Tag: Research

Some fish perceive their surroundings in the dark. Now, a Chinese-South Korean research team has developed a sensor that can recognise nearby objects without touching them. Key to the enterprise is a composite film made from two highly conductive materials. A polymer based on silicon (polydimethylsiloxane) and a few organic macromolecules (graphitic carbon nitride), which are mixed and then...

Toddlers’ hearing can be checked by smartphone while future hearing aids could be battery-free. But people with tinnitus hear more than they wish. Help is at hand thanks to a research team’s app which uses a chatbot to help people train their brains to ignore the unwanted noise. Employing solution-focused behavioural therapy, users are encouraged to dispel negative associations with...

The sound of cats purring - also from the internet - can bring inner peace. So too a walk with "man’s best friend" - even one on prosthetic legs. Now, a team of US researchers is working on a quick, pain-free method for the early detection of canine cancer. First, a urine sample is required. Next, using so-called Raman...

Sugar cane makes life sweeter for its natural surroundings. Beetles, likewise, make plants happy and offer protection against parasites and pesticides. Ladybirds, too, have an increasingly important role to play in agriculture. Enter a female US researcher investigating why aphids avoid the polka-dotted insects like the plague. Turns out it’s the unique smell ladybirds emit. This is produced by...

Birds use the earth’s magnetic field as their compass. But how do animals perceive their surroundings in general? Tortoises and insects such as bees can differentiate between red, blue and green and see ultraviolet light. Snakes can recognise infrared light. With dogs and cats, meanwhile, it’s only shades of blue and green. Animals also experience different intensities and gradations...

Dusting solar modules can be a magical move. Now, a Turkish-based research team is experimenting with a more efficient way of turning sunlight into electricity. Using computer simulation, the team divided a solar cell into multiple small units. Then they assembled them into a hemispherical, rather than flat, form. This allows for more light to be captured at different...

The right scaffold can improve deteriorating eyesight. If a heart valve stops working, it’s usually replaced. One made from animal tissue might only last a decade. Metal varieties require patients to take medication all their lives. But, according to an English research team, there is another way. Banking on the body’s powers of regeneration, the team has developed a...

Thanks to 3D-printed alternatives, things are getting better for living test objects. Animals, too, could soon be spared chemical testing thanks to the work of an Edinburgh-based research team. Using a 3D printer, the team created a model comprising five interconnected compartments and filled each of those with human cells from the brain, heart, lungs, liver and kidney respectively....