Lifeboat Foundation

Facility would enable U.S. engineers to perform tests without going overseas.

The grass really IS greener…in part because of tree-planting programs 💚.

Doctors removed one-sixth of this child’s brain — and what was left did something incredible.

MACH

How badly do we want this?

An incredible new nanotechnology could one day enable us to see in the dark. It works on mice, and there’s little to say it wouldn’t be equally effective on other mammals. The only drawback — how are you with needles to the eyeball?

Research led by the University of Science and Technology of China produced particles that adhere to light-detecting cells in the retina and help them respond to near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths.

Continue reading “Scientists Just Took a Major Step Towards Injecting Eyes With Night Vision” »

Still, Estonia’s research prowess is an example of how quickly a small country can turn its scientific fortunes around with international support and well-designed domestic policies — and its success has drawn attention from other nations looking to build their scientific capacity. Latvia, for instance, borders Estonia and joined the EU at the same time. “We started from a very similar position,” says Dmitrijs Stepanovs, Latvia’s deputy state secretary and director of the higher-education and science ministry, but “now we are far behind and must try to catch up.”

A small nation found strength in research after joining the European Union.

Whether Chinese will take over the world is missing the point: If you want to follow future trends, look at what Chinese companies are doing in the developing world. And with the U.S. waging a trade war, it’s even more important to look at China’s activity outside mature markets.

If you’re sweating on a hot summer day, for example, the fabric allows heat to escape. But when the outside temperature is cooler and the air drier, and your body gets cooler, the fabric becomes more compact, retaining heat from the wearer’s body, researchers say. The researcher’s paper, “Dynamic gating of infrared radiation in a textile,” was published in the journal Science.

If you work in a large office building, there’s a decent chance you tailor your attire to two separate weather forecasts.

There’s the outdoor weather, an evolving state of dynamic atmospheric conditions dictated by seasonal patterns. Then there’s the indoor weather, an evolving state of arbitrary conditions dictated by an all-powerful being known as the building manager, an individual whose atmospheric whims unleash equal amounts of cursing and praise.

Continue reading “U-Md. researchers develop smart fabric that automatically warms or cools you off” »

Texas A&M University researchers are developing a new kind of flame-retardant coating using renewable, nontoxic materials readily found in nature, which could provide even more effective fire protection for several widely used materials.