technical updates

It's the next best thing to being on Mars: Two online interactive experiences let you check out Jezero Crater—the landing site and exploration locale for NASA's Perseverance rover—without leaving our planet. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3tM6RR6

When electrons flow through a conductor—such as the copper wires in our phone chargers or the silicon chips in the circuit boards of our laptops—they collide with material impurities and with each other in a tiny atomic frenzy. Their interaction with impurities is well known. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3lpK61u

When compounds in spent nuclear fuel break down, they can release radioactive elements and contaminate the ground and water. Scientists know that one spent fuel compound, neptunium dioxide, reacts with water, but they do not fully understand the process. A study has used advanced electron microscopy techniques to investigate how the microscopic structure of neptunium dioxide drives chemical reactions that lead it to dissolve into the environment. The results revealed that neptunium tends to dissolve where grains of the material come together, known as grain boundaries. Neptunium is less prone to dissolve at the grain boundaries of larger grains of material as compared to smaller grains of materials. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3keUidP

Cover crops are widely seen as one of the most promising conservation practices, improving soil health while also removing carbon from the atmosphere. But while the number of Midwestern farmers planting cover crops has increased markedly in recent years, 2017 USDA Census data show only about 5% have adopted the conservation practice. The reluctance of the other 95% may be due, in part, to a perception that cover crops require more effort and may also negatively affect summer cash crop yield. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3CmdzR8

A new way to make complex, layered semiconductors is like making rock candy: They assemble themselves from chemicals in water. The method will aid design and large-scale production of these materials. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3nGmOre

Increasing reforestation efforts in coastal regions could substantially reduce the amount of sediment run-off reaching coral reefs and improve their resilience, a new study has found. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3tJ9P96

When researchers first started to look at animal bones from Contrebandiers Cave, Morocco, they wanted to learn about the diet and environment of early human ancestors who lived there between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago. But they soon realized that the bones they had found weren't just meal scraps. They'd been shaped into tools, apparently for use in working leather and fur. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2XwKzqW