making waterproof paper using natural enzymes

A technological innovation that could revolutionise the paper industry

A researcher at the Terrassa Campus patents a biotechnology product to make waterproof paper using natural enzymes

Oriol Cusola, a member of the CelBiotech paper research group on the UPC's Terrassa Campus, has patented a natural aqueous compound that gives advanced properties to any cellulose base material. The patent was an outcome of Cusola's doctoral thesis supervised by Blanca Roncero and Cristina Valls. Using biotechnological and environmentally friendly methods, it will allow the surface of paper products to be modified simply without interrupting the production process and will help save large amounts of chemicals.

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All the better to see you with, my dear!

Tübingen University anatomists discover unique fisheye with two retinas – for better all-round vision in the ocean depths

The University of Tübingen’s Institute of Anatomy has discovered a fish with a previously unknown type of eye. The aptly-named glasshead barreleye lives at depths of 800 to 1000 meters. It has a cylindrical eye pointing upwards to see prey, predators or potential mates silhouetted against the gloomy light above. But the eye also has a mirror-like second retina which can detect bioluminescent flashes created by deep-sea denizens to the sides and below, reports Professor Hans-Joachim Wagner in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society.

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Pocket diagnosis

A new app which turns any smartphone into a portable medical diagnostic device could help in the fight against diseases including HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in the developing world.

A recently-developed mobile phone application could make monitoring conditions such as diabetes, kidney disease, and urinary tract infections much clearer and easier for both patients and doctors, and could eventually be used to slow or limit the spread of pandemics in the developing world.

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NRL Researchers Detect Water Around a Hot Jupiter

Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) are part of a research team that has detected water vapor in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system. The team, including scientists from California Institute of Technology, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, and University of Arizona, applied a sophisticated Doppler technique to the infrared to directly detect the planet and demonstrate the presence of water in its atmosphere.

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Magnetic behavior discovery could advance nuclear fusion

Inspired by the space physics behind solar flares and the aurora, a team of researchers from the University of Michigan and Princeton has uncovered a new kind of magnetic behavior that could help make nuclear fusion reactions easier to start.

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Global Atlas of environmental conflicts launched in Brussels

The Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT) project launches today its Global Atlas of Environmental Justice, a visually attractive and interactive online mapping platform detailing around 1000 environmental conflicts (and growing). It allows users to search and filter across 100 fields and to browse by commodity, company, country and type of conflict. With one click you can find a global snapshot of nuclear, waste or water conflicts, or the places where communities have an issue with a particular mining or chemical company. Click on any point to find the actors and a conflict description with the outcome and sources. Maps you create using the search and filter can be shared on your webpage or facebook. Featured maps will focus on issues ranging from fracking to conflicts over mega-infrastructure projects to maps on violent targeting of activists (and more).

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Non-academic young people take brain stimulants more frequently than students

Three per cent of young men in Switzerland take cognitive enhancement drugs at least once each year. Students hope this consumption will improve their exam performance, while their non-academic contemporaries seek primarily to remain awake for longer. These are the conclusions reached by a study supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

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It’s the end of the world as we know it – or is it?

Adam T. Smith, professor of anthropology at Cornell University and author of The Political Landscape: Constellations of Authority in Early Complex Polities reflects on the recent study sponsored by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which warns of an impending collapse of global industrial civilization due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly economic inequality.

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The precise reason for the health benefits of dark chocolate: mystery solved

The health benefits of eating dark chocolate have been extolled for centuries, but the exact reason has remained a mystery — until now. Researchers reported here today that certain bacteria in the stomach gobble the chocolate and ferment it into anti-inflammatory compounds that are good for the heart.

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Bees Capable of Learning Feats with Tasty Prize in Sight

They may have tiny brains, but bumblebees are capable of some remarkable learning feats, especially when they might get a tasty reward, according to two studies by University of Guelph researchers.

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Nanotube composites increase the efficiency of next generation of solar cells

Carbon nanotubes are becoming increasingly attractive for photovoltaic solar cells as a replacement to silicon. Researchers at Umeå University in Sweden have discovered that controlled placement of the carbon nanotubes into nano-structures produces a huge boost in electronic performance.

