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Jun 5, 2020

Scientists Unravel Genetic Mysteries of Dead Sea Scrolls

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls had an incomparable impact on the historical understanding of Judaism and Christianity. ‘Piecing together’ scroll fragments is like solving jigsaw puzzles with an unknown number of missing parts. Because most of the 2,000-year-old scrolls were written on processed animal skin, an international team of researchers used DNA sequencing to ‘fingerprint’ fragments based on their genetic signature.

Jun 5, 2020

A powder-metallurgy-based strategy toward three-dimensional graphene-like network for reinforcing copper matrix composites

Posted by in category: materials

Three-dimensional graphene network is a promising structure for improving both the mechanical properties and functional capabilities of reinforced polymer and ceramic matrix composites. However, direct application in a metal matrix remains difficult due to the reason that wetting is usually unfavorable in the carbon/metal system. Here we report a powder-metallurgy based strategy to construct a three-dimensional continuous graphene network architecture in a copper matrix through thermal-stress-induced welding between graphene-like nanosheets grown on the surface of copper powders. The interpenetrating structural feature of the as-obtained composites not only promotes the interfacial shear stress to a high level and thus results in significantly enhanced load transfer strengthening and crack-bridging toughening simultaneously, but also constructs additional three-dimensional hyperchannels for electrical and thermal conductivity. Our approach offers a general way for manufacturing metal matrix composites with high overall performance.

Jun 5, 2020

This new ransomware is targeting Windows and Linux PCs with a ‘unique’ attack

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Researchers detail the unusual workings of Tycoon ransomware — which appears to be designed to stay under the radar as much as possible.

Jun 5, 2020

New simulation tools improve understanding of laser/plasma coupling interactions

Posted by in category: particle physics

Understanding of these mechanisms is critical to the development of ultracompact particle accelerators and light sources.

Gail Overton

Jun 5, 2020

Self-assembling, biomimetic composites possess unusual electrical properties

Posted by in categories: engineering, nanotechnology

Sometimes, breaking rules is not a bad thing. Especially when the rules are apparent laws of nature that apply in bulk material, but other forces appear in the nanoscale.

“Nature knows how to go from the small, to larger scales,” said Melik Demirel, professor of engineering science and mechanics and holder of the Lloyd and Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair in Biomimetic Materials. “Engineers have used mixing rules to enhance properties, but have been limited to a single scale. We’ve never gone down to the next level of hierarchical engineering. The key challenge is that there are apparent forces at different scales from molecules to bulk.”

Composites, by definition, are composed of more than one component. Mixture rules say that, while the ratios of one component to another can vary, there is a limit on the physical properties of the composite. According to Demirel, his team has broken that limit, at least on the nanoscale.

Jun 5, 2020

Scientists Have Found a Way to Shuffle Atoms to Dramatically Improve Drugs’ Effectiveness and Safety

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Scientists have found a new method to strategically add deuterium to benzene, an aromatic compound commonly found in crude oil. When applied to the active ingredient of drugs to incorporate deuterium, it could dramatically improve the drugs’ efficacy and safety and even introduce new medicines.

To validate the method, which was published in Nature, a team led by W. Dean Harman of the University of Virginia worked with Xiaoping Wang at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source. Wang successfully verified the exact position of deuterium atoms that resulted from the selective deuteration of benzene molecules using single crystal neutron diffraction.

“Because the high sensitivity of neutrons to hydrogen and its deuterium isotope, we were able to quantitatively assign not only the positions of the deuterium atoms at the atomic level, but also determine precisely how many were added on each side of the benzene molecule,” Wang said. “This is important in designing new therapeutic drugs.”

Jun 5, 2020

IoT, AI and blockchain will change every aspect of enterprises and our lives: Oracle

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, business, economics, health, internet, robotics/AI

The current health crisis has snowballed into a world economic crisis, where every old business norm has been challenged. In such times, we cannot fall back on old ways of doing our business. Today, three technologies

Internet of Things(IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and blockchain are poised to change every aspect of enterprises and our lives. Now more than ever, organisations realise the pertinent need for a robust digital foundation for their businesses as their future plans have been disrupted. “To achieve that level of business sophistication holistically it is imperative that there is a seamless flow of data across all the functions of an enterprise. That requires connected data that is secure and one that is driven by connected intelligence,” Guruprasad Gaonkar, JAPAC SaaS Leader for ERP & Digital Supply Chain, Oracle told Moneycontrol in an interview:

How is India reacting to emerging technologies as compared to other Asia Pacific (APAC) regions?

Jun 5, 2020

New Simulations Show How Black Holes Grow, Through Mergers and Accretion

Posted by in category: cosmology

One of the most pressing questions in astronomy concerns black holes. We know that massive stars that explode as supernovae can leave stellar mass black holes as remnants. And astrophysicists understand that process. But what about the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) like Sagittarius A-star (Sgr A*,) at the heart of the Milky Way?

SMBHs can have a billion solar masses. How do they get so big?

A group of scientists at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics are trying to shed some light on that question. They’ve created a simulation as part of the Black Hole Initiative (BHI), an interdisciplinary effort at Harvard to advance the understanding of black holes.

Jun 5, 2020

Parents Have More Synchronised Patterns Of Brain Activity When They’re Together

Posted by in category: neuroscience

By Emily Reynolds. Couples who listened to sounds together showed more similar activity in brain areas involved in attention than those who were apart.

Jun 5, 2020

Robots And Social Distancing Will Revolutionize Restaurants In Post-COVID World

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Eateries will never be the same.