In 1927, Pólya proved that the Riemann hypothesis is equivalent to the hyperbolicity of Jensen polynomials for the Riemann zeta function ζ(s) at its point of symmetry. This hyperbolicity has been proved for degrees d≤3. We obtain an asymptotic formula for the central derivatives ζ(2n)(1/2) that is accurate to all…
New findings challenge tough-on-crime measures, such as mandatory minimum sentences, and make the case for the greater use of prison diversion programs for people who are eligible for probation. Locking away people who have committed assault, robbery, and similar felonies does not affect whether they will commit violent crimes after their release, according to the research, which appears in Natur
A mosquito native to Missouri can thank the larvae of an invasive intruder for keeping parasites away, say researchers. "The extra energy put into fighting an infection, or lost to consumption by a parasite, can lead to changes in behavior in the host. That can change its ability to escape predation or compete for space and resources," says first author Katie M. Westby, postdoctoral research asso
Women who have a cardiac arrest outside the hospital setting are less likely to receive resuscitation from bystanders and more likely to die than men, according to new research published in the European Heart Journal. Researchers looked at data from nearly 6,000 people who had resuscitation attempts between 2006 and 2012 and found that women were less likely to receive resuscitation attempts from
Researchers in the UK have developed a new method for evaluating plutonium workers' historical internal radiation exposure in a study funded by the National Institute for Health Research.They focused their efforts on workers employed at the start of plutonium operations at the Sellafield (formerly Windscale) nuclear reprocessing facility in the UK.
The cytoskeleton is a collection of protein assemblies that dynamically impose spatial structure in cells and coordinate processes such as cell division and mechanical regulation. Biopolymer filaments, cross-linking proteins, and enzymatically active motor proteins collectively self-organize into various precise cytoskeletal assemblies critical for specific biological functions. An outstanding que
How does first-person sensory experience contribute to knowledge? Contrary to the suppositions of early empiricist philosophers, people who are born blind know about phenomena that cannot be perceived directly, such as color and light. Exactly what is learned and how remains an open question. We compared knowledge of animal appearance…
Historically, the evolution of bats has been analyzed using a small number of genetic loci for many species or many genetic loci for a few species. Here we present a phylogeny of 18 bat species, each of which is represented in 1,107 orthologous gene alignments used to build the tree….
Pandemic HIV-1 (group M) emerged following the cross-species transmission of a simian immunodeficiency virus from chimpanzees (SIVcpz) to humans. Primate lentiviruses (HIV/SIV) require the T cell receptor CD4 to enter into target cells. By surveying the sequence and function of CD4 in 50 chimpanzee individuals, we find that all chimpanzee…
Aging and psychosocial stress are associated with increased inflammation and disease risk, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are unclear. Because both aging and stress are also associated with lasting epigenetic changes, a plausible hypothesis is that stress along the lifespan could confer disease risk through epigenetic effects on molecules involved…
Many archaeologists suggest that shamanic practices are ancient, starting at least 30,000 y ago (1–3). As an analytical concept, anthropologists define shamans as religious practitioners who interact directly with the spirit world to help their people. Shamans in each culture have their own practices and are called by different names…
Germination of Bacillus spores is induced by the interaction of specific nutrient molecules with germinant receptors (GRs) localized in the spore's inner membrane. GRs typically consist of three subunits referred to as A, B, and C, although functions of individual subunits are not known. Here we present the crystal structure…
Sr-bearing marine barite [(Bax, Sr1−x)SO4] cycling has been widely used to reconstruct geochemical evolutions of paleoenvironments. However, an understanding of barite precipitation in the ocean, which is globally undersaturated with respect to barite, is missing. Moreover, the reason for the occurrence of higher Sr content in marine barites than expected…
AUF1 promotes rapid decay of mRNAs containing 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR) AU-rich elements (AREs). AUF1 depletion in mice accelerates muscle loss and causes limb girdle muscular dystrophy. Here, we demonstrate that the selective, targeted degradation by AUF1 of key muscle stem cell fate-determining checkpoint mRNAs regulates each stage of muscle…
Clinical Course of Prostate Cancer and Tumor Histology Prostate cancer (PCa) is among the most common malignancies in men and a leading cause of cancer-related death. Due to its high incidence, men generally undergo annual screening for serum levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Those with elevated serum PSA are usually…
The cell envelope of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is notable for the abundance of mycolic acids (MAs), essential to mycobacterial viability, and of other species-specific lipids. The mycobacterial cell envelope is extremely hydrophobic, which contributes to virulence and antibiotic resistance. However, exactly how fatty acids and lipidic elements are transported across the…
Forward-synthetic databases are an efficient way to enumerate chemical space. We explored here whether these databases are good sources of novel protein ligands and how many molecules are obtainable and in which time frame. Based on docking calculations, series of molecules were selected to gain insights into the ligand structure–activity…
Consensus sequence design offers a promising strategy for designing proteins of high stability while retaining biological activity since it draws upon an evolutionary history in which residues important for both stability and function are likely to be conserved. Although there have been several reports of successful consensus design of individual…
The hydroxyl radical (OH) fuels tropospheric ozone production and governs the lifetime of methane and many other gases. Existing methods to quantify global OH are limited to annual and global-to-hemispheric averages. Finer resolution is essential for isolating model deficiencies and building process-level understanding. In situ observations from the Atmospheric Tomography…
Awareness that our planet is a self-supporting biosphere with sunlight as its major source of energy for life has resulted in a long-term historical fascination with the workings of self-supporting ecological systems. However, the studies of such systems have never entered the canon of ecological or evolutionary tools and instead,…
Skeletal muscle plays a central role in the control of metabolism and exercise tolerance. Analysis of muscle enhancers activated after exercise in mice revealed the orphan nuclear receptor NURR1/NR4A2 as a prominent component of exercise-responsive enhancers. We show that exercise enhances the expression of NURR1, and transgenic overexpression of NURR1…
People care about birds far more than they do about most forms of biodiversity. Birds share our sensory modalities, they are mostly diurnal, and their ability to fly makes them conspicuous and aesthetically attractive. Birds occur virtually everywhere we do, even in the center of the largest cities. They play…
We conduct a comprehensive study of three different magnetic semiconductors, CrI3, CrBr3, and CrCl3, by incorporating both few-layer and bilayer samples in van der Waals tunnel junctions. We find that the interlayer magnetic ordering, exchange gap, magnetic anisotropy, and magnon excitations evolve systematically with changing halogen atom. By fitting to…
The source of water (H2O) and hydroxyl radicals (OH), identified on the lunar surface, represents a fundamental, unsolved puzzle. The interaction of solar-wind protons with silicates and oxides has been proposed as a key mechanism, but laboratory experiments yield conflicting results that suggest that proton implantation alone is insufficient to…
ENGINEERING Correction for "Continuous-range tunable multilayer frequency-selective surfaces using origami and inkjet printing," by Syed Abdullah Nauroze, Larissa S. Novelino, Manos M. Tentzeris, and Glaucio H. Paulino, which was first published December 13, 2018; 10.1073/pnas.1812486115 (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 115, 13210–13215). The authors note that the following statement should…
Germline genes that are aberrantly expressed in nongermline cancer cells have the potential to be ideal targets for diagnosis and therapy due to their restricted physiological expression, their broad reactivation in various cancer types, and their immunogenic properties. Among such cancer/testis genes, components of the PIWI-interacting small RNA (piRNA) pathway…
The normal function of α-synuclein (α-syn) remains elusive. Although recent studies suggest α-syn as a physiologic attenuator of synaptic vesicle (SV) recycling, mechanisms are unclear. Here, we show that synapsin—a cytosolic protein with known roles in SV mobilization and clustering—is required for presynaptic functions of α-syn. Our data offer a…
Despite considerable advances in process understanding, numerical modeling, and the observational record of ice sheet contributions to global mean sea-level rise (SLR) since the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, severe limitations remain in the predictive capability of ice sheet models. As a consequence, the…
Cardiolipin (CL) is a mitochondrial phospholipid with a very specific and functionally important fatty acid composition, generated by tafazzin. However, in vitro tafazzin catalyzes a promiscuous acyl exchange that acquires specificity only in response to perturbations of the physical state of lipids. To identify the process that imposes acyl specificity…
The function of α-synuclein (α-syn) has been long debated, and two seemingly divergent views have emerged. In one, α-syn binds to VAMP2, acting as a SNARE chaperone—but with no effect on neurotransmission—while another posits that α-syn attenuates neurotransmitter release by restricting synaptic vesicle mobilization and recycling. Here, we show that…
Hydrogels that are self-assembled by peptides have attracted great interest for biomedical applications. However, the link between chemical structures of peptides and their corresponding hydrogel properties is still unclear. Here, we showed a combinational approach to generate a structurally diverse hydrogel library with more than 2,000 peptides and evaluated their…
Cell biologist Junying Yuan vividly remembers the moment when, during her second year of graduate school at Harvard University in 1983, a thin, restless Huntington's disease patient was wheeled into her "Neurobiology of Disease" class. "I was appalled that modern medicine could do little for him," she says. "He and…
Grain starch and protein are synthesized during endosperm development, prompting the question of what regulatory mechanism underlies the synchronization of the accumulation of secondary and primary gene products. We found that two endosperm-specific NAC transcription factors, ZmNAC128 and ZmNAC130, have such a regulatory function. Knockdown of expression of ZmNAC128 and…
Emotional contagion is described as an emotional state matching between subjects, and has been suggested to facilitate communication and coordination in complex social groups. Empirical studies typically focus on the measurement of behavioral contagion and emotional arousal, yet, while highly important, such an approach often disregards an additional evaluation of…
Solar flares—bursts of high-energy radiation responsible for severe space weather effects—are a consequence of the occasional destabilization of magnetic fields rooted in active regions (ARs). The complexity of AR evolution is a barrier to a comprehensive understanding of flaring processes and accurate prediction. Although machine learning (ML) has been used…
In highly social top predators, group living is an ecological strategy that enhances individual fitness, primarily through increased foraging success. Additive mortality events across multiple social groups in populations may affect the social structure, and therefore the fitness, of surviving individuals. This hypothesis was examined in a killer whale (Orcinus…
MICROBIOLOGY Retraction for "Stochastic induction of persister cells by HipA through (p)ppGpp-mediated activation of mRNA endonucleases," by Elsa Germain, Mohammad Roghanian, Kenn Gerdes, and Etienne Maisonneuve, which was first published April 6, 2015; 10.1073/pnas.1423536112 (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112:5171–5176). The authors wish to note the following: "In this article,…
The mechanism of superconductivity in cuprates remains one of the big challenges of condensed matter physics. High-Tc cuprates crystallize into a layered perovskite structure featuring copper oxygen octahedral coordination. Due to the Jahn Teller effect in combination with the strong static Coulomb interaction, the octahedra in high-Tc cuprates are elongated…
IMMUNOLOGY AND INFLAMMATION Correction for "Chimeric antigen receptor T cells form nonclassical and potent immune synapses driving rapid cytotoxicity," by A. J. Davenport, R. S. Cross, K. A. Watson, Y. Liao, W. Shi, H. M. Prince, P. A. Beavis, J. A. Trapani, M. H. Kershaw, D. S. Ritchie, P. K….
Mitchell A. Lazar has spent his career studying the transcriptional regulation of metabolism, particularly the role of nuclear receptors. He has discovered several nuclear receptors and elucidated the mechanisms by which they interact with the genome and epigenome. He has made key findings related to the nuclear receptor PPARγ, including…
The naturally occurring nucleotide 2-deoxy-adenosine 5′-triphosphate (dATP) can be used by cardiac muscle as an alternative energy substrate for myosin chemomechanical activity. We and others have previously shown that dATP increases contractile force in normal hearts and models of depressed systolic function, but the structural basis of these effects has…
Limited knowledge of the changes in estrogen receptor (ER) signaling during the transformation of the normal mammary gland to breast cancer hinders the development of effective prevention and treatment strategies. Differences in estrogen signaling between normal human primary breast epithelial cells and primary breast tumors obtained immediately following surgical excision…
Subalpine forests in the northern Rocky Mountains have been resilient to stand-replacing fires that historically burned at 100- to 300-year intervals. Fire intervals are projected to decline drastically as climate warms, and forests that reburn before recovering from previous fire may lose their ability to rebound. We studied recent fires…
The extremely limited regenerative potential of adult mammalian hearts has prompted the need for novel cell-based therapies that can restore contractile function in heart disease. We have previously shown the regenerative potential of mixed fetal cells that were naturally found migrating to the injured maternal heart. Exploiting this intrinsic mechanism…
Google revealed a bug on Tuesday that left enterprise G Suite passwords stored incorrectly for the last 14 years so that they were encrypted but unhashed. Its a bug that could have allowed …
Researchers in the UK have developed a new method for evaluating plutonium workers' historical internal radiation exposure in a study funded by the National Institute for Health Research.
Firearms are a leading contributor to mortality in men aged 15-34 years in the USA, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, according to an observational study using national data for 106.3 million deaths, including 2.5 million firearm deaths in these 4 countries, published in The Lancet Public Health journal.
First unveiled in 2016, Salto the jumping robot stands at little less than a foot, but can vault over three times its height in a single bound. Now researchers have equipped the robot with a slew of new skills, giving it the ability to bounce in place like a pogo stick and jump through obstacle courses like an agility dog. Salto can even take short jaunts outside, powered by radio controller.
More than 60 percent of electronic cigarette users say they want to quit, according to new research. About 10 million adults in the US smoke e-cigarettes and most of them also smoke traditional cigarettes. Many users say they smoke e-cigarettes as a way to quit traditional ones. The study also shows 16 percent of e-cigarette users plan to quit in the next month. More than 25 percent say they have
The Trump administration barred US companies from doing business with Huawei, forcing the Chinese firm to find new chips and software for its products.
In addition to other scientific units, the kilogram also is now defined by a natural constant. This is made possible by single crystals grown from highly enriched silicon-28.
Can the properties of composite materials be predicted? Scientists have mastered this feat and thus can help achieve research objectives faster. This leads, for instance, to better recycling techniques and electrically conductive synthetic materials for the solar industry.
