Scientists from the Santa Fe Institute, MIT, and ETH Zürich have developed a scaling law that governs the number of visitors to any urban location based on how far they are traveling and how often they are visiting. The researchers' findings are a result of analysis of data from millions of anonymized cellphone users in urban regions including Boston, Lisbon, Singapore, and Dakar. The visitation law increases accuracy in predicting flows between locations, which could have...
Researchers have shown that sustainably decarbonizing the U.S. energy system by 2050 will require us to change the way energy transitions are modelled and account for the role of public opinion, reports Tech Xplore. Carnegie Mellon University researchers used nuclear energy as a case study of how conventional energy models – which minimize system costs – fail at accounting for social acceptance, a factor that can inhibit the deployment of certain technologies such as...
A once-in-a-decade population census has shown that births in China have fallen to their lowest level since the 1960s, the BBC reports. The census showed that around 12 million babies were born in China last year, a 33% decrease from 18 million in 2016. Experts say the situation could be uniquely exacerbated given the number of men who are finding it difficult to find a wife in the first place. Last year, there were 34.9 million more...
As businesses and consumers increasingly sign up to the benefits of cloud-based, mobile application development solutions, many developers of these solutions are failing to take into account the security risks involved when these apps are misconfigured, Tech Xplore reports. Check Point Research recently discovered misconfigurations and implementation issues that have exposed the data of 100 million mobile application users. Researchers expressed surprise at facing no obstacles to accessing open databases for certain apps on...
A novel defensive response to SARS-CoV-2 involving the viral pattern recognition receptor RIG-I has been discovered by scientists from Hokkaido University, Medical Xpress reports. Upregulating expression of this protein could strengthen the immune response in COPD patients. A team led by professor Akinori Takaoka has shown that RIG-I, a biological molecule that detects RNA viruses, restrains SARS-CoV-2 replication in human lung cells. Their findings, which could help predict COVID-19 patient outcomes, were published in the...
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are using a unique computer model to better understand the possible consequences of supply disruption in rare earth materials, Tech Xplore reports. They analysed the potential effects of three supply disruption scenarios on 10 rare earth elements, along with a handful of associated compounds, to determine the market effects. To conduct the analysis, which was supported by the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Logistics Agency, they used...
Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount confirmed that he authorized a $4.4-million ransom payment to hackers in order to get the critical energy artery operating. The company paid about 75 bitcoin in exchange for decryption software, the Wall Street Journal reported. "I didn't make it lightly," Blount said. "I will admit that I wasn't comfortable seeing money go out the door to people like this." The ransomware infection at Colonial highlighted the vulnerability of critical infrastructure. The FBI blamed...
Low-cost organic compounds including common fluorenone, a bright yellow powder found in candles, hold promise for storing grid energy, indicates research by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. In lab testing that mimicked real-world conditions, a PNNL battery operated continuously for 120 days. The battery went through 1,111 full cycles of charging and discharging – the equivalent of several years of operation under normal circumstances – and lost less than 3%...
Researchers based at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a suite of tools called BRAILS (Building Recognition using AI at Large-Scale) that can automatically identify characteristics of buildings in a city and even detect the risks that a city's structures would face in an earthquake, hurricane, or tsunami, reports Tech Xplore. "We want to simulate the impact of hazards on all of the buildings in a region, but we don't have a description...
Tech Xplore reports that German car parts maker Mahle is developing a magnet-free electric motor that does not require rare earth elements. The motor will be less expensive to produce without the rare earth metals, according to Mahle officials. They also note that the design allows for tuning and changing rotor parameters, which in turn allows for improving efficiency. During testing, they found the design was 95% efficient, which they note has to date only been achieved by Formula...
