A state-of-the-art fingerprint detection technology can identify traces of heroin on human skin, even after someone has washed their hands — and it is also smart enough to tell whether an individual has used the drug or shaken hands with someone who has handled it. In a paper published by The Journal of Analytical Toxicology,…

Research shows that insecticide-treated mosquito nets, the mainstay in the global battle against malaria, are not providing the protection they once did — and scientists say that’s a cause for serious concern in tropical and subtropical countries around the globe. Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets, or LLINs, are credited with having saved 6.8 million lives from 2000…

A team has developed a tool to monitor changes in widely used composite materials known as fiber reinforced polymers (FRPs), which can be found in everything from aerospace and infrastructure to wind turbines. The new tool, integrated into these materials, can help measure the damage that occurs as they age. «This gives us the ability…

Researchers have succeeded in detecting anti-avian influenza virus antibody in blood serum within 20 minutes, using a portable analyzer they have developed to conduct rapid on-site bio tests. If a suitable reagent is developed, this technology could be used to detect antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus of COVID-19. Avian influenza is a poultry disease…

Researchers have optimized a special X-ray process — known as soft X-ray tomography — to deliver high-resolution three-dimensional images of entire cells and their molecular structure in just a few minutes. «Scanning electron microscopes are preferred in cell imaging because they provide extremely sharp nanoscale images,» explains Venera Weinhardt, a post-doc at the COS and…

Researchers directly monitored the increase in temperature that occurs when ionic current passes through a nanopore. By using a thermocouple, the team was able to show nearly linear behavior with applied voltage. This work may help lead to the creation of new nanoscale sensors. Nanopores, which are tiny openings in a membrane so small that…

A technique for studying individual circuits in the brains of mice has been hampered because the light needed to stimulate neural activity briefly overwhelms the electrodes ‘listening’ for the response. Now, improved shielding within the neural probe enables those lost signals to be captured. «Consider a conversation, in which the first few and the last…

Research suggests that introducing new airline routes reduces the discard rate of donated kidneys and increases the number of kidneys sent to transplant centers across the U.S. In a recent study published online July 9 in the INFORMS journal Management Science, a researcher from The University of Texas at Dallas investigated how introducing new airline…

Design of aerial vehicles and weapon systems relies on the ability to predict aerodynamic behavior, often aided by advanced computer simulations of the flow of air over the body. High-fidelity simulations assist engineers in maximizing how much load a rotorcraft can lift or how far a missile can fly, but these simulations aren’t cheap. A…

A team has demonstrated magnetic Feshbach resonances between a single barium ion and lithium atoms at near absolute zero temperature. The researchers found that depending on the strength of the external magnetic field, the expansion of the ion and atoms can be controlled. Quantum effects dominate at ultralow temperatures In classical physics, the molecular formation…