University of Massachusetts Amherst News - SciTechDaily

Banana Apocalypse: Can Biologists Outsmart the Silent Killer?

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 09:00:37 +0000

Bananas are threatened by a new strain of Fusarium wilt, not related to the one that devastated crops in the 1950s. Research led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst has identified accessory genes linked to the pathogen’s virulence, offering new avenues for combating the disease. This research highlights the risks of monocropping and suggests diversifying [...]

New Research Reveals Why Your Glass Bottle of Orange Juice Is Bad for the Planet

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 09:54:22 +0000

UMass Amherst survey seeks to improve the food industry’s understanding of consumer attitudes toward sustainable packaging and to guide consumers toward more eco-friendly options. A new study revealed that while consumers preferred glass for its perceived sustainability, cartons are actually the most energy-efficient and sustainable packaging option for single-serve orange juice, contrary to popular belief. [...]

Are Social Media Polls Lying to You About Elections?

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 16:00:18 +0000

Questionable voting, including vote purchasing, rife on X/Twitter, contributed to inaccurate impression of Trump’s electoral performance. Research reveals significant bias in X/Twitter political polls, often favoring Donald Trump due to ideological skews. Skewed Social Polls on X/Twitter Informal political polls conducted on X/Twitter during both the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections were significantly skewed [...]

1000x Faster: Humans Are Helping Invasive Species Spread at Alarming Speeds

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 19:14:57 +0000

Native species are unable to migrate quickly enough to escape the disruptions caused by climate change. A team of scientists from around the world recently discovered that non-native species are spreading their territories significantly faster than native species, largely due to unintentional assistance from humans. Even non-native plants, which typically do not move quickly, are [...]

Scientists Unravel 2,000-Year-Old Shipworm Mystery: The World’s Most Destructive Mollusk

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 20:03:02 +0000

Unlocking the secrets of the world’s most fascinating and destructive mollusk could impact everything from climate change to public health. They bedeviled ancient Greek navies, helped shipwreck Christopher Columbus, aided in the sinking of the Spanish Armada, and caused the wharves in San Francisco Bay to collapse into the sea, but until now, scientists have [...]

Physicists Develop Groundbreaking Device for Advanced Quantum Computing

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Wed, 08 May 2024 11:16:45 +0000

Researchers have made a significant advancement in quantum computing by adapting a microwave circulator to precisely control the nonreciprocity between a qubit and a resonant cavity. This innovation not only enhances the control within quantum computers but also simplifies the theoretical models for future research. Scientists led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst have adapted [...]

Unleashing the Power of Memristors in High-Precision Computing

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 04:10:41 +0000

UMass Amherst research demonstrates that a memristor device can solve complex scientific problems using significantly less energy, overcoming one of the major hurdles of digital computing. A team of researchers including University of Massachusetts Amherst engineers have proven that their analog computing device, called a memristor, can complete complex, scientific computing tasks while bypassing the [...]

Heat Transfer Revolution: Exposing Flaws in 200-Year-Old Law

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 12:39:38 +0000

Research team rewrites the textbooks by showing that electromagnetic radiation is an independent pathway for heat transmission in translucent materials. A team of researchers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst has recently found an exception to the 200-year-old law, known as Fourier’s Law, that governs how heat diffuses through solid materials. Though scientists have [...]

Scientists Have Identified the Best Healthy Fruit Snack

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 17:11:15 +0000

Ditch the gummies – Research from UMass Amherst reveals that dried fruit tops the chart for nutritional value. Next time you’re packing lunch for your kid or reaching for a healthy afternoon bite, consider this: only three types of fruit snacks – dried fruit, fruit puree, and canned fruit with juice – meet the latest [...]

Scientists Answer a Fundamental Question in Biology: How Do Organisms Respond to Changing Conditions?

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 10:18:37 +0000

Research provides new insights into how cells in plants coordinate their responses. A team of researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently published a pioneering study that answers a central question in biology: how do organisms rally a wide range of cellular processes when they encounter a change—either internally or in the external environment—to [...]

How 1,289 Genetic Markers Are Revolutionizing Diabetes Care

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 16:00:57 +0000

Researchers identified over a thousand genetic markers for Type 2 diabetes, marking a significant step toward personalized diabetes management. In the largest genome-wide association study to date on Type 2 diabetes, a team of international researchers, co-led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst genetic epidemiologist, has located 1,289 genetic markers associated with Type 2 diabetes [...]

Don’t Blame Sharks: Scientists Reveal Why More Hooked Tarpon Are Being Eaten

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 21:08:45 +0000

First-of-its-kind research monitors hammerheads, tarpon, and anglers, advocating for an ecological solution. Wave-making research recently published in Marine and Coastal Fisheries, led by biologists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has successfully measured the frequency of great hammerhead sharks preying on Atlantic tarpon caught by fishermen at Bahia Honda, Florida—one of the prime tarpon fishing [...]

