- CBC - Technology & Science News
- 19/10/4 23:48
U.S. payments processor PayPal announced Friday it was withdrawing from the Libra Association, a Facebook-led effort to build a global digital...
108 articles from FRIDAY 4.10.2019
U.S. payments processor PayPal announced Friday it was withdrawing from the Libra Association, a Facebook-led effort to build a global digital...
The first all-female spacewalk is back on, six months after a flap over spacesuits led to an embarrassing cancellation.
A federal agency has rejected an iconic Alaska tree for listing as a threatened species due to climate warming.
Researchers have developed a new non-invasive optical imaging system that promises to improve diagnosis and treatments for dry eye disease. Dry eye, which often causes irritation and blurred vision, occurs when there is instability in the inner layer of the tear film that protects the outside of the eye.
Over the last two decades, tremendous advances have been made in the field of quantum information science. Scientists are capitalizing on the strange nature of quantum mechanics to solve difficult problems in computing and communications, as well as in sensing and measuring delicate systems. One avenue of research in this field is optical quantum information processing, which uses photons—tiny...
Fish use colorful patterns to signal to each other, including advertising for mates and warding off rivals. Studying these colors, especially in small and squirmy species, sometimes entails anesthetizing and photographing the fish to obtain color measurements from digital images.
Researchers have developed a new non-invasive optical imaging system that promises to improve diagnosis and treatments for dry eye disease. Dry eye, which often causes irritation and blurred vision, occurs when there is instability in the inner layer of the tear film that protects the outside of the eye.
A 5-minute soak in a 40% solution of household bleach decontaminated stainless steel wires coated with chronic wasting disease (CWD) prions, according to a new study. The scientists used the wires to model knives and saws that hunters and meat processors use when handling deer, elk and moose - all of which are susceptible to CWD.
Shift work and jet lag disrupt not just sleep cycles, but feeding and digestive cycles as well. Such disruptions have been linked to risk of obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, infection, and other conditions. Now, researchers have identified an immune cell that helps set the daily rhythms of the gut. The findings open the door to new treatments for digestive ailments targeting such cells.
A team led by scientists has designed and tested a 3D-printed metamaterial that can manipulate light with nanoscale precision. Their designed optical element focuses light to discrete points in a 3D helical pattern.
The research vessel is spearheading the biggest ever scientific expedition at the North Pole.
An ingestible sensor that allows doctors to remotely monitor tuberculosis patients' intake of medication has the potential to save millions of lives and revolutionise treatment for the world's most deadly infectious disease, researchers said Friday. A randomised trial of 77 patients in California, published in the journal PLOS medicine, found that 93 percent of patients using the sensor were...
Bans on the technology have mostly focused on law enforcement, but there’s a growing movement to get it out of school, parks, and private businesses too.
A team led by scientists at the University of Washington has designed and tested a 3-D-printed metamaterial that can manipulate light with nanoscale precision. As they report in a paper published Oct. 4 in the journal Science Advances, their designed optical element focuses light to discrete points in a 3-D helical pattern.
Researchers found that aggressive breast cancers store glycogen in very large amounts, offering an explanation of how cells can change their function to evade treatment, grow and spread. Targeting an enzyme involved in this process could potentially treat or prevent metastases.
For the first time, researchers have captured images of the formation of individual viruses, offering a real-time view into the kinetics of viral assembly. The research provides new insights into how to fight viruses and engineer self-assembling particles.
Joe Nuth loves dust. Among astronomers, that puts him in a minority.
Last month was the equal hottest September in history, the European Union's satellite monitoring service said Friday, the fourth month in a row with near- or record-breaking temperatures.
A researcher who is currently doing his post-doctoral training at Stanford University, has successfully invented a novel transfection method to deliver DNA into immune cells with minimal stress on these cells. This new technique is expected to boost DNA-based cancer immunotherapy by significantly improving the process of generating high-quality genetically modified immune cells.
Researchers found that a stable body temperature holds the key to awakening the body's immune response to fight off brain cancer.
In materials science and quantum physics, flat bands and correlated behaviors within the "magic angle" twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) has sparked significant interest, although many of its properties face intense debate. In a new report published in Science Advances, Emilio Codecido and colleagues in the departments of physics and materials science in the U.S. and Japan observed both...
An estimated 7 million people die every year from exposure to polluted air. Nicola Davis looks at the science behind air pollution and at the policies to tackle it Continue reading...
Working with the ice core ReCap, drilled close to the coast in East Greenland, researchers wondered why the dust particles from the interglacial period -- the warmer period of time between the ice ages -- were several times bigger than the dust particles from the ice age. The research led to the invention of a method able to map the advancement of the glaciers in cold periods and the melting in...
