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Brandies, such as cognac, are renowned for colors, flavors and aromas that require years to achieve. But scientists in Spain have used ultrasound could to cut the time needed for such spirits to mature down to days.
Brandies, stemming from the Dutch brandewijn, or “burned wine,” are powerful alcoholic spirits distilled from wines or other fermented fruit juices. One brandy connoisseur of note, the poet Samuel Johnson, noted that “claret is the ...read more
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Political polls may have taken a beating in the last presidential election, but we shouldn’t count them out quite yet.
After President Donald Trump, who was predicted to lose the election by a wide margin, emerged victorious from the 2016 presidential race, stories about polls were thrown into the “fake news” shredder. Although the fault may have lain with how we interpret them, polls lost a significant amount of hard-earned trust in the eyes ...read more
Simon speaks during the Precision Medicine World Conference, which was held recently in Mountain View, CA. (Credit: PMWC)
President Donald Trump’s administration has placed programs initiated during Barack Obama’s tenure as president, even those with bipartisan support, on unsure footing. However, the cancer moonshot may have the critical momentum needed to achieve its goals.
Former President Barack Obama announced the initiative at his final State of the Union Addr ...read more
A computer-generated image of the Energy Observer in frigid waters. (Credit: Kadeg Boucher/Energy Observer)
For over two decades, 45-year-old, French documentary maker Jerome Delafosse has been diving into oceans the world over to film marine life, ad he’s thrilled about his next expedition—above water. This spring, he will serve as chief explorer aboard the Energy Observer, a boat powered by the sun, wind and hydrogen. In a first-of-its-kind endeavor, Delafosse and ...read more
(Credit: Hyunwoo Yuk/MIT Soft Active Materials Lab)
Caught by an invisible hand, these fish don’t know what hit them.
The transparent appendage isn’t the latest fad in fishing technology; however, it’s a demonstration of the power of soft robots made from hydrogels—a squishy blend of polymers and water. Researchers from MIT devised a way to 3D-print custom structures from the material and bring them to life with the help of a simple water pump.
The real struggle wa ...read more
(Credit: Cafe X)
A robo-rista is now optimizing customers’ coffee in the United States.
Café X, a robotic, coffee-brewing kiosk has just opened its windows on 4th Street in downtown San Francisco.
The “barista bots,” which are actually robotic-arms designed by Mitsubishi, are the first of their kind in the United States, joined only by their sisters-in-arms serving hot brew in kiosks in Hong Kong. They may not be chatty, but they definitely know how to make your f ...read more
ResearchGate-gate isn’t quite as catchy as other scandals, but it is something we might be hearing more about in the future.
A recent article published by Sarah Bond at Forbes encouraged researchers to remove all of their articles from the for-profit company, Academia.edu. This has led to a wave of account deletions at the site, and also at ResearchGate, two sites dueling with each other to become the “Facebook for academics.”
The issue Bond raises is this: Why should companie ...read more
