/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Researchers from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment (SHEP) at the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Görlitz have studied the role of the desert grass Stipagrostis sabulicola in the African Namib Desert. /news/2024-07-grasses-fog-life.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 04 Jul 2024 09:50:01 EDT news639304573 During an afternoon stroll around Morton Arboretum, near Chicago, Maria Malayter's Apple Watch buzzed twice with an unusual notification. The screen warned her of a "loud environment" with sound levels reaching 90 decibels as cicadas chorused on the treetops. /news/2024-06-cicadas-enthusiasts.html Plants & Animals Ecology Mon, 24 Jun 2024 07:30:01 EDT news638430184 Researchers at the California Academy of Sciences described 153 new animal, plant, and fungi species in 2023, enriching our understanding of Earth's biodiversity and strengthening our ability to regenerate the natural world. The new species include 66 spiders, 20 sea slugs, 18 plants, 13 sea stars, 12 geckos, 10 beetles, five fishes, four worms, two wasps, one sea snail, one scorpion, and one legless skink. More than a dozen Academy scientists—along with several international collaborators—described the new-to-science species. /news/2023-12-scientists-species.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 21 Dec 2023 16:52:59 EST news622399975 In the Namib desert—one of the driest places in the world—a tiny species of beetle climbs the dunes, leans its body toward the wind, and catches the only source of water it can: passing droplets of fog. /news/2021-11-fog-fresh.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:12:40 EST news555783158 Droplet manipulation in materials science can contribute to water collection, medical diagnostics and drug delivery techniques. While structure-based liquid operations are widely used in nature and in bioinspired artificial materials, laboratory strategies depend on fixed structures for unidirectional water movement. In a new study on Science Advances, An Li and a research team in the Institute of Chemistry and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in China proposed to develop a magnetic-actuated robot. The construct had adjustable structures to distribute forces of resistance and determine droplet behavior. The robot could transport, split, release and rotate droplets for universal applications in various fields and rough environments. The new findings offer an efficient strategy for automated droplet manipulation. /news/2020-02-programmable-droplet-magnetic-actuation-robot.html Materials Science Mon, 24 Feb 2020 09:40:02 EST news501753586 Fog harvesting is a potential practical source of fresh water in foggy coastal deserts, and current solutions rely on meter scale nets/meshes. The mesh geometry, however, presents a physiologically inappropriate shape for millimeter scale bulk bodies, like insects. /news/2019-11-harvesting-fog-fresh-regions.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 26 Nov 2019 10:30:02 EST news493973667 Materials engineering technologies aim to control wettability and liquid repellence of material surfaces for diverse applications in and beyond the field of materials science. In a recent report on Science Advances, Yue Liu and a team of researchers in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering, and Chemistry and Molecular Engineering in China developed a general concept to develop metallic porous surfaces with exceptionally powerful, wettability-switch capabilities. To engineer the new surfaces, they used an extremely simple, one-step electrochemical deposition process. The team enabled the wettability switch and manipulated liquid repellant properties by changing the orientation of dodecyl sulfate ions that were ionically bonded to porous metallic membranes during electrodeposition. The resulting surfaces with adjustable wettability could trap diverse lubricants on demand in the pores to create liquid-infused porous surfaces customized for a variety of liquid-repellant properties. The research team demonstrated the applications of liquid-infused porous membranes for encryption, to control droplet transfer and for water-harvesting. Additionally, the materials scientists coated the silver porous membrane onto a copper mesh to engineer a smart, antifouling liquid gate to allow oil or water to pass through on request. /news/2019-11-electrodeposited-surfaces-reversibly-interfacial-properties.html Materials Science Wed, 06 Nov 2019 09:30:02 EST news492252558 In a new study, researchers have propelled water nanodroplets across a graphene surface at speeds of up to 250 km (155 miles) per hour—which, for comparison, is about twice as fast as a sprinting cheetah. The water droplets' ultrafast velocities don't require any pump, but instead occur simply due to the geometric patterns on the graphene surface, which create different contact angles at the front and back of the moving droplets to propel them forward. /news/2019-05-nanodroplets-graphene-faster-cheetah.