News by Subject Technology & Engineering

Imaging spectroscopy can help predict water stress in wild blueberry barrens, according to a University of Maine-led study. Researchers deployed a drone with a spectrometer to photograph wild blueberry fields, then process the images to measure reflected light spectra from plants for properties that would help them estimate water potential. Incorporating data from the images into models allowed them predict water stress in the fields.

Conversations between seriously ill people, their families and palliative care specialists lead to better quality-of-life. Understanding what happens during these conversations -- and how they vary by cultural, clinical, and situational contexts -- is essential to guide healthcare communication improvement efforts. True understanding requires methods to study conversations in large, inclusive, and multi-site epidemiological studies. A new computer model offers an automated and valid tool for such large-scale scientific analyses.

Zeolites are extremely porous materials: Ten grams can have an internal surface area the size of a soccer field. Their cavities make them useful in catalyzing chemical reactions and thus saving energy. An international research team has now made new findings regarding the role of water molecules in these processes. One important application is the conversion of biomass into biofuel.

Data queries written in Python, a commonly used programming language, can grind data analytics platforms to a crawl, but a new platform developed by researchers from Brown and MIT may finally solve the Python efficiency problem.

Welcome a new member in the family of superconducting polyhydrides: A team led by Skoltech professor Artem R. Oganov studied the structure and properties of ternary hydrides of lanthanum and yttrium and showed that alloying is an effective strategy for stabilizing otherwise unstable phases YH10 and LaH6, expected to be high-temperature superconductors.