Science

According to the Global Burden of Skin Disease, skin conditions were ranked fourth in leading causes of disability, globally, and was the 18th leading cause of DALYs (disability-adjusted life year).

Another serious condition sweeping nations is melanoma, a type of skin cancer affecting more than 85,000 individuals per year in the US alone.

Perovskites have attracted a lot of interest as the raw materials for the photovoltaic devices that make up the cells of sun-powered batteries.

These minerals, particularly those of the organic-inorganic hybrid variety, have a range of properties that make them ideal for the absorption and retention of solar energy. However, there is one major drawback: these hybrid perovskites are lead-based, and, therefore, toxic. They are also water-soluble, which may affect the risk of environmental contamination with this metal.

The security of personal or important information from those who would exploit it for their own gain is an increasingly pressing concern for modern-day society.

It is hard to stay completely anonymous for personal privacy on the internet these days. The browsers and programmes we all use every day may leak data that could identify or locate us; on the other hand, there are tools and strategies out there that can help seal these minor breaches.

The management of type 1 diabetes mellitus is an extensive, cumbersome process for patients as it involves rigid schedules and maintenance with regard to administering insulin injections regularly.

As of 2017, according to the National Diabetes Statistics Report, more than 30 million people around the world are suffering with diabetes, a tenth of that affecting the American population.

Remember Dolly the sheep, the first mammal born as a product of cloning?

That was in 1996. A few years after that the rhesus macaque, Tetra, was created by a simpler technique called ‘embryo splitting’. Over the last decade, the exponential growth of technology in areas of bioengineering and medicine has led researchers to revisit the idea of developing cloned mammals for the purpose of research and therapy.

Nestled in the corner of a small reef just off the coast of Tasmania, a new population of critically endangered red handfish (Thymichthys politus) have been discovered, giving hope for the conservation of this species into the future.

The population of this fish has now been given a big boost, thanks to eagle eyed members of the public involved in a citizen science project known as the Reef Life Survey.

One of the many reasons that companies choose to automate some of their systems is to reduce human error and ensure a consistent quality of product.

Whilst it might seem surprising to think of that same logic being applied to the training of racehorses, that’s exactly what’s been implemented at one racehorse stud in the Lambourn, an area of the UK famous for racing.

Once in a while, a gadget comes along which somehow manages to tug at our heartstrings, even though we know that in reality, it’s just a clever combination of robotics and Artificial Intelligence.

Sony’s newly released Aibo puppy is just one of those gadgets.

Many of us remember that iconic photograph of a tiny seahorse clutching tightly to a plastic cotton bud as a defining image of 2017. Indeed, this photograph, taken by Justin Hofman, was one of the finalists for The Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

More and more of us are becoming aware of the issues facing our oceans, including plastic pollution which includes cotton buds. The plastic stems of these cotton buds are frequently to be found in the top ten types of litter seen on UK beaches.

In the coming years, with groundbreaking research in the interdisciplinary areas of science, medicine, healthcare and technology, it is possible that chemical batteries we are familiar with will be completely replaced.

Reasons to seek alternatives include bulkiness, instability in extremes of temperature, toxicity of chemicals and low sustenance.

Whilst most of us know that we need to take action and make changes to our livelihoods in order to reduce our impact on the environment, it’s sometimes hard to know where to start.

Actions such as reducing our carbon footprint through flying less is a great place to start, but if you only plan on taking an overseas holiday once a year, sometimes you might feel like you need to do more on a daily basis in order to make more of a difference.

Most of the electronic devices with touchscreens we’ve come to depend on these days need tough, protective glass for their interfaces to keep working. These hard, transparent coatings for LED displays can keep a device working for years; on the other hand, even faint cracks in this glass can ruin the user experience. Major fractures in the glass of phone or tablet screens can also render these gadgets unreadable or unusable.

In this day and age, authorities and research bodies have found the need to advise parents and caregivers on the amount of online media consumption that children should be exposed to on a regular basis. Some of these organizations assert that prolonged screen-time has negative effects on child development, and may even promote internet “addiction” in later life. However, researchers counter this with arguments that there is little empirical evidence to back up these claims and the recommended limits released as a result.

NASA and Google have been collaborating on a project using NASA’s Kepler telescope and Google’s powerful Artificial Intelligence technology.

The findings are due to be released at a news conference on Thursday December 14.

As of 2017, more than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s, and the numbers are predicted to rise to 16 million in the next 30 years or so.

As this disease is a neurodegenerative form of dementia, including memory loss and behavioral changes, scientists around the world are trying to study components of the brain and different parts of the body in order to better understand its origin.

For around 65 percent of patients with schizophrenia, one of the effects can be verbal auditory hallucinations. These tend to involve a voice speaking to them in a demeaning and derogatory tone.

Some patients respond to currently available therapies well, meaning that these voices diminish or disappear altogether. But unfortunately for others, nothing seems to help which means that for around 25 percent of patients with psychotic conditions, there is no respite from these auditory hallucinations.

Many people, particularly students, may benefit from improved techniques that help you learn notes or pieces of text off by heart. This enhances explicit memory, recognition memory or both, in terms of what you may be called on to repeat or identify later.

There are various techniques and pathways to forming these memories, which include repetition or silent reading. However, research on the efficacy of these methods yields mixed and even conflicting conclusions. In addition, some ‘memorising’ techniques may work better on some types of information compared to others.

Many people shop for a laptop with the first item on their list of wants being a matte screen for that lack of glare. Glare, or the reflection of light off glossy glass, is distracting and aesthetically displeasing to many. Glare means that you may be able to see the reflection of an interior setting in your PC screen, or can’t even see the screen outdoors in the sunshine. However, it is also an unavoidable price to pay for touch-sensitive screens or higher resolutions.

Google and DeepMind’s AlphaZero has just taught itself to play chess in four hours. Not only that, but it then went on to easily defeat the current computer champion.

We may be living on the cusp of an age of electronic clothes. There has been an impressive amount of research that may contribute to this reality, from conductors to power supplies that can be printed or deposited onto flexible surfaces like fabrics.

Many scientists envision that materials such as these will eventually be used to produce full devices that are thinner and lighter than ever before. These devices may be most useful for applications such as personal health tracking. They may also be used in novel displays, which could be interactive or user-controllable.