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Innovative Toilet Coating Could Reduce Cleaning Water Consumption by 90%

Fabrication of the liquid-entrenched smooth surface: (a) schematic showing the two-step spray-coating process to form the LESS coating; the molecularly grafted polymer layer creates chemical affinity to the lubricant; (b) optical images showing the individual coating processes on glass; the lubricant used was silicone oil, and the blue testing liquid was dyed water. Image credit: Wang et al, doi: 10.1038/s41893-019-0421-0.
Dec 2, 2019 by News Staff

A team of materials scientists and engineers from the Pennsylvania State University and Cranfield University has designed and fabricated a new toilet coating that can reduce cleaning water consumption by 90% compared with uncoated surfaces due to its extreme repellency towards liquids, bacteria and viscoelastic solids. Fabrication of the liquid-entrenched smooth surface: (a) schematic showing the two-step spray-coating process to form the LESS coating;...

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Schematic of the team’s ultracold chemistry apparatus; ground-state KRb molecules at 500 nK are trapped by a crossed optical dipole trap: (A) absorption image of KRb molecules; the color bar indicates the optical depth of the KRb cloud; CCD - charge-coupled device; (B) the trapped molecules are surrounded by velocity-map imaging (VMI) ion optics , which consist of a series of disk-shaped electrodes; the researchers use a pulsed UV laser to photoionize the molecules; B - magnetic field; (C) example time of flight (TOF) spectrum; (D) for each species identified in the mass spectrum, the scientists also obtain a velocity-map image from which the momentum distribution can be inferred. Image credit: Hu et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aay9531.

Chemists Directly Observe Coldest Ever Chemical Reaction

Dec 2, 2019 by News Staff

When two diatomic molecules collide, they can sometimes swap partners. For instance, two potassium-rubidium (KRb) molecules can produce K2 and Rb2. The...

A range of now extinct megafauna that was present when humans first arrived in Australia. Image credit: Peter Trusler, Monash University.

Study: Humans and Climate Change Drove Australian Megafauna to Extinction

Dec 2, 2019 by News Staff

Ancient Australia’s super-sized animals, the megafauna, became extinct about 42,000 years ago, but the role of humans in their demise has been debated...

Mice receiving extra-virgin olive oil displayed improved memory and cognition which was associated with increased basal synaptic activity and short-term plasticity; this effect was accompanied by an upregulation of complexin 1, a key presynaptic protein; moreover, extra-virgin olive oil treatment resulted in a significant reduction of tau oligomers and phosphorylated tau at specific epitopes. Image credit: Skica911.

Extra-Virgin Olive Oil-Rich Diet Protects Mice from Multiple Forms of Dementia

Dec 2, 2019 by News Staff

Extra-virgin olive oil, a major component of the Mediterranean diet, is rich in cell-protecting antioxidants and known for its multiple health benefits....

This Hubble image shows the face-on spiral galaxy NGC 5468. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Four filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / W. Li et al / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes NGC 5468

Dec 2, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a spectacularly detailed image of a spiral galaxy called NGC 5468. This Hubble image shows the face-on...

Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Were Neanderthals, Denisovans and Other Archaic Humans Victims of Sixth Mass Extinction?

Dec 1, 2019 by The Conversation

Nine human species walked the Earth 300,000 years ago. Now there is just one. A reconstruction of a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum. Neanderthals...

Tufted puffins (Fratercula cirrhata). Image credit: Judy Alderson / USFWS.

Puffins Regulate Their Body Temperature Thanks to Their Impressively Large Bills

Nov 29, 2019 by News Staff

Tufted puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) possess large bills and are members of the bird family with energetically expensive flight. In a new study, a team...

A life reconstruction of the Cretaceous multituberculate Jeholbaatar kielanae. Image credit: Yong Xu.

Cretaceous-Period Mammal Had Bizarre Middle Ear

Nov 29, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in China have unearthed a nearly complete skeleton of a previously unknown Cretaceous mammal species with well-preserved middle ear bones. A...

Astronomers Find ‘Impossible’ Stellar Black Hole in Milky Way

Nov 29, 2019 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers has discovered an exceptionally massive black hole of stellar origin with a mass 68 times that of the Sun. An artist’s...

Two individuals of Majungasaurus chasing Rapetosaurus, with Masiakasaurus in the foreground. Image credit: ABelov2014, abelov2014.deviantart.com / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Majungasaurus Replaced All Its Teeth Every Two Months: Study

Nov 29, 2019 by News Staff

Majungasaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur that lived approximately 70 million years ago (Cretaceous period) in what is now Madagascar, grew new teeth roughly...