Nature, Published online: 22 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1267-3 Publisher Correction: Innervation of thermogenic adipose tissue via a calsyntenin 3β–S100b axis
Nature, Published online: 22 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1268-2 Publisher Correction: Sensory experience remodels genome architecture in neural circuit to drive motor learning
Scientific Reports, Published online: 22 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41598-019-44332-x Publisher Correction: Contrasting latitudinal patterns in phylogenetic diversity between woody and herbaceous communities
Scientific Reports, Published online: 22 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41598-019-44356-3 Author Correction: Influences of scan-position on clinical ultra-high-resolution CT scanning: a preliminary study
Scientific Reports, Published online: 22 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41598-019-44276-2 Author Correction: Surfactant/organic solvent free single-step engineering of hybrid graphene-Pt/TiO 2 nanostructure: Efficient photocatalytic system for the treatment of wastewater coming from textile industries
Scientific Reports, Published online: 22 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41598-019-44357-2 Author Correction: The MFS efflux pump EmrKY contributes to the survival of Shigella within macrophages
Scientific Reports, Published online: 22 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41598-019-44277-1 Publisher Correction: Introgression of a synthetic sex ratio distortion system from Anopheles gambiae into Anopheles arabiensis
Scientific Reports, Published online: 22 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41598-019-44275-3 Author Correction: Rapid de novo assembly of the European eel genome from nanopore sequencing reads
Health Studies like these are crucial for public health officials and lawmakers, but future funding for them looks bleak. Over the past few decades, strict emissions and clean fuel rules in California have helped improve air quality, driving down levels of harmful pollutants like nitrogen…
An analysis of 117 cancer drugs approved by the US FDA over a 20-year period finds the drugs took a median of 6.5 years to go from the first clinical trial in adults to the first trial in children.
The moon's far side, as photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) (Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University) The familiar lunar vista humans see when they look up at night reveals a face with dark "seas" and bright craters. The mysterious far side, which wasn't revealed until humans started sending probes and then people in the 1960s, is far more heavily cratered, with few of the da
(Credit: Gudkov Andrey/Shutterstock) Seeing anyone special? Thinking about having kids? When am I going to have some grandchildren? Many moms nag their adult children about the prospect of grandchildren. But bonobo moms take their maternal harassment to another level: They actively participate in helping their sons find mates. Even more surprisingly, the pushy tactic gets results. The sons of over
A new analysis finds that ice melt in Greenland and Antarctica could lead to increases of 2 meters by the end of the century if carbon emissions are not reduced.
Native Americans' use of fire to manage vegetation in what is now the Eastern United States was more profound than previously believed, according to a researcher who determined that forest composition change in the region was caused more by land use than climate change.
Scientists may have uncovered a primary method through which cancer cells exist undetected in an organism and received more than $1 million to investigate the potential for novel therapeutics that target and destroy cells in a specific state of tumor dormancy.
If a genetically or synthetically engineered organism gets into the environment, how will we tell it apart from the millions of naturally occurring microorganisms? Recently, the US government and research scientists have identified a need for new tools that can detect engineered organisms that have been accidentally or intentionally released beyond the lab. Chemical engineers are developing a dete
Research is revealing new insights into how genes impact drug use and addiction through a novel study of susceptibility to the effects of cocaine and methamphetamine in fruit flies.
Superconductors' never-ending flow of electrical current could provide new options for energy storage and superefficient electrical transmission and generation. But the signature zero electrical resistance of superconductors is reached only below a certain critical temperature and is very expensive to achieve. Physicists believe they've found a way to manipulate superthin, waferlike monolayers of
Fasting from dawn to sunset for 30 days increased levels of proteins that play a crucial role in improving insulin resistance and protecting against the risks from a high-fat, high-sugar diet, according to researchers.
In addition to other scientific units, the kilogram also is now defined by a natural constant. This is made possible by single crystals grown from highly enriched silicon-28.
Can the properties of composite materials be predicted? Scientists have mastered this feat and thus can help achieve research objectives faster. This leads, for instance, to better recycling techniques and electrically conductive synthetic materials for the solar industry.
What We're Following Today It's Tuesday, May 21. ‣ The House Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas today to former White House staffers Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson, setting up a possible legal battle with Donald Trump's administration, which has already claimed executive privilege to limit the scope of the committee's investigation. Here's what else we're watching: To Impeach or …?: In a clos
Many ways to approach the Riemann Hypothesis have been proposed during the past 150 years, but none of them have led to conquering the most famous open problem in mathematics. A new article suggests that one of these old approaches is more practical than previously realized.
Technology But in aviation, systems must be redundant and completely reliable. Bosch has developed a universal control unit that can help air taxis know what they're doing as they fly.
The Han Chinese are the world's largest ethnic group, making up 91.6% of modern-day China. Now, in a new study drawing from the largest study to date of three generations of 21,668, unrelated Han Chinese DNA samples, spread out over all provinces, lead author Qing-Peng Kong and his team, of the Kunming Institute of Zoology have shown the importance of how the three main river valleys in China cont
A multicenter trial of minimally invasive laser surgery to treat epileptic seizures reveals approaches for better seizure control with fewer side effects.
Opinion: FCC chair Ajit Pai says the deal is in the public interest. Except it would raise prices, reduce competition and innovation, and harm low-income Americans.
Get 79 hours of training on AWS, Azure and more for $39. Get into cloud computing with this extensive certification training that includes 79 hours of training on AWS, Azure and more for $39.
Emotional Intelligence Amazon researchers think they've found a better way to make emotionally-savvy artificial intelligence. In the ongoing quest to make smart assistant Alexa better understand the humans with whom it interacts , Amazon developed a more effective way to teach Alexa to scan people's voices for signs of emotions, according to VentureBeat . The upgrade suggests that smart assistant
Game of Drones The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has officially funded a program to come up with a brain-machine interface — in the form of a headset designed to let military personnel control anything from "active cyber defense systems" to "swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles" through brain activity alone, according to a press release . The agency is hoping such an interf
A novel Henry Ford Hospital study of mice aboard a Russian spaceflight may raise an intriguing question for the astronauts of tomorrow: Could traveling in space be bad for your joints?Researchers found early signs of cartilage breakdown in the mice, suggesting that the reduced biomechanical forces of spaceflight are at play on the musculoskeletal system.
Neonatal exposure to nicotine alters the reward circuity in the brains of newborn mice, increasing their preference for the drug in later adulthood, report researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine in a published study.
A former researcher at Boston University (BU) committed research misconduct, according to the U.S. Office of Research Integrity (ORI). William W. Cruikshank, formerly of BU's Pulmonary Center, "engaged in research misconduct by knowingly, intentionally, and/or recklessly falsifying and/or fabricating data" in a paper retracted in 2014, in an earlier version of that paper, in a seminar presentation
Researchers wanted to know if CBD can help people who are former opioid users resist relapse. Their double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial suggests CBD can help reduce stress and cravings.
Don't Panic On Tuesday, ridehail startup Lyft announced the addition of an in-app "panic button" that automatically calls 911 when pressed — and it's just one in a series of initiatives designed to improve rider safety. "Lyft is relentlessly focused on finding new ways to further strengthen safety measures on our platform," Mary Winfield, Lyft's Head of Trust & Safety, said in a press release . "
If a genetically or synthetically engineered organism is released into the environment, how will we know? How can we tell it apart from the millions of microorganisms that exist naturally in the wild? That's the challenge being taken on by a multi-institution research team, including Eric Young, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), that is developin
Environmental conditions, lifestyle choices, chemical exposure, and foodborne and airborne pathogens are among the external factors that can cause disease. In contrast, internal genetic factors can be responsible for the onset and progression of diseases ranging from degenerative neurological disorders to some cancers.
A study finds that even short breaks help you solidify new learning. In a way, learning really only happens during your breaks. For the most effective learning sessions, build-in short rest periods. None It's been believed for some time that resting, ideally sleeping, after learning something new helps you lock in your newly acquired knowledge. Now a study finds that even short breaks can be bene
If a genetically or synthetically engineered organism is released into the environment, how will we know? How can we tell it apart from the millions of microorganisms that exist naturally in the wild? That's the challenge being taken on by a multi-institution research team, including Eric Young, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), that is developin
Environmental conditions, lifestyle choices, chemical exposure, and foodborne and airborne pathogens are among the external factors that can cause disease. In contrast, internal genetic factors can be responsible for the onset and progression of diseases ranging from degenerative neurological disorders to some cancers.
Meat production is destroying the planet and jeopardizing our health, but people aren't going to eat less meat unless we give them alternatives that cost the same (or less) and that taste the same (or better). In an eye-opening talk, food innovator and TED Fellow Bruce Friedrich shows the plant- and cell-based products that could soon transform the global meat industry — and your dinner plate.
A team of international scientists—including researchers at the University of St. Andrews, Syracuse University and Royal Holloway, University of London—have demonstrated a new source of food for early life on the planet.
Superconductors' never-ending flow of electrical current could provide new options for energy storage and superefficient electrical transmission and generation. But the signature zero electrical resistance of superconductors is reached only below a certain critical temperature and is very expensive to achieve. Physicists in Serbia believe they've found a way to manipulate superthin, waferlike mono
Space Gas might keep the dwarf planet's subsurface ocean from freezing. How could a subsurface ocean on Pluto, should it really exist, possibly stay unfrozen?
Invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) are now ubiquitous throughout the Caribbean and Western Atlantic on both shallow and deep reefs. While many invasive species disrupt natural ecosystems by spreading disease or competing for food and habitat, lionfish are particularly problematic owing to their voracious appetites and high reproductive capacities.
Native Americans' use of fire to manage vegetation in what is now the Eastern United States was more profound than previously believed, according to a Penn State researcher who determined that forest composition change in the region was caused more by land use than climate change.
Superconductors' never-ending flow of electrical current could provide new options for energy storage and superefficient electrical transmission and generation, to name just a few benefits. But the signature zero electrical resistance of superconductors is reached only below a certain critical temperature, hundreds of degrees Celsius below freezing, and is very expensive to achieve.
Invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) are now ubiquitous throughout the Caribbean and Western Atlantic on both shallow and deep reefs. While many invasive species disrupt natural ecosystems by spreading disease or competing for food and habitat, lionfish are particularly problematic owing to their voracious appetites and high reproductive capacities.
Upcoming missions like NASA's Mars 2020 might already have the technology to find tiny micro-fossils on the Red Planet. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) When most people imagine hunting for fossils, they probably think of finding dinosaur bones laid down in layers of rock. But the vast majority of life – and therefore fossils – across Earth's history has been microorganisms. These tiny lifeforms, either
Back in 2007, Donald Trump sent the newly sworn-in speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, a letter celebrating her ascension. "Nancy—you're the best. Congrats. Donald," the entertainer wrote, Politico reported in 2011 . The correspondence between the two has taken a more combative tone recently, which makes the current moment all the stranger: Pelosi might be the biggest barrier between President Tr
They've never seen animals like hippos and sharks but adults born blind have rich insight into what they look like, a new Johns Hopkins University study found.
A Syracuse University professor has demonstrated that ammonium — an odiferous chemical compound, often used in fertilizer — was a vital source of nitrogen for early life on Earth.
Scientists at VCU Massey Cancer Center may have uncovered a primary method through which cancer cells exist undetected in an organism and received more than $1 million to investigate the potential for novel therapeutics that target and destroy cells in a specific state of tumor dormancy.
This PCR statement on paclitaxel drug-coated balloons (DCB) usein peripheral interventions addresses the controversy raised by the meta-analysis of K.Katsanos, M.D., Ph.D. (Patras University Hospital, Rion, Greece) and colleagues, published in late2018.
Saving a Species Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn is on a mission to ensure an artificial intelligence doesn't destroy humanity. According to a fascinating Popular Science story , the programmer discovered AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky's essay " Staring into the Singularity " in 2007, two years after cashing in his Skype shares following the startup's sale to eBay. Since then, he's dedicated more
A study of 41,641 college students shows that perfectionism is increasing year after year. Along with perfectionist tendencies, researchers noted a symmetrical rise in anxiety, depression, and suicide. The study looks not at parental influence, but at neoliberal policies that have fostered a cult of individualism. None Should we really be surprised by a study entitled, " Perfectionism Is Increasi
Trauma can be experienced in a number of ways, whether it is from an abusive relationship, experiences in combat, or from unprecedented experiences such as an attack, an accident, or a natural disaster. According to the American Psychiatric Association, approximately 1 out of 11 adults in the US develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychiatric condition in which the feelings associate
Native Americans' use of fire to manage vegetation in what is now the Eastern United States was more profound than previously believed, according to a Penn State researcher who determined that forest composition change in the region was caused more by land use than climate change.
Cancer prevention efforts rarely focus on the distinct needs and circumstances of older people, who are at greatest risk for developing cancer, but society can do more to reduce cancer risk and preserve health as adults enter their 60s, 70s, and beyond — according to a new supplement to the journal The Gerontologist from The Gerontological Society of America.
The concept of access regardless of land ownership is called 'Allemansrätt' – 'everyman's right'. The custom dates from mediaeval times, but was only passed as law in parliament in 1974, and enshrined in the Swedish constitution in 1994. Authorities can even force landowners to remove any fence in place which has the sole purpose of obstructing public access to a recreation area. There are sensib
Flight Tests A zero-gravity ropes course is about to help scientists understand how being in outer space alters the human body . This week, European Space Agency (ESA) scientists will direct volunteers to climb around a special airplane capable of simulating both stronger and weaker gravitational pulls, according to a press release . Not only is the study expected to contribute to our medical kno
Last month we wrote about the surprising partnership in Angola, Indiana between a city-redevelopment movement, which has brought new life and activity to a historic small-city downtown, and the adjoining Trine University, which has had an extremely high success rate in placing its graduates in jobs or advanced-degree programs. Over the past two decades, smaller private universities across the cou
The two biggest geopolitical rivals in the world have begun to land blows in the battle to control the world's most important consumer technologies: the next-generation wireless internet and the mobile devices that will use it. Last week, Donald Trump's administration placed Huawei on a blacklist , which makes it difficult for American companies to do business with the Chinese smartphone and netw
Greenhouse Blues Greenhouses gases like carbon dioxide are wreaking havoc on Earth's climate. But in a surprising twist, scientists from Stanford University are arguing that more carbon could keep climate change in check. It may sound counter-intuitive, but the explanation is surprisingly simple: since methane is technically more harmful to the environment, the researchers say we should convert i
If a genetically or synthetically engineered organism gets into the environment, how will we tell it apart from the millions of naturally occurring microorganisms? Recently, the US government and research scientists have identified a need for new tools that can detect engineered organisms that have been accidentally or intentionally released beyond the lab. With scientists from Raytheon and other
An analysis of 117 cancer drugs approved by the US FDA over a 20-year period finds the drugs took a median of 6.5 years to go from the first clinical trial in adults to the first trial in children. 'As a doctor taking care of young cancer patients, this is tremendously frustrating,' says lead researcher Steven DuBois, M.D. 'If I were a parent of a child with cancer, I wouldn't stand for this.'