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Only one fifth of people with hearing problems wear a hearing aid

Just a fifth of people with hearing problems wear a hearing aid, a study by The University of Manchester has found.

The study, published in the journal Ear and Hearing, looked at the habits of 160,000 people in the UK aged 40 to 69 years. It found 10.7 per cent of adults had significant hearing problems when listening to speech in the presence of background noise - but only 2.1 per cent used a hearing aid. 

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Getting rid of bad vibrations

Scanning electron microscopes are extremely sensitive and even subtle movements going on around them can affect their accuracy. Vibration control tables already exist to dampen these sometimes barely perceptible disturbances. But now a new kind of isolation platform for the first time integrates sensors and actuators into the mount – resulting in a platform that is more cost-effective and compact than its predecessors. Its designers will be showcasing this new form of isolation at the Hannover Messe (Hall 2, Booth D13) from April 7-11.

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Antimony nanocrystals for batteries

Researchers from ETH Zurich and Empa have succeeded for the first time to produce uniform antimony nanocrystals. Tested as components of laboratory batteries, these are able to store a large number of both lithium and sodium ions. These nanomaterials operate with high rate and may eventually be used as alternative anode materials in future high-energy-density batteries.

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High-Strengh Materials from the Pressure Cooker

A Surprise in Materials Chemistry: At Vienna University of Technology, materials for lightweight construction, protective clothing or sports equipment can be produced at high temperatures and high pressures. This process is faster, better and more eco-friendly than other techniques.

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Microsoft's CEO may unveil Office for iPad on March 27

Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Satya Nadella may unveil an iPad version of the company's Office software suite on March 27, a source familiar with the event told Reuters, and use his first big press appearance to launch the company's most profitable product in a version compatible with Apple Inc's popular tablet.

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First Direct Evidence of Cosmic Inflation

Almost 14 billion years ago, the universe we inhabit burst into existence in an extraordinary event that initiated the Big Bang. In the first fleeting fraction of a second, the universe expanded exponentially, stretching far beyond the view of our best telescopes. All this, of course, was just theory.

Researchers from the BICEP2 collaboration today announced the first direct evidence for this cosmic inflation. Their data also represent the first images of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time. These waves have been described as the "first tremors of the Big Bang." Finally, the data confirm a deep connection between quantum mechanics and general relativity.

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New way to make biodiesel creates less waste from alligator, and likely other animal fats

Chicken fat, pork fat or beef fat –– none is the cornerstone of a healthful diet –– but animal fats, including those from alligators, could give an economical, ecofriendly boost to the biofuel industry, according to researchers who reported a new method for biofuel production here

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Toward ‘vanishing’ electronics and unlocking nanomaterials’ power potential

Brain sensors and electronic tags that dissolve. Boosting the potential of renewable energy sources. These are examples of the latest research from two pioneering scientists selected as this year’s Kavli lecturers at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society.

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Fujitsu Laboratories of America releases innovative new testing platform for mobile applications

Platform automatically generates a suite of high-coverage test cases based on the user-interface model of the mobile application

Fujitsu Laboratories of America announced the development of a testing platform technology for mobile applications that can generate a high-quality suite of test-cases for medium size mobile applications. This platform can reduce the time for test case generation from several days to a few hours greatly speeding up the development and deployment time for mobile applications.

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Moss brought back to life after 1,500 years frozen in ice

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey and Reading University have demonstrated that, after over 1,500 years frozen in Antarctic ice, moss can come back to life and continue to grow. For the first time, this vital part of the ecosystem in both polar regions has been shown to have the ability to survive century to millennial scale ice ages. This provides exciting new insight into the survival of life on Earth.

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High-tech materials purify water with sunlight

Sunlight plus a common titanium pigment might be the secret recipe for ridding pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other potentially harmful pollutants from drinking water. Scientists combined several high-tech components to make an easy-to-use water purifier that could work with the world’s most basic form of energy, sunlight, in a boon for water purification in rural areas or developing countries.

