Study: Wireless aquatic robot could clean water and transport cells
Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology developed a tiny plastic robot, made of responsive polymers, which moves under the influence of light and magnetism. In the future this 'wireless aquatic polyp' should be able...
Study: New modelling tracks arsenic in groundwater
Naturally occurring (geogenic) groundwater arsenic (As) contamination is a problem of global significance. It occurs in large parts of the alluvial and deltaic aquifers in South and Southeast Asia.
Arsenic is tasteless and odourless and...
Study: Potential drug treatment for particular type of lung-cancer
The effectiveness of cancer treatment is often hampered by cancer cells being heterogeneous. This is the case for EGFR-mutated lung cancer: drugs based on biomolecules of a type known as tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)...
Researchers identify a temperature tipping point for tropical forests
All living things have tipping points: points of no return, beyond which they cannot thrive. A new report in Science shows that maximum daily temperatures above 32.2 degrees Celsius (about 90 degrees Fahrenheit) cause...
Study: Ultra-bright X-ray source awakens near a galaxy not so far away
A new ultra-bright source of X-rays has awakened in between our galactic neighbours the Magellanic Clouds, after a 26-year slumber. This is the second-closest such object known to date, with a brightness greater than...
Study: New mathematical method shows how climate change led to fall of ancient civilization
A Rochester Institute of Technology researcher developed a mathematical method that shows climate change likely caused the rise and fall of an ancient civilization. In an article recently featured in the journal Chaos: An...
Study: New form of silicon could enable next-gen electronic and energy devices
A team led by Carnegie's Thomas Shiell and Timothy Strobel developed a new method for synthesizing a novel crystalline form of silicon with a hexagonal structure that could potentially be used to create next-generation...
Study: Why the Victoria Plate in Africa rotates
The East African Rift System (EARS) is a newly forming plate tectonic boundary at which the African continent is being separated into several plates. This is not a clean break. The system includes several...
Study: Biophysicists reveal how optogenetic tool works
An international research team has for the first time obtained the structure of the light-sensitive sodium-pumping KR2 protein in its active state. The discovery provides a description of the mechanism behind the light-driven sodium...
Research shows erosion of ozone layer responsible for mass extinction event
Researchers at the University of Southampton have shown that an extinction event 360 million years ago, that killed much of the Earth's plant and freshwater aquatic life, was caused by a brief breakdown of...