Diver-led visual surveys at 11 mesophotic reef sites around Bermuda found that high densities of lionfish were associated with both higher abundances of prey fish and higher prey fish biomass. However, the influence of seawater temperature was found to have the strongest effect on lionfish distribution, with higher lionfish densities recorded at sites with lower bottom temperatures. These results
Female firefighters are fighting for their mental health as they perform their grueling duties. A University of Houston psychologist is reporting that one-fifth of female firefighters in a large, urban fire department experience post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and are at higher risk of contemplating suicide than their male colleagues. Until now, little has been known regarding the mental h
A team led by Ivaylo Ivanov of Georgia State University used the 200-petaflop IBM AC922 Summit system, the world's smartest and most powerful supercomputer, to develop an integrative model of the transcription preinitiation complex (PIC), a complex of proteins vital to gene expression.
First unveiled in 2016, Salto the jumping robot stands at little less than a foot, but can vault over three times its height in a single bound. Now, University of California, Berkeley researchers have equipped the robot with a slew of new skills, giving it the ability to bounce in place like a pogo stick and jump through obstacle courses like an agility dog. Salto can even take short jaunts outsid
A new study finds that the low-cost, extreme draining of a reservoir in Oregon aided downstream migration of juvenile chinook salmon—and led to the gradual disappearance of two species of predatory invasive fish in the artificial lake.
A new study finds that the low-cost, extreme draining of a reservoir in Oregon aided downstream migration of juvenile chinook salmon—and led to the gradual disappearance of two species of predatory invasive fish in the artificial lake.
"Race matters," Senator Elizabeth Warren told me in an interview last Wednesday, "and we need to face it." Two days earlier, Warren became the latest Democratic presidential hopeful to make the trek to North Philadelphia with Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, to meet with union members. These town halls have a rhythm: Brief remarks from Weingarten, a short mo
Many ways to approach the Riemann Hypothesis have been proposed during the past 150 years, but none of them have led to conquering the most famous open problem in mathematics. A new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that one of these old approaches is more practical than previously realized.
Potential biomarker for chronic fatigue syndrome Diagnostic device for ME/CFS. More than 2 million Americans are afflicted by myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), a debilitating condition of uncertain etiology thought to be triggered by infectious agents, among other putative factors. However, a diagnostic biomarker continues to elude researchers. Based on…
Although it is possible that warming while temperature maxima decreased (1) contributed to increasing yields, a much more careful analysis is warranted before making potentially harmful statements such as "better weather experienced by US maize accounts for 28% of yield trends since 1981," as Butler et al. (2) state in…
Kovaleski and Baseggio (1) emphasize the importance of genetics and agronomic practices for determining trends in crop yield. Our recent analysis of US maize yields (2) explicitly evaluates how changes in certain agronomic practices and cultivar characteristics contribute to yield increases. We recognize the myriad factors that contribute to yield…
In their opinion piece, Amundson and Biardeau (1) argue that "values system opposition" between farmers and scientists complicates the use of soils as long-term carbon stores. They imply that storing carbon in agricultural soils is an unrealistic climate mitigation strategy. We agree that implementing restorative soil management practices across the…
We thank Loisel et al. (1) for their response to our article (2), which questions the ability of soil C sequestration to be the negative emissions strategy that has been widely advocated (ref. 3 and https://www.4p1000.org/). Loisel et al. acknowledge this but suggest we did not adequately articulate additional benefits….
The most recent report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers provides a sobering analysis of the state of the transportation infrastructure in the United States (1). The findings detail the many repairs needed to strengthen bridges, roadways, railways, and other vital components of public networks. However, consider a…
With modern drug discovery technologies, there are opportunities to discover drugs that are uniquely suited for treatment of specific parasitic diseases and have few of the liabilities of older, historical medicines. In PNAS, Wyllie et al. (1) used state-of-the-art methods to identify a clinical candidate for leishmaniasis and to discover…
The word "superconductor" (SC) evokes the best-known and most-impressive characteristic of these materials, namely their capability to transport electrical current without dissipation. Zero resistance, though, is not the most fundamental property of an SC and by no means has a trivial explanation. The defining phenomenon in an SC is the…
Nature has provided us with many more types of phases than the elementary ones—solid, liquid, and gas—that we learn in school textbooks. Some of them can be rather exotic, such as the one considered in the PNAS article by Robinson et al. (1), which deals with a remarkable but not…
There is not currently a well-established, if any, biological test to diagnose myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The molecular aberrations observed in numerous studies of ME/CFS blood cells offer the opportunity to develop a diagnostic assay from blood samples. Here we developed a nanoelectronics assay designed as an ultrasensitive assay…
Infectious diseases caused by bacterial pathogens remain one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Rapid microbiological analysis is required for prompt treatment of bacterial infections and to facilitate antibiotic stewardship. This study reports an adaptable microfluidic system for rapid pathogen classification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST)…
Interfaces between transition metal oxides are known to exhibit emerging electronic and magnetic properties. Here we report intriguing magnetic phenomena for La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 films on an SrTiO3 (001) substrate (LSMO/STO), where the interface governs the macroscopic properties of the entire monolithic thin film. The interface is characterized on the atomic level…
We develop a method of analysis for testing the marginal value theorem (MVT) in natural settings that does not require an independent definition or mapping of patches. We draw on recent theoretical work on area-restricted search (ARS) that links turning-angle and step-size changes to geographically localized encounter-rates. These models allow…
The highly conserved 5′ untranslated region (5′UTR) of the HIV-1 RNA genome is central to the regulation of virus replication. NMR and biochemical experiments support a model in which the 5′UTR can transition between at least two conformational states. In one state the genome remains a monomer, as the palindromic…
During skeletal muscle regeneration, muscle stem cells (MuSCs) respond to multiple signaling inputs that converge onto mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling pathways. mTOR function is essential for establishment of the differentiation-committed progenitors (early stage of differentiation, marked by the induction of myogenin expression), myotube fusion, and, ultimately,…
Store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE), mediated by the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca2+ sensor stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) and the plasma membrane (PM) channel Orai1, is inhibited during mitosis. STIM1 phosphorylation has been suggested to mediate this inhibition, but it is unclear whether additional pathways are involved. Here, we demonstrate using…
Canonical Wnt signaling is emerging as a major regulator of endocytosis. Wnt treatment markedly increased the endocytosis and degradation in lysosomes of BSA. In this study, we report that in addition to receptor-mediated endocytosis, Wnt also triggers the intake of large amounts of extracellular fluid by macropinocytosis, a nonreceptor-mediated actin-driven…
Immune checkpoint inhibitors such as anti–CTLA-4 antibody are widely accepted therapeutic options for many cancers, but there is still a considerable gap in achieving their full potential. We explored the potential of activating the innate and adaptive immune pathways together to improve tumor reduction and survival outcomes. We treated a…
Paget's disease of bone (PDB) is a chronic skeletal disorder that can affect one or several bones in individuals older than 55 y of age. PDB-like changes have been reported in archaeological remains as old as Roman, although accurate diagnosis and natural history of the disease is lacking. Six skeletons…
In the case of cancer immunotherapy, nanostructures are attractive because they can carry all of the necessary components of a vaccine, including both antigen and adjuvant. Herein, we explore how spherical nucleic acids (SNAs), an emerging class of nanotherapeutic materials, can be used to deliver peptide antigens and nucleic acid…
Successful clinical remission to therapy for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is required for long-term survival to be achieved. Despite trends in improved survival due to better supportive care, up to 40% of patients will have refractory disease, which has a poorly understood biology and carries a dismal prognosis. The development…
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) killed more people in 2017 than any other single infectious agent. This dangerous pathogen is able to withstand stresses imposed by the immune system and tolerate exposure to antibiotics, resulting in persistent infection. The global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic has been exacerbated by the emergence of mutant strains…
Segmented negative-sense (SNS) RNA viruses initiate infection by delivering into cells a suite of genomic RNA segments, each sheathed by the viral nucleocapsid protein and bound by the RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase (RdRP). For the orthomyxovirus influenza and the bunyavirus La Crosse, the 5′ end of the genomic RNA binds as a…
How does the size of a neural circuit influence its learning performance? Larger brains tend to be found in species with higher cognitive function and learning ability. Intuitively, we expect the learning capacity of a neural circuit to grow with the number of neurons and synapses. We show how adding…
There is a growing body of evidence linking maternal overnutrition to obesity and psychopathology that can be conserved across multiple generations. Recently, we demonstrated in a maternal high-fat diet (HFD; MHFD) mouse model that MHFD induced enhanced hedonic behaviors and obesogenic phenotypes that were conserved across three generations via the…
Jasmonates are vital plant hormones that not only act in the stress response to biotic and abiotic influences, such as wounding, pathogen attack, and cold acclimation, but also drive developmental processes in cooperation with other plant hormones. The biogenesis of jasmonates starts in the chloroplast, where several enzymatic steps produce…
Epigenetic markers, such as histone acetylation and DNA methylation, determine chromatin organization. In eukaryotic cells, metabolites from organelles or the cytosol affect epigenetic modifications. However, the relationships between metabolites and epigenetic modifications are not well understood in plants. We found that peroxisomal acyl-CoA oxidase 4 (ACX4), an enzyme in the…
High ambient temperature has multiple potential effects on the organism such as hyperthermia, endotoxemia, and/or systemic inflammation. However, it is often difficult to discriminate between cause and consequence of phenotypic effects, such as the indirect influence of heat stress via reduced food intake. Lactating dairy cows are a particularly sensitive…
The Sino-Tibetan language family is one of the world's largest and most prominent families, spoken by nearly 1.4 billion people. Despite the importance of the Sino-Tibetan languages, their prehistory remains controversial, with ongoing debate about when and where they originated. To shed light on this debate we develop a database…
Skeletal muscles possess the combinational properties of high fatigue resistance (1,000 J/m2), high strength (1 MPa), low Young's modulus (100 kPa), and high water content (70 to 80 wt %), which have not been achieved in synthetic hydrogels. The muscle-like properties are highly desirable for hydrogels' nascent applications in load-bearing…
Numerical algorithms based on rational functions are introduced that solve the Laplace and Helmholtz equations on 2D domains with corners quickly and accurately, despite the corner singularities.
While study in the field of polymer mechanochemistry has yielded mechanophores that perform various chemical reactions in response to mechanical stimuli, there is not yet a triggering method compatible with biological systems. Applications such as using mechanoluminescence to generate localized photon flux in vivo for optogenetics would greatly benefit from…
Close proximity between different catalytic sites is crucial for accelerating or even enabling many important catalytic reactions. Photooxidation and photoreduction in photocatalysis are generally separated from each other, which arises from the hole–electron separation on photocatalyst surface. Here, we show with widely studied photocatalyst Pt/TiO2 as a model, that concentrating…
The endogenous inhibitor of ATP synthase in mitochondria, called IF1, conserves cellular energy when the proton-motive force collapses by inhibiting ATP hydrolysis. Around neutrality, the 84-amino-acid bovine IF1 is thought to self-assemble into active dimers and, under alkaline conditions, into inactive tetramers and higher oligomers. Dimerization is mediated by formation…
Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) plays a central role in triglyceride (TG) metabolism. By catalyzing the hydrolysis of TGs present in TG-rich lipoproteins (TRLs), LPL facilitates TG utilization and regulates circulating TG and TRL concentrations. Until very recently, structural information for LPL was limited to homology models, presumably due to the propensity…
Acetylation of K40 in α-tubulin is the sole posttranslational modification to mark the luminal surface of microtubules. It is still controversial whether its relationship with microtubule stabilization is correlative or causative. We have obtained high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) reconstructions of pure samples of αTAT1-acetylated and SIRT2-deacetylated microtubules to visualize
Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) and NRPS-like enzymes have diverse functions in primary and secondary metabolisms. By using a structure-guided approach, we uncovered the function of a NRPS-like enzyme with unusual domain architecture, catalyzing two sequential two-electron reductions of glycine betaine to choline. Structural analysis based on the homology model suggests…
Sex is determined by diverse mechanisms and master sex-determination genes are highly divergent, even among closely related species. Therefore, it is possible that homologs of master sex-determination genes might have alternative functions in different species. Herein, we focused on Sex-lethal (Sxl), which is the master sex-determination gene in Drosophila melanogaster…
Seismic observations suggest that the uppermost region of Earth's liquid outer core is buoyant, with slower velocities than the bulk outer core. One possible mechanism for the formation of a stably stratified layer is immiscibility in molten iron alloy systems, which has yet to be demonstrated at core pressures. We…
Agents make predictions based on similar past cases, while also learning the relative importance of various attributes in judging similarity. We ask whether the resulting "empirically optimal similarity function" (EOSF) is unique and how easy it is to find it. We show that with many observations and few relevant variables,…
The ability to move fluids at the microscale is at the core of many scientific and technological advancements. Despite its importance, microscale flow control remains highly limited by the use of discrete channels and mechanical valves, and relies on fixed geometries. Here we present an alternative mechanism that leverages localized…
Scalable nanomanufacturing enables the commercialization of nanotechnology, particularly in applications such as nanophotonics, silicon photonics, photovoltaics, and biosensing. Nanoimprinting lithography (NIL) was the first scalable process to introduce 3D nanopatterning of polymeric films. Despite efforts to extend NIL's library of patternable media, imprinting of inorganic semiconductors has be
Forest ecosystems sequester approximately 12% of anthropogenic carbon emissions, and efforts to increase forest carbon uptake are central to climate change mitigation policy (1). Managing forests to store carbon has focused on increasing forested area, decreasing area lost to logging and clearing, and increasing forest carbon density. Warming, drought, and…
Climate warming is expected to mobilize northern permafrost and peat organic carbon (PP-C), yet magnitudes and system specifics of even current releases are poorly constrained. While part of the PP-C will degrade at point of thaw to CO2 and CH4 to directly amplify global warming, another part will enter the…
Local adaptations can determine the potential of populations to respond to environmental changes, yet adaptive genetic variation is commonly ignored in models forecasting species vulnerability and biogeographical shifts under future climate change. Here we integrate genomic and ecological modeling approaches to identify genetic adaptations associated with climate in two cryptic…
Insecticide resistance is a paradigm of microevolution, and insecticides are responsible for the strongest cases of recent selection in the genome of Drosophila melanogaster. Here we use a naïve population and a novel insecticide class to examine the ab initio genetic architecture of a potential selective response. Genome-wide association studies…
The human genetic basis of tuberculosis (TB) has long remained elusive. We recently reported a high level of enrichment in homozygosity for the common TYK2 P1104A variant in a heterogeneous cohort of patients with TB from non-European countries in which TB is endemic. This variant is homozygous in ∼1/600 Europeans…
Circadian clocks generate rhythms in cellular functions, including metabolism, to align biological processes with the 24-hour environment. Disruption of this alignment by shift work alters glucose homeostasis. Glucose homeostasis depends on signaling and allosteric control; however, the molecular mechanisms linking the clock to glucose homeostasis remain largely unknown. We investigated…
