Biology: Cell Biology Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Dung beetles show their love by sharing the load      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Dung beetles share the load when it comes to showing their affection for each-other, when transporting a 'brood ball'.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Cell Biology Biology: General Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Study identifies multi-organ response to seven days without food      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

New findings reveal that the body undergoes significant, systematic changes across multiple organs during prolonged periods of fasting. The results demonstrate evidence of health benefits beyond weight loss, but also show that any potentially health-altering changes appear to occur only after three days without food.

Computer Science: General
Published

Software speeds up drug development      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Sugars cover nearly all proteins present at the surface of the cells in our bodies, forming a shield around the proteins. Thus, these sugars influence how cells interact with their environment including pathogens, playing an important role in medical drug development. GlycoSHIELD, a new computational approach to study the sugar shields of proteins, is resource-reducing, time-efficient and user-friendly.

Computer Science: General Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Researchers use AI, Google street view to predict household energy costs on large scale      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An interdisciplinary team of experts has found a way to use artificial intelligence to analyze a household's passive design characteristics and predict its energy expenses with more than 74 percent accuracy. By combining their findings with demographic data including poverty levels, the researchers have created a comprehensive model for predicting energy burden across 1,402 census tracts and nearly 300,000 households in Chicago.

Archaeology: General Biology: Marine Biology: Zoology Ecology: Animals Ecology: Sea Life Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Slimming down a colossal fossil whale      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A 30 million year-old fossil whale may not be the heaviest animal of all time after all, according to a new analysis by paleontologists. The new analysis puts Perucetus colossus back in the same weight range as modern whales and smaller than the largest blue whales ever recorded.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General Engineering: Robotics Research
Published

New AI model could streamline operations in a robotic warehouse      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers applied deep-learning approaches from vehicle routing to streamline planning trajectories for robots in an e-commerce warehouse. Their method breaks the problem down into smaller chunks and then predicts the best chunks to solve with traditional algorithms.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Biotechnology Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Developmental Biology: General Biology: Genetics Biology: Microbiology Biology: Molecular Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Radio waves can tune up bacteria to become life-saving medicines      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have found a new way to alter the DNA of bacterial cells -- a process used to make many vital medicines including insulin -- much more efficiently than standard industry techniques.

Biology: Microbiology Computer Science: General Environmental: Ecosystems Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Robots, monitoring and healthy ecosystems could halve pesticide use without hurting productivity      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Smarter crop farming that combats weeds, insect pests and plant diseases by integrating modern technologies like AI-based monitoring, robotics, and next-generation biotechnology with healthy and resilient agricultural ecosystems.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Zoology Ecology: Animals Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Predatory fish use rapid color changes to coordinate attacks      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Striped marlin are some of the fastest animals on the planet and one of the ocean's top predators. When hunting in groups, individual marlin will take turns attacking schools of prey fish one at a time. Now a new study helps to explain how they might coordinate this turn-taking style of attack on their prey to avoid injuring each other. The key, according to the new work, is rapid color changes.

Biology: Cell Biology Biology: General Biology: Microbiology Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Lab-spun sponges form perfect scaffolds for growing skin cells to heal wounds      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new technique for electro-spinning sponges has allowed scientists to directly produce 3D scaffolds -- on which skin grafts could be grown from the patient's own skin.

Computer Science: General Energy: Technology Engineering: Nanotechnology
Published

Researchers harness 2D magnetic materials for energy-efficient computing      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers used ultrathin van der Waals materials to create an electron magnet that can be switched at room temperature. This type of magnet could be used to build magnetic processors or memories that would consume far less energy than traditional devices made from silicon.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Developmental Biology: General Biology: Zoology Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Scientists can tell where a mouse is looking and located based on its neural activity      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have paired a deep learning model with experimental data to 'decode' mouse neural activity. Using the method, they can accurately determine where a mouse is located within an open environment and which direction it is facing, just by looking at its neural firing patterns. Being able to decode neural activity could provide insight into the function and behavior of individual neurons or even entire brain regions.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General Energy: Technology Engineering: Robotics Research
Published

Method identified to double computer processing speeds      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists introduce what they call 'simultaneous and heterogeneous multithreading' or SHMT. This system doubles computer processing speeds with existing hardware by simultaneously using graphics processing units (GPUs), hardware accelerators for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), or digital signal processing units to process information.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Microbiology Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals Paleontology: Fossils
Published

High resolution techniques reveal clues in 3.5 billion-year-old biomass      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

To learn about the first organisms on our planet, researchers have to analyze the rocks of the early Earth. These can only be found in a few places on the surface of the Earth. The Pilbara Craton in Western Australia is one of these rare sites: there are rocks there that are around 3.5 billion years old containing traces of the microorganisms that lived at that time. A research team has now found new clues about the formation and composition of this ancient biomass, providing insights into the earliest ecosystems on Earth.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Genetics Biology: Zoology Ecology: Nature Ecology: Research Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Butterfly and moth genomes mostly unchanged despite 250 million years of evolution      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Comparison of over 200 high-quality butterfly and moth genomes reveals key insights into their biology, evolution and diversification over the last 250 million years, as well as clues for conservation.