Science X Dialog

Science X Dialog is where researchers can share news and information about their own published journal articles.
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Dialog / Solar panels capture more sunlight with capsaicin, the chemical that makes chili peppers spicy

Here's some news hot off the press. Researchers have found a secret ingredient for making solar panels that absorb the sun's energy more efficiently. Depending on what you like to eat, there's a good chance you can find it ...

Jan 14, 2021 in Technology
Dialog / How to build a likable chatbot

A few years ago, Business Insider predicted that 80% of enterprise applications would use chatbots by 2020. Today, the internet is flooded with millions of conversational artificial intelligence agents. Yet only a handful ...

Jan 12, 2021 in Technology
Dialog / Magic, culture and stalactites: How Aboriginal perspectives are transforming archaeological histories

New collaborative work at an Aboriginal cave in eastern Victoria, published today, shows the stark difference between contemporary archaeological research and that conducted in the 1970s.

Jan 6, 2021 in Other Sciences
Dialog / SETI: New signal excites alien hunters – here's how we could find out if it's real

The US$100m (£70m) Breakthrough Listen Initiative, founded by Russian billionaire, technology and science investor Yuri Milner and his wife Julia, has identified a mysterious radio signal that seems to come from the nearest ...

Jan 5, 2021 in Astronomy & Space
Dialog / Quantum philosophy: Four ways physics will challenge your reality

Imagine opening the weekend paper and looking through the puzzle pages for the Sudoku. You spend your morning working through this logic puzzle, only to realise by the last few squares there's no consistent way to finish ...

Dec 25, 2020 in Physics
Dialog / [Dialog] Novel prefrontal synthesis intervention improves language in children with autism

The CDC estimates that one in 54 children is affected by autism, a neurological disorder that disrupts early development in cognition and communication, leading to impairment in cognitive and social functions and difficulty ...

Dec 23, 2020 in Medicine & Health
Dialog / A thread of the cosmic web: Astronomers spot a 50 million light-year galactic filament

At the very largest scale, the Universe consists of a "cosmic web" made of enormous, tenuous filaments of gas stretching between gigantic clumps of matter. Or that's what our best models suggest. All we have seen so far with ...

Dec 18, 2020 in Astronomy & Space
Dialog / The top scientific breakthrough for 2020 was understanding SARS-CoV-2—and then developing multiple vaccines

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the respiratory illness COVID-19, has killed approximately 2.2% of those worldwide who are known to have contracted it. But the situation could be a lot worse without modern medicine and ...

Dec 18, 2020 in Medicine & Health
Dialog / Physicists invent a machine that translates quantum systems in time

Popcorn and chocolate bars aside, there is a big difference between watching a movie in the cinema and viewing it at home. In the cinema, the movie runs from beginning to end, irrespective of the audience's will. At home, ...

Dec 17, 2020 in Physics
Dialog / Electromagnetic-circuit co-design approach leads to dynamically programmable holographic terahertz metasurfaces

With the help of integrated CMOS technology and electromagnetic design, Princeton researchers have demonstrated a key device that could potentially enable high-speed wireless links at terahertz frequencies.

Dec 17, 2020 in Technology
Dialog / We scanned the DNA of 8,000 people to see how facial features are controlled by genes

You might think it's rather obvious that your facial appearance is determined by your genes. Just look in the family photo album and observe the same nose, eyes or chin on your grandparents, cousins and uncles and aunts. ...

Dec 8, 2020 in Medicine & Health
Dialog / This is how microorganisms can produce renewable energy for us

We can generate electricity from microorganisms as an alternative to the usual power from water, wind, solar or steam.

Dec 2, 2020 in Technology