The uses of such a robot include ocean farming, diver support, and monitoring of coastal ecosystems.
Yale University researchers in the U.S. have developed a new amphibious turtle robot that has the ability to transform its legs into flippers.
The amphibious robotic turtle, known as ART (Amphibious Robotic Turtle), was inspired by the land and aquatic turtles, a group whose fossil record dates back over 110 million years, according to a press release published by the university on Wednesday.
Short cycles of a low-calorie diet that mimics fasting appeared to lower inflammation and delay cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s disease is a disease that attacks the brain, causing a decline in mental ability that worsens over time. It is the most common form of dementia and accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. There is no current cure for Alzheimer’s disease, but there are medications that can help ease the symptoms.
Doctor shares five ways to live longer. We all know that to live a long quality life, we have to make healthy lifestyle choices that require commitment and discipline like eating well and exercising. There’s no way around it, but there’s other things we can do as well that help prolong our lifespan.
If you often find yourself off by one when counting your socks after doing the laundry, you might want to sit down for this.
Scientists in Japan have now counted the number of extra—or missing— charges down to a precision of just one electron in single platinum nanoparticles having diameters only one-tenth those of common viruses.
This new process for precisely studying differences in net charge on metal nanoparticles will aid in the further understanding and development of catalysts for breaking down greenhouse and other harmful gases into fuels and benign gases or for efficiently producing ammonia needed for fertilizers used in agriculture.
Rates of anxiety and depression have been increasing around the world for decades, a trend that has been sharply exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. New research led by the Boyce Thompson Institute’s Frank Schroeder could ultimately lead to new therapeutics to help relieve this global mental health burden.
First discovered in the 1930s, serotonin is a neurotransmitter produced in many animals that mediates myriad behaviors, such as feeding, sleep, mood and cognition. Drugs that alter serotonin levels are the main weapon to treat psychological conditions like anxiety and depression, as well as eating disorders.
As a simple model for neurobiology research, the microscopic roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans has been used extensively to study serotonin’s role in regulating behavior and food intake. For many years, researchers thought that serotonin was made in C. elegans by one specific molecular pathway, and that serotonin was then quickly degraded. Schroeder’s team and colleagues at Columbia University now demonstrated that both of those assumptions were not quite correct.
CarbiCrete.
A key ingredient in concrete has always been cement, the production of which accounts for around 8 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While it may be tempting to think we are living in the age of plastic—after all, we have generated around 8 billion tonnes of plastic over the past 60 years and it turns out that the cement sector produces more than 30 billion tonnes of concrete each year.
The naturally ‘carbon-eating’ microorganisms could mean the farms will be carbon negative too.
Cultivating marine algae on land-based farms could meet future nutritional demands from society and enhance environmental sustainability, according to a new study published in Oceanography.
Protein-rich microalgae could be the answer to food insecurity.
Charles H. Greene.
The proposed development may exceed the 56 percent increase in food production needed to feed the 10 billion humans projected to be on the planet by 2050.
Engineers from UNSW Sydney have successfully converted a diesel engine to run as a hydrogen-diesel hybrid engine—reducing CO2 emissions by more than 85% in the process.
The team, led by Professor Shawn Kook from the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, spent around 18 months developing the hydrogen-diesel direct injection dual-fuel system that means existing diesel engines can run using 90% hydrogen as fuel.
The researchers say that any diesel engine used in trucks and power equipment in the transportation, agriculture and mining industries could ultimately be retrofitted to the new hybrid system in just a couple of months.
face_with_colon_three circa 2021.
Think about where our energy comes from: drilling rigs and smokestacks, windmills and solar panels. Lithium-ion battery packs might even come to mind.
We probably don’t think about the farms that comprise over one-third of Earth’s total land area. But farms can also be an energy source. Barcelona-based battery company Bioo is generating electricity from the organic matter in soil and creating biological batteries that can power agricultural sensors, a growing 1.36 billion dollar global market.
Bioo’s tech eliminates the need for single-use chemical batteries, which have to be replaced frequently. The company will work with large players such as Bayer Crop Science to pilot its sensor tech on farms, while also experimenting with using bio-batteries to power lighting installations. Eventually, Bioo envisions a future where biology may even help power our largest cities.