The gene, aquaporin-4, is critical in rodents for the cerebrospinal fluid bath the brain gets during sleep. It's now also tied to slow wave electrical activity during deep sleep in people.
The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology has taken down a letter on whether people should abstain from sex during the coronavirus pandemic, but the editor says the article is not being retracted. Meanwhile, researchers in France have retracted a paper in which they'd claimed to have found replication of the virus that causes … Continue reading
Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have developed a powerful new computer program called Morpheus that can analyze astronomical image data pixel by pixel to identify and classify all of the galaxies and stars in large data sets from astronomy surveys. Morpheus is a deep-learning framework that incorporates a variety of artificial intelligence technologies developed for applications such as image and spe
Researchers from USC and IFOM Cancer Institute found a fasting-mimicking diet could be more effective at treating some types of cancer when combined with vitamin C.In studies on mice, researchers found that the combination delayed tumor progression in multiple mouse models of colorectal cancer; in some mice, it caused disease regression. The results were published in the journal Nature Communicati
Engineers at Duke University have shown that nanosized silver cubes can make diagnostic tests that rely on fluorescence easier to read by making them more than 150 times brighter. Combined with an emerging point-of-care diagnostic platform already shown to be able to detect small traces of viruses and other biomarkers, the approach could allow such tests to become much cheaper and more widespread.
The impact of COVID-19 on underserved and vulnerable populations, including persons of color, is addressed in a new roundtable discussion in Health Equity, a peer-reviewed open access journal
A recent version of the transonic truss-braced wing concept in a wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center. They carried out testing between September and November, 2019. (Harlen Capen / NASA /) Back in January, Boeing flew its fancy new widebody aircraft for the first time. Called the 777x, the plane's flashiest feature is wings that literally fold up at their tips. The wings are longer than
Nature, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-01406-5 Chilean fans' fervour for grilling leads to pollution spikes when the national team plays.
Scientists worldwide have long debated our ability to identify male and female dinosaurs. Now, research has shown that despite previous claims of success, it's very difficult to spot differences between the sexes.
Researchers take waste products from algae-based omega-3 oil production and convert them into valuable and renewable polyurethane foams with a range of of commercial applications — from flip-flops and running shoe soles to mattresses and yoga mats.
The devices can image a battery's magnetic field, spotting weaknesses and more accurate readings of charge levels — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
The news: In its latest Community Standards Enforcement Report, released today, Facebook detailed the updates it has made to its AI systems for detecting hate speech and disinformation. The tech giant says 88.8% of all the hate speech it removed this quarter was detected by AI, up from 80.2% in the previous quarter. The AI can remove content automatically if the system has high confidence that it
You know that feeling when everything suddenly goes quiet? Researchers have identified a novel neural circuit that plays a critical role in processing sound cues of danger to trigger defense responses in rats when silence falls. The study publishing May 12, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Marta Moita of the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Portugal, and colleagues, sheds ligh
In this review article the authors Jing Liu, Mengze Xu and Zhen Yuan from University of Macau, Macau SAR, China consider immunotherapy for the treatment of tumors.
Trained dogs can detect fire accelerants such as gasoline in quantities as small as one billionth of a teaspoon, according to new research by University of Alberta chemists. The study provides the lowest estimate of the limit of sensitivity of dogs' noses and has implications for arson investigations.
For social animals, such as humans, being able to recognize the presence of a threat in the behavior of others could literally be a life-saver. Yet, animals do not instinctively know that when a group member displays freezing — one of the three universal defense responses — it means trouble. In a new study, scientists demonstrate how animals acquire this ability and identify the neural circuitry
Exhaustive seismic data from repeating earthquakes and new data-processing methods have yielded the best evidence yet that the Earth's inner core is rotating – revealing a better understanding of the hotly debated processes that control the planet's magnetic field.
Earth may have been far more oxygen-rich early in its history than previously thought, setting the stage for the evolution of complex life, according to new research.
Researchers have now used architectural analysis to discover that geometry informed the layout of Göbekli Tepe's impressive round stone structures and enormous assembly of limestone pillars, which they say were initially planned as a single structure.
Anyone who's ever tried to find something in a hurry knows how helpful it is to think about the lost item's color, size and shape. But surprisingly, traits of an object that you can't see also come into play during a search, researchers found.
Trained dogs can detect fire accelerants such as gasoline in quantities as small as one billionth of a teaspoon, according to new research by University of Alberta chemists. The study provides the lowest estimate of the limit of sensitivity of dogs' noses and has implications for arson investigations.
