Latest Articles
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Sep- 2021 -26 SeptemberScience
In a Gene Tied to Growth, Scientists See Glimmers of Human History
A paper in Science Advances focuses on the evolution of the human growth hormone receptor gene. A new study delves into the evolution and function of the human growth hormone receptor gene, and asks what forces in humanity’s past may have driven changes to this vital piece of DNA. The research shows, through multiple avenues, that a shortened version of the gene — a variant known as GHRd3 — may help people survive in situations where resources are scarce or unpredictable. Findings were published on September 24, 2021, in Science Advances. Here’s the story the study tells: GHRd3 emerged about…
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25 SeptemberJet Planes
New Engine Design Could Muffle Roar of Fighter Jets – U.S. Navy To Test on F-18 Super Hornets
Lab tests show promise for reducing jet noise in commercial and military aviation. Aerospace engineers at the University of Cincinnati and the Naval Research Laboratory have come up with a new nozzle design for F-18 fighter planes they hope will dampen the deafening roar of the engines without hindering performance. Distinguished professor Ephraim Gutmark, an Ohio Eminent Scholar, and his students in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science designed and tested the new nozzles on 1/28th-scale jet engines in his aeroacoustics lab. The interior of the nozzles features triangular fins like rows of shark teeth that significantly reduced jet…
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25 SeptemberScience-Tech
Winged Microchip Is Smallest-Ever Human-Made Flying Structure – The Size of a Grain of Sand
Lead image: A 3D microflier sits next to a common house ant to show scale. Credit: Northwestern University The size of a grain of sand, dispersed microfliers could monitor air pollution, airborne disease, and environmental contamination. Northwestern University engineers have added a new capability to electronic microchips: flight. About the size of a grain of sand, the new flying microchip (or “microflier”) does not have a motor or engine. Instead, it catches flight on the wind — much like a maple tree’s propeller seed — and spins like a helicopter through the air toward the ground. By studying maple trees…
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25 SeptemberScience
Blueprint for Robust Artificial Tissues: Synthetic Hydrogel Mimics Lobster Underbelly’s Stretch and Strength
Lead image: An MIT team has fabricated a hydrogel-based material that mimics the structure of the lobster’s underbelly, the toughest known hydrogel found in nature. The membrane’s structure could provide a blueprint for robust artificial tissues. A lobster’s underbelly is lined with a thin, translucent membrane that is both stretchy and surprisingly tough. This marine under-armor, as MIT engineers reported in 2019, is made from the toughest known hydrogel in nature, which also happens to be highly flexible. This combination of strength and stretch helps shield a lobster as it scrabbles across the seafloor, while also allowing it to flex…
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25 SeptemberScience Mysteries
A giant space rock demolished an ancient Middle Eastern city, possibly inspiring the Biblical story of Sodom
Lead image: Artist’s evidence-based depiction of the blast, which had the power of 1,000 Hiroshimas. (Image credit: Allen West and Jennifer Rice, CC BY-ND) As the inhabitants of an ancient Middle Eastern city now called Tall el-Hammam went about their daily business one day about 3,600 years ago, they had no idea an unseen icy space rock was speeding toward them at about 38,000 mph (61,000 kph). Flashing through the atmosphere, the rock exploded in a massive fireball about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) above the ground. The blast was around 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The…
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