Antibiotics are still the most important weapon for combatting bacterial infections. But medical science is running out of ''ammunition'' because of more and more frequently occurring resistances. Research teams have now elucidated the structure of the proteolytic complex ClpX-ClpP. This is a key to development of innovative antibiotics which target the degradation process of defective proteins in...
A test to detect opioid drugs in exhaled breath has been developed by engineers and physicians. A breath test could be useful in caring for chronic pain patients as well as for checking for illegal drug use.
Insect-eating bats navigate effortlessly in the dark and dolphins and killer whales gobble up prey in murky waters thanks in part to specific changes in a set of 18 genes involved in the development of the cochlear ganglion -- a group of nerves that transmit sound from the ear to the brain, according to a new study.
People eat more with friends and family than when dining alone -- a possible throwback to our early ancestors' approach to survival, according to a new study. This phenomenon is known as 'social facilitation'.
Wound inflammation which results in impaired wound healing can have serious consequences for patients. Researchers have discovered a new defensive mechanism which enables our skin to actively kill bacteria. Central to this mechanism is a cellular messenger molecule known as 'interleukin 6', whose mode of action may be used in the future to prevent wound infections.
Researchers have developed a new way to deliver the DNA-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 into microorganisms in the lab, providing a way to efficiently launch a targeted attack on specific bacteria.
Metal complexes show a fascinating behavior in their interactions with light, which for example is utilized in organic light emitting diodes, solar cells, quantum computers, or even in cancer therapy. In many of these applications, the electron spin, a kind of inherent rotation of the electrons, plays an important role. Researchers succeeded in simulating the extremely fast spin flip processes...
The spread of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) through the water system could put public safety at-risk. Researchers studied and compared samples from an advanced groundwater treatment facility in California and groundwater aquifers to detect differences in ARG concentrations. They found that the advanced groundwater treatment facility reduced nearly all targeted ARGs to below detection limits,...
Scientists analyze the current graphene landscape and market forecast for graphene over the following decade.
Multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disorder, is known to be driven by 'helper' T cells, white blood cells that mount an inflammatory attack on the brain and spinal cord. A new study pinpoints the specific subgroup of helper T cells that cause MS, as well as a protein on their surface, called CXCR6, that marks them. An antibody targeting CXCR6 both prevented and reversed MS in a mouse model, the...
Groundwater is the world's largest source of freshwater and it is of vital importance for food production. Increasing extraction of groundwater in recent decades has resulted in sinking water tables worldwide. A study by a hydrologist shows that almost 20 percent of the catchments areas where groundwater is pumped suffer from a flow that is too low to sustain freshwater ecosystems. This number is...
Chemists have developed a new method with which they can characterize individual noble-metal-free nanoparticle catalysts. The particles could be a cheap alternative to precious metal catalysts for obtaining hydrogen from water by means of electrolysis.
Women who reach menopause before the age of 50 have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, according to researchers.
Research into the molecular phylogeny (evolutionary history) of the HIV-1B virus in Indonesia has succeeded in illuminating the transmission period and routes for three clades (main branches of the virus). This includes a clade thought to be unique to Indonesia, as well as clades that spread from Thailand, Europe and America in the 1970s and 1980s.
Researchers have developed a new method that reveals the unique fluorescence patterns produced by individual cells in mixtures of bacteria, yeast and fungi. They combined confocal microscopy with micro-spectroscopy to determine the fluorescence signatures from different types of microbes. They trained machine learning systems to analyze the images and identify different individual cells and...
Researchers are developing a graphene sensing system that detects early signs of foot ulcers before they form so people living with diabetes can access preventative healthcare and confidently manage their health.
A man paralyzed from the shoulders down has been able to walk using a pioneering four-limb robotic system, or exoskeleton, that is commanded and controlled by signals from his...
Researchers at Western University have developed a new way to deliver the DNA-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 into microorganisms in the lab, providing a way to efficiently launch a targeted attack on specific bacteria.
With climate change comes increasing water shortages, and potentially longer periods of drought. As policymakers look urgently to wastewater recycling to stem the gap in water resources, the question is— how best to reuse water and ensure public safety. New and emerging contaminants like antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) pose a potential hazard to public safety and water security. One concern is...
Astronomers have obtained an extremely high-resolution image showing two disks in which young stars are growing, fed by a complex pretzel-shaped network of filaments of gas and dust. Observing this remarkable phenomenon sheds new light on the earliest phases of the lives of stars and helps astronomers determine the conditions in which binary stars are born.