The rainforest fjords of Southeastern Alaska harbour one of the highest concentrations of lichen diversity found anywhere on Earth, according to a new study spearheaded by University of Alberta scientists.
Finding could help solve mystery of where plastic goes after it leaks into the sea Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of mismanaged waste could be blowing ashore on the ocean breeze every year, according to scientists who have discovered microplastics in sea spray. The study, by researchers at the University of Strathclyde and the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées at the University of Toulouse, found tiny
The rainforest fjords of Southeastern Alaska harbour one of the highest concentrations of lichen diversity found anywhere on Earth, according to a new study spearheaded by University of Alberta scientists.
Nations are loosening rules, but new clusters in places that seemed to have tamed the virus show how hard success is to sustain. In Wuhan, a seemingly small cluster led to a giant response — tests for the entire city.
At a moment when Covid-19 threatens to exacerbate health disparities in the U.S., Arbery's killing, and the seeming unwillingness of authorities to hold his killers accountable, reminds us that not all medical and public health advice is created equal. It's time medical schools caught up to that reality.
What would you do if the person standing next to you suddenly screamed and ran away? Would you be able to carry on calmly with what you're doing, or would you panic? Unless you're James Bond, you're most likely to go for the second option: panic.
What would you do if the person standing next to you suddenly screamed and ran away? Would you be able to carry on calmly with what you're doing, or would you panic? Unless you're James Bond, you're most likely to go for the second option: panic.
Blackjack Network DARPA, the research wing of the U.S. Military, is preparing to launch an orbital mesh network similar to SpaceX's Starlink . The first satellite for the Blackjack network will launch later this year, C4ISRNET reports . While there's still lots of testing, simulation, and launching to be done before Blackjack is complete, the move could be an important first step toward a new glo
A new tool using cutting-edge technology is able to distinguish different types of blood clots based on what caused them, according to a study published today in eLife.
Case management is an effective, collaborative, and cost-effective way to help frequent users of health care services integrate all aspects of their care. The research team behind this study developed a program theory to investigate how, and in what circumstances, case management in primary care works to improve outcomes among frequent users who have chronic conditions.
Researchers at the University of Göttingen have developed an innovative software program for the simulation of breeding programmes. The "Modular Breeding Program Simulator" (MoBPS) enables the simulation of complex breeding programmes in animal and plant breeding and is designed to assist breeders in their everyday decisions. In addition to economic criteria in breeding, the research team strives
The Comprehensive Primary Care initiative was launched in 2012 by the CMS Innovation Center as a four-year multi-payer initiative designed to strengthen primary care. This study examines shifts in staffing patterns, from 2012 to 2016, at 461 primary care practices participating in the CPC transformation initiative with those at 358 non-CPC practices.
The rainforest fjords of Southeastern Alaska harbor one of the highest concentrations of lichen diversity found anywhere on Earth, according to a new study spearheaded by University of Alberta scientists.
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and colleagues identify critical points to pay close attention to when designing and developing COVID-19 vaccines.
It was only relatively recently that tiny, single-celled thaumarchaea were discovered to exist and thrive in the pelagic ocean, where their population size of roughly 1028 (10 billion quintillion) cells makes them one of the most abundant organisms on our planet.
As strategies to curb gun violence at the federal level have stalled, leaders in primary care and health policy have identified the role doctors can play in national gun safety efforts and the prevention of firearm suicide. In this pair of recommendation papers, clinicians place themselves at the front lines of this public health issue and offer a call to action for the medical community. Both pap
For the second year in a row, a team from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge and Los Alamos national laboratories led a demonstration hosted by EPB, a community-based utility and telecommunications company serving Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The sprawling 11,500-year-old stone Göbekli Tepe complex in southeastern Anatolia, Turkey, is the earliest known temple in human history and one of the most important discoveries of Neolithic research.
The Long March 5 rocket. China celebrated success last week when its prototype crewed spacecraft returned to Earth after several days in orbit. It got there with the aid of a new, more powerful rocket called the Long March 5B. The core stage remained in space until yesterday when it splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. This was no piddly little chunk of space debris, though. The Chinese rocket st
The UK government's "stay alert" messaging, use of statistics and outsourcing of coronavirus contact tracing have been criticised by an independent science committee
The novel fibres' latest advances, published this week in Nature Photonics, have underlined the technology's potential for next generation optical interferometric systems and sensors.
