Living on a greener street or having views of blue spaces from your home may help you sleep for longer. New research across 18 countries found that living on greener streets -- those with visible grass, trees, and vegetation -- is linked to better sleep.
Beautiful white wall paint does not stay beautiful and white forever. Often, various substances from the air accumulate on its surface. This can be a desired effect because it makes the air cleaner for a while -- but over time, the color changes and needs to be renewed. Now, special titanium oxide nanoparticles have been developed that can be added to ordinary, commercially available wall paint to establish self-cleaning power: The nanoparticles are photocatalytically active, they can use sunlight not only to bind substances from the air, but also to decompose them afterwards.
AI is revolutionizing the way researchers seek to identify new materials, but it still has some shortcomings. Now, a team of researchers has navigated AI's pitfalls to identify a thermoelectric material that boasts remarkable properties.
A new study combining genetic, palaeoecological, and archaeological evidence has unveiled the Persian Plateau as a pivotal geographic location serving as a hub for Homo sapiens during the early stages of their migration out of Africa. It highlights the period between 70,000 to 45,000 years ago when human populations did not uniformly spread across Eurasia, leaving a gap in our understanding of their whereabouts during this time frame.
The famous work ethic of honey bees might spell disaster for these busy crop pollinators as the climate warms, new research indicates. Flying shortens the lives of bees, and worker honey bees will fly to find flowers whenever the weather is right, regardless of how much honey is already in the hive. Using climate and bee population models, researchers found that increasingly long autumns with good flying weather for bees raises the likelihood of colony collapse in the spring. The study focused on the Pacific Northwest but holds implications for hives across the U.S. The researchers also modeled a promising mitigation: putting colonies into indoor cold storage, so honey bees will cluster in their hive before too many workers wear out.
While Hollywood and Silicon Valley love the limelight, California is an agricultural powerhouse, too. Agricultural products sold in the Golden State totaled $59 billion in 2022. But rising temperatures, declining precipitation and decades of over pumping may require drastic changes to farming. Legislation to address the problem could even see fields taken out of cultivation.
Humans pass on more viruses to domestic and wild animals than we catch from them, according to a major new analysis of viral genomes.
More efficient use of phosphorus could see limited stocks of the important fertilizer last more than 500 years and boost global food production to feed growing populations. But these benefits will only happen if countries are less wasteful with how they use phosphorus, a study shows. Around 30-40 per cent of farm soils have over-applications of phosphorus, with European and North American countries over-applying the most.
A new iron-based aqueous flow battery shows promise for grid energy storage applications.
Scientists made a single-molecule transistor using quantum interference to control electron flow. This new design offers high on/off ratio and stability, potentially leading to smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient devices. Quantum interference also improves the transistor's sensitivity to voltage changes, further boosting its efficiency.
Scientists have discovered a gene mutation is responsible for causing psoriasis -- a chronic inflammatory skin disease that causes patients to develop red, scaly and itchy patches across their body. According to researchers, if two copies of this mutated gene (known as IKBKB) are present, patients with psoriasis may go on to develop psoriatic arthritis, leaving them with joint pain, stiffness and swelling. It's hoped the findings will lead to improved diagnosis and treatment for patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis -- conditions that patients say carry stigma in the community.
Conventional quantum algorithms are not feasible for solving combinatorial optimization problems (COPs) with constraints in the operation time of quantum computers. To address this issue, researchers have developed a novel algorithm called post-processing variationally scheduled quantum algorithm. The novelty of this innovative algorithm lies in the use of a post-processing technique combined with variational scheduling to achieve high-quality solutions to COPs in a short time.
Annealing processors are crucial for solving combinatorial optimization problems. However, they face scalability challenges due to the complexity of required architecture. TUS researchers have now designed a scalable, fully-coupled processor with 4096 spins and parallel processing capabilities. It demonstrates superior performance and power efficiency compared to traditional devices. The research team aims to develop a 2050-level quantum computer computing system by 2030, potentially revolutionizing digital industries without relying on extensive infrastructure or cloud support.
New work aimed to study the star-forming gas in a single radio galaxy. Although the team didn't find any star-forming gas in the galaxy they were studying, they instead discovered other galaxies while inspecting the data. In total, the gas of 49 galaxies was detected.
Biologists use a novel method of simultaneous acoustic tagging to gain insights into the link between whale communication and behavior
A new study reveals how fire suppression ensures that wildfires will burn under extreme conditions at high severity, exacerbating the impacts of climate change and fuel accumulation.
Models suggest summer rainfall in southern Europe could decline by up to 48% by the year 2100 if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to rise rapidly.
A small-bird species, the Japanese tit (Parus minor), uses wing movements as a gesture to convey the message 'after you,' according to new research. When a mating pair arrives at their nest box with food, they will wait outside on perches. One will then often flutter its wings toward the other, apparently indicating for the latter to enter first. The researchers say that this discovery challenges the previous belief that gestural communication is prominent only in humans and great apes, significantly advancing our understanding of visual communication in birds.
Scientists have found a 'tipping point' in the evolution of fungi that throttles their growth and sculpts their shapes. The findings demonstrate how small changes in environmental factors can lead to huge changes in evolutionary outcomes.
The researchers said it did not matter how many object words a dog understood — known words activated mental representations anyway.
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