Polymorphic HLAs form the primary immune barrier to cell therapy. In addition, innate immune surveillance impacts cell engraftment, yet a strategy to control both, adaptive and innate immunity, is lacking. Here we employed multiplex genome editing to specifically ablate the expression of the highly polymorphic HLA-A/-B/-C and HLA class II…
STAT3 is a transcription factor that plays central roles in various physiological processes, including differentiation of Th cells. Its deregulation results in serious diseases, including inflammatory diseases and cancer. The mechanisms related to how STAT3 activity is regulated remain enigmatic. Here we show that overexpression of FAM64A potentiates IL-6–induced activation…
A major obstacle to curing chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is the intrinsic resistance of CML stem cells (CMLSCs) to the drug imatinib mesylate (IM). Prosurvival genes that are preferentially expressed in CMLSCs compared with normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) represent potential therapeutic targets for selectively eradicating CMLSCs. However, the discovery…
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are emerging as potent mediators of intercellular communication with roles in inflammation and disease. In this study, we examined the role of EVs from blood plasma (pEVs) in an experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis mouse model of central nervous system demyelination. We determined that pEVs induced a spontaneous relapsing−remitting…
To replicate in a new host, lentiviruses must adapt to exploit required host factors and evade species-specific antiviral proteins. Understanding how host protein variation drives lentivirus adaptation allowed us to expand the host range of HIV-1 to pigtail macaques. We have previously derived a viral swarm (in the blood of…
Dynamic coupling of blood supply with energy demand is a natural brain property that requires signaling between synapses and endothelial cells. Our previous work showed that cortical arteriole lumen diameter is regulated by N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) expressed by brain endothelial cells. The purpose of this study was to determine whether…
Patients suffering from cholestasis, the slowing or stoppage of bile flow, commonly report experiencing an intense, chronic itch. Numerous pruritogens are up-regulated in cholestatic patient sera, including bile acids (BAs). Acute injection of BAs results in itch in both mice and humans, and BA-modulating therapy is effective in controlling patient…
Long-duration spaceflight induces detrimental changes in human physiology. Its residual effects and mechanisms remain unclear. We prospectively investigated the changes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volume of the brain ventricular regions in space crew by means of a region of interest analysis on structural brain scans. Cosmonaut MRI data were investigated…
Neuropathic pain afflicts millions of individuals and represents a major health problem for which there is limited effective and safe therapy. Emerging literature links altered sphingolipid metabolism to nociceptive processing. However, the neuropharmacology of sphingolipid signaling in the central nervous system in the context of chronic pain remains largely unexplored…
The quantum Hall effect has recently been generalized from transport of conserved charges to include transport of other approximately conserved-state variables, including spin and valley, via spin- or valley-polarized boundary states with different chiralities. Here, we report a class of quantum Hall effect in Bernal- or ABA-stacked trilayer graphene (TLG),…
The ability of type II superconductors to carry large amounts of current at high magnetic fields is a key requirement for future design innovations in high-field magnets for accelerators and compact fusion reactors, and largely depends on the vortex pinning landscape comprised of material defects. The complex interaction of vortices…
Various single elements form incommensurate crystal structures under pressure, where a zeolite-type "host" sublattice surrounds a "guest" sublattice comprising 1D chains of atoms. On "chain melting," diffraction peaks from the guest sublattice vanish, while those from the host remain. Diffusion of the guest atoms is expected to be confined to…
The mixing of a powder of 10- to 50-μm primary particles into a liquid to form a dispersion with the highest possible solid content is a common industrial operation. Building on recent advances in the rheology of such "granular dispersions," we study a paradigmatic example of such powder incorporation: the…
Natural compounds capable of increasing root depth and branching are desirable tools for enhancing stress tolerance in crops. We devised a sensitized screen to identify natural metabolites capable of regulating root traits in Arabidopsis. β-Cyclocitral, an endogenous root compound, was found to promote cell divisions in root meristems and stimulate…
In this study, we used large-scale representative panel data to disentangle the between-person and within-person relations linking adolescent social media use and well-being. We found that social media use is not, in and of itself, a strong predictor of life satisfaction across the adolescent population. Instead, social media effects are…
Police body-worn cameras (BWCs) have been widely promoted as a technological mechanism to improve policing and the perceived legitimacy of police and legal institutions, yet evidence of their effectiveness is limited. To estimate the effects of BWCs, we conducted a randomized controlled trial involving 2,224 Metropolitan Police Department officers in…
Ecological restoration of forests, meadows, reefs, or other foundational ecosystems during climate change depends on the discovery and use of individuals able to withstand future conditions. For coral reefs, climate-tolerant corals might not remain tolerant in different environments because of widespread environmental adjustment of coral physiology and symbionts. Here, we…
Signaling pathways often share molecular components, tying the activity of one pathway to the functioning of another. In the NFκB signaling system, distinct kinases mediate inflammatory and developmental signaling via RelA and RelB, respectively. Although the substrates of the developmental, so-called noncanonical, pathway are induced by inflammatory/canonical signaling, crosstalk is…
NEUROSCIENCE Correction for "Reciprocal modulation of 5-HT and octopamine regulates pumping via feedforward and feedback circuits in C. elegans," by Hui Liu, Li-Wei Qin, Rong Li, Ce Zhang, Umar Al-Sheikh, and Zheng-Xing Wu, which was first published March 14, 2019; 10.1073/pnas.1819261116 (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 116:7107–7112). The authors note…
A new study finds that the low-cost, extreme draining of a reservoir in Oregon aided downstream migration of juvenile chinook salmon — and led to the gradual disappearance of two species of predatory invasive fish in the artificial lake.
Many ways to approach the Riemann Hypothesis have been proposed during the past 150 years, but none of them have led to conquering the most famous open problem in mathematics. A new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that one of these old approaches is more practical than previously realized.
University of California San Diego School of Medicine research expands and deepens the association between clinical depression and pain, identifying specific regions of the brain that drive, influence and moderate depressive mood and its relationship to perceiving physical pain.
A new study from researchers at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center looks at the correlation between exposure to traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) and childhood anxiety, by looking at the altered neurochemistry in pre-adolescents.
Gadgets A quick guide to getting the goods for cheaper. PopSci is always on the lookout for today's best deals. Our lists will be updated throughout the day, so check back to see if stumbled upon any awesome new discounts.
When Ariana Grande cried on stage recently, following her performance of an emotionally laden song, she later took to Twitter to apologise and thanked her fans for accepting her humanness . Producing emotional tears is a uniquely human thing and yet, for many, our first reaction to crying is to apologise. Public displays of crying and emotional release, especially of emotions deemed as unattracti
By understanding how the brain links the effects of insulin to light, researchers are deciphering how insulin sensitivity fluctuates according to circadian cycles. At the heart of their discovery are neurons of the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus, a part of the brain that masters this balance. These results should also encourage diabetic patients to consider the best time to take insulin to prop
Smith College's annual commencement ceremony begins like any other: Graduating seniors at the women's liberal-arts college are called up one by one to collect their diploma from the president. Perhaps some students exchange a wink with the regalia-clad honorary-degree recipients nearby as they stride across a platform overlooking the dorms they'd for years called home; others may pause to flip th
Nature, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01641-5 Atomic Age would mark the start of the current geologic time unit, if proposal receives final approval.
The George Institute for Global Health at the University of Oxford investigated the medical care received by heart failure patients from the time of diagnosis up to a year later, examining variations over time based on patient characteristics such as age, sex, and socioeconomic status, as well as across outpatient and inpatient settings.
Management of people with heart failure in the UK has shortcomings in screening, continuity of care, and medication doses, which disproportionally impact women and older people, according to a study led by Nathalie Conrad and Kazem Rahimi of The George Institute for Global Health at the University of Oxford, UK, published May 21 in PLOS Medicine.
Delivery of antiretroviral HIV treatment via community-based clubs can reduce retention of patients in care, according to a new research study published in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Colleen Hanrahan of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Md., and colleagues.
Most living things have a suite of genes dedicated to repairing their DNA, limiting the rate at which their genomes change through time. But scientists at Vanderbilt and University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered an ancient lineage of budding yeasts that appears to have accumulated a remarkably high load of mutations due to the unprecedented loss of dozens of genes involved in repairing error
DIY Doggo Stanford University students have built a nimble robot dog — and they're making it easy for others to copy their creation. On Monday, the Stanford Student Robotics club's Extreme Mobility team shared a video featuring the four-legged robot, which they call Doggo. But that wasn't all they shared. They also released all the information a person would need to build a Doggo of their own — a
The United States is delaying some restrictions on U.S. technology sales to Chinese tech powerhouse Huawei in what it calls an effort to ease the blow on Huawei smartphone owners and smaller U.S. telecoms providers that rely on its networking equipment.
Symbiotic algae living inside corals provide those animals with their vibrant color, as well as many of the nutrients they need to survive. That algae, and other microbes within the bodies of corals, have been extensively studied—yet until now, researchers have largely ignored the microbial communities just outside of the coral colonies. A new study from scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Cell boundaries are made of lipids. When cells are severely damaged, these lipids need to be rapidly removed to avoid toxicity and facilitate tissue healing. Researchers have discovered that a small ancient protein, Serum Amyloid A (SAA), plays a previously unknown key role in this vital process.
Most living things have a suite of genes dedicated to repairing their DNA, limiting the rate at which their genomes change through time. But scientists at Vanderbilt and University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered an ancient lineage of budding yeasts that appears to have accumulated a remarkably high load of mutations due to the unprecedented loss of dozens of genes involved in repairing error
Several University of Georgia researchers teamed up to create a statistical method that may allow public health and infectious disease forecasters to better predict disease reemergence, especially for preventable childhood infections such as measles and pertussis.
Most living things have a suite of genes dedicated to repairing their DNA, limiting the rate at which their genomes change through time. But scientists at Vanderbilt and University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered an ancient lineage of budding yeasts that appears to have accumulated a remarkably high load of mutations due to the unprecedented loss of dozens of genes involved in repairing error
Several University of Georgia researchers teamed up to create a statistical method that may allow public health and infectious disease forecasters to better predict disease reemergence, especially for preventable childhood infections such as measles and pertussis.
Doctors know patients do not always take their medications as prescribed. To help them stay on track, new Iowa State University research suggests doctors stop asking patients about missed pills and start asking about their routines.
In solving a scientific mystery, researchers from the University of Houston and the nation's national laboratories also discovered a new avenue for clearing toxins from water, including wastewater produced by hydraulic fracturing.
Researchers have developed a new framework for building deep neural networks via grammar-guided network generators. In experimental testing, the new networks — called AOGNets — have outperformed existing state-of-the-art frameworks, including the widely used ResNet and DenseNet systems, in visual recognition tasks.
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) often turn up a long list of genes that MIGHT help cause the trait of interest. Many algorithms can help scientists prioritize which genes to pursue further, but which one to choose? Borrowing from machine learning, and singling out one chromosome at a time, a new tool called Benchmarker helps scientists evaluate existing algorithms to guide their search for
Ever cracked a joke about old people? It might seem funny, but in a world where the population aged 60 or over is growing faster than all younger age groups, ageism is no laughing matter, says a researcher.
The anti-tumor protein p53 can decide on the life or death of a cell: If it detects damage in the cell's genome, the protein pushes the cell to suicide. New research shows that this inborn cancer prevention only works when special proteins, known as chaperones, allow it to take place.
Researchers have developed a new framework for building deep neural networks via grammar-guided network generators. In experimental testing, the new networks — called AOGNets — have outperformed existing state-of-the-art frameworks, including the widely used ResNet and DenseNet systems, in visual recognition tasks.
Phasey bean, also known as wild bush bean, is an invasive species native to the tropical Americas and the Caribbean. In 2017, the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council (FLEPPC) listed phasey bean under Category II on the invasive species list, indicating that the species has increased in abundance, especially in south Florida and the Keys, but not yet altered Florida plant communities.
Phasey bean, also known as wild bush bean, is an invasive species native to the tropical Americas and the Caribbean. In 2017, the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council (FLEPPC) listed phasey bean under Category II on the invasive species list, indicating that the species has increased in abundance, especially in south Florida and the Keys, but not yet altered Florida plant communities.
As seed prices rise, growers must be increasingly mindful of the density and configuration of cotton in their fields. However, current cotton plant population recommendations aren't always helpful or based on the latest research. Experts often offer guidance, rather than direct answers, and discuss both seeding rates and plant population, which can be confusing. Experts also recommend seeding in e
Methane, a potent greenhouse gas that traps about 30 times more heat than carbon dioxide, is commonly released from rice fields, dairies, landfills, and oil and gas facilities—all of which are plentiful in California. Now the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has been awarded $6 million by the state to find "super emitters" of methane in an effort to quant
As seed prices rise, growers must be increasingly mindful of the density and configuration of cotton in their fields. However, current cotton plant population recommendations aren't always helpful or based on the latest research. Experts often offer guidance, rather than direct answers, and discuss both seeding rates and plant population, which can be confusing. Experts also recommend seeding in e
The new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is getting faster quad-core processors with Turbo Boost speeds up to 4.7GHz, Apple said. The larger 15-inch model, meanwhile, now features faster six- …
A new study has found that court reporters transcribe speakers of African American English significantly below their required level of accuracy. The study "Testifying while black: An experimental study of court reporter accuracy in transcription of African American English," by Taylor Jones (University of Pennsylvania), Jessica Kalbfeld (New York University), Ryan Hancock (Philadelphia Lawyers for
Huge fish fences which are commonly used in tropical seas are causing extensive social, ecological and economic damage and are threatening marine biodiversity and human livelihoods, according to a new study.
Researchers have developed a set of diode-based lidar instruments that could help fill important gaps in meteorological observations and fuel a leap in understanding, modeling and predicting weather and climate. The instruments are particularly well suited for insights on atmospheric dynamics at the mesoscale, a size range equivalent to the area of a small city up to that of a U.S. state.
Huge fish fences which are commonly used in tropical seas are causing extensive social, ecological and economic damage and are threatening marine biodiversity and human livelihoods, according to a new study.
Cell boundaries are made of lipids. When cells are severely damaged, these lipids need to be rapidly removed to avoid toxicity and facilitate tissue healing. Researchers have discovered that a small ancient protein, Serum Amyloid A (SAA), plays a previously unknown key role in this vital process.