Exhaustive seismic data from repeating earthquakes and new data-processing methods have yielded the best evidence yet that the Earth's inner core is rotating—revealing a better understanding of the hotly debated processes that control the planet's magnetic field.
There was a moment a couple of years ago when I realized it was time for an intervention. While on a particularly stressful reporting trip, I picked at my cuticle so intensely that my thumb got infected. I signed up for an app called Joyable , which is meant to help with social anxiety—the closest approximation of what I thought I was struggling with. The app had me set goals and do activities th
Parkinson's disease (PD) is expected to reach over 14 million cases worldwide by 2040. As longevity increases, so does the number of persons living with PD. Writing in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease (JPD), scientists discuss several avenues through which the COVID-19 pandemic might contribute to the expected exponential growth of PD in the coming years, compounding the economic and societal im
A randomized controlled trial conducted by a research team at a primary care clinic at the Chinese University of Hong Kong indicates that intra-articular-only injection therapy with hypertonic dextrose is safe and effective for alleviating symptoms of knee osteoarthritis.
Hollow-core fiber technology developed in the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics exhibits up to 1,000 times better polarization purity than state-of-the-art solid core fibers.
Anyone who's ever tried to find something in a hurry knows how helpful it is to think about the lost item's color, size and shape. But surprisingly, traits of an object that you can't see also come into play during a search, Johns Hopkins University researchers found.
The expansion of Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program, gave millions of low-income Californians access to health insurance, but this study conducted in Northern California found that new patients may have to wait up up to a month for an appointment with a participating primary care provider, depending on their county of residence. It is not uncommon for Medi-Cal enrollees to visit emergency roo
Artificial intelligence methods are being utilized in radiology, cardiology and other medical specialty fields to quickly and accurately process large quantities of health data to improve the diagnostic and treatment power of health care teams. Compared to other medical specialty fields, primary care physicians deal with a very broad spectrum of illnesses, taking a person-centric approach to care,
Exhaustive seismic data from repeating earthquakes and new data-processing methods have yielded the best evidence yet that the Earth's inner core is rotating – revealing a better understanding of the hotly debated processes that control the planet's magnetic field.
A woman's genetic make-up may cause her to gain weight when using a popular form of birth control, according to a study from researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
According to a new study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by researchers from Syracuse University, an increase in repetitive head impacts for NFL players leads to an increased risk of premature death.
The benefits of routine lung cancer screenings have been hotly debated in the medical community. A new lung cancer screening cohort study conducted at a large integrated health system suggests that lung cancer screening in primary care is feasible. The study demonstrated low adverse event rates, and 70% of diagnosed lung cancer cases were detected at early stages in their development.
In this study, a risk score based on characteristics of patients with COVID-19 at the time of hospital admission was developed that may help predict a patient's risk of developing critical illness.
A study in Geographical Review shows evidence vital to understanding human prehistory beneath the seas in places that were dry during the Last Glacial Maximum. This paper informs one of the 'hottest mysteries' in science: the debate over when the first Asians peopled North America.
Earth may have been far more oxygen-rich early in its history than previously thought, setting the stage for the evolution of complex life, according to new research by scientists at the University of Alberta and the University of Tartu in Estonia. The study provides evidence for elevated oxygen levels 2 billion years ago and flies in the face of previously accepted models.
T he high-stakes dispute over how—and when—to reopen the economy has arrived in the national epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak: New York. COVID-19 has ravaged the Empire State; its 337,000 confirmed cases are twice as many as any other state in the country has reported. But as in so much of America, the outbreak has not touched New York's many corners equally, and the fraught debate over reop
Singapore, a global hub for international travel and business, was among the first countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. With its first confirmed COVID-19 case on Jan. 23, 2020, the country mounted aggressive public health and containment measures. The country's network of primary care clinics were at the front lines of these measures. In this new report, those physicians share their triage
Researchers at Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority have now used architectural analysis to discover that geometry informed the layout of Göbekli Tepe's impressive round stone structures and enormous assembly of limestone pillars, which they say were initially planned as a single structure.
Annals of Family Medicine is a peer-reviewed, indexed research journal that provides a cross-disciplinary forum for new, evidence-based information affecting the primary care disciplines.
Early life experiences of zebra finches have a big effect on the construction of their first homes, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Science and the University of St. Andrews' School of Biology.
Earth may have been far more oxygen-rich early in its history than previously thought, setting the stage for the evolution of complex life, according to new research by scientists at the University of Alberta and the University of Tartu in Estonia.
