How acoustics detected artillery in WWI

During World War I, William Lawrence Bragg led a team of engineers in the development of an acoustic method to locate enemy artillery, work that was so successful that it was soon used widely throughout the British army. The method, known as sound ranging, was also adopted by the U.S. Army when they joined the … Read more

Teachers predict pupil success just as well as exam scores

New research from King’s College London finds that teacher assessments are equally as reliable as standardised exams at predicting educational success. The researchers say their findings, published today in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, question whether the benefits of standardised exams outweigh the costs. Teacher assessments were found to correlate strongly with exam … Read more

Machine learning overtakes humans in predicting death or heart attack

Machine learning is overtaking humans in predicting death or heart attack. That’s the main message of a study presented today at ICNC 2019.1 The International Conference on Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac CT (ICNC) is co-organised by the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC), the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) of the European Society of … Read more

Manipulating superconductivity using a ‘mechanic’ and an ‘electrician’

In the strongly correlated materials such as cuprate high-temperature superconductors, superconductivity can be controlled either by changing the number of electrons or by changing the kinetic energy, or transfer energy, of electrons in the system.Although a large number of strongly correlated materials have been examined with different parameters to understand the mechanism of superconductivity, the … Read more

Stem cell scientists clear another hurdle in creating transplant arteries

Cardiovascular disease wreaks havoc on patients’ blood vessels and can require complex bypass surgery. Scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research are working toward a dream of creating artery banks — similar to blood banks common today — with readily-available material to replace diseased arteries during surgery. The latest work in the lab of Morgridge … Read more

Secrets of fluorescent microalgae could lead to super-efficient solar cells

Microalgae are probably the oldest surviving living organisms on the planet. They have evolved over billions of years to possess light harvesting systems that are up to 95 per cent efficient. This enables them to survive in the most extreme environments, and adapt to changes our world has seen over this time-span. Unravelling how this … Read more

Are otters threatening amphibian populations?

The Eurasian otter typically eats fish, but amphibians, which are in global decline, are also part of its diet, especially when fish are scarce. In a study, researchers identified bones of amphibians in otter faeces from southern Italy to determine which types of amphibians are typically eaten. They also reviewed 64 studies of otter diet. [rand_post] … Read more

New poll shows how little we know about dying

The Academy of Medical Sciences worked with Ipsos MORI to survey 966 British adults aged 18+ through face-to-face interviews (of whom 612 answered the questions), as the Academy launches a new national campaign calling for us all to be better informed about death and dying, to understand public values when it comes to end of … Read more

New Jurassic non-avian theropod dinosaur sheds light on origin of flight in Dinosauria

A new Jurassic non-avian theropod dinosaur from 163 million-year-old fossil deposits in northeastern China provides new information regarding the incredible richness of evolutionary experimentation that characterized the origin of flight in the Dinosauria. Drs. Wang Min, Jingmai K. O’Connor, Xu Xing, and Zhou Zhonghe from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the … Read more