Breaking the Habit: Researchers Identify Most Effective Stop-Smoking Aids

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 16:38:18 +0000

Comprehensive global analysis from UMass Amherst researcher offers evidence to reshape public health policies. Nicotine e-cigarettes and two prescription medications that curb symptoms of withdrawal are the most effective stop-smoking aids, according to a comprehensive, multinational review by a team of scientists, including a University of Massachusetts Amherst public health and health policy researcher. Dual [...]

Sabotaging Superbugs: Scientists Unveil New Tactics Against Antibiotic Resistance

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 08:24:43 +0000

Team develops test to identify new drugs that can disable pathogens and so make real gains in public health. Antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” that can defeat efforts to kill them are an urgent public health crisis, and according to the CDC, more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur each year. Researchers across the world are scrambling to [...]

Cracking the Cellular Code: New Insights Into Protein Folding and Disease Therapies

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 08:48:55 +0000

Team’s approach reveals crucial role played by a specific enzyme in the folding process. While we often think of diseases as caused by foreign bodies—bacteria or viruses—there are hundreds of diseases affecting humans that result from errors in cellular production of its proteins. A team of researchers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently [...]

New Drug Reverses Obesity Without Side Effects in Preliminary Tests

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 13:33:38 +0000

An innovative nanogel delivery system created at the University of Massachusetts Amherst enabled mice with obesity to revert to a normal weight while maintaining a high-fat diet. A University of Massachusetts Amherst biomedical engineer has used a nanogel-based carrier designed in his lab to deliver a drug exclusively to the liver of obese mice, effectively [...]

Rapid Disease Diagnosis: Bioengineering Breakthrough Boosts DNA Detection Sensitivity by 100x

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 08:10:11 +0000

Scientists discover that letting small amounts of DNA ‘dance’ can speed disease detection. UMass Amherst researchers have pushed forward the boundaries of biomedical engineering one hundredfold with a new method for DNA detection with unprecedented sensitivity. “DNA detection is in the center of bioengineering,” says Jinglei Ping, lead author of the paper that appeared in [...]

Turbocharged Python: AI Accelerates Computing Speed by Thousands of Times

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 07:19:15 +0000

Their development Scalene, an open-source tool for dramatically speeding up the programming language Python, circumvents hardware issues limiting computer processing speeds. A team of computer scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, led by Emery Berger, recently unveiled a prize-winning Python profiler called Scalene. Programs written with Python are notoriously slow—up to 60,000 times slower [...]

Climate Inequality: New Study Exposes the Wealthy’s Disproportionate Carbon Footprint

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Sat, 19 Aug 2023 10:47:10 +0000

Recent research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst establishes the first connection between U.S. household income and emissions, highlighting investment as a major driver behind emissions inequality. New research conducted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst indicates that the richest 10% of Americans account for 40% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. The study, [...]

Saving Our Soil: How to Preserve U.S. Breadbasket Fertility for Centuries

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Sat, 24 Jun 2023 14:40:06 +0000

New research from UMass Amherst shows that the rapid and unsustainable rate of topsoil erosion can be drastically reduced with no-till agricultural methods already in practice. The Midwestern United States has lost 57.6 billion tons of topsoil due to farming practices over the past 160 years, and the rate of erosion, even following the U.S. [...]

Quantum Frustration Leads to Fundamental Physics Discovery: A New Phase of Matter

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 20:25:20 +0000

For Experimental Physicists, Quantum Frustration Leads to Fundamental Discovery “Chiral bose-liquid state” is a new phase of matter, according to UMass Amherst professor. A team of physicists, including University of Massachusetts assistant professor Tigran Sedrakyan, recently announced in the journal Nature that they have discovered a new phase of matter. Called the “chiral bose-liquid state,” [...]

Clean Energy 24/7: Engineers Use Nanotechnology To Harvest Electricity “From Thin Air”

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Wed, 24 May 2023 13:00:45 +0000

Engineers describe the “generic Air-gen effect”—nearly any material can be engineered with nanopores to harvest, cost-effective, scalable, interruption-free electricity. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have discovered a method to harvest continuous electricity from air humidity using any material with nanopores smaller than 100 nanometers, called the “generic Air-gen effect.” This technique, scalable and [...]

Scientists Discover Source of Jet Lag’s Harmful Health Consequences

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Thu, 04 May 2023 11:34:34 +0000

A recent study investigated the impact of disrupting the circadian rhythm on adult neurogenesis. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have zeroed in on the primary cause of negative health consequences stemming from disruptions to the body’s circadian rhythms, commonly experienced during jet lag or shift work. The study, published recently in the journal [...]

New Polar Bear-Inspired Fabric Is 30% Lighter Than Cotton and Far Warmer

University of Massachusetts Amherst — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 04:12:41 +0000

A group of engineers from UMass Amherst has created a bilayered fabric that is 30% lighter than cotton yet provides greater warmth. Three engineers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst have successfully completed an 80-year endeavor to create a synthetic textile modeled on polar bear fur. The results of their invention have been recently published [...]