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A battery that ‘breathes’ could power next-gen electric vehicles

Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) nearly doubled in 2013, but most won’t take you farther than 100 miles on one charge. To boost their range toward a tantalizing 300 miles or more, researchers are reporting new progress on a “breathing” battery that has the potential to one day replace the lithium-ion technology of today’s EVs. They presented their work at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society.

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Advance toward developing an oral pain reliever derived from debilitating snail venom

Scientists reported today they have created at least five new experimental substances — based on a tiny protein found in cone snail venom — that could someday lead to the development of safe and effective oral medications for treatment of chronic nerve pain. They say the substances could potentially be stronger than morphine, with fewer side effects and lower risk of abuse.

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Thermal vision: Graphene light detector first to span infrared spectrum

The first room-temperature light detector that can sense the full infrared spectrum has the potential to put heat vision technology into a contact lens.

Unlike comparable mid- and far-infrared detectors currently on the market, the detector developed by University of Michigan engineering researchers doesn't need bulky cooling equipment to work.

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Bionic plants

Nanotechnology could turn shrubbery into supercharged energy producers or sensors for explosives.

Plants have many valuable functions: They provide food and fuel, release the oxygen that we breathe, and add beauty to our surroundings. Now, a team of MIT researchers wants to make plants even more useful by augmenting them with nanomaterials that could enhance their energy production and give them completely new functions, such as monitoring environmental pollutants.

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Atomically thick metal membranes

For the first time researchers have shown that freestanding metal membranes consisting of a single layer of atoms can be stable under ambient conditions. This result of an international research team from Germany, Poland and Korea is published in Science on March 14, 2014.

Background

The success and promise of atomically thin carbon, in which carbon atoms are arranged in a honeycomb lattice, also known as graphene has triggered enormous enthusiasm for other two dimensional materials, for example, hexagonal boron nitride and molybdenum sulphide.

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A recent study investigates how readers perceive computer-generated news articles.

The advent of new technologies has always spurred questions about changes in journalism – how it is produced and consumed. A recent development which has come to the fore in the digital world is software-generated content. A paper recently published in Journalism Practice investigates how readers perceive automatically produced news articles vs. articles which have been written by a journalist.

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10 Facts about the Changing Fast Food Industry

There is no question that dieting and healthy eating has become a greater topic of conversation in recent years and the fast food industry has taken notice. Eighty-seven percent of fast food operators say their customers are paying more attention to nutrition than they were two years ago (National Restaurant Association). In the March issue of Food Technology magazine published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), Contributing Editor A. Elizabeth Sloan writes about the increased demand for healthier options on fast food menus.

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Brighter inks, without pigment

NANOSTRUCTURED CAPSULES COULD BRING ABOUT PAINTS AND ELECTRONIC DISPLAYS THAT NEVER FADE

Among the taxidermal specimens in Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, past centuries-old fur coats, arises a flicker of brilliant blue. This is the spangled cotinga. Surprisingly, the cotinga is about as old as everything in the room, but its color is still as dazzling as the day it was brought to the museum. The cotinga—or rather its feathers—achieve this effect through structural color.

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VTT recovering metals and minerals from waste

Scarcity of clean water is one of the most serious global challenges. In its spearhead programme, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland developed energy-efficient methods for reuse of water in industrial processes and means for recovering valuable minerals and materials from waste for recycling. Rapid tools were also developed for identification of environmental pollutants.

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Emotion detectors could make driving safer

Technology now allows us to read facial expressions and identify which of the seven universal emotions a person is feeling: fear, anger, joy, sadness, disgust, surprise, or suspicion. This is very useful in video game development, medicine, marketing, and, perhaps less obviously, in driver safety. We know that in addition to fatigue, the emotional state of the driver is a risk factor. Irritation, in particular, can make drivers more aggressive and less attentive. EPFL researchers, in collaboration with PSA Peugeot Citroën, have developed an on-board emotion detector based on the analysis of facial expressions. Tests carried out using a prototype indicate that the idea could have promising applications.