Nearly a quarter of Americans suffer from arthritis, most commonly due to the wear and tear of the cartilage that protects the joints. As we age, or get injured, we have no way to grow new cartilage. Unlike humans and other mammals, the skeletons of sharks, skates, and rays are made entirely of cartilage and they continue to grow that cartilage throughout adulthood.
Researchers from Lingnan University of Hong Kong published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines the role that facial attractiveness has in social selling.
My colleague and friend Carol Ellison, who has died of cancer aged 58, was a scientist in the field of biological control of invasive species:. This is a little-known but increasingly important tool in the management of alien weeds which, if unchecked, can destabilise ecosystems and constrain agriculture. Born in Croydon, south London, to Edward Ellison, a toolmaker, and his wife, Valerie (nee Ri
Nearly a quarter of Americans suffer from arthritis, most commonly due to the wear and tear of the cartilage that protects the joints. As we age, or get injured, we have no way to grow new cartilage. Unlike humans and other mammals, the skeletons of sharks, skates, and rays are made entirely of cartilage and they continue to grow that cartilage throughout adulthood.
The ability to accurately detect changes in ecosystem biodiversity caused by human activity has long challenged environmental scientists and ecologists, but a new study, published in PNAS, has established new DNA-based methods that are effective for environmental assessment and monitoring.
The question of whether democracies behave differently from non-democracies is a central, and intense, debate in the field of international relations. Two intellectual traditions—liberalism and realism—dominate. Liberals argue that democracies do indeed behave differently, while realists insist that regime type and ideology are of little relevance in understanding foreign policy behavior.
Smartphones, laptops and smartwatches consume vast quantities of energy, yet only around half of this energy is actually used to power important functions. And with billions of these devices in use worldwide, a significant amount of energy goes to waste. Professor Adrian Ionescu and his team at EPFL's Nanoelectronic Devices Laboratory (Nanolab) have launched a series of research projects in the qu
The ability to accurately detect changes in ecosystem biodiversity caused by human activity has long challenged environmental scientists and ecologists, but a new study, published in PNAS, has established new DNA-based methods that are effective for environmental assessment and monitoring.
Losing their natural predators may make it more difficult for prey to adapt to future environments, according to new research. According to many experts, the Earth is at the beginning of its sixth mass extinction, which is already having dire consequences for the functioning of natural ecosystems. What remains unclear is how these extinctions will alter the future ability of remaining species to
David Storm, a research physicist, and Tyler Growden, an electrical engineer, both with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, developed a new gallium nitride-based electrical component called a resonant tunneling diode (RTD) with performance beyond the anticipated speed of 5G.
By disrupting the expression of a particular gene and observing how this change affects expression of other genes, researchers can learn about the cellular roles of the disrupted gene. New technologies such as Perturb-seq offer unprecedented detail and depth of insight from such genetic disruption studies, but technical and practical hurdles have limited use of Perturb-seq. A new study by Princeto
By disrupting the expression of a particular gene and observing how this change affects expression of other genes, researchers can learn about the cellular roles of the disrupted gene. New technologies such as Perturb-seq offer unprecedented detail and depth of insight from such genetic disruption studies, but technical and practical hurdles have limited use of Perturb-seq. A new study by Princeto
The long-term effects of climate change suggests that the butterfly effect is at work on butterflies in the alpine regions of North America, according to a new study by University of Alberta scientists — and the predictions don't bode well.
Consumers tend to make judgments of a seller's sociability, competence, and credibility based on facial attractiveness. Interestingly, the "premium" works at both ends of the spectrum in that attractive and unattractive sellers do better than people with ordinary faces.
Unlike humans and other mammals, the skeletons of sharks, skates, and rays are made entirely of cartilage and they continue to grow that cartilage throughout adulthood. New research published this week in eLife finds that adult skates go one step further than cartilage growth: They can also spontaneously repair injured cartilage. This is the first known example of adult cartilage repair in a resea
Quantum physics deals with microscopic systems such as atoms and light particles. It is a theory that makes it possible to calculate the probabilities of the possible results of any measurement taken on these systems. However, what happens during the measurement was a mystery. A team of researchers from the University of Seville, the University of Stockholm (Sweden) and the University of Siegen (G
Hydrogen flames can propagate even with very little fuel, within surprisingly narrow gaps and can extend breaking up into fractal patterns. That is the unexpected physical behavior of this gas when it burns, which has been detected by a scientific team led by researchers from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M). These results can help to improve the safety of Hydrogen-powered devices.