Tiger sharks have a reputation for being the "garbage cans of the sea"—they'll eat just about anything, from dolphins and sea turtles to rubber tires. But before these top predators grow to their adult size of 15 feet, young tiger sharks have an even more unusual diet. Scientists have just announced in a new paper in Ecology that baby tiger sharks eat birds. And not seabirds like gulls or pelicans
Tiger sharks have a reputation for being the "garbage cans of the sea"—they'll eat just about anything, from dolphins and sea turtles to rubber tires. But before these top predators grow to their adult size of 15 feet, young tiger sharks have an even more unusual diet. Scientists have just announced in a new paper in Ecology that baby tiger sharks eat birds. And not seabirds like gulls or pelicans
The potential for AI to propel citizen science efforts forward is incredible; from rapidly analyzing your data or identifying insects, to helping you find and join the best project for your research goals. Here are some ongoing citizen science projects and research efforts that involve AI and citizen science to maximize the efforts of participants and scientists. Cheers, The SciStarter Team Intell
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) often turn up a long list of genes that MIGHT help cause the trait of interest. Many algorithms can help scientists prioritize which genes to pursue further, but which one to choose? Borrowing from machine learning, and singling out one chromosome at a time, a new tool called Benchmarker helps scientists evaluate existing algorithms to guide their search for
Mass Destruction In November, scientists from more than 60 nations got together to redefine the kilogram , the base unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI). Previously, a kilogram was defined by the Le Grand K, a platinum-iridium cylinder that had to be replaced every so often to ensure its accuracy. As of Monday, it's now defined by the relationship between energy and mass — and b
Last year, amid concerns for patient safety, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) suspended seven grants to Duke University following "allegations of research misconduct…and…potential issues concerning clinical research irregularities, we now know thanks to a letter from NIH to Duke. As Retraction Watch readers may recall, Duke recently settled a whistleblower case with the … Continue read
Andrea becomes the first subtropical storm for the 2019 season although we are two weeks short of the official start date of June 1. This storm was first spotted on Monday, May 20, 2019 forming over the western Atlantic.
Human history is riddled with people whose limited credentials have not stopped them from successfully hawking miracle cures and religious salvation, but Grigori Rasputin stands out as a talented wellness grifter even now. After arriving in St. Petersburg in the early 1900s, Rasputin ego-massaged his way into the upper echelons of Russian society, charming the rich and influential to access ever-
Chimps have figured out how to use sticks to mash potatoes. The finding could prompt a rethink of the role of culture in our hominin ancestors' use of tools
DNA analysis has revealed that leaves found on an ancient Egyptian mummy came from a domesticated watermelon with sweet, red flesh just like modern varieties
From Doggerland to Beringia, the sea took some of prehistory's most important archaeological sites. All over the world, scientists are beginning to find them again.
Intra-coronary (IC) imaging has been available for over two decades. Technological advances, with the development of new modalities andimprovements in the software to facilitate 'real-time' analysis and decision making, have seen an increased use for both diagnostic assessment and the guidance of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). However, significant regional and institutional differences
Curtis Adams and his colleagues at Texas A&M AgriLife Research reviewed plant population studies published in 2000 or later. They found that yield is optimized at about 15,000 plants per acre (1.1 seed per foot in 40-inch rows), and contrary to popular belief, there is no yield benefit to high populations.
In the fall of 2017, leaves of phasey bean plants in Homestead, Florida, displayed powdery fungal growth, which appeared in the form of white spots on both sides of the leaves. Scientists conducted analysis by sequencing genes of genomic DNA and identified the fungus as Erysiphe fallax, which causes a disease known as powdery mildew. To their knowledge, this is the first report of powdery mildew o
Fasting from dawn to sunset for 30 days increased levels of proteins that play a crucial role in improving insulin resistance and protecting against the risks from a high-fat, high-sugar diet, according to research presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2019. The study, which was based on the fasting practices of Ramadan, a spiritual practice for Muslims, offers a potential new treatment appro
Ali Gooneie simulates on his computer what holds the world together right at its very core: atoms, molecules, molecular chains and bundles—then lumps and fibers, which emerge from these. With his calculations, the Empa researcher can also explain properties we can feel with our fingertips: smooth and rough surfaces, flexible and rigid materials, heat-conductive substances and insulators.
Virtual Reality and the virtual world are taking over more and more areas of our lives. This means that it is really important that virtual worlds are user-friendly and offer a high usability. Up until now, the only way to check this was to conduct manual tests with volunteers. This can be both time-consuming and cost-intensive. Dr. Patrick Harms from the Institute of Computer Science at the Unive
Tiger sharks have a reputation for being the "garbage cans of the sea"they'll eat just about anything, from dolphins and sea turtles to rubber tires. But before these top predators grow to …
Many children growing up today will discover that their digital footprint began in utero and didn't stop there. This phenomenon has come to be known as "sharenting"—when parents share pictures and videos of their kids on social media, creating an indelible trail of digital bread crumbs. "Almost all parents do this to some extent," says Taylor Lorenz, a staff writer at The Atlantic, in a new video
Green Washing The Red Planet may not be red for much longer. "Surviving Mars: Green Planet," the second major expansion on Haemimont Games's 2018 strategy game "Surviving Mars," gives players the tools to turn Mars into a thriving, bustling world — now with the option to terraform the planet with flora, fauna, and breathable air. "It's not just about getting to the planet," said Gabriel Dobrev, C
At current drug prices, testing all persons entering prison for Hepatitis C, treating those who have at least 12 months remaining in their sentence, and linking individuals with less than 12 months in their sentence to care upon their release would result in improved health outcomes. Published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, researchers found that these approaches provide the best value-for-money
A new study looking at student ratings of university teaching performance shows that a substantial gender gap under a 10-point system disappears when the system used only has six points.
Researchers at Tohoku University have developed a new cognitive training game aimed at improving road safety among elderly drivers. The game, 'Cognitive Training for Car Driving' (CTCD), requires only a set top box and a TV, and for users to play it regularly.
When asked to imagine an alien, you might conjure up something with a large head, big eyes, and maybe some tentacles. But this description also fits a creature that lives here on earth, the octopus! Many people are quick to label octopuses as alien and strange, and for good reason. Octopuses look, act and even appear to think so differently from us. Although, by all accounts, you could not get an
Pew Pew! Military technology company Raytheon is teasing plans to build a powerful laser weapon capable of shooting down hypersonic nuclear missiles. A hypersonic missile is able to strike at several times the speed of sound. That's too fast for conventional anti-missile technology, but on Monday Raytheon tweeted out an animated video showing a futuristic laser zapping hypersonic missiles out of
Nature Communications, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41467-019-08620-4 Cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) is involved in the modulation of inflammatory responses. Here, the authors present small-molecule inhibitors of human cGAS, characterize their interaction with the protein, and show that the compounds are active in interferon-producing cells including primary human macrophages.
Nature Communications, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10101-7 Epigenetic control of enhancers may contribute to neurological disease. Here the authors carry out genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation in neurons isolated postmortem from patients with Alzheimer's disease.
Nature Communications, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09569-0 Episodic memory retrieval is hypothesized to rely on hippocampal reinstatement of item-context associations which drives reinstatement of item information in cortex. Here, the authors confirm this sequence of events, using iEEG recordings from the human hippocampus and lateral temporal cortex.
Nature Communications, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10052-z Author Correction: PBX3 is targeted by multiple miRNAs and is essential for liver tumour-initiating cells
Nature Communications, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09804-8 Two challenging theories, accretion versus collision, approach the orogenesis of the North American Cordillera. Here, the authors present new, high-resolution geophysical datasets consistent with a model of collision in response to westward subduction of the North American craton.
Nature Communications, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10111-5 Garden bird feeding is a prolific human activity that provides a reliable foraging opportunity to wild birds. Here the authors use a 40-year data set to show that large-scale restructuring of garden bird communities and growth in urban bird populations can be linked to changing feeding practices.
Nature Communications, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10314-w Publisher Correction: Scaling of domain cascades in stripe and skyrmion phases
Nature Communications, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10107-1 The development of tissue-engineered vascular grafts heavily relies on the availability of large animal models that allow long-term assessment of graft patency. Here Itoh et al. propose a novel model of immunodeficient pigs that allows long-term accommodation of human cell-derived three-dimensional bioprinted vas
Marvel at the median income at Google and Facebook, but remember: Reducing the pay of tens of thousands of people to a single number has its shortcomings.
Nature, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01612-w Youngsters yet to perfect their hunting skills may scavenge birds such as swallows.
A new study has found that court reporters transcribe speakers of African American English significantly below their required level of accuracy. The study 'Testifying while black: An experimental study of court reporter accuracy in transcription of African American English,' by Taylor Jones (University of Pennsylvania), Jessica Kalbfeld (New York University), Ryan Hancock (Philadelphia Lawyers for
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) often turn up a long list of genes that MIGHT help cause the trait of interest. Many algorithms can help scientists prioritize which genes to pursue further, but which one to choose? Borrowing from machine learning, and singling out one chromosome at a time, a new tool called Benchmarker helps scientists evaluate existing algorithms to guide their search for
Several University of Georgia researchers teamed up to create a statistical method that may allow public health and infectious disease forecasters to better predict disease reemergence, especially for preventable childhood infections such as measles and pertussis.
Imaging provides a more precise diagnosis of a heart attack that can be used to individualise treatment. That's the main message of an expert consensus paper published today in European Heart Journal, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), and presented at EuroPCR in Paris, France.
An anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear, an injury of the knee, can be devastating to a young athlete. While the ACL can be reconstructed through surgery, there is a high risk of re-injury in patients under the age of 25. In the largest clinical trial of its kind, researchers at Lawson Health Research Institute have shown that performing an additional surgical procedure called lateral extra-artic
A new type of non-addictive opioid developed by researchers at Tulane University and the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System accelerates recovery time from pain compared to morphine without increasing pain sensitivity, according to a new study published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.
A study published today in PLOS ONE discovered the origin of severely disfiguring masses of cells, called neurofibromas, that gradually develop throughout the skin of patients afflicted with Neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1). The discovery consisted of micro-lesions that contained small pathological clusters of nerve fibers and associated Schwann cells that proliferate to form the bulk of the disfiguring
Earth has a large amount of water and a relatively large moon, which stabilizes Earth's axis. Both are essential for life to develop on our planet. Scientists have now been able to show that water came to Earth with the formation of the moon.
Autonomous Safety Cone German automaker Mercedes-Benz just showed off a concept car with a super power that's straight out of Inspector Gadget: a Roomba-like robotic safety triangle that can deploy itself from the vehicle's rear bumper after a car crash, like a smart traffic cone. The tech could end up saving lives, especially if the vehicle's occupants aren't in a condition to warn oncoming driv
Converting methane into a less potent greenhouse gas would need to be done along with overall emissions reductions — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
In solving a scientific mystery, researchers from the University of Houston and the nation's national laboratories also discovered a new avenue for clearing toxins from water, including wastewater produced by hydraulic fracturing.
Huge fish fences which are commonly used in tropical seas are causing extensive social, ecological and economic damage and are threatening marine biodiversity and human livelihoods, according to a new study.
The anti-tumor protein p53 can decide on the life or death of a cell: If it detects damage in the cell's genome, the protein pushes the cell to suicide. New research conducted at Technical University of Munich (TUM) shows that this inborn cancer prevention only works when special proteins, known as chaperones, allow it to take place.
Symbiotic algae living inside corals provide those animals with their vibrant color, as well as many of the nutrients they need to survive. That algae, and other microbes within the bodies of corals, have been extensively studied — yet until now, researchers have largely ignored the microbial communities just outside of the coral colonies. A new study describes microbes that live just a few centi
Initial results from the AVIATOR 2 international registry are being presented as late-breaking clinical science at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 2019 Scientific Sessions. The AVIATOR 2 is a multicenter prospective observational study of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in 11 international sites. The use
A new study exams the effects of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) guided drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation on patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Results showed that CKD patients treated with IVUS-guided DES implantation had better outcomes compared to those who received the traditional angiography guidance DES implantation at the 12-month mark. The prespecific subgroup analysis of the
Results from a first-in-man proof of concept study found occlusion of the superior vena cava (SVC) rapidly and effectively reduces pressure and volume in the heart. This is the first study targeting the SVC as a therapeutic area for heart failure patients to reduce cardiac filling pressures without reducing cardiac output or systemic blood pressure. Data is being presented as late-breaking clinica
A new study is the first to establish a nationwide treatment protocol that can save lives of patients with cardiogenic shock (CS), a deadly heart attack complication. Findings show 72 percent of patients with CS survived their heart attack when treated with the shock protocol. The study was conducted by The National Cardiogenic Shock Initiative Investigators and is the second iteration of a pilot
Results from an analysis of a large randomized trial shows ProGlide vascular closure device (VCD) was associated with lower rates of vascular complications, lower rates of acute kidney injury (AKI) and shorter hospitalizations after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) when compared with Prostar XL. Both ProGlide and Prostar XL are leading VCDs in interventional cardiology, and the study
Results from the multi-center, randomized PREMIER clinical trial show a new treatment option dramatically lowers rates of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) for heart attack patients following an interventional cardiology procedure called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The study was funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and presented today as late-breaking clinical research at th
Results from a comprehensive analysis demonstrate the effectiveness of measuring a non-hyperemic pressure ratio (NHPR), pressure distal/pressure aortic (Pd/Pa) alongside fractional flow reserve (FFR) post percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). This prospective study validates the diagnostic accuracy of Pd/Pa in identifying residual ischemia post intervention against the reference standard, FFR.
A prospective, multicenter, multinational study examines how fractional flow reserve (FFR) can impact treatment plans and outcomes in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) or acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Results showed more than one-third of the patients' initial treatment plans changed after FFR. The findings from the global registry are scheduled to be presented on Wednesday, May
New study results validate the effectiveness of the Saranas Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System to sense bleeding events during endovascular related procedures by using sensors to detect relative changes in tissue bioimpedance. The study enrolled 60 patients from five sites who underwent an endovascular procedure and detected bleeding in more than half of patients. The results of this study are bei
Tiger sharks have a reputation for being the 'garbage cans of the sea' — they'll eat just about anything, from dolphins and sea turtles to rubber tires. And in a new study, scientists just discovered that baby tiger sharks eat birds. And not seabirds like gulls or pelicans — familiar backyard birds like sparrows, woodpeckers, and doves.In short:Baby sharks, doo doo doo doo doo dooThey eat birds,
An artificial intelligence program called a neural network exceeds radiologists' ability to detect malignancies, but more testing is needed before using the program clinically.
