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Categories: Anthropology: General, Chemistry: Thermodynamics
Published Heating for fusion: Why toast plasma when you can microwave it!



Can plasma be sufficiently heated inside a tokamak using only microwaves? New research suggests it can! Eliminating the central ohmic heating coil normally used in tokamaks will free up much-needed space for a more compact, efficient spherical tokamak.
Published Smallest arm bone in human fossil record sheds light on the dawn of Homo floresiensis



A new study reports the discovery of extremely rare early human fossils from the Indonesian island of Flores, including an astonishingly small adult limb bone. Dated to about 700,000 years old, the new findings shed light on the evolution of Homo floresiensis, the so-called 'Hobbits' of Flores whose remains were uncovered in 2003 at Liang Bua cave in the island's west.
Published Revolutionary loop heat pipe transports 10 kW of waste heat -- No electricity required



Researchers have unveiled a new loop heat pipe capable of transporting up to 10 kW of heat without using electric power. The loop heat pipe's design aims to contribute to energy savings and carbon neutrality in various fields, including waste heat recovery, solar heat utilization, electric vehicle thermal management, and data center cooling.
Published Half a billion-year-old spiny slug reveals the origins of mollusks



Exceptional fossils with preserved soft parts reveal that the earliest mollusks were flat, armored slugs without shells. The new species, Shishania aculeata, was covered with hollow, organic, cone-shaped spines. The fossils preserve exceptionally rare detailed features which reveal that these spines were produced using a sophisticated secretion system that is shared with annelids (earthworms and relatives).
Published Demographics of north African human populations unravelled using genomic data and artificial intelligence



A new study places the origin of the Imazighen in the Epipaleolithic, more than twenty thousand years ago. The research concludes that the genetic origin of the current Arab population of north Africa is far more recent than previously believed, placing it in the seventh century AD. The team has designed an innovative demographic model that uses artificial intelligence to analyze the complete genomes of the two populations.
Published Modern behavior explains prehistoric economies



What if the 'Market Economy' always existed? Archaeologists tried to answer this question by researching how much Bronze Age people used to spend to sustain their daily lives. Their results show that, starting at least 3,500 years ago, the spending habits of prehistoric Europeans were not substantially different from what they are today.
Published AI method radically speeds predictions of materials' thermal properties



Researchers developed a machine-learning framework that can predict a key property of heat dispersion in materials that is up to 1,000 times faster than other AI methods, and could enable scientists to improve the efficiency of power generation systems and microelectronics.
Published Fresh light on the path to net zero



Researchers have used magnetic fields to reveal the mystery of how light particles split. Scientists are closer to giving the next generation of solar cells a powerful boost by integrating a process that could make the technology more efficient by breaking particles of light photons into small chunks.
Published The ancestor of all modern birds probably had iridescent feathers



Birds tend to be more colorful in the tropics, and scientists wanted to find out how they got there: if colorful feathers evolved in the tropics, or if tropical birds have brightly-colored ancestors that came to the region from somwhere else. Scientists built a database of 9,409 birds to explore the spread of color across the globe. They found that iridescent, colorful feathers originated 415 times across the bird tree of life, and in most cases, arose outside of the tropics -- and that the ancestor of all modern birds likely had iridescent feathers, too.
Published Engineer develops technique that enhances thermal imaging and infrared thermography for police, medical, military use



A new method to measure the continuous spectrum of light is set to improve thermal imaging and infrared thermography.
Published Next-gen cooling system to help data centers become more energy efficient



Artificial intelligence (AI) is hot right now. Also hot: the data centers that power the technology. And keeping those centers cool requires a tremendous amount of energy. The problem is only going to grow as high-powered AI-based computers and devices become commonplace. That's why researchers are devising a new type of cooling system that promises to dramatically reduce energy demands.
Published Drawing water from dry air



A prototype device harvests drinking water from the atmosphere, even in arid places.
Published Researchers develop more environmentally friendly and cost-effective method for soil remediation



Chemists have developed a rapid electrothermal mineralization (REM) process, which in seconds can remediate the accumulation of synthetic chemicals that can contaminate soil and the environment.
Published 3D-printed microstructure forest facilitates solar steam generator desalination



Faced with the world's impending freshwater scarcity, researchers turned to solar steam generators, which are emerging as a promising device for seawater desalination. The team sought design inspiration from trees and harnessed the potential of 3D printing. They present technology for producing efficient SSGs for desalination and introduces a novel method for printing functional nanocomposites for multi-jet fusion. Their SSGs were inspired by plant transpiration and are composed of miniature tree-shaped microstructures, forming an efficient, heat-distributing forest.
Published Aluminum scandium nitride films: Enabling next-gen ferroelectric memory devices



Aluminum scandium nitride thin films could pave the way for the next generation of ferroelectric memory devices, according to a new study. Compared to existing ferroelectric materials, these films maintain their ferroelectric properties and crystal structure even after heat treatment at temperatures up to 600 C in both hydrogen and argon atmospheres. This high stability makes them ideal for high-temperature manufacturing processes under the H2-included atmosphere used in fabricating advanced memory devices.
Published 3D printing of light-activated hydrogel actuators



An international team of researchers has embedded gold nanorods in hydrogels that can be processed through 3D printing to create structures that contract when exposed to light -- and expand again when the light is removed. Because this expansion and contraction can be performed repeatedly, the 3D-printed structures can serve as remotely controlled actuators.
Published New snake discovery rewrites history, points to North America's role in snake evolution



A new species of fossil snake unearthed in Wyoming is rewriting our understanding of snake evolution. The discovery, based on four remarkably well-preserved specimens found curled together in a burrow, reveals a new species named Hibernophis breithaupti. This snake lived in North America 34 million years ago and sheds light on the origin and diversification of boas and pythons.
Published Human occupation in southeast Indonesia dating back 42,000 years



Evidence of human occupation in southeast Indonesia dating back 42,000 years offers fresh clues on the route taken by some of the first humans to arrive in our region, according to a new study.
Published Evidence for butchery of giant armadillo-like mammals in Argentina 21,000 years ago



Cut marks on fossils could be evidence of humans exploiting large mammals in Argentina more than 20,000 years ago, according to a new study.
Published New technique pinpoints nanoscale 'hot spots' in electronics to improve their longevity



Researchers engineered a new technique to identify at the nanoscale level what components are overheating in electronics and causing their performance to fail.