Author: EUSci
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Robotic Touch: Artificial skin brings robots closer to ‘touching’ human lives
When we anticipate the different future innovative technologies we imagine that the manufacturing industry will be completely automated, routine medical procedures will be robot-assisted and the world’s most puzzling crimes will be unraveled by robotic-detectives. It’s fair to say that robots have made significant developmental strides since their inception into our society. Although robotic process…
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Venus Flytraps Generate Measurable Magnetic Fields
Magnetic fields produced by the venus fly trap have been measured by an interdisciplinary team of scientists. Lily Sharratt-Davidson explores the impact these findings could have on plant diagnostics. The venus flytrap (or Dionaea Muscipula) is a well-recognised carnivorous plant – infamous for its ability to capture small insects inside its cage-like leaves. This unusual…
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Should Scotland reintroduce the Eurasian lynx to its highlands?
Samantha Dougary explores whether the Eurasian lynx should be reintroduced back into the Scottish Highlands, to once again be free to roam and thrive in their natural habitat for the first time in 500 years. The Eurasian lynx was once native to Scotland before habitat loss and overhunting drove the species to extinction over 500…
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Tunes from the Stone Age: Paleolithic horn comes back for an encore
Following a sojourn to Europe in the 1820s, the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called music the “universal language of mankind.” The recent discovery of an 18,000-year-old seashell horn by a group of French anthropologists may stand as a testament to the time-enduring quality of his statement. Writing in the journal Science Advances, the researchers…
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Mine, Mine, Mine: The Epidemic of Vaccine Nationalism and Hoarding
Linta Nasim explores emerging vaccine nationalism and its implications on public health strategy and ending the coronavirus pandemic. Ugly vaccine nationalism, as feared by the World Health Organisation (WHO), human rights and public health advocates worldwide, is here. As recently as September last year at the UN General Assembly, nations were united as the global…
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Hedy Lamarr: The actress that made (frequency hopping) waves
On the occasion of the Women and Girls in Science Day, Marie Poirot highlights the contributions of inventor and Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr to modern technology. “The unknown was always so attractive to me”. This quote is a good way to describe inventor and actress Hedy Lamarr. World-famous for her movie career and outstanding beauty,…
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Can our oceans save us? The role of seaweed in large scale carbon capture
With governments such as the UK’s looking to rapidly accelerate investment into large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies that will target excessive carbon dioxide emitted found in the air, should policy-makers and ministers set their sights on the sea instead to find an effective solution to the mounting carbon emissions? Sami Cheqrouni-Espinar investigates. A…
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Dating Apps go from Strength to Strength
A new study from the University of Geneva has determined that couples who meet via dating apps do not experience less relationship satisfaction, and actually have stronger intentions in their relationship goals. It was found that singletons brought together by the internet, through apps such as tinder or grindr, actually have stronger desires to have…
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Elephants from Space: How Artificial Intelligence can Protect Nature
Human advancement may be threatening nature, but it also offers a way to preserve it. It is no secret that human activity is harming the natural world. Poaching, habitat loss and pollution are only a few examples of the ways in which species and ecosystems are under threat. Yet protecting nature isn’t without hope, and…
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High Tech Fashion: Radiation-proof is the new black
Yury Gogotsi and his colleagues have just developed highly conductive and scalable Ti3C2Tx-coated fabrics capable of efficient electromagnetic interference (EMI) shield. Pretty exciting, no doubt. But exactly how efficient are the high-tech products? Is their effect long-lasting enough to prevent them from being dumped like fast fashion clothes? Are they just another expensive wearable-tech fad?…