Saturday 18 May 2019

Wearable cooling and heating patch could serve as personal thermostat and save energy

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a wearable patch that could provide personalized cooling and heating at home, work, or on the go. The soft, stretchy patch cools or warms a user's skin to a comfortable temperature and keeps it there as the ambient temperature changes. It is powered by a flexible, stretchable battery pack and can be embedded in clothing. Researchers say wearing it could help save energy on air conditioning and heating.

* This article was originally published here

When an aircraft landing system is made to enter the spoofing zone

Just what the airplane passenger who is always skittish does not want to hear: Radio navigation on planes for landing purposes is not secure; signals can be hacked.

* This article was originally published here

Dirty data: Firms count environmental costs of digital planet

Technology is often touted as a solution to the world's environmental challenges, but it is also part of the problem: industry executives are facing rising pressure to clean up their energy and resource-intensive business.

* This article was originally published here

Eyes in the sky project will show power plant pollution marks

Air pollution is responsible for millions of deaths every year, worldwide. According to a State of Global Air report, air pollution is the fifth greatest global mortality risk.

* This article was originally published here

Lunar South Pole Atlas—a new online reference for mission planners

The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), managed by Universities Space Research Association (USRA), has compiled and made available an atlas of the Moon's south pole. Given NASA's recent direction to implement Space Policy Directive-1 landing astronauts at the south pole by 2024, the LPI has compiled a series of maps, images, and illustrations designed to provide context and reference for those interested in exploring this area.

* This article was originally published here

What's behind the belief in a soulmate?

The United States appears to be in a romantic slump. Marriage rates have plummeted over the last decade. And compared to previous generations, young single people today are perhaps spending more time on social media than actual dating. They are also having less sex.

* This article was originally published here

Cyber attacks are rewriting the 'rules' of modern warfare—and we aren't prepared for the consequences

Governments are becoming ever more reliant on digital technology, making them more vulnerable to cyber attacks. In 2007, Estonia was attacked by pro-Russian hackers who crippled government servers, causing havoc. Cyber attacks in Ukraine targeted the country's electricity grid, while Iran's nuclear power plants were infected by malware that could have led to a nuclear meltdown.

* This article was originally published here

Dangerous pathogens use this sophisticated machinery to infect hosts

Gastric cancer, Q fever, Legionnaires' disease, whooping cough—though the infectious bacteria that cause these dangerous diseases are each different, they all utilize the same molecular machinery to infect human cells. Bacteria use this machinery, called a Type IV secretion system (T4SS), to inject toxic molecules into cells and also to spread genes for antibiotic resistance to fellow bacteria. Now, researchers at Caltech have revealed the 3-D molecular architecture of the T4SS from the human pathogen Legionella pneumophila with unprecedented details. This could in the future enable the development of precisely targeted antibiotics for the aforementioned diseases.

* This article was originally published here

Cancer drug could be repurposed to provide treatment for brain aneurysms

An important class of drug used to treat cancer patients could be used to treat brain aneurysms, according to new research published this week.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers develop electric field-based dressing to help heal wound infections

Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine have found a way to charge up the fight against bacterial infections using electricity.

* This article was originally published here

Polymers jump through hoops on pathway to sustainable materials

Recyclable plastics that contain ring-shaped polymers may be a key to developing sustainable synthetic materials. Despite some promising advances, researchers said, a full understanding of how to processes ring polymers into practical materials remains elusive. In a new study, researchers identified a mechanism called "threading" that takes place when a polymer is stretched—a behavior not witnessed before. This new insight may lead to new processing methods for sustainable polymer materials.

* This article was originally published here

New laws of robotics needed to tackle AI: expert

Decades after Isaac Asimov first wrote his laws for robots, their ever-expanding role in our lives requires a radical new set of rules, legal and AI expert Frank Pasquale warned on Thursday.

* This article was originally published here

Earliest evidence of the cooking and eating of starch

New discoveries made at the Klasies River Cave in South Africa's southern Cape, where charred food remains from hearths were found, provide the first archaeological evidence that anatomically modern humans were roasting and eating plant starches, such as those from tubers and rhizomes, as early as 120,000 years ago.

* This article was originally published here