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 20 May 2019 09:30:02 EDT news477541740 In a study conducted in one of the world's oldest and most biologically diverse deserts, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis scientists explore the origins of water other than rainfall and are identifying multiple origins. The study, supported by the National Science Foundation, is the first to report that the ocean is not the sole source of life-sustaining fog and dew for numerous plants and animals living in the Namib Desert. /news/2017-03-non-rainfall-namib-reveals-unexpected.html Earth Sciences Wed, 22 Mar 2017 14:00:04 EDT news409397905 Organisms such as cacti and desert beetles can survive in arid environments because they've evolved mechanisms to collect water from thin air. The Namib desert beetle, for example, collects water droplets on the bumps of its shell while V-shaped cactus spines guide droplets to the plant's body. /news/2016-02-beetle-cactus-pitcher-material-droplets.html Materials Science Wed, 24 Feb 2016 13:00:08 EST news375540026 In a discovery that may lead to ways to prevent frost on airplane parts, condenser coils, and even windshields, a team of researchers led by Virginia Tech has used chemical micropatterns to control the growth of frost caused by condensation. /news/2016-01-beetle-inspired-discovery-frost-costly.html Condensed Matter Fri, 22 Jan 2016 05:00:05 EST news372659247 In 2014, researchers at the California Academy of Sciences added a whopping 221 new plant and animal species to our family tree, enriching our understanding of Earth's complex web of life and strengthening our ability to make informed conservation decisions. The new species include 110 ants, 16 beetles, three spiders, 28 fishes, 24 sea slugs, two marine worms, 9 barnacles, two octocorals, 25 plants, one waterbear, and one tiny mammal. More than a dozen Academy scientists—along with several dozen international collaborators—described the discoveries. /news/2014-12-species-california-academy-sciences.html Plants & Animals Mon, 22 Dec 2014 09:53:48 EST news338464418 Insects are full of marvels - and this is certainly the case with a beetle from the Tenebrionind family, found in the extreme conditions of the Namib desert. /news/2014-12-biomimetic-dew-harvesters.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 08 Dec 2014 10:52:14 EST news337258322 According to the World Water Management Institute, over one-third of the human population is affected by water scarcity. If nothing is done to prevent it, an estimated 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity by 2025. Thankfully, due to bio-mimicry and advancements in physics, water filtration and desalination technologies have been growing and improving. /news/2014-10-global-scarcity-issue.html Earth Sciences Thu, 30 Oct 2014 09:10:03 EDT news333877274 In the Namib Desert of Africa, the fog-filled morning wind carries the drinking water for a beetle called the Stenocara. /news/2014-07-quenching-world-energy-crises-tiny.html Nanomaterials Thu, 24 Jul 2014 07:20:08 EDT news325404800 In some of this planet's driest regions, where rainfall is rare or even nonexistent, a few specialized plants and insects have devised ingenious strategies to provide themselves with the water necessary for life: They pull it right out of the air, from fog that drifts in from warm oceans nearby. /news/2013-08-fog-harvesting-fresh-thin-air.html Materials Science Fri, 30 Aug 2013 06:16:57 EDT news297062202 Sometimes water spreads evenly when it hits a surface; sometimes it beads into tiny droplets. While people have noticed these differences since ancient times, a better understanding of these properties, and new ways of controlling them, may bring important new applications. /news/2013-07-hydrophobic-hydrophilic.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 16 Jul 2013 04:57:44 EDT news293169441 (Â鶹ÒùÔº)—Biomimicry is the term given to using nature as an inspiration for sustainable technology ideas, and a young company has joined the biomimicry brigade with its prototype self filling water bottle, which mimics the Namib desert beetle. NBD Nano, a startup of four graduates with degrees in biology, organic chemistry, and mechanical engineering, hopes to bring their prototype to market. They say that, like this beetle, their bottle can pull water from the air. Their self-filling water bottle is said to be capable of storing up to three liters every hour. /news/2012-11-self-filling-bottle-cues-beetle.html Hi Tech & Innovation Sun, 25 Nov 2012 06:47:39 EST news273048440 In the arid Namib Desert on the west coast of Africa, one type of beetle has found a distinctive way of surviving. When the morning fog rolls in, the Stenocara gracilipes species, also known as the Namib Beetle, collects water droplets on its bumpy back, then lets the moisture roll down into its mouth, allowing it to drink in an area devoid of flowing water. /news/2011-04-thick-air-refining-tools-techniques.html Engineering Thu, 21 Apr 2011 06:04:53 EDT news222584668 With a nod to one of nature's best surface chemists—an obscure desert beetle—polymer scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have devised a convenient way to construct test surfaces with a variable affinity for water, so that the same surface can range from superhydrophilic to superhydrophobic, and everything in between. Their technique, reported in a recent issue of the journal Langmuir, may be used for rapid evaluation of paints and other materials that need to stick to surfaces. /news/2007-05-wetter-approach-surface-adhesion.html Nanophysics Fri, 11 May 2007 10:26:01 EDT news98097961 The Namib Desert, one of the driest regions in the world, gets less than half an inch of rain per year. But early in the morning, a light fog drifts over the desert, offering the plants and animals living in that harsh environment their only chance for a life-sustaining drink. /news/2006-06-beetle-spawns-material.html Nanomaterials Thu, 15 Jun 2006 15:02:21 EDT news69602541 Beetles that harvest water from desert air have inspired the creation of printable surfaces that improve on nature with the aid of glass nanoparticles. These surfaces could also help control the flow of microscopic amounts of fluid in labs on microchips, experts tell UPI's Nano World. /news/2006-06-nano-world-harvesting-surfaces.html Nanophysics Tue, 06 Jun 2006 14:53:56 EDT news68824436