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Researchers at Breakthrough Listen, a SETI project led by the University of California, Berkeley, have now used machine learning to discover 72 new fast radio bursts from a mysterious source some 3 billion light years from Earth. Fast radio bursts are bright pulses of radio emission mere milliseconds in duration, thought to originate from distant galaxies. The source of these emissions is still unclear, however. Theories range from highly magnetized neutron stars blasted by gas streams from a nearby supermassive black hole, to suggestions that the burst properties are consistent with signatures of technology developed by an advanced civilization....

Numerous experiments were set up by a team of researchers, who were led by scientists from Queen Mary University of London, to test their hypothesis. They showed that bumble bees went out of their way to roll wooden balls repeatedly despite there being no apparent incentive for doing so. According to the findings, younger bees rolled more balls than older bees. These results mirrored the human behavior of young children and other juvenile mammals and birds being the most playful....

Despite how commonplace supermassive black holes are, it remains unclear how they grow to such enormous proportions. Some black holes constantly swallow gas in their surroundings, some suddenly swallow whole stars. But neither theory independently explains how supermassive black holes can “switch on” so unexpectedly and keep growing so fast for a long period. A new Tel Aviv University-led study published today in Nature Astronomy finds that some supermassive black holes are triggered to grow, suddenly devouring a large amount of gas in their surroundings....

Atomic clocks now join a growing list of physical systems that can be used for modeling and perhaps eventually explaining the quantum mechanical behavior of exotic materials such as high-temperature superconductors, which conduct electricity without resistance. All but the smallest, most trivial quantum systems are too complicated to simulate on classical computers, hence the interest in quantum simulators. Sharing some of the features of experimental quantum computers—a hot research topic—quantum simulators are “special purpose” devices designed to provide insight into specific challenging problems....

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have discovered a way to make self-assembled nanowires of transition metal chalcogenides at scale using chemical vapor deposition. By changing the substrate where the wires form, they can tune how these wires are arranged, from aligned configurations of atomically thin sheets to random networks of bundles. This paves the way to industrial deployment in next-gen industrial electronics, including energy harvesting, and transparent, efficient, even flexible devices....

Australian bees are known for pollinating plants on beautiful sunny days, but a new study has identified two species that have adapted their vision for night-time conditions for the first time. The study by a team of ecology researchers has observed night time foraging behavior by a nomiine (Reepenia bituberculata) and masked (Meroglossa gemmata) bee species, with both developing enlarged compound and simple eyes which allow more light to be gathered when compared to their daytime kin....

Businesses are being warned there will be no ‘back to normal’ following the COVID-19 pandemic and the idea of simply ‘bouncing back’ isn’t feasible. Lex Drennan is an adjunct research fellow at Griffith University’s Policy Innovation Hub and an industry leader in the fields of crisis and disaster management. “Bouncing back is not enough,” Drennan said. “It might get you to where you were beforehand, but it’s not going to keep you safe in the future, and it’s not going to give you strategies that will help you actually become profitable again....

Human-wildlife conflict tends to increase as urban areas continue to encroach on natural ecosystems. While some animals actively shun human contact at all costs, other species thrive in metropolitan environments. In particular, coyotes have become frequent visitors near human settlements, and are generally considered a significant source of human-wildlife conflict. These urban predators have adapted to consume a range of human food sources, such as trash, ornamental fruits, and domestic pets....

A fast-moving pulsar appears to have punched a hole in a disk of gas around its companion star and launched a fragment of the disk outward at a speed of about 4 million miles per hour. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is tracking this cosmic clump, which appears to be picking up speed as it moves out. The double star system PSR B1259-63/LS 2883 – or B1259 for short – contains a star about 30 times as massive as the Sun and a pulsar, an ultra-dense neutron star left behind when an even more massive star underwent a supernova explosion....

