Tuesday 18 June 2019

Urbach Tower offers view of self-shaping architecture

Oh, those leaning towers are so yesterday. Tech-watching sites, rather, are talking about a tower that does not lean; it is just as interesting as it is a self twisting tower. This is the Urbach Tower.

* This article was originally published here

Another climate change threat: More 'flesh-eating' bacteria?

(HealthDay)—A flesh-eating bacteria has migrated into the Delaware Bay between Delaware and New Jersey, drawn north by the warmer waters of climate change, doctors say.

* This article was originally published here

Toward artificial intelligence that learns to write code

Learning to code involves recognizing how to structure a program, and how to fill in every last detail correctly. No wonder it can be so frustrating.

* This article was originally published here

Abdominal obesity may raise risk for psoriasis

(HealthDay)—Abdominal obesity may increase the risk for psoriasis, according to a study published online May 31 in the Journal of Dermatology.

* This article was originally published here

No-cook summer recipes featuring cool, sweet fruit

(HealthDay)—Sweet summer fruits make a luscious ending to a meal, but there's no reason to limit them to dessert. Here are three fruity no-cook dishes that will please every palate.

* This article was originally published here

The fellowship of the wing: Pigeons flap faster to fly together

New research publishing June 18 in the open-access journal, PLOS Biology, led by Dr. Lucy Taylor from the University of Oxford's Department of Zoology now reveals that homing pigeons fit in one extra wingbeat per second when flying in pairs compared to flying solo.

* This article was originally published here

Inhaling air pollution-like irritant alters defensive heart-lung reflex for hypertension

Air pollution significantly increases the risk for premature deaths, particularly in people with underlying cardiovascular disease, clinical and epidemiological studies have determined.

* This article was originally published here

New time-banking system utilizes blockchain tech to measure one's value to society

Citizens from the island of Aneityum in the Republic of Vanuatu are working with faculty from Binghamton University, State University of New York to test their true value as humans.

* This article was originally published here

Sea otters have low genetic diversity like other threatened species, biologists report

Sea otters have low genetic diversity, which could endanger their health as a species, a UCLA-led team of life scientists has discovered. The findings have implications for the conservation of rare and endangered species, in which low genetic diversity could increase the odds of extinction.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers use biological evolution to inspire machine learning

As Charles Darwin wrote in at the end of his seminal 1859 book On the Origin of the Species, "whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." Scientists have since long believed that the diversity and range of forms of life on Earth provide evidence that biological evolution spontaneously innovates in an open-ended way, constantly inventing new things. However, attempts to construct artificial simulations of evolutionary systems tend to run into limits in the complexity and novelty which they can produce. This is sometimes referred to as "the problem of open-endedness." Because of this difficulty, to date, scientists can't easily make artificial systems capable of exhibiting the richness and diversity of biological systems.

* This article was originally published here

New insight from Great Barrier Reef coral provides correction factor to climate records

Newly developed geological techniques help uncover the most accurate and high-resolution climate records to date, according to a new study. The research finds that the standard practice of using modern and fossil coral to measure sea-surface temperatures may not be as straightforward as originally thought. By combining high-resolution microscopic techniques and geochemical modeling, researchers are using the formational history of Porites coral skeletons to fine-tune the records used to make global climate predictions.

* This article was originally published here