Chen & van Breemen found drugs in blood supply used for research. Image credit: Allinonemovie.

Researchers Find Caffeine, Other Chemicals in Donor Blood Serum

Nov 28, 2019 by News Staff

In new research, Oregon State University scientists worked with biomedical suppliers to purchase and analyze 18 batches of human blood serum pooled from...

Neanderthals are commonly thought to have relied on dangerous close range hunting techniques, using non-projectile weapons like the thrusting spears depicted here; this hunting approach is thought to have brought them into violent contact with large mammals, resulting in high levels of injury especially to the head and neck when compared to modern humans; Beier et al found similar head injury levels in both Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic humans, casting doubt on this hypothesis. Image credit: Gleiver Prieto.

Neanderthal Extinction Caused by Inbreeding and Smallness of Their Populations, Study Suggests

Nov 28, 2019 by News Staff

A long-standing enigma in paleoanthropology is the demise of Neanderthals about 40,000 years ago. There is general agreement that their disappearance coincides...

The yellow-white cloud in the bottom-center of this image, taken on November 30, 2010 by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, is a ‘dust tower’ -- a concentrated cloud of dust that can be lofted dozens of miles above the surface. The blue-white plumes are water vapor clouds. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

‘Dust Towers’ Spotted on Mars

Nov 28, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter observed a high number of ‘dust towers’ — concentrated clouds of dust that warm in sunlight and rise high...

Yin et al use X-ray microtomography to show that the 609-million-year-old Caveasphaera develops within an envelope by cell division, ingression, detachment, and polar aggregation in a manner analogous to gastrulation; together with evidence of functional cell adhesion and development within an envelope, this is suggestive of a holozoan affinity. The image shows a life cycle of Caveasphaera and a simplified phylogenetic tree of Holozoa. Image credit: Yin et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.10.057.

Animal-Like Embryos Evolved Long Before Complex Animals, Scientists Say

Nov 28, 2019 by News Staff

Complex animals evolved from single-celled ancestors, before diversifying into 30-40 distinct anatomical designs. When and how this major evolutionary...

NGC 4631 is seen edge-on, with its disk of stars shown in pink; the filaments, shown in green and blue, extend beyond the disk into the galaxy’s extended halo; green indicates filaments with their magnetic field pointing roughly toward us and blue with the field pointing away; this phenomenon, with the field alternating in direction, has never before been seen in the halo of a galaxy. This VLA image shows a companion galaxy -- a small elliptical galaxy called NGC 4627 -- just above NGC 4631. Image credit: Jayanne English, University of Manitoba / Silvia Carolina Mora-Partiarroyo & Marita Krause of the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy / Maria Patterson & Rene Walterbos, New Mexico State University / Arpad Miskolczi, University of Bochum / NRAO.

Astronomers Spot Huge Magnetic Structures in ‘Whale Galaxy’

Nov 28, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have captured a new image of the edge-on barred spiral galaxy NGC 4631 (also known as ‘Whale...

In a state-of-the-art six-photon experiment, Proietti et al realize an extended Wigner’s friend scenario, experimentally violating the associated Bell-type inequality by five standard deviations. Image credit: Pete Linforth.

Objective Reality May Not Exist, Quantum Experiment Suggests

Nov 27, 2019 by The Conversation

In a paper published in the journal Science Advances, we show that, in the micro-world of atoms and particles that is governed by the strange rules of...

Massive Asteroid Impacts Triggered Early Plate Tectonics, Study Suggests

Nov 27, 2019 by News Staff

When and how the Earth evolved from a molten mass into a rocky planetary body continually resurfaced by plate tectonics remain some of the biggest questions...

The Expedition 20 crew members share a meal in the Unity node of the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA.

Spaceflight Can Cause Sustained Defect in Epithelial Barrier Function, New Study Shows

Nov 27, 2019 by News Staff

Epithelial cells that line our intestines serve as a robust barrier to invasion by viruses, bacteria and exposure to ingested agents. A new study, published...

Astronomers Capture New Image of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

Nov 27, 2019 by News Staff

A group of Yale University astronomers has captured a stunning new image of 2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet to travel through our Solar...

This image shows a region of Mars named Deuteronilus Mensae. The oblique perspective view was generated using a digital terrain model and Mars Express data gathered on February 25, 2018. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter Spots Fractured Ice Sheets

Nov 26, 2019 by News Staff

The two Martian hemispheres are drastically different; the smooth northern lowlands sit up to 3 km below the rugged southern highlands, and the surface...

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