Campaigners are giving evidence to an inquiry into the haemophilia treatments that infected thousands of people with HIV and hepatitis C in the 1970s and 80s
Court Case For the first time, police in the U.K. are going to have to defend their use of facial recognition tech in court. British office worker Ed Bridges is claiming that South Wales Police scanned his face at least twice without his permission. He believes these scans violated his human rights , an assertion he will present during a three-day court hearing that kicked off in Cardiff on Tuesd
Florida may be the butt of many jokes, but its higher education system is second to none. However, the state's PreK-12 education lacks comparatively, giving Massachusetts the top spot for the best education overall. Americans believe their state governments should prioritize education, but much work needs to be done to catch up to other countries. None Let's face it, the other 49 states aren't al
Test Drive Starting Tuesday, autonomous trucks working for the for the U.S. Postal Service will ship mail across the thousand-mile stretch between Dallas and Phoenix. Before this two-week trial period, the postal service commissioned teams of third-party drivers to handle the 22-hour trek in shifts, according to The Wall Street Journal , making this particular journey a prime candidate for automa
Animals Tiger shark barf reveals sparrows and woodpeckers are on the menu. Sharks eat birds. And not just gulls and other seafaring avians, either. They consistently eat common backyard birds like sparrows, doves, and woodpeckers.
Marcus Drymon wasn't expecting a baby shark to barf up a ball of feathers onto his boat. The shark's presence wasn't the weird bit: Drymon and his team of fisheries ecologists regularly assess fish populations along the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, and every year, they'll catch, weigh, tag, and release thousands of sharks. In 2010, they were doing just that for the meter-long tiger shark wh
Nature, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01646-0 Big questions about small life on Earth, the devastating biological consequences of homelessness and how China will protect one-quarter of its land.
Ever cracked a joke about old people? It might seem funny, but in a world where the population aged 60 or over is growing faster than all younger age groups, ageism is no laughing matter, says a University of Alberta researcher.
Researchers have developed a set of diode-based lidar instruments that could help fill important gaps in meteorological observations and fuel a leap in understanding, modeling and predicting weather and climate.
Last year, the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) implemented new requirements for active ventilation at nail salons. Now, a study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researchers finds elevated blood levels of toluene and ethyl acetate, but that better ventilation reduces the levels of these compounds in the air that the workers breathe. Published in the journal Indoor Air
Increasing access to mental health services improves HIV outcomes among vulnerable patients, a new study suggests. Based on their findings, the researchers are urging HIV clinics to expand their mental health services on site.
Researchers have developed a new framework for building deep neural networks via grammar-guided network generators. In experimental testing, the new networks — called AOGNets — have outperformed existing state-of-the-art frameworks, including the widely used ResNet and DenseNet systems, in visual recognition tasks.
Astronomers at the University of Bonn and their colleagues from Moscow have identified an unusual celestial object. It is most likely the product of the fusion of two stars that died a long time ago. After billions of years circling around each other these so-called white dwarfs merged and rose from the dead. In the near future, their lives could finally end — with a huge bang. The findings are n
For a virus, a compact genome neatly packaged in a coat of proteins, survival is all about invading a cell, taking over the protein-making machinery to replicate itself and then spreading to other cells. To do this successfully, it might seem self-evident that the entirety of a virus's small genome would have to be inside an infected cell. A new study recently published in eLife , however, overtu
In Mexicali, Mexico, an uncontrolled epidemic of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, one of the deadliest tickborne diseases in the Americas, has affected more than 1,000 people since 2008.
Icy Dwarfs Japanese scientists say that liquid-water subsurface oceans on Pluto are kept from freezing over thanks to an insulating layer of gas hydrates — a discovery that could mean the distant dwarf planet and other inhospitable habitats could potentially harbor life. "This could mean there are more oceans in the universe than previously thought, making the existence of extraterrestrial life m
In this May 21, 2017 photo, from left to right: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, Saudi King Salman, United States First Lady Melania Trump, and President Donald Trump visit the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Saudi Press Agency via AP) "For clarification," the Church of Satan helpfully tweeted, "this is not a Satanic ritual." So what is it? Someth
His ego knew no bounds … but nor did his operas that feature camels, helicopters and giant pencil sharpeners. As his epic Donnerstag aus Licht comes to the UK for the first time in 34 years, we separate the cult from the culture of Karlheinz Stockhausen Matched in musical-myth-mania perhaps only by Richard Wagner, Karlheinz Stockhausen is the ultimate conundrum for those of us who believe keenly
Cell boundaries are made of lipids. When cells are severely damaged, these lipids need to be rapidly removed to avoid toxicity and facilitate tissue healing. Researchers have discovered that a small ancient protein, Serum Amyloid A (SAA), plays a previously unknown key role in this vital process.
'This study shows that [rare pulmonary side effects of brigatinib] can disappear within days despite continued exposure to the drug,' says D. Ross Camidge, M.D., Ph.D.
In a new study, researchers demonstrate that assessment tools capturing implicit signs of word knowledge among those with severe autism like eye movement can be more accurate than traditional assessments of vocabulary, pointing the way toward better inventions and spurring much needed new research.
Andrea becomes the first subtropical storm for the 2019 season although we are two weeks short of the official start date of June 1, 2019. This storm was first spotted on Monday, May 20, 2019 forming over the western Atlantic.
Can the properties of composite materials be predicted? Empa scientists have mastered this feat and thus can help achieve research objectives faster. This leads, for instance, to better recycling techniques and electrically conductive synthetic materials for the solar industry.
Virtual Reality takes over ever more areas of our lives so it is important that virtual worlds offer high usability. Until now, the only way to check was to conduct tests with volunteers — time-consuming and cost-intensive. Dr Patrick Harms from the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Göttingen developed technology that automatically detects many problems with user-friendliness and
A group of UK and Peruvian researchers have carried out the first detailed study of how rural communities interact with peatlands in the Peruvian Amazon, a landscape that is one of the world's largest stores of carbon.
Results of a new study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP), published by Elsevier, reports that parental age is linked to the risk for the development of neuropsychiatric disorders in children, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD); attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); and Tourette's disorder/chronic
The warming of the Earth by the human-caused greenhouse effect is progressing. But predictions for the next decades still show relatively large uncertainties. A German-Australian research team headed by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel identified the large natural variations in the tropical Pacific region as the key reason. As a conclusion of their study, published in the renowned s
Bruce Booth has some thoughts here on a recent Harvard Business Review piece on startups, but don't let the fact that it's from HBR put you off from taking a look. The original article is focused on innovation in general, but Booth ties it more directly to biopharma culture, and his advice certainly looks sound to me. And it's not just sound for people working in small companies, although they sh
A long term study in the UK suggests that in urban areas, populations of birds that use bird feeders have increased while those of other species remain unchanged
Heart attacks among adults younger than 50 years of age are on the rise. In fact, the proportion of very young people has been increasing, rising by 2 percent each year for the last 10 years, according to a team of investigators a Brigham and Women's Hospital who are focused on studying heart attacks among young adults.
Russian scientists have discovered a previously unknown mechanism of influence of salts migration on the degradation of gigantic intra permafrost gas (methane) hydrate reserves in the Arctic Shelf. The results of their study were published in Geosciences journal.
Scientists have discovered a potential biological reason why women are more likely to develop adrenal disorders, including cancer. According to the researchers, the answer could lie in the increased turnover of hormone-producing cells found in the adrenal glands of females.
The warming of the Earth by the human-caused greenhouse effect is progressing. But predictions for the next decades still show relatively large uncertainties. A German-Australian research team headed by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel identified the large natural variations in the tropical Pacific region as the key reason. As a conclusion of their study, published in the renowned s
This study examined cholesterol levels in children and adolescents in the US from 1999 to 2016. Using nationally representative survey data for 26,000 young people (ages 6 to 19), the authors report favorable changes in cholesterol.
UNLV researchers have discovered a novel method for how two parts of the brain — the hippocampus and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) — work together to retrieve long-term memories.
By understanding how the brain links the effects of insulin to light, researchers (UNIGE) are deciphering how insulin sensitivity fluctuates according to circadian cycles. At the heart of their discovery are neurons of the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus, a part of the brain that masters this balance. These results should also encourage diabetic patients to consider the best time to take insulin
Unexpected weight loss can be the sign of a serious health problem, especially in kidney transplant patients whose body systems are already under duress. But a new study out of Drexel University suggests that even planned and advised weight loss could also be dangerous for kidney transplant candidates if it's not closely monitored.
Improved air quality in the Los Angeles region is linked to roughly 20% fewer new asthma cases in children, according to a landmark USC study that tracked Southern California children over a 20-year period.
Cholesterol levels in US youth have improved from 1999 to 2016, but only half of children and adolescents are in the ideal range and 25% are in the clinically high range, according to a study published in JAMA, led by Amanda Marma Perak, M.D. M.S., cardiologist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.
Results reported in Biomicrofluidics promise a new way to detect prostate cancer through a simple device, which forces cell samples through channels less than 10 microns wide. When prostate cancer cells are forced through, the metastatic cells exhibit 'blebbing,' and the experiments show that highly metastatic prostate cancer cells are more likely to exhibit blebbing than normal cells or even less
African-American patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, are less likely to participate in pulmonary rehabilitation programs than white patients, even when there are programs nearby.
Før den københavnske Metro Cityring kan myndighedsgodkendes, skal tomme metrotog have kørt 'almindelig drift' i tre måneder. Det forløb er knap begyndt.
Life without Google is normal in China. About 1.4 billion Chinese people wake up each day to check WeChat instead of Gmail, navigate with Baidu instead of Google Maps, and watch videos on Youku instead of YouTube.
Environment The Classic civilization could only respond to their changing climate. We can do far more if we choose to. Instead of focusing on the final stages of Classic Maya civilization, society can learn from the practices that enabled it to survive for nearly 700 years as we consider…
Drone aircraft used to be prohibitively expensive, but now you can buy a camera-equipped drone that talks to your smartphone for under $100. The US Department of Homeland Security believes drones might have become a little too accessible. The post US Government Warns of Drones That Send Data to China appeared first on ExtremeTech .
I Broke Breakfast The American conception of breakfast is unnecessarily stringent, Amanda Mull argued last week : "There's no good reason you can't eat a chicken-parmesan hoagie for breakfast." The German beer soup Amanda Mull references as a regular on German breakfast tables after the Protestant Reformation is delicious and highly nutritious, and keeps you going all day. However it takes quite
Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of male cancer deaths worldwide. Deaths from prostate cancer are primarily due to metastasized cancer, in which cancer cells have migrated through the body and begun to grow in other areas. Results reported in Biomicrofluidics promise a new way to detect this deadly disease through a simple, inexpensive device.
Efforts to rein in government use of facial recognition have a big couple of weeks ahead, days after San Francisco approved a first-of-its-kind ban on use of the technology by police and other city agencies.
Here is expert advice on how to avoid and recognize alcohol poisoning—both in yourself and others. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 2,200 alcohol poisoning deaths occur in the United States each year, an average of six people each day. Men account for 76 percent of those deaths. "Alcohol poisoning is more common and life-threatening than people realize," says Diane Cale
Refugees who are more willing to take risks, who tend to reciprocate friendliness, and who are more strongly convinced than others are that they are in control of their lives integrate into society faster. This is the result of a study undertaken on the basis of the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees in Germany, which researchers from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) at the German Institute of Econom
Acquiring images of ultrafast processes is a technology vitally needed for many cutting-edge physical, chemical, and biological studies. The latest research conducted by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Xi'an Jiaotong University has successfully developed a novel compressed ultrafast photographic technique, enabling both an ultra-high frame rate and a large frame number. Having overcome th
This story contains spoilers for the final season of Game of Thrones. For many years, George R. R. Martin has been repeatedly asked the morbid question of what would happen if he were to die before finishing his A Song of Ice and Fire series. Since 1996, when the first entry, A Game of Thrones , was published, Martin has written five novels as well as several spin-off stories. But his progress ha
Life without Google is normal in China. About 1.4 billion Chinese people wake up each day to check WeChat instead of Gmail, navigate with Baidu instead of Google Maps, and watch videos on Youku …
Researchers have devised a cell co-culture platform that reproduces a patient's tumor structure in 3D. The scientists can use it to test several drugs or their combinations at different stages of the tumor's development. They now need only five days to identify which treatment will be most effective for a particular case, and the combination can then be translated for clinical practice.
Research results suggest that the inhibition of phosphorylation of microtubule-binding protein CRMP2 could be a novel approach to the development of treatments for optic neuropathies, such as glaucoma and traumatic injury.
Scientists have found in a small study that 89 percent of dogs who received CBD in the clinical trial had a reduction in the frequency of seizures. Nine dogs were treated with CBD, while seven in a control group were treated with a placebo.
PLUS. Eddy Bøgh Brixen er retsakustiker og har hjulpet politiet med at analysere hundredvis af lydfiler fra skuddramaer og overfald. Og så har han ofte en pose balloner med på arbejde.
Sloths have been on this planet for more than 40 million years. What's the secret to their success? In a hilarious talk, zoologist Lucy Cooke takes us inside the strange life of the world's slowest mammal and shows what we can learn from their ingenious adaptations.
A new study of UK lake sediment records stretching back over several centuries has found that the floods that hit Northern England in 2009 and 2015 ('Storm Desmond'),were the largest in 600 years, pointing to the impact of climate changes on the frequency and magnitude of these extreme events.
In addition to Ampere, Kelvin, Mol and Co., the kilogram also is now defined by a natural constant. In concrete terms, this means that the original kilogram, which has been the measure of all things for 130 years, has now served its purpose in Paris. This is made possible by the single crystals grown from the highly enriched isotopic silicon-28 at the Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung (IKZ).
An increased willingness to take risks, reciprocating friendliness, and a conviction that they are in control of their own lives lead to refugees gaining a foothold in Germany faster.
Researchers (UNIGE) have devised a cell co-culture platform that reproduces a patient's tumor structure in 3D. The scientists can use it to test several drugs or their combinations at different stages of the tumor's development. They now need only five days to identify which treatment will be most effective for a particular case, and the combination can then be translated for clinical practice.
New sensors take inspiration from spiders, bats, birds, and other animals and their real-life "spidey senses." If drones and self-driving cars had the tingling spidey senses of Spider-Man, they might actually detect and avoid objects better, says Andres Arrieta, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, because they would process sensory information faster. Better sen
People who sleep fewer than 7 hours per night have lower levels of gene-regulating molecules, or microRNAs, which help dampen down inflammation in cells and support vascular health.