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Nanoscale optical switch breaks miniaturization barrier

An ultra-fast and ultra-small optical switch has been invented that could advance the day when photons replace electrons in the innards of consumer products ranging from cell phones to automobiles.

The new optical device can turn on and off trillions of times per second. It consists of individual switches that are only one five-hundredth the width of a human hair (200 nanometers) in diameter. This size is much smaller than the current generation of optical switches and it easily breaks one of the major technical barriers to the spread of electronic devices that detect and control light: miniaturizing the size of ultrafast optical switches.

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Researchers write languages to design synthetic living systems useful for new products, health care

Researchers at Virginia Tech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used a computer-aided design tool to create genetic languages to guide the design of biological systems.

Known as GenoCAD, the open-source software was developed by researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech to help synthetic biologists capture biological rules to engineer organisms that produce useful products or health-care solutions from inexpensive, renewable materials.

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Scripps Florida Scientists Devise New, Lower Cost Method to Create More Usable Fuels

As the United States continues to lead the world in the production of natural gas, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have devised a new and more efficient method with the potential to convert the major components found in natural gas into useable fuels and chemicals—opening the door to cheaper, more abundant energy and materials with much lower emissions.

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More to biological diversity than meets the eye

Specialization by insect species is the key

Most of us already imagine the tropics as a place of diversity—a lush region of the globe teeming with a wide variety of exotic plants and animals. But for researchers Andrew Forbes and Marty Condon, there’s even more diversity than meets the eye.

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Autonomous Soft Robotic Fish Capable of Escape Maneuvers Using Fluidic Elastomer Actuators

Abstract

In this work we describe an autonomous soft-bodied robot that is both self-contained and capable of rapid, continuum-body motion. We detail the design, modeling, fabrication, and control of the soft fish, focusing on enabling the robot to perform rapid escape responses. The robot employs a compliant body with embedded actuators emulating the slender anatomical form of a fish. In addition, the robot has a novel fluidic actuation system that drives body motion and has all the subsystems of a traditional robot onboard: power, actuation, processing, and control. At the core of the fish's soft body is an array of fluidic elastomer actuators. We design the fish to emulate escape responses in addition to forward swimming because such maneuvers require rapid body accelerations and continuum-body motion.

journal reference (open access) >>

Researchers Describe Oxygen’s Different Shapes

Oxygen-16, one of the key elements of life on earth, is produced by a series of reactions inside of red giant stars. Now a team of physicists, including one from North Carolina State University, has revealed how the element’s nuclear shape changes depending on its state, even though other attributes such as spin and parity don’t appear to differ. Their findings may shed light on how oxygen is produced.

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Creating a Graphene-Metal Sandwich to Improve Electronics

UC Riverside and University of Manchester researchers combine graphene and copper in hopes of shrinking electronics

Researchers have discovered that creating a graphene-copper-graphene “sandwich” strongly enhances the heat conducting properties of copper, a discovery that could further help in the downscaling of electronics.

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Marimekko fashion show includes dress knitted out of birch cellulose fibre

The surface of the ready textile has a dim glow and it is pleasing to the touch.

The first garment made out of birch cellulose fibre using the Ioncell method is displayed at a fashion show of the design company Marimekko in Finland on 13 March. The Ioncell method, which was developed by researchers at Aalto University, is an environmentally friendly alternative to cotton in textile production. The dress produced for Marimekko is a significant step forward in the development of fibre for industrial production.

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3D X-ray Film: Rapid Movements in Real Time

Interdisciplinary Team of Researchers at KIT reaches New Record in High-speed Computer Tomography – Example: 4D Tomography of Living Weevil / Publication in PNAS

How does the hip joint of a crawling weevil move? A technique to record 3D X-ray films showing the internal movement dynamics in a spatially precise manner and, at the same time, in the temporal dimension has now been developed by researchers at ANKA, KIT’s Synchrotron Radiation Source. The scientists applied this technique to a living weevil. From up to 100,000 two-dimensional radiographs per second, they generated complete 3D film sequences in real time or slow motion.

