Author Archives: Guest Post

Polymer ‘pens’

Epps, DuPont receive NSF funding to develop new approach to manufacture nanostructured arrays

Miniaturization of electronic devices has been ongoing since well before the first room-sized computer was built more than half a century ago. A hand-held smart phone now holds far more data than that behemoth of the late 1940s, but continuing this trend toward tiny has become more challenging. (more…)

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Stem cell advance could be key step toward treating deadly blood diseases

UCLA scientists get closer to creating blood stem cells in the lab

Scientists at the UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have made several discoveries that are critically important to understanding how blood stem cells are created and maintained — both in the body and in the laboratory. (more…)

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IBM Intensifies Fight Against Zika 

Shares cloud and analytics technology and expertise with science and public health community

ARMONK, NY – 27 Jul 2016: IBM today announced that it is committing powerful resources, technology and pro bono expertise to help scientists, the public health community, and humanitarian agencies in the fight against the Zika virus. As part of its IBM Impact Grant programs, IBM is providing technology and talent to Brazil’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), a research institution affiliated with the Brazilian Ministry of Health and one the most prominent science and technology health institution in Latin America. Fiocruz plans to help track the spread of Zika by using technology developed by IBM to analyze clues ranging from anecdotal observations recorded by the general public on social media, to official data about human travel patterns. (more…)

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Werkzeug oder kein Werkzeug? Das ist hier die Frage

Kakadus denken ökonomisch und treffen Entscheidungen je nach “Marktsituation”

Flexibler Werkzeuggebrauch bei Tieren steht in enger Verbindung mit intelligenten mentalen Prozessen wie zum Beispiel die Fähigkeit Handlungen zu planen. KognitionsbiologInnen von der Universität Wien und der Veterinärmedizinischen Universität Wien erforschten Entscheidungsfähigkeit und Werkzeuggebrauch bei einer indonesischen Kakadu-Art und fanden heraus, dass die Tiere offenbar sorgfältig abwägen: Sofort verfügbares Futter fressen oder doch lieber warten und ein Werkzeug verwenden, um damit an ein anderes Futter zu kommen? Dabei hinterfragen die Vögel auch Details wie Qualitätsunterschiede beim Futter oder den Sinn des Einsatzes von Werkzeugen.

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A new way to get electricity from magnetism

‘Inverse spin Hall effect’ works in several organic semiconductors

By showing that a phenomenon dubbed the “inverse spin Hall effect” works in several organic semiconductors – including carbon-60 buckyballs – University of Utah physicists changed magnetic “spin current” into electric current. The efficiency of this new power conversion method isn’t yet known, but it might find use in future electronic devices including batteries, solar cells and computers. (more…)

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Das Ei, das aus der Kälte kam – Wie sich Tigermücken für den Winter rüsten

Die Asiatische Tigermücke breitet sich von Südeuropa Richtung Norden aus und überträgt Viren, die für den Menschen gefährlich sind. Gebremst wird sie nur durch die kühleren Temperaturen in Nordeuropa. Um mehr über ihre Mechanismen der Kältetoleranz zu erfahren, haben WissenschaflerInnen des Senckenberg Biodiversität und Klima Forschungszentrums und der Goethe-Universität Eier dieser Plagegeister unter dem Elektronenmikroskop analysiert. Die Ergebnisse der jüngst im „Journal of Vector Ecology“ erschienenen Studie sollen helfen, die zukünftige Verbreitung der Mücken besser zu modellieren. (more…)

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After legal-ivory experiment, black markets thrive from greater demand, less risk

To curb the destructive illegal ivory trade, the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) announced in 2008 that it would suspend its ban on the international trade in ivory to allow a one-time legal sale of 108 metric tons of stockpiled ivory to China and Japan from four African nations. This partial-legalization was intended to flood the Asian market with legal ivory, driving black-market purveyors and the poachers who supply them out of business. (more…)

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