When thinking about ways to end global hunger, many scholars focus too narrowly on increasing crop yields while overlooking other critical aspects of the food system.
A huge wave crashes down on the Cornelia Marie crew during a rough winter storm. Stream Full Episodes of Deadliest Catch: https://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/deadliest-catch/ Subscribe to Discovery: http://bit.ly/SubscribeDiscovery Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeadliestCatch https://www.facebook.com/Discovery Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeadliestCatch https://twitter
Det er endnu for tidligt at sige, hvor hårdt og hvilke afdelinger på Aarhus Universitetshospital der vil blive ramt af sparekrav. Men regionspolitikere frygter for hospitalets fremtid efter afgørende møde i dag.
Nature, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01631-7 It's tempting to try to attend sessions morning, noon and night, network like crazy during every 'spare' minute and drink vats of coffee to stay alert. Paris H. Grey has more realistic suggestions to get maximum value from any conference.
Kaeley Van Zoren recently faced a line of questioning about her religious beliefs over dinner. Her brother, Chris, and his wife, Tara, had just welcomed their first child in May and wanted to name Kaeley godmother. But first, they needed to get a few things straight: "They introed it by asking me about how I felt about religion and my thoughts on Catholicism," Kaeley says. "I told them I'm not su
Regular use of glucosamine supplements may be linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease events, according to a new study. The findings suggest that glucosamine could help prevent coronary heart disease and stroke, but further clinical trials will have to test the theory, says lead author Lu Qi, director of the Tulane University Obesity Research Center. "Our study for the first time provide
Medical mistrust is a significant barrier to blood donation among minorities, research finds. Better community education and communication are critical for increasing levels of blood donation among minorities, according to the new study. Nursing associate professor Regena Spratling in the Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions at Georgia State University and her colleagues in
Cryptococcal meningitis causes about one in ten HIV-related deaths, according to a study of autopsies performed in Mozambique and Brazil and coordinated by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by 'la Caixa'.
Research results from a recent study led by a Waseda University-led team suggest that the inhibition of phosphorylation of microtubule-binding protein CRMP2 could be a novel approach to the development of treatments for optic neuropathies, such as glaucoma and traumatic injury.
Acquiring images of ultrafast processes is a technology vitally needed for many cutting-edge physical, chemical, and biological studies. The latest research conducted by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Xi'an Jiaotong University has successfully developed a novel compressed ultrafast photographic technique, enabling both an ultra-high frame rate and a large frame number. Having overcome th
Most people who smoke e-cigarettes want to quit and many have tried to reduce their use, according to Rutgers researchers. The study, published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, is the first to examine e-cigarette users' past attempts and current intentions to quit e-cigarettes in a representative sample of adult e-cigarette users in the United States.
The Earth is unique in our solar system: It is the only terrestrial planet with a large amount of water and a relatively large moon, which stabilizes the Earth's axis. Both were essential for Earth to develop life. Planetologists at the University of Münster (Germany) have now been able to show, for the first time, that water came to Earth with the formation of the Moon some 4.4 billion years ago.
This is not your typical event. This is not a keynote presentation in a stuffy hotel conference room. Your clouds can 2019 is a daylong, immersive journey through the HQs of some of the most forward-thinking, data-driven innovators in the world. On June 5th 2019, hit the road with Futurism and IBM as we guide you through a series of planned visits and conversations geared to inspire and discover,
A week after Sonos added long-promised Google Assistant integration to a pair of speakers, Bose is following suit. The companys bringing the popular smart home AI to a trio of existing models, …
Adobe has brought Premiere Rush CC to Android after debuting the video editing app on iOS, macOS and Windows last year. However, you'll need a recent Android device to run the …
Bangladesh has banned fishing in the Bay of Bengal for the next two months in an effort to replenish stocks, a minister said Tuesday, triggering protests by hundreds of fishermen.
Bangladesh has banned fishing in the Bay of Bengal for the next two months in an effort to replenish stocks, a minister said Tuesday, triggering protests by hundreds of fishermen.
The US Postal Service said Tuesday it would begin its first tests of self-driving trucks to deliver mail between two distribution centers in the southwest.
Promising and exciting. Those are the words used by Dr. Stephanie McGrath to describe findings from a pilot study to assess the use of cannabidiol, or CBD, for dogs with epilepsy.
Promising and exciting. Those are the words used by Dr. Stephanie McGrath to describe findings from a pilot study to assess the use of cannabidiol, or CBD, for dogs with epilepsy.
As a human you instinctively know that a leopard is closer to a cat than a motorbike, but the way we train most AI makes them oblivious to these kinds of relations. Building the concept of similarity into our algorithms could make them far more capable, writes the author of a new paper in Science Robotics . Convolutional neural networks have revolutionized the field of computer vision to the poin
Video games are often seen as immersive fantasies, which offer a means of escape from the humdrum chores and duties of everyday life. Games studies scholars speak of players entering a "magic circle", forged by programmers—an act apart", with its own unique rules and rituals. But this way of thinking about games—as simple escapes, stress releases and magic circle worlds—has started to lose its val
A group of UK and Peruvian researchers have carried out the first detailed study of how rural communities interact with peatlands in the Peruvian Amazon, a landscape that is one of the world's largest stores of carbon.
In the future, quantum physics could become the guarantor of secure information technology. To achieve this, individual particles of light—photons—are used for secure transmission of data. Findings by physicists from the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research could play a key role. The researchers accidentally came across a light source that generates a photon pair from the energy of an ele
A new book by Professor Stephanie Barrientos consolidates more than 10 years of research on contemporary working conditions and gender discrimination in a new book Gender and Work in global value chains: Capturing the Gains?
Rabies spreads by making dogs aggressive. Toxoplasma gondii parasites are a bit more subtle. Microbiologist Bill Sullivan from Indiana University in the US explains.
As the only terrestrial planet, the Earth has a large amount of water and a relatively large moon, which stabilizes the Earth's axis. Both are essential for life to develop on Earth. Planetologists from the University of Münster (Germany) have now been able to show for the first time that water came to Earth with the formation of the moon. The results are published in the current issue of the jour
Rhythmic waves of brain activity cause us to see or not see complex images that flash before our eyes. An image can become practically invisible if it flashes before our eyes at the same time as a low point of those brain waves. We can reset that brain wave rhythm with a simple voluntary action, like choosing to push a button.
Chemistry Professor Ralf I. Kaiser and HIGP's Jeffrey Gillis-Davis designed the experiments to test the synergy between hydrogen protons from solar wind, lunar minerals, and micrometeorite impacts.
In the dizzying swirl of health-related websites, social media and smartphone apps, finding a reliable source of health information can be a challenge. A group of researchers from the Johns Hopkins University schools of medicine and public health, as well as the university's Applied Physics Laboratory, have mapped out a course to navigate that complicated landscape.
DIY Electricity not necessary. Believe it or not, you don't need a fridge to keep food cold. Just gather some ceramic pots, sand, and water, and you've got a portable, non-electric mini-fridge with a…
Could Fundamental Constants Be Neither Fundamental nor Constant? A new paper proposes two experiments to test if the steadiest components in physics are really kind of shifty after all. wavy-light.jpg Rights information: Public domain Physics Tuesday, May 21, 2019 – 09:30 Yuen Yiu, Staff Writer (Inside Science) — Is it possible for light to travel faster or slower in the distant corners of our u
A new study of UK lake sediment records stretching back over several centuries has found that the floods that hit Northern England in 2009 and 2015 (Storm Desmond), were the largest in 600 years—pointing to the impact of climate change on the frequency and magnitude of extreme events.
People who sleep fewer than 7 hours per night have lower levels of gene-regulating molecules, or microRNAs, which help dampen down inflammation in cells and support vascular health.
Dr. Stephanie McGrath found in a small study that 89 percent of dogs who received CBD in the clinical trial had a reduction in the frequency of seizures. Nine dogs were treated with CBD, while seven in a control group were treated with a placebo.
Dating is never easy, for any of us. Scenarios play over in our heads, classic questions and worries bombard us. Will she like me? Does he share the same interests? Will my mum be watching us have sex? Thankfully, that last question isn't actually one us humans have to deal with. But new research shows that for bonobos, sex really is often a family affair. What's more, rather than being an embarra
Dating is never easy, for any of us. Scenarios play over in our heads, classic questions and worries bombard us. Will she like me? Does he share the same interests? Will my mum be watching us have sex? Thankfully, that last question isn't actually one us humans have to deal with. But new research shows that for bonobos, sex really is often a family affair. What's more, rather than being an embarra
Low-speed electric vehicles could reduce China's demand for gasoline and, in turn, impact global oil prices, according to a new issue brief by an expert in the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Mer än vart tionde barn i tonåren uppger att de någon gång blivit slagna i hemmet. Länge saknades det en specialiserad behandlingsmetod för våldsutsatta barn, men sedan 2007 har behandlingen KIBB (Kognitiv Integrerad Behandling vid Barnmisshandel) börjat användas i Sverige. Metoden fokuserar på barnets berättelse och våldets konsekvenser, och leder till att våldet minskar och relationen mellan ba
Researchers have for the first time detected chemical traces of red pigment in an ancient fossil — an exceptionally well-preserved mouse, not unlike today's field mice, that roamed the fields of what is now the German village of Willershausen around 3 million years ago.
When thinking about ways to end global hunger, many scholars focus too narrowly on increasing crop yields while overlooking other critical aspects of the food system.
Three-dimensional (3-D) printing or additive manufacture (AM) is a popular technique that has presently attracted tremendous attention as a promising method to revolutionize design and manufacture. Researchers have expanded its applications from rapid prototyping to tissue engineering, electronic devices, soft robotics and high-performance metamaterials, but most 3-D printing techniques only use a
A team of researchers at Utrecht University, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the University of Konstanz has recently proposed a new method to determine magnon coherence in solid-state devices. Their study, outlined in a paper published in Physical Review Letters , shows that cross-correlations of pure spin currents injected by a ferromagnet into two metal leads normalized by
The breathtaking fictional landscapes of "Game of Thrones" had a tumultuous past that involved volcanic eruptions, mountain-building and entire continents splitting apart, scientists say.
Nature, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01569-w Nature asked nine leading Europeans to pick their top priority for science at this pivotal point. Love, money, and trust got most votes.
Frem mod valget 5. juni bringer Dagens Medicin interviews med de seks læger, der stiller op til Folketinget. Gynækologisk onkolog Marianne Mulle Jensen er radikal kandidat i Nordjylland.
Car Talk On Monday, a team from the University of Cambridge unveiled a video featuring a fleet of mini robot cars capable of autonomously switching lanes while navigating a two-lane track. The cars had a special ability: they could communicate with each other via WiFi. According to the experiments, that capability dramatically improved traffic flow — evidence that we'll need to teach autonomous v
Engineers are building a portable spectrometer that can attach to a small satellite, fly on an airplane or a drone, or someday even be handheld. Bioengineer Tomasz Tkaczyk and his colleagues at Rice University's Brown School of Engineering and Wiess School of Natural Sciences report the first results from the project, which aims to develop a small, sophisticated spectrometer with unusual versatil
Some patients with atrial fibrillation or A-Fib need an ablation, which requires a catheter and an advanced 3D map of the heart. Researchers have developed the first algorithm that guides catheter movements and accurately detects A-Fib targets without 3D maps of the heart. In human simulations, this technique stops the catheter at the right target and identifies the source type with a 95.25% succe
When thinking about ways to end global hunger, many scholars focus too narrowly on increasing crop yields while overlooking other critical aspects of the food system.
A new study advocates for exercise as the primary method of treatment and intervention, rather than psychotropic medications, within inpatient psychiatric facilities.
Researchers have unveiled a new strategy to keep proteins intact and functional in synthetic biomaterials for tissue engineering. Their approach modifies proteins at a specific point so that they can be chemically tethered to the scaffold using light. Since the tether can also be cut by laser light, this method can create evolving patterns of signal proteins throughout a biomaterial scaffold to gr
People who tried a new mindfulness app reported smoking fewer cigarettes a day, according to a new study. Further, the researchers say the people who most reduced the number of cigarettes they smoked also showed decreased reactivity to smoking-related images in a part of the brain known to activate when someone experiences a craving. For a randomized controlled trial comparing smoking-cessation a
The US Postal Service (USPS) and its mail delivery operations are set to gain a helping hand courtesy of self-driving startup TuSimple, with the agency enlisting the company's autonomous …
Er forskningspolitikken druknet i diskussioner om indvandring og pensionsalder? Så gense Ingeniørens valgmøde, hvor seks toppolitikere mandag debatterede forskningspolitik med repræsentanter fra forskningssektoren. Der tegnede sig bred enighed om en national forskningsstrategi og om et øget fokus på teknisk forskning.
From JFK's real motives to the Soviets' secret plot to land on the Moon at the same time, a new behind-the-scenes view of an unlikely triumph 50 years ago
Astronomers at the University of Bonn and their colleagues from Moscow have identified an unusual celestial object. It is most likely the product of the fusion of two stars that died a long time ago. After billions of years circling around each other these so-called white dwarfs merged and rose from the dead. In the near future, their lives could finally end—with a huge bang. The researchers are n
A team of researchers at Justus Liebig University Giessen has found a way to dramatically improve the images of topologically complex 3-D molecules created using atomic force microscopy (AFM). In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes the simple adjustment they made to the procedure that greatly improved the resolution of AFM.
Nature, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01568-x Proactive, cosmopolitan and open, the European Union is filling a leadership void on the global stage, argue James Wilsdon and Sarah de Rijcke.
Nature, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01587-8 How Nature reported early heart-transplant operations in 1969, and a proposed use for prickly pears in 1919.
Hydrogenases are enzymes that catalyze hydrogen activation. There are three types of hydrogenases in nature, all containing iron and some of them nickel. But in synthetic chemistry there is a whole host of metals that can activate molecular hydrogen and catalyze hydrogenation reactions.
The coastal waters of the Red Sea have enough resources to support bacterial growth, but predation by protistan grazers limits the population, according to new research from KAUST. Since bacteria are vital players in the marine food web, determining the factors that affect their growth and abundance is critical to understanding marine ecosystems and how they will respond to climate change.
A team of researchers is working to characterize the mysterious protein known as the Von Willebrand Factor (vWF). In a recent article, they advance experimental data for the shear-induced extensional response of vWF, using a microfluidic device and fluorescence microscopy.
