Smartphone-based diagnostic devices allow doctors in resource-poor regions to perform tests that would otherwise involve sending samples away. Most such devices, however, can only analyze individual samples. By contrast, a new one can check 96 samples for diseases, all at one time.
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Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is a deadly skin fungus that threatens populations of frogs and salamanders around the world. There may be new hope for catching it early enough to limit amphibian fatalities, however, thanks to the analysis of what's known as environmental DNA.
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Although the production of carbon fiber goods may be steadily increasing, recycling the material still remains challenging. It may soon be possible, however, to grind up carbon fiber waste and use it in new-and-improved pervious concrete.
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Researchers have found that areas of the hyperarid Atacama Desert, once thought lacking even microbes, is showing blooms of specialized bacteria after rainfall, providing hope that similar dormant colonies may exist on the Mars.
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Saturn’s moon Titan is very Earth-like, with lakes and oceans, but instead of water, those seas are composed of liquid methane and ethane. Now, scientists at NASA and WSU have recreated that alien ocean in the lab, to test out designs for submarines that may one day dive into the Titanic depths.
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Zapping hydrogen out of water through electrolysis is the cleanest way to produce the fuel, but that requires rare-Earth metal catalysts. Researchers have now developed a quick and inexpensive alternative, making a “nanofoam” catalyst out of nickel and iron that performs better than usual.
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Cancer treatments could benefit from being more like a sniper and less like a shotgun blast. A new technique is taking that approach, allowing doctors to attach drugs to white blood cells and sneak them past the tumor’s defenses for a targeted attack that doesn’t affect healthy tissue.
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While it is already possible to recycle carbon fiber, the material is often broken down using high temperatures and harsh chemicals. Scientists at Washington State University, however, have developed what they claim is a more eco-friendly and efficient process.
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If you pushed a ball with negative mass, it would move towards you. It might be hard to picture, but according to Newtonian physics it should be possible. Now a team at Washington State University has demonstrated the phenomenon in practice, creating a fluid that has the properties of negative mass.
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Materials such as wood and bone owe their high strength-to-weight ratio not just to the materials from which they're made, but to the way in which those materials are structured within them. Scientists have devised a 3D printing technique that allows them to mimic such nanoscale structures.
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