Radioactive carbon released into the atmosphere from 20th-century nuclear bomb tests has reached the deepest parts of the ocean, new research finds.
* This article was originally published here
Wednesday 8 May 2019
Graphite coating makes perovskite solar cells waterproof
A cheaper, cleaner and more sustainable way of making hydrogen fuel from water using sunlight is step closer thanks to new research from the University of Bath's Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Drones to deliver incessant buzzing noise, and packages
A sister company of Google, Alphabet's Wing Aviation, just got federal approval to start using drones for commercial delivery. Amazon's own drone-delivery program is ready to launch as well. As drones take flight, the world is about to get a lot louder – as if neighborhoods were filled with leaf blowers, lawn mowers and chainsaws.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Should we turn the Sahara Desert into a huge solar farm?
Whenever I visit the Sahara I am struck by how sunny and hot it is and how clear the sky can be. Aside from a few oases there is little vegetation, and most of the world's largest desert is covered with rocks, sand and sand dunes. The Saharan sun is powerful enough to provide Earth with significant solar energy.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Show your hands: Smartwatches sense hand activity
We've become accustomed to our smartwatches and smartphones sensing what our bodies are doing, be it walking, driving or sleeping. But what about our hands? It turns out that smartwatches, with a few tweaks, can detect a surprising number of things your hands are doing.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Research boosts the yield of insulin-producing cells for diabetes therapy
A team of researchers led by Harvard University scientists has improved the laboratory process of converting stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells, using biological and physical separation methods to enrich the proportion of beta cells in a sample. Their findings, published in the journal Nature, may be used to improve beta cell transplants for patients with type 1 diabetes.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Mining microbial treasures from toxic sites
Filled with a noxious brew of copper, cadmium and arsenic, with a pH rivaling that of sulfuric acid, Montana's Berkeley Pit seems inhospitable to life. Nonetheless, scientists have discovered microorganisms in this abandoned copper mine and other human-made noxious sites. These extreme environments induce microbes to synthesize potent, never-before-seen molecules that could find uses in human medicine, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Cities can follow Stanford's energy makeover to cut emissions of carbon dioxide affordably, new study finds
Over the past several years, Stanford transformed its energy infrastructure by electrifying its heating system, replacing its gas-fired power plant with grid power, creating a unique system to recover heat, building massive tanks to store hot and cold water, and building a solar power plant. The Stanford Energy System Innovations project cut the campus's total greenhouse gas emissions 68 percent and is lowering the system's operating costs by $425 million over 35 years.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
New database: Water sources in 43 states contain potentially unsafe chemical levels
More than 610 drinking water sources in 43 states contain potentially unsafe levels of chemical compounds that have been linked to birth defects, cancers, infertility and reduced immune responses in children, according to a new database compiled by the Environmental Working Group and Northeastern University.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Soaking up pharmaceuticals and personal care products from water
Medications excreted in the urine or dumped into the toilet can end up in the water supply, just like lotions or cosmetics that wash off the body and go down the sink or shower drain. Unfortunately, conventional wastewater treatment cannot completely remove pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have developed an adsorbent membrane that they say could be used to purify water contaminated with PPCPs.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
New chip stops attacks before they start
A new computer processor architecture developed at the University of Michigan could usher in a future where computers proactively defend against threats, rendering the current electronic security model of bugs and patches obsolete.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Valve Index will be going high-end in the VR headset world
Pre-orders hovering in the wings will be the icing on the cake—the cake being a high-end VR headset called the Valve Index, from Valve. TechCrunch said pre-orders will kick in and the ship date is June 28. Preorders are for users in the contiguous US and most of Western Europe (the UK is left out for now), said Ars Technica.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Roman mining activities polluted European air more heavily than previously thought
Roman-era mining activities increased atmospheric lead concentrations by at least a factor of 10, polluting air over Europe more heavily and for longer than previously thought, according to a new analysis of ice cores taken from glaciers on France's Mont Blanc.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Fighting food waste by finding ways to use the useless
Every Thursday and Sunday I walk my frozen banana peels and carrot tops to Columbia's farmers market. It's my small effort to combat food waste, which happens from production to retail to consumption. At the production level, farmers cannot always sell their produce due to surplus. Produce makes it to the retail level can end up being wasted due to imperfections and oversupply. And as consumers, our eyes are often bigger than our stomachs. This leads to a large amount of food being tossed into the garbage. Even though this food is never eaten, the carbon emissions to grow it still end up in the atmosphere and resources are still wasted. Reducing waste at each of these levels is crucial to fighting climate change.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Survey: New moms often overlook critical postpartum care during 'fourth trimester'
The three trimesters of pregnancy are filled with doctor's appointments, preparations and careful surveillance of the health of both mom and baby. However, in the months after their baby is born, known as the fourth trimester, priorities often shift for new moms, and their own health can fall to the bottom of their to-do lists. A new national survey by Orlando Health found more than a quarter of mothers did not have a plan to manage their health after giving birth, while more than 40 percent say they felt anxious, overwhelmed or depressed.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
An approach for securing audio classification against adversarial attacks
Adversarial audio attacks are small perturbations that are not perceivable by humans and are intentionally added to audio signals to impair the performance of machine learning (ML) models. These attacks raise serious concerns about the security of ML models, as they can cause them to make mistakes and ultimately generate wrong predictions.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Jerusalem's dilemma over hordes of stray cats
A dozen cats wake up in cages stacked on top of one another, a pungent odour in the air, while in a room next door two vets work diligently.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Google bucks soaring smartphone prices with new Pixel
Google bucked the soaring smartphone price trend Tuesday, unveiling a high-performance Pixel handset aimed at the middle of the market as part of a wide-ranging pitch to developers of its new hardware, software and privacy efforts.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Three lions rescued in Albania sent to the Netherlands
Three lions, rescued in October from a private zoo in Albania where they were kept in "hellish" conditions were transported Tuesday to the Netherlands, an animal welfare organisation said.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Fewer than half of British men and women have sex at least once a week
Fewer than half of men and women in Britain aged 16-44 have sex at least once a week, reveals a large study published by The BMJ today.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
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