Researchers have unveiled a new strategy to keep proteins intact and functional in synthetic biomaterials for tissue engineering. Their approach modifies proteins at a specific point so that they can be chemically tethered to the scaffold using light. Since the tether can also be cut by laser light, this method can create evolving patterns of signal proteins throughout a biomaterial scaffold to gr
People who experience anxiety symptoms might be helped by taking steps to regulate the microorganisms in their gut using probiotic and non-probiotic food and supplements, suggests a review of studies.
Hunter-gatherers in the Philippines who adopt farming work around ten hours a week longer than their forager neighbors, a new study suggests, complicating the idea that agriculture represents progress. The research also shows that a shift to agriculture impacts most on the lives of women.
I situationer när du som idrottare ska prestera kan det dyka upp känslor inombords i form av nervositet, negativa tankar och ångest. Hur ska man hantera detta för att göra ett så bra resultat som möjligt? För att kunna prestera så bra som möjligt under stor press och nervositet är traditionell mental träning utformad för att trycka bort negativa känslor och bara försöka tänka positivt. I en ny st
The coastal waters of the Red Sea have enough resources to support bacterial growth, but predation by protistan grazers limits the population, according to new research from KAUST. Since bacteria are vital players in the marine food web, determining the factors that affect their growth and abundance is critical to understanding marine ecosystems and how they will respond to climate change.
Researchers at the University of Washington unveiled a new strategy to keep proteins intact and functional in synthetic biomaterials for tissue engineering. Their approach modifies proteins at a specific point so that they can be chemically tethered to the scaffold using light. Since the tether can also be cut by laser light, this method can create evolving patterns of signal proteins throughout a
Global sea levels could rise by two metres (6.5 feet) and displace tens of millions of people by the end of the century, according to new projections that double the UN's benchmark estimates.
The Treadwell is a simple, inexpensive bike for getting around. And it has a sensor built into the wheel that lets you log (and study) all of your rides.
Researchers have identified how the human brain is able to determine the properties of a particular object using purely statistical information: a result which suggests there is an 'inner pickpocket' in all of us.
Cancerous tumors can be made to bioluminesce, like fireflies, according to the level of their glucose uptake, giving rise to a technique for quantifying metabolite absorption. The firefly imaging technique for sugar can be translated from cancer to many other metabolic diseases.
NASA astronaut Anne McClain performs the first series of tests of an Astrobee robot, Bumble, during a hardware checkout. To her right is the docking station that was installed in the Kibo module on the International Space Station on Feb. 15. Bumble, and another robot named Honey, launched to the space station on Apr. 17, aboard Northrop Grumman's eleventh commercial resupply services mission from
Curtin University researchers are part of an international project that will use a huge underwater neutrino telescope at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea to help explain some of the most powerful and mysterious events in the universe.
For the first time, a cross-disciplinary study has shown chemical, physical, and material evidence for water formation on the moon. Two teams from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa collaborated on the project: physical chemists at the UH Mānoa Department of Chemistry's W.M. Keck Research Laboratory in Astrochemistry and planetary scientists at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (
Air pollution is a global environmental health problem, especially for those living in urban areas. Not only does it negatively impact our ecosystems, it considerably affects our health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 8 million premature deaths per year are linked to air pollution, more than double of previous estimates.
The ubiquity of electronic devices makes it essential to use encryption and anti-counterfeiting tools to protect the privacy and security of users. With the growing expansion of the Internet of Things, protection against attacks that violate the authenticity of products is increasingly necessary. Traditionally, message protection has been based on different systems: passwords, digital signatures o
Astronomers have discovered a so-called proto-disc around the proto-brown dwarf Mayrit. With this discovery, they were able to confirm for the first time that this celestial body was formed in the same way as sun-like stars.
On May 5, 2019, an Aeroflot airliner crashed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, killing 41 of the 73 passengers. The plane, a Sukhoi Superjet-100, was bound for the northern city of Murmansk, but turned around after reportedly being struck lightning and losing their autopilot and radio-communications channel. Back in Moscow the aircraft landed hard and burst into flames, and more than half the pass
Antarctica is further from civilisation than any other place on Earth. The Greenland ice sheet is closer to home but around one tenth the size of its southern sibling. Together, these two ice masses hold enough frozen water to raise global mean sea level by 65 metres if they were to suddenly melt. But how likely is this to happen?
PLUS. Med en kombination af bakterier, sollys og et særligt proceskammer er det lykkedes amerikanske forskere at producere ren brint fra spildevand. Ifølge forskerne bag er processen energineutral og eliminerer behovet for at bruge fossile brændsler til brintproduktion.
A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in France has found that amyloid fibrils lit with near-infrared radiation emit a dim, near-infrared signal. In their paper published in the journal Nature Photonics, the group describes their study of amyloid fibrils and plaques in mice and humans and what they found.
Nature, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01573-0 Understanding why living on the street seems to cause rapid aging could help homeless people — and governments.
Forskare vid Karolinska institutet har utvecklat en stamcellsbaserad modell för att studera nervcellers motståndskraft och sårbarhet vid nervsjukdomen ALS. Resultaten som publiceras i tidskriften Stem Cell Reports , kan bidra till att identifiera nya genetiska mål för behandling som skyddar känsliga nervceller. Amyotrofisk lateral skleros, ALS, är en dödlig sjukdom utan effektiv behandling eller
Utvecklingen av smarta och funktionella e-textilier (där elektronik har integrerats i textilierna), har gått i en rasande fart, inte minst när det gäller önskade egenskaper som lätt vikt, flexibilitet, elasticitet och möjligheten att integrera dem i plagg. Användarvänlighet har varit prio ett, samtidigt har utvecklingen av komforten, det vill säga hur dessa textilier faktiskt känns mot huden, hit
Barn med autism har svårigheter med kommunikation och samspel, och dessutom har många en sen språkutveckling. Samtidigt är det känt att språkförmågan hos barn med autism varierar rejält, allt ifrån de som inte talar alls till de som har ett för åldern välutvecklat språk. – Det är oftast språket som föräldrarna oroar sig först för, säger Emilia Carlsson, disputerad vid Sahlgrenska akademin, Götebo
The English language is full of phrases—from "bogged down" to "feet of clay" and "dirt cheap"—that reflect how we appreciate the diversity of soil, but value it little.
A team of researchers affiliated with institutions in Austria, the U.S. and Switzerland has found evidence of negative emotional contagion in lab ravens. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their experiments with lab ravens and what they learned.
DARPA has awarded funding to six organizations to support the Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) program, first announced in March 2018. Battelle Memorial Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Rice University, and Teledyne Scientific are leading multidisciplinary teams to develop high-resolution,
A new framework to enable retailers to better position their products to consumers has been devised by Tamer Boyaci and Frank Huettner at ESMT Berlin together with Yalcin Akcay from Melbourne Business School. According to the researchers, consumers often lack the full information when making purchasing decisions on variety of products, from day-to-day items to luxuries such as holidays, resulting
Low frequency noise (500 Hertz and lower), which could stem from various sources such as construction machineries and aircrafts, is a form of environmental noise problem in urban environments. Such noise transmits over long distances and cause disturbance to wide area. It is also known to trigger a number of negative physiological reactions such as changes to blood pressure, vertigo and breathing
Scientists have identified a new mechanism that accelerates aging in the brain and gives rise to the most devastating biological features of Alzheimer's disease. The findings also unify three long-standing theories behind the disease's origins into one cohesive narrative that explains how healthy cells become sick and gives scientists new avenues for screening compounds designed to slow or stop di
Immune cells prioritize the clearance of dead cells overriding their normal migration to sites of injury. A research paves the way for new therapies to manipulate how white blood cells get to and are kept at sites of injuries during healing.
A new study has found that diets high in soy foods are associated with a decreased risk of osteoporotic bone fractures in pre-menopausal breast cancer survivors.
A team of researchers affiliated with institutions in Austria, the U.S. and Switzerland has found evidence of negative emotional contagion in lab ravens. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their experiments with lab ravens and what they learned.
Thousands of sensors deployed across Newcastle-Gateshead, Sheffield and Bristol are providing us with a unique understanding of how our cities work and the impact climate change might have on them.
As well as causing significant harm to human health, air pollution also stunts the growth of trees, one of the elements that can attenuate this typically urban environmental problem.
Sheep living in the remote outpost of St Kilda are more susceptible to infection if they have recently given birth to lambs, according to new research involving the University of Stirling.
Sheep living in the remote outpost of St Kilda are more susceptible to infection if they have recently given birth to lambs, according to new research involving the University of Stirling.
Environment Converting methane to carbon dioxide could mitigate climate change. In a surprising and counterintuitive proposal published Monday in the journal Nature Sustainability, Stanford University scientists argue that we can limit warming by…
A multicenter trial of minimally invasive laser surgery to treat epileptic seizures reveals approaches for better seizure control with fewer side effects.
A team of Lehigh University researchers is working to characterize the mysterious protein known as the Von Willebrand Factor (vWF). In a recent paper published in Biophysical Journal, they advance experimental data for the shear-induced extensional response of vWF, using a microfluidic device and fluorescence microscopy.
When faced with difficult terrain, off-road vehicles can switch from two- to four-wheel drive to keep moving forward. Similarly, cell migration can be driven either by protrusion-directed crawling, or by contractile pulling forces, but how the cell switches between these two methods remains a mystery. A collaborative study led by MBI doctoral student Tianchi Chen and Professor Benoit Ladoux of the
Imagine you're a 14-year-old girl on the train on your way home from school, when out of nowhere a "dick pic" appears on your phone. Surprise! You've been cyber flashed.
Nature, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01570-3 Language, cultural differences and expense are common downsides, but there are opportunities to learn new techniques, work in diverse settings and polish confidence.
In the year 1289, King Philip IV of France was worried about fish. "Each and every watershed of our realm," he proclaimed, "large and small, yields nothing due to the evil of fishers." Environmental change, expanding cities, and overfishing had sent aquatic populations into a tailspin. Because they were scarce, the fish, King Philip noted, "are much more costly than they used to be, which results
An international team of researchers has brought a new generation of solar cells a step closer to commercialisation, by showing how sunlight can trigger a 'healing process' in the cells to improve their efficiency and stability.
Scales aren't changing and the weather won't be noticeably different, but on May 20 the definitions that underlie what your scale and thermometer report—along with standard definitions used in chemistry and electronics—are undergoing a major overhaul. That's the date that a more-than-centuries-long process of standardizing measurements reaches its conclusion.
Experts argue that more than 85 percent of the solar system should be left untouched so that we can sustainably move off-world — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Experts argue that more than 85 percent of the solar system should be left untouched so that we can sustainably move off-world — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Jordan Adlard Rogers inherits 1,536-acre Cornwall estate after proving owner was his father A former care worker has inherited a £50m country estate after a DNA test proved he was the son of its deceased owner. Jordan Adlard Rogers, 31, found out his father was the aristocrat Charles Rogers after his death in 2018 and has now moved into the 1,536-acre Penrose estate in Cornwall, which his family
Additional sources are confirming that ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, is in the process of developing a paid music streaming service, according to Bloomberg. There was …
Putting their own twist on robots that amble through complicated landscapes, the Stanford Student Robotics club's Extreme Mobility team has developed a four-legged robot that is not only capable …
The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is suing Walmart for their marketing of homeopathic products, similar to a prior lawsuit against CVS. Their claim is that Walmart is using deceptive practices to sell homeopathy, implying that such products are equivalent to science-based remedies. While I applaud their effort, you can tell by reading the reporting that it is ultimately an exercise in futility. First
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific concepts During our visits to Mars , what, if anything, are we doing to prevent our bacteria, viruses and other earthly life escaping from our vehicles and contaminating the pristine environment of the red planet? Ejay Continue reading…
Linda Arnell är doktorand vid Institutionen för socialt arbete och Umeå centrum för genusstudier (UCGS) vid Umeå universitet. I sin doktorsavhandling i socialt arbete fokuserar hon på hur tjejers våld förstås och förklaras. Analyserna tar avstamp i tjejers berättelser om eget utagerande och våld, men också i proffessionellas uttalanden om tjejers våld utifrån sina yrkesmässiga erfarenheter inom o
A new study in Psychopharmacology shows MDMA has a 50 percent efficacy rate for PTSD victims. A series of six controlled, double-blind studies moves research to Phase 3 trials. Combined with psychotherapy, MDMA could be a potent force in treating one of the our most challenging problems. None Over 8 percent of Americans will suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some point in their
Builders of genetic circuits face the same quandary as builders of digital circuits: testing their designs. Yet unlike bioengineers, engineers have a simple and universal testing tool—the multimeter—that they can touch to their circuit to measure its performance. "There's nothing remotely like this in bio," says Peter Carr, a synthetic biologist in MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Bioengineering Systems a
Builders of genetic circuits face the same quandary as builders of digital circuits: testing their designs. Yet unlike bioengineers, engineers have a simple and universal testing tool—the multimeter—that they can touch to their circuit to measure its performance. "There's nothing remotely like this in bio," says Peter Carr, a synthetic biologist in MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Bioengineering Systems a
University of Adelaide researchers have discovered a biochemical mechanism fundamental to plant life that could have far-reaching implications for the multibillion dollar biomedical, pharmaceutical, chemical and biotechnology industries.
The slender, rod-shaped Bacillus subtilis is one of the best-studied bacteria in the world, a go-to system for exploring and understanding how bacteria grow, replicate and divide. One of its outstanding mysteries has been how it manages to keep its precise diameter while growing and and getting bigger end-to-end.
Tissue engineering could transform medicine. Instead of waiting for our bodies to regrow or repair damage after an injury or disease, scientists could grow complex, fully functional tissues in a laboratory for transplantation into patients.
Nature, Published online: 21 May 2019; doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01563-2 Other nations could learn from China's red-line initiative to preserve nature, biodiversity and ecosystem services in the country, says Jixi Gao.
University of Adelaide researchers have discovered a biochemical mechanism fundamental to plant life that could have far-reaching implications for the multibillion dollar biomedical, pharmaceutical, chemical and biotechnology industries.
The slender, rod-shaped Bacillus subtilis is one of the best-studied bacteria in the world, a go-to system for exploring and understanding how bacteria grow, replicate and divide. One of its outstanding mysteries has been how it manages to keep its precise diameter while growing and and getting bigger end-to-end.
Researchers led by Prof. Dr. Matthias Karg at the Institute of Physical Chemistry report a simple technique for developing highly ordered particle layers. The group worked with tiny, deformable spherical polymer beads with a hydrogel-like structure. Hydrogels are water-swollen, three-dimensional networks. Such structures are used as super-absorbers in such products as babies' nappies due to their
Den danske skogigant bidrager til global fluorstof-forurening pga. mangel på alternativer. Ifølge nordisk rapport er der dog flere alternativer til de effektive, men giftige stoffer.