM PDT By studying how different pluripotent stem cell lines build muscle, researchers have for the first time discovered how epigenetic mechanisms can be triggered to accelerate muscle cell growth, providing new insights for developing therapies for muscle disease, injury and atrophy.

Abundant and stable rocks are critical egg-laying habitat for insects in restored streams Posted: 17 Mar 2021 08:18 AM PDT The abundance and other characteristics of rocks partially extending above the water surface could be important for improving the recovery of aquatic insect populations in restored streams.

Magnetism meets topology on a superconductor's surface Posted: 17 Mar 2021 08:18 AM PDT Scientists studying a compound belonging to the family of iron-based high-temperature superconductors have found that an energy band gap -- an energy range where no electrons are allowed -- opens at a point where two allowed energy bands intersect on the material's surface. This unusual electronic energy structure could be leveraged for quantum information science and electronics.

Researchers find a better way to measure consciousness Posted: 16 Mar 2021 10:21 AM PDT Millions of people are administered general anesthesia each year in the United States alone, but it's not always easy to tell whether they are actually unconscious. A small proportion of those patients regain some awareness during medical procedures, but a new study of the brain activity that represents consciousness could prevent that potential trauma.

Researchers enhance quantum machine learning algorithms Posted: 16 Mar 2021 08:22 AM PDT Researchers found a way to automatically infer parameters used in an important quantum Boltzmann machine algorithm for machine learning applications.

Spontaneous superconducting currents in Sr2RuO4 Posted: 16 Mar 2021 08:22 AM PDT Researchers have shown, through muon implantation experiments, that in Sr2RuO4 the onset of superconductivity causes spontaneous electrical currents to flow. They did this by showing that the onset of these currents splits from the main superconducting transition under uniaxial stress, which proves that it is a distinct transition, not a measurement artefact.

Crucial step in formation of deadly brain diseases discovered Posted: 15 Mar 2021 01:56 PM PDT Researchers have pinpointed what causes normal proteins to convert to a diseased form, causing conditions like CJD and Kuru.

Melting glaciers could speed up carbon emissions into the atmosphere Posted: 15 Mar 2021 11:18 AM PDT An international research team has for the first time linked glacier-fed mountain rivers with higher rates of plant material decomposition, a major process in the global carbon cycle.

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