The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic
An experiment reveals how difficult it is to use Bluetooth on phones to determine if people have been in close enough contact to spread the coronavirus
The urgent care clinic CityMD gave inaccurate results to 15,000 patients who came in for a coronavirus test. The tests correctly identified antibodies for the coronavirus in all those patients — meaning they had been sick at some point in the past. And while CityMD reported the results correctly, CNBC reports that the clinic incorrectly told all 15,000 of those patients that they had developed im
The Journal of Dental Research published today the results of a study that demonstrated that community water fluoridation is not associated with increased risk of osteosarcoma.
The question of whether democracies behave differently from non-democracies is a central, and intense, debate in the field of international relations. Two intellectual traditions — liberalism and realism — dominate. Liberals argue that democracies do indeed behave differently, while realists insist that regime type and ideology are of little relevance in understanding foreign policy behavior. Ar
To maximize future rewards in this ever-changing world, animals must be able to discover the temporal structure of stimuli and then anticipate or act correctly at the right time. How do animals perceive, maintain, and use time intervals ranging from hundreds of milliseconds to multiseconds in working memory? How is…
The anterior body of many fishes is shaped like an airfoil turned on its side. With an oscillating angle to the swimming direction, such an airfoil experiences negative pressure due to both its shape and pitching movements. This negative pressure acts as thrust forces on the anterior body. Here, we…
Aneuploidy is the leading contributor to pregnancy loss, congenital anomalies, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) failure in humans. Although most aneuploid conceptions are thought to originate from meiotic division errors in the female germline, quantitative studies that link the observed phenotypes to underlying error mechanisms are lacking. In this study,…
The antigen-presenting molecule MR1 presents riboflavin-based metabolites to Mucosal-Associated Invariant T (MAIT) cells. While MR1 egress to the cell surface is ligand-dependent, the ability of small-molecule ligands to impact on MR1 cellular trafficking remains unknown. Arising from an in silico screen of the MR1 ligand-binding pocket, we identify one ligand,…
Cholesterol-laden macrophage foam cells are a hallmark of atherosclerosis. For that reason, cholesterol metabolism in macrophages has attracted considerable scrutiny, particularly the mechanisms by which macrophages unload surplus cholesterol (a process referred to as "cholesterol efflux"). Many studies of cholesterol efflux in macrophages have focused on the role of ABC…
The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Italy prompted drastic measures for transmission containment. We examine the effects of these interventions, based on modeling of the unfolding epidemic. We test modeling options of the spatially explicit type, suggested by the wave of infections spreading from the initial foci to…
Protein corona formation is critical for the design of ideal and safe nanoparticles (NPs) for nanomedicine, biosensing, organ targeting, and other applications, but methods to quantitatively predict the formation of the protein corona, especially for functional compositions, remain unavailable. The traditional linear regression model performs poorly for the protein corona,…
Under stressful conditions, bacterial RelA-SpoT Homolog (RSH) enzymes synthesize the alarmone (p)ppGpp, a nucleotide second messenger. (p)ppGpp rewires bacterial transcription and metabolism to cope with stress, and, at high concentrations, inhibits the process of protein synthesis and bacterial growth to save and redirect resources until conditions improve. Single-domain small alarmone…
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) produce an enormous economic value through their pollination activities and play a central role in the biodiversity of entire ecosystems. Recent efforts have revealed the substantial influence that the gut microbiota exert on bee development, food digestion, and homeostasis in general. In this study, deep sequencing…
In the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, RsmA is an RNA-binding protein that plays critical roles in the control of virulence, interbacterial interactions, and biofilm formation. Although RsmA is thought to exert its regulatory effects by binding full-length transcripts, the extent to which RsmA binds nascent transcripts has not been addressed….
Mild replication stress enhances appearance of dozens of robust recurrent genomic break clusters, termed RDCs, in cultured primary mouse neural stem and progenitor cells (NSPCs). Robust RDCs occur within genes ("RDC-genes") that are long and have roles in neural cell communications and/or have been implicated in neuropsychiatric diseases or cancer….
The activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc) gene is a neural immediate early gene that is involved in synaptic downscaling and is robustly induced by prolonged wakefulness in rodent brains. Converging evidence has led to the hypothesis that wakefulness potentiates, and sleep reduces, synaptic strengthening. This suggests a potential role for Arc…
A unique combination of transcription factor expression and projection neuron identity demarcates each layer of the cerebral cortex. During mouse and human cortical development, the transcription factor CTIP2 specifies neurons that project subcerebrally, while SATB2 specifies neuronal projections via the corpus callosum, a large axon tract connecting the two neocortical…
Numerous mutations that impair retrograde membrane trafficking between endosomes and the Golgi apparatus lead to neurodegenerative diseases. For example, mutations in the endosomal retromer complex are implicated in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and mutations of the Golgi-associated retrograde protein (GARP) complex cause progressive cerebello-cerebral atrophy type 2 (PCCA2). However, how.
Even though humans are mostly not aware of their heartbeats, several heartbeat-related effects have been reported to influence conscious perception. It is not clear whether these effects are distinct or related phenomena, or whether they are early sensory effects or late decisional processes. Combining electroencephalography and electrocardiography, along with signal…
A physiological role for long-chain acyl-CoA esters to activate ATP-sensitive K+ (KATP) channels is well established. Circulating palmitate is transported into cells and converted to palmitoyl-CoA, which is a substrate for palmitoylation. We found that palmitoyl-CoA, but not palmitic acid, activated the channel when applied acutely. We have altered the…
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a brain disorder characterized by social impairments. ASD is currently diagnosed on the basis of behavioral criteria because no robust biomarkers have been identified. However, we recently found that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentration of the "social" neuropeptide arginine vasopressin (AVP) is significantly lower in pediatric…
People can use abstract rules to flexibly configure and select actions for specific situations, yet how exactly rules shape actions toward specific sensory and/or motor requirements remains unclear. Both research from animal models and human-level theories of action control point to the role of highly integrated, conjunctive representations, sometimes referred…
COMPUTER SCIENCES Correction for "Towards formalizing the GDPR's notion of singling out," by Aloni Cohen and Kobbi Nissim, which was first published March 31, 2020; 10.1073/pnas.1914598117 (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117, 8344–8352). The authors note that, due to a printer's error, the affiliations for Aloni Cohen and Kobbi Nissim…
How reptiles adapted to marine life Artist's conception of a metriorhynchid, an extinct crocodile relative. Shapes represent evolution of the inner ear (bony labyrinth) from terrestrial (Left) through semiaquatic (Middle) to pelagic (Right). Image credit: Bryan Christie Design. During major evolutionary transitions, the development of new body plans allows animals…
Neurodegeneration is a shared feature of some infectious diseases, such as leprosy, and noninfectious conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) (1). The type-1 reaction (T1R), a nerve damaging process seen in leprosy and caused by chronic Mycobacterium leprae infection (2), is a natural model for the…
We thank Dr. Zhang et al. (1) for their thought-provoking comments and addition of exciting results to our recent study that identifies an overlap in the genetic control of type-1 reaction (T1R) and Parkinson's disease (PD) (2). To put the comments by Zhang et al. into context, the purpose and…
Since their discovery (1), viroids—small (∼250 to 430 nt), non–protein-coding, circular RNAs—are thought to infect and cause disease only in plants (2); thus, the report that they infect and incite symptoms in filamentous phytopathogenic fungi (3) is surprising. Viroids are classified into two families (4). Members of the Pospiviroidae, including…
This is our response to the letter by Serra et al. (1), which questioned our recent paper (2) describing plant viroid infections in phytopathogenic fungi. In this study, full-length monomeric cDNA clones of seven plant viroid RNA genomes were produced using oligonucleotide synthesis (2). We opted for the monomeric version…
Over the last half century, earnings and income inequality have increased within many countries, although the timing and extent of the increase have been variable. This development has engendered a large stream of social science research that has successfully identified some of the main culprits behind the takeoff in inequality….
