Science

Jun222017 by adminNo Comments

New research suggests problematic memories could be deleted

June 22 (UPI) -- In a series of experiments, neuroscientists were able to selectively delete different types of memories stored a single neuron belonging to a marine snail.The feat, detailed in the journal Current Biology, suggests problematic memories -- like those responsible for PSTD and anxiety -- in the human brain could be excised without harming other memories.When the brain stores a traumatic experience in its memory bank, the memory is actually stored in multiple forms. Each memory can include bits of incidental information from the experience. Years later, these incidental, or neutral, memories can trigger panic attacks and severe anxiety."The example I like to give is, if you are walking in a high-crime area and you take a shortcut through a dark alley and get mugged, and then y...

Jun222017 by adminNo Comments

Scientists 3D-print graphene foam, a first

Science

June 21 (UPI) -- A team of researchers from Texas and China have managed to create graphene foam using a 3D printer. The production method could eventually yield commercial quantities of the material.Graphene's benefits have been well-documented by material scientists. The atomically thin carbon sheets are exceptionally strong, flexible and conductive. But producing graphene in bulk has proven difficult, limiting its potential use in commercial technologies -- whether they be medical implants or smartphones.Scientists at Rice University and China's Tianjin University, however, have found a way to turn nongraphene starting materials into graphene foam using a 3D printer. Researchers detailed their breakthrough in the journal journal ACS Nano."This study is a first of its kind," Rice chemist...

Jun212017 by adminNo Comments

Mars Orbiter spots rover ascending Mount Sharp

Science

June 21 (UPI) -- In an image captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Martian rover Curiosity can been seen as a bright blue speck ascending the rocky terrain of Mount Sharp.The image was taken by the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on June 5 and shared online this week.Curiosity spent the end of last month and early June exploring active sand dunes among the mountain's lower elevations. In the newly released image, the rover can been seen en route to Vera Rubin Ridge.Once at Vera Rubin Ridge, the rover will investigate rock outcrops where the signature of hematite, a type of iron oxide, has been identified by the infrared spectrometers during previous Martian probe missions.On August 5, Curiosity will celebrate the five-year anniversary of its landin...

Jun212017 by adminNo Comments

Why suitcases rock and fall over – puzzle solved

Science

It's a common experience when dashing for a train or plane while lugging a two-wheeled suitcase. The bag rocks alarmingly from side-to-side and threatens to overturn. Now, scientists have investigated this conundrum of everyday physics. Speeding up rather than slowing down can solve the problem, they say. Alternatively, you can pivot the handle of the suitcase as close to the ground as possible. French scientists studied a model suitcase on a treadmill to see what goes wrong when a suitcase rocks out of control at high speed. They developed equations to explain why two-wheeled trolleys have a tendency to rock from one wheel to the other. In cases of unstable bags - after having gone over a bump, for example - they found luggage rocks from side-to-side until it falls over, or it reach...

Jun202017 by adminNo Comments

Europe selects grand gravity mission

Science

It is set to be one of the major science projects of the 2030s. The European Space Agency has just given the green light to the LISA mission to detect gravitational waves. This will see lasers bounced between three identical satellites separated by 2.5 million km. By looking for tiny perturbations in these light beams, the trio hope to catch the warping of space-time that is generated by cataclysmic events such as the merger of gargantuan black holes. Ground-based laboratories in the US have recently begun detecting gravitational waves from coalescing objects that are 20-30 times the mass of our Sun. But by sending an observatory into space, scientists would expect to discover sources that are millions of times bigger still and to sense their activity all the way out to the edge of the ob...