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'Ultracold' molecules promising for quantum computing, simulation

Researchers have created a new type of "ultracold" molecule, using lasers to cool atoms nearly to absolute zero and then gluing them together, a technology that might be applied to quantum computing, precise sensors and advanced simulations.

"It sounds counterintuitive, but you can use lasers to take away the kinetic energy, resulting in radical cooling," said Yong P. Chen, an associate professor of physics and electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University.

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Research Update: Battling Infection With Microbes

The human relationship with microbial life is complicated. At almost any supermarket, you can pick up both antibacterial soap and probiotic yogurt during the same shopping trip. Although there are types of bacteria that can make us sick, Caltech professor of biology and biological engineering Sarkis Mazmanian and his team are most interested in the thousands of other bacteria—many already living inside our bodies—that actually keep us healthy. His past work in mice has shown that restoring populations of beneficial bacteria can help alleviate the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, and even autism. Now, he and his team have found that these good bugs might also prepare the immune cells in our blood to fight infections from harmful bacteria.

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Signal control with light frequencies

In a review article in Nature Photonics Ferenc Krausz and Mark Stockman discuss the prospects, recent experimental and theoretical findings open for the future of signal processing

Light waves have the potential to boost the efficiency of conventional electronics by a factor of 100,000. In a review article that appears in “Nature Photonics” on March 14th, Prof. Ferenc Krausz of the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics (LAP) at the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and his co-author Prof. Mark Stockman of Georgia State University (GSU) in Atlanta describe how this vision may one day come true. In their scenario, one would exploit the electric field of laser light to control the flow of electrons in dielectric materials, which, in turn, may modulate transmitted light and switch current in electronic circuits at light frequencies.

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Laser and radar unveil the secrets of roman bridges

Discovering hidden arches, visualising the sloped outline characteristic of the medieval period, finding a Renaissance engraving on a roman arch or detecting restorations: these are some of the results that have been obtained by researchers at the University of Vigo (Spain) in their study of more than 80 roman and medieval bridges. The assessment was carried out with the help of a ground-penetrating radar, a laser scanner and mathematical models, technology that benefit conservation.

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Northrop Grumman's Astro Aerospace Delivers Antennas for Next-Generation GPS III Satellites 3 Through 6

Continuing its support for the U.S. Air Force's Global Positioning System (GPS), Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has delivered 32 self-deploying, monopole JIB antennas for the third, fourth, fifth and sixth GPS III satellites.

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Quantum physics secures new cryptography scheme

The way we secure digital transactions could soon change. An international team has demonstrated a form of quantum cryptography that can protect people doing business with others they may not know or trust – a situation encountered often on the internet and in everyday life, for example at a bank’s ATM.

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PRECURSOR OF EUROPEAN RHINOS FOUND IN VIETNAM

A team of scientists from the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment Tübingen was able to recover fossils of two previously unknown mammal species that lived about 37 million years ago. The newly described mammals show a surprisingly close relationship to prehistoric species known from fossil sites in Europe.

The location: The open lignite-mining Na Duong in Vietnam. Here, the team of scientists was also able to make a series of further discoveries, including three species of fossilized crocodiles and several new turtles.

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The World Celebrates 25 Years of the Web

Web users across the globe share #web25 birthday messages to mark the day Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web

Today, around the world, people are joining Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee in wishing the World Wide Web a happy 25th birthday. To mark the occasion, everyone is encouraged to share birthday greetings on social media using #web25. Select greetings will also be posted on a virtual birthday card on the official anniversary site webat25.org.

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FUJIFILM’s premium X-E2 interchangeable lens camera is awarded a GOLD Award

FUJIFILM Corporation (President: Shigehiro Nakajima) is very proud to announce that the FUJIFILM X-E2 has received a prestigious “Gold Award” from dpreview.com. DPReview is the one of the world’s most popular dedicated enthusiast digital photography websites, with an audience of eight million unique visitors a month.

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