Much of our understanding of eukaryotic replication dynamics, origin, and polymerase usage and replication factors has come from studies using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. From the definition of replication origins using plasmid transformation (1, 2) and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (3), identification of replication factors using various genetic screens for cell…
Proteomics, defined broadly as the large-scale study of genes at the level of proteins, has entirely revolutionized our understanding of the chemical composition and organization of biological systems. Over the past two decades, mass spectrometry-based proteomics has emerged as the dominant technique owing to its quantitative measurements in even highly…
Rainfall anomalies have long occupied center stage in policy discussions, and understanding their impacts on agricultural production has become more important as climate change intensifies. However, the global scale of rainfall-induced productivity shocks on changes in cropland is yet to be quantified. Here we identify how rainfall anomalies impact observed…
Cellular function is generally depicted at the level of functional pathways and detailed structural mechanisms, based on the identification of specific protein–protein interactions. For an individual protein searching for its partner, however, the perspective is quite different: The functional task is challenged by a dense crowd of nonpartners obstructing the…
The nitrogen-related phosphotransferase system (PTSNtr) of Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae 3841 transfers phosphate from PEP via PtsP and NPr to two output regulators, ManX and PtsN. ManX controls central carbon metabolism via the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, while PtsN controls nitrogen uptake, exopolysaccharide production, and potassium homeostasis, each of which…
The evolution of insect resistance to pesticides poses a continuing threat to agriculture and human health. While much is known about the proximate molecular and biochemical mechanisms that confer resistance, far less is known about the regulation of the specific genes/gene families involved, particularly by trans-acting factors such as signal-regulated…
Over the course of the aging process, fibroblasts lose contractility, leading to reduced connective-tissue stiffness. A promising therapeutic avenue for functional rejuvenation of connective tissue is reprogrammed fibroblast replacement, although major hurdles still remain. Toward this, we recently demonstrated that the laterally confined growth of fibroblasts on micropatterned substrates induces.
Collective decisions can emerge from individual-level interactions between members of a group. These interactions are often seen as social feedback rules, whereby individuals copy the decisions they observe others making, creating a coherent group decision. The benefit of these behavioral rules to the individual agent can be understood as a…
The splitting of quasi-Fermi levels (QFLs) represents a key concept utilized to describe finite-bias operations of semiconductor devices, but its atomic-scale characterization remains a significant challenge. Herein, the nonequilibrium QFL or electrochemical potential profiles within single-molecule junctions obtained from the first-principles multispace constrained-search density-functional forma
Metal−organic framework (MOF) glasses are a newly emerged family of melt-quenched glasses. Recently, several intriguing features, such as ultrahigh glass-forming ability and low liquid fragility, have been discovered in a number of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) that are a subset of MOFs. However, the fracture behavior of ZIF glasses has…
Neurons undergo nanometer-scale deformations during action potentials, and the underlying mechanism has been actively debated for decades. Previous observations were limited to a single spot or the cell boundary, while movement across the entire neuron during the action potential remained unclear. Here we report full-field imaging of cellular deformations accompanying…
Viomycin, an antibiotic that has been used to fight tuberculosis infections, is believed to block the translocation step of protein synthesis by inhibiting ribosomal subunit dissociation and trapping the ribosome in an intermediate state of intersubunit rotation. The mechanism by which viomycin stabilizes this state remains unexplained. To address this,…
Lipases are enzymes necessary for the proper distribution and utilization of lipids in the human body. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is active in capillaries, where it plays a crucial role in preventing dyslipidemia by hydrolyzing triglycerides from packaged lipoproteins. Thirty years ago, the existence of a condensed and inactive LPL oligomer…
HIV-1 maturation involves conversion of the immature Gag polyprotein lattice, which lines the inner surface of the viral membrane, to the mature capsid protein (CA) lattice, which encloses the viral RNA. Maturation inhibitors such as bevirimat (BVM) bind within six-helix bundles, formed by a segment that spans the junction between…
Many cancer cells consume glutamine at high rates; counterintuitively, they simultaneously excrete glutamate, the first intermediate in glutamine metabolism. Glutamine consumption has been linked to replenishment of tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) intermediates and synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), but the reason for glutamate excretion is unclear. Here, we dynamically profile…
The gene encoding the core spliceosomal protein SF3B1 is the most frequently mutated gene encoding a splicing factor in a variety of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. SF3B1 mutations induce use of cryptic 3′ splice sites (3′ss), and these splicing errors contribute to tumorigenesis. However, it is unclear how widespread…
The H+/Ca2+ (calcium ion) antiporter (CAX) plays an important role in maintaining cellular Ca2+ homeostasis in bacteria, yeast, and plants by promoting Ca2+ efflux across the cell membranes. However, how CAX facilitates Ca2+ balance in response to dynamic cytosolic Ca2+ perturbations is unknown. Here, we identified a type of Ca2+…
