Author: Derek Smith
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Snowfall and drought: $4.8M field study to improve western US forecasts
A mountaintop laboratory and a suite of radar instruments will study winter storms from large-scale cloud movement down to individual snowflakes in an NSF-funded project.
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Better battery manufacturing: Robotic lab vets new reaction design strategy
Mixing unconventional ingredients in just the right order can make complex materials with fewer impurities. The robotic lab that tested the idea could be widely adopted.
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Seeing the sun in a new light
For scientists, students and the rest of us, the April 2024 eclipse helped illuminate some of the sun’s deepest mysteries.
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New reactor could save millions when making ingredients for plastics and rubber from natural gas
With oil production dropping, a process using natural gas is needed to avert a shortage of a workhorse chemical used for automotive parts, cleaning products and more.
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Targeting multiple COVID variants through the twist in the spike protein
Particles that gum up the keys that the virus uses to enter cells could one day be an effective COVID treatment whenever vaccines and other treatments fall short.
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Widely used AI tool for early sepsis detection may be cribbing doctors’ suspicions
When using only data collected before patients with sepsis received treatments or medical tests, the model’s accuracy was no better than a coin toss.
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Beating the freeze: Up to $11.5M for eco-friendly control over ice and snow
Taking a page from nature’s book could allow humans to mitigate subzero temperatures without harming the environment
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Is lung cancer treatment working? This chip can tell from a blood draw
By trapping and concentrating tiny numbers of cancer cells from blood samples, the device can identify whether a treatment is working at the four-week mark.
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Squishy, metal-free magnets to power robots and guide medical implants
Strong enough to move soft robots and medical capsules, weak enough to not ruin MRI images.
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Bulky additives could make cheaper solar cells last longer
The findings could help engineers methodically find the best molecules to increase the lifespan of perovskite solar cells, rather than relying on time-consuming trial and error.
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Blue PHOLEDs: Final color of efficient OLEDs finally viable in lighting
Synchronizing light and matter adds blue to the OLED color palette
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Clinicians could be fooled by biased AI, despite explanations
Regulators pinned their hopes on clinicians being able to spot flaws in explanations of an AI model’s logic, but a study suggests this isn’t a safe approach.