Tiny Crop-Health Sensors could help Cut the Cost of Groceries

Tiny crop-health sensors could help cut the cost of groceries
The sensor system can rapidly switch between edge detection – imaging the outline of an object, such as a fruit – and extracting detailed infrared information, without the need for creating large volumes of data and using bulky external processors. Credit: Lincoln Clark, ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS)

A compact, lightweight sensor system with infrared imaging capabilities developed by an international team of engineers could be easily fitted to a drone for remote crop monitoring.

This flat-optics technology has the potential to replace traditional optical lens applications for environmental sensing in a range of industries.

This innovation could result in cheaper groceries as farmers would be able to pinpoint which crops require irriga...

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Researcher Suggests that Gravity can exist Without Mass, Mitigating the need for hypothetical Dark Matter

gravity
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that is implied by gravitational effects that can’t be explained by general relativity unless more matter is present in the universe than can be seen. It remains virtually as mysterious as it was nearly a century ago when first suggested by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort in 1932 to explain the so-called “missing mass” necessary for things like galaxies to clump together.

Now Dr. Richard Lieu at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has published a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society that shows, for the first time, how gravity can exist without mass, providing an alternative theory that could potentially mitigate the need for dark matter.

“My own inspiration came from my pursuit fo...

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Epstein-Barr Virus and Brain Cross-reactivity: Possible mechanism for Multiple Sclerosis detected

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Source: NIAID
An electron micrograph showing three Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) particles colorized red-orange.

The role that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) plays in the development of multiple sclerosis (MS) may be caused by a higher level of cross-reactivity, where the body’s immune system binds to the wrong target, than previously thought.

In a new study published in PLOS Pathogens, researchers looked at blood samples from people with MS, as well as healthy people infected with EBV and people recovering from glandular fever caused by recent EBV infection.

The study investigated how the immune system deals with EBV infection as part of worldwide efforts to understand how this common virus can lead to the development of multiple sclerosis, following 20 years of mounting evidence showing a...

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JWST discovers large variety of Carbon-rich Gases that Serve as Ingredients for Future Planets around Very Low-Mass Star

Artist’s impression of a protoplanetary disk around a very low-mass star. It depicts a selection of hydrocarbon molecules (Methane, CH4; Ethane, C2H6; Ethylene, C2H2; Diacetylene, C4H2; Propyne, C3H4; Benzene, C6H6) detected in the disk around ISO-ChaI 147.
Artist’s impression of a protoplanetary disk around a very low-mass star. It depicts a selection of hydrocarbon molecules (Methane, CH4; Ethane, C2H6; Ethylene, C2H2; Diacetylene, C4H2; Propyne, C3H4; Benzene, C6H6) detected in the disk around ISO-ChaI 147.
© ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) / MPIA

Planets form in disks of gas and dust, orbiting young stars. The MIRI Mid-INfrared Disk Survey (MINDS), led by Thomas Henning from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany, aims to establish a representative disk sample. By exploring their chemistry and physical properties with MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the collaboration links those disks to the properties of planets potentially forming there.

In a new study, a team o...

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