Complex Molecules Could Hold the Secret to Identifying Alien Life A new system capable of identifying complex molecular signatures could aid in the search for alien life in the universe and could even lead to the creation of new forms of life in the laboratory, scientists say. University of Glasgow researchers have developed a new method called Assembly Theory which can be used to quantify how assembled or complex a molecule is in the laboratory using techniques like mass spectrometry....

Researchers who are studying a new magnetic effect that converts heat to electricity have discovered how to amplify it a thousand times over — a first step in making the technology more practical. In the so-called spin Seebeck effect, the spin of electrons creates a current in magnetic materials, which is detected as a voltage in an adjacent metal. Ohio State University researchers have figured out how to create a similar effect in a non-magnetic semiconductor while producing more electrical power....

Over 80% of people surveyed in a study do not plan to conceive during the COVID-19 crisis, perhaps putting to rest suggestions that the lockdown could lead to rise in birth numbers. Looking at parenthood desires during the ongoing pandemic crisis in Italy, a team of experts, led by the University of Florence, carried out 1,482 online interviews. Their results, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology, show that some 1,214 (81....

New research from the University of Central Florida has identified physiological features that could make people super-spreaders of viruses such as COVID-19. In a study appearing this month in the journal Physics of Fluids, researchers in UCF’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering used computer-generated models to numerically simulate sneezes in different types of people and determine associations between people’s physiological features and how far their sneeze droplets travel and linger in the air....

To date there have been few cases of feline SARS-CoV-2 infection worldwide, which is why researchers have deepened the case study and published it recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). They performed serological tests on the cat Negrito and another cat that also lived in the same home, Whisky, which did not show any signs of disease. The tests, carried out by the AIDS Research Institute (IrsiCaixa), show that the two cats had developed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2....

The range of orbits around a star where the temperature would be suitable for an exoplanet to have liquid water on its surface is referred to as the “habitable zone.” This does not imply that there is life or even water on the planet. In reality, life on the majority of exoplanets in the habitable zone would not be “a day at the beach.” On Earth, both the oceans and continents play critical roles in the geochemical carbon cycle, which helps to sustain a temperate climate with liquid water and life....

Spinosaurids is a family of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs that originated in the Jurassic period and came to prominence during the Cretaceous period. Paleontologists have found spinosaurid fossils in many locations around the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia. Research led by paleontologists at the University of Southampton has identified the remains of one of Europe’s largest ever land-based hunters: a dinosaur that measured over 10m long and lived around 125 million years ago....

The European Extremely Large Telescope Project (E-ELT) has officially been launched. This enormous telescope, with a diameter of nearly 40m, will be built in Chile and will include technologies developed at EPFL. Tear down that mountain, so we can see the stars! Indeed, the spectacular €1.08 billion project will undoubtedly lop a few meters off the top of Cerro Armazones, in Chile. But it’s well worth it: with the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) and its principal 39....

In-utero exposure to the coronavirus pandemic could cause developmental difficulties and accelerated aging in the century ahead, say USC researchers. Exposure to COVID-19 could pose a risk to the health and aging of individuals who aren’t even born yet, according to a newly published analysis by USC researchers. In the article, University Professors Eileen Crimmins and Caleb Finch of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and Keck School of Medicine neonatology fellow Molly Easterlin note that by the end of 2020, approximately 300,000 infants could be born to mothers infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19....

In the COVID-19 pandemic, people wear face masks to respect and protect others — not merely to protect themselves, says a team of Northwestern University researchers. With this in mind, the researchers developed a new concept for a mask that aims to make the wearer less infectious. The central idea, which received support from the National Science Foundation through a RAPID grant, is to modify mask fabrics with anti-viral chemicals that can sanitize exhaled, escaped respiratory droplets....

RS Puppis rhythmically brightens and dims over a six-week cycle. It is one of the most luminous in the class of so-called Cepheid variable stars. Its average intrinsic brightness is 15,000 times greater than the Sun’s luminosity. The nebula flickers in brightness as pulses of light from the Cepheid propagate outwards. Hubble took a series of photos of light flashes rippling across the nebula in a phenomenon known as a “light echo....