SciGlow | All Science News In One Place
SciGlow is a newsletter of science stories from the major research labs. Headlines link to in-depth articles and editorials. SciGlow keeps scientists and others up-to-date on current research.
The fate of the world’s coral reefs could depend on how well the sea creatures equip their offspring to cope with global warming. About half the world’s coral has been lost due to warming seas that make their world hostile. Instead of vivid and floral, coral bleach pale as temperatures rise. This happens because the … Read more
A team from Dartmouth College and MIT has designed and conducted the first lab test to successfully detect and characterize a class of complex, “non-Gaussian” noise processes that are routinely encountered in superconducting quantum computing systems. The characterization of non-Gaussian noise in superconducting quantum bits is a critical step toward making these systems more precise. … Read more
Integrated circuits in silicon enable our digital era. The capabilities of electronic circuits have been extended even further with the introduction of photonics: components for the generation, guiding and detection of light. Together, electronics and photonics support entire systems for data communication and processing, all on a chip. However, there are certain things that even … Read more
Communities across the United States are working with scientists to respond to climate change impacts, shows a new report and multimedia resources developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). How We Respond shares details and perspectives from 18 communities using scientific information to adapt to climate change impacts and/or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. … Read more
It’s a highly anticipated rite of passage for many high schoolers – finally getting to drive your friends around. But having teens who carpool with peers can be a nerve-wracking experience for many parents, with more than half in a new national poll saying their child has probably been in an unsafe situation as a … Read more
New research led by The Australian National University (ANU) has shown exposure to people from other racial backgrounds during childhood could help us better recognise faces across different races as adults. The study, led by Professor Elinor McKone, examined the ‘other-race effect’, a phenomenon in which people have difficulty telling apart individuals of a different … Read more
An international team of researchers has observed that local thermal perturbations of spins in a solid can convert heat to energy even in a paramagnetic material – where spins weren’t thought to correlate long enough to do so. This effect, which the researchers call “paramagnon drag thermopower,” converts a temperature difference into an electrical voltage. … Read more
Technology is getting smaller – which is good news. The ability to fabricate materials with optical, electrical and mechanical properties out of very small particles could have far-reaching applications. For example, micro-particles grafted with DNA can be used in medicine for better sensing, imaging and treatment delivery. An improved understanding of how these materials behave … Read more
Inspired by octopuses, researchers have developed a structure that senses, computes and responds without any centralized processing – creating a device that is not quite a robot and not quite a computer, but has characteristics of both. The new technology holds promise for use in a variety of applications, from soft robotics to prosthetic devices. … Read more
With apologies to “Spinal Tap,” it appears that black can, indeed, get more black. MIT engineers report today that they have cooked up a material that is 10 times blacker than anything that has previously been reported. The material is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, or CNTs – microscopic filaments of carbon, like a … Read more