Wednesday 8 May 2019

Allianz aims for "climate-neutral" investments by 2050

German insurer Allianz aims to make the massive investments that back its business "climate-neutral" by 2050, chief executive Oliver Baete told shareholders Wednesday.

* This article was originally published here

Box of Pain: A new tracer and fault injector for distributed systems

In computer science, distributed systems are systems with components located on different devices, which communicate with one another. While these systems have become increasingly common, they are typically filled with bugs.

* This article was originally published here

Source credibility is key to derailing fake news

Fake news is a threat to American democratic institutions and false information can have far-reaching effects. A new study provides a roadmap for dealing with fake news.

* This article was originally published here

Chronic kidney disease epidemic may be result of high heat, toxins

A mysterious epidemic of chronic kidney disease among agricultural workers and manual laborers may be caused by a combination of increasingly hot temperatures, toxins and infections, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

* This article was originally published here

Fibro-adipose vascular anomaly: Old wine or new cocktail?

Unique clinico-radiological features of a provisionally unclassified vascular anomaly can assist radiologists in identifying this uncommon distinct entity, according to a study to be presented at the ARRS 2019 Annual Meeting, set for May 5-10 in Honolulu, HI.

* This article was originally published here

Wireless movement-tracking system could collect health and behavioral data

We live in a world of wireless signals flowing around us and bouncing off our bodies. MIT researchers are now leveraging those signal reflections to provide scientists and caregivers with valuable insights into people's behavior and health.

* This article was originally published here

Show your hands: Smartwatches sense hand activity

We've become accustomed to our smartwatches and smartphones sensing what our bodies are doing, be it walking, driving or sleeping. But what about our hands? It turns out that smartwatches, with a few tweaks, can detect a surprising number of things your hands are doing.

* This article was originally published here

Stress in early life could make people more likely to develop depression

New research by the University of Bristol has found that early life adversity could make an individual more at risk of developing negative thinking, which could lead to major depressive disorder (MDD). The findings provide biological and psychological evidence to support work first proposed in the 1960s.

* This article was originally published here

Mining microbial treasures from toxic sites

Filled with a noxious brew of copper, cadmium and arsenic, with a pH rivaling that of sulfuric acid, Montana's Berkeley Pit seems inhospitable to life. Nonetheless, scientists have discovered microorganisms in this abandoned copper mine and other human-made noxious sites. These extreme environments induce microbes to synthesize potent, never-before-seen molecules that could find uses in human medicine, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.

* This article was originally published here

AI can detect depression in a child's speech

A machine learning algorithm can detect signs of anxiety and depression in the speech patterns of young children, potentially providing a fast and easy way of diagnosing conditions that are difficult to spot and often overlooked in young people, according to new research published in the Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics.

* This article was originally published here

The secrets of secretion—isolating eucalyptus genes for oils, biofuel

Close genetic analysis of 480 blue mallee eucalyptus plants provides clues to modify cultivars for greater yield, whether for essential oils or jet fuel.

* This article was originally published here

New material also reveals new quasiparticles

Researchers at PSI have investigated a novel crystalline material that exhibits electronic properties that have never been seen before. It is a crystal of aluminum and platinum atoms arranged in a special way. In the symmetrically repeating unit cells of this crystal, individual atoms were offset from each other in such a way that they—as connected in the mind's eye—followed the shape of a spiral staircase. This resulted in novel properties of electronic behaviour for the crystal as a whole, including so-called Rarita-Schwinger fermions in its interior and very long and quadruple topological Fermi arcs on its surface. The researchers have now published their results in the journal Nature Physics.

* This article was originally published here

Exobiology in a box

The International Space Station is the platform to study a variety of fields without gravity getting in the way. A new experiment is furthering the Station's capabilities for investigating exobiology, or the study of life in space.

* This article was originally published here

Survey: New moms often overlook critical postpartum care during 'fourth trimester'

The three trimesters of pregnancy are filled with doctor's appointments, preparations and careful surveillance of the health of both mom and baby. However, in the months after their baby is born, known as the fourth trimester, priorities often shift for new moms, and their own health can fall to the bottom of their to-do lists. A new national survey by Orlando Health found more than a quarter of mothers did not have a plan to manage their health after giving birth, while more than 40 percent say they felt anxious, overwhelmed or depressed.

* This article was originally published here

Drones to deliver incessant buzzing noise, and packages

A sister company of Google, Alphabet's Wing Aviation, just got federal approval to start using drones for commercial delivery. Amazon's own drone-delivery program is ready to launch as well. As drones take flight, the world is about to get a lot louder – as if neighborhoods were filled with leaf blowers, lawn mowers and chainsaws.

* This article was originally published here

Lions vs. porcupines—Historical records show what leads lions to hunt porcupines and what happens when they do

Not much can mess with a lion. They're four-hundred-pound top predators, bringing down large prey like wildebeests, zebras, and even giraffes. But they're not invincible—a new study delves into the interactions between lions and porcupines, and shows how these spiky, cocker spaniel-sized critters can come out on top.

* This article was originally published here