Atomistic description of protein fibril formation has been elusive due to the complexity and long time scales of the conformational search. Here, we develop a multiscale approach combining numerous atomistic simulations in explicit solvent to construct Markov State Models (MSMs) of fibril growth. The search for the in-register fully bound…
Genetic variants in PKD2 which encodes for the polycystin-2 ion channel are responsible for many clinical cases of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). Despite our strong understanding of the genetic basis of ADPKD, we do not know how most variants impact channel function. Polycystin-2 is found in organelle membranes,…
Increased intraocular pressure (IOP) represents a major risk factor for glaucoma, a prevalent eye disease characterized by death of retinal ganglion cells; lowering IOP is the only proven treatment strategy to delay disease progression. The main determinant of IOP is the equilibrium between production and drainage of aqueous humor, with…
Nongenetic cellular heterogeneity is associated with aging and disease. However, the origins of cell-to-cell variability are complex and the individual contributions of different factors to total phenotypic variance are still unclear. Here, we took advantage of clear phenotypic heterogeneity of circadian oscillations in clonal cell populations to investigate the underlying…
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a recessive disease caused by mutations in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. The most common symptoms include progressive lung disease and chronic digestive conditions. CF is the first human genetic disease to benefit from having five different species of animal models. Despite the phenotypic…
Nucleoli, the sites of ribosome biogenesis and the largest structures in human nuclei, form around nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) comprising ribosomal DNA (rDNA) arrays. NORs are located on the p-arms of the five human acrocentric chromosomes. Defining the rules of engagement between these p-arms and nucleoli takes on added significance…
Barrier-to-autointegration factor (BAF) is a highly conserved protein in metazoans that has multiple functions during the cell cycle. We found that BAF is SUMOylated at K6, and that this modification is essential for its nuclear localization and function, including nuclear integrity maintenance and DNA replication. K6-linked SUMOylation of BAF promotes…
Myeloperoxidase (MPO)-mediated oxidative stress has been suggested to play an important role in the pathological dysfunction of epileptic brains. However, there is currently no robust brain-imaging tool to detect real-time endogenous hypochlorite (HClO) generation by MPO or a fluorescent probe for rapid high-throughput screening of antiepileptic agents that control the…
Coformycin and pentostatin are structurally related N-nucleoside inhibitors of adenosine deaminase characterized by an unusual 1,3-diazepine nucleobase. Herein, the cof gene cluster responsible for coformycin biosynthesis is identified. Reconstitution of the coformycin biosynthetic pathway in vitro demonstrates that it overlaps significantly with the early stages of l-histidine biosynthesis. Commi
The Great Unconformity marks a major gap in the continental geological record, separating Precambrian basement from Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks. However, the timing, magnitude, spatial heterogeneity, and causes of the erosional event(s) and/or depositional hiatus that lead to its development are unknown. We present field relationships from the 1.07-Ga Pikes Peak…
Observations of comet nuclei indicate that the main constituent is a mix of ice and refractory materials characterized by high porosity (70–75%) and low bulk strength (10−4–10−6 MPa); however, the nature and physical properties of these materials remain largely unknown. By combining surface inspection of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko and three-dimensional (3D)…
Oceanic transform faults display a unique combination of seismic and aseismic slip behavior, including a large globally averaged seismic deficit, and the local occurrence of repeating magnitude (M) ∼6 earthquakes with abundant foreshocks and seismic swarms, as on the Gofar transform of the East Pacific Rise and the Blanco Ridge…
Major evolutionary transitions, in which animals develop new body plans and adapt to dramatically new habitats and lifestyles, have punctuated the history of life. The origin of cetaceans from land-living mammals is among the most famous of these events. Much earlier, during the Mesozoic Era, many reptile groups also moved…
Changes in plant phenology associated with climate change have been observed globally. What is poorly known is whether and how phenological responses to climate warming will differ from year to year, season to season, habitat to habitat, or species to species. Here, we present 5 y of phenological responses to…
Anthropogenic changes create evolutionarily novel environments that present opportunities for emerging diseases, potentially changing the balance between host and pathogen. Honey bees provide essential pollination services, but intensification and globalization of honey bee management has coincided with increased pathogen pressure, primarily due to a parasitic mite/virus complex. Here, we investig
The management of harmful species, including invasive species, pests, parasites, and diseases, is a major global challenge. Harmful species cause severe damage to ecosystems, biodiversity, agriculture, and human health. In particular, managing harmful species often requires cooperation among multiple agents, such as landowners, agencies, and countries. Each agent may have…
The rise of oxygen on the early Earth about 2.4 billion years ago reorganized the redox cycle of harmful metal(loids), including that of arsenic, which doubtlessly imposed substantial barriers to the physiology and diversification of life. Evaluating the adaptive biological responses to these environmental challenges is inherently difficult because of…
Extreme climate events such as droughts, cold snaps, