Best of Last Week—Earthquakes may form gold nuggets, IQ limits computer prowess, elephant seals caught foraging

September 9, 2024 • by Bob Yirka

It was a good week for geology research as a team of geologists at Monash University found evidence that the electricity generated by earthquakes might be the secret behind the formation of giant gold nuggets around the globe. And a team of tectonics specialists from China and Australia created an animation showing 1.8 billion years of Earth's land mass changes due to tectonic plate shifting.

In technology news, a team of researchers at Aalto University found evidence that a person's intelligence limits their computer proficiency more than previously thought—cognitive ability, they found, has a significant, independent and wide-ranging effect on people's ability to use a computer for ordinary, everyday purposes. And a team of engineers at the Indian Institute of Science's Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics developed a light-charged supercapacitor to self-power devices, including streetlights, sensors and portable electronic devices. Also, an international team of sustainable energy engineers developed a personalized cooling apparatus based on radiative cooling to replace traditional air-conditioning. And an international team of engineers developed an approach to fabricating highly performing transistors based on 2D semiconductors. It entails the use of hexagonal boron nitride dielectrics and metal gate electrodes with a high cohesive energy.

In other news, a team of medical researchers led by a group at the University of Texas at Austin discovered an antibody that protects against all COVID-19 variants, which the team suggests could protect the world's population against current and future versions of the virus behind COVID-19. And a team of physicists and engineers at ETH Zurich found a way to make sound waves travel in one direction only, a discovery that could have major implications for electromagnetic wave technology. Also, a collaboration of medical researchers from across the U.S. announced that a recent gene therapy trial resulted in a 100-fold improvement in sight for patients with Leber congenital amaurosis. And finally, a small international team of marine scientists found that northern elephant seals were using deep-sea sonar-emitting devices deployed by research teams as a dinner bell.