Bob Yirka

1 day ago | phys.org | Bob Yirka

Two physicists from the Technical University of Denmark have found that leaf shape is a determining factor in the distance leaves travel as they fall from their tree. In their paper published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Matthew Dominic Biviano and Kaare Hartvig Jensen describe how they built a device that allowed them to mass-test falling leaves and what they learned through its use.

1 day ago | techxplore.com | Bob Yirka

A team of chemists, materials scientists and engineers affiliated with several institutions in China, working with a colleague from Taiwan, has developed a new way to remove uranium from seawater that is much more efficient than other methods. Their paper is published in the journal Nature Sustainability. The current method for obtaining uranium for use in nuclear power plants is mining it from the ground.

2 days ago | techxplore.com | Bob Yirka

A small team of engineers from the U.S., Chile and Ireland has found a way to extract more water from drier air, allowing for water production in arid places like the Atacama Desert. Their paper is published in Device. Instead of looking for ways to improve sorbent materials, the team sought to optimize the way hydrogel-based water-capture systems work. Scientists believe there will be a global water crisis in the coming years.

3 days ago | techxplore.com | Bob Yirka

A team of engineers and AI specialists at Carnegie Mellon University has developed an AI application that can design stable structures from standard LEGOs using text prompts. In their study published on the arXiv preprint server, the group repurposed a large language model (LLM) created by META to build their new system. The research team sought to improve on 3D generative models that currently tend to produce designs that will not work in the real world due to gravity or disconnection issues.

5 days ago | phys.org | Bob Yirka

A team of psychologists at the University of Manchester, in the U.K., working with a colleague from Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, in Morocco, has found that children tend to behave differently during the famous Stanford marshmallow experiment if they have a partner who is willing to wait for a better option. In their study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the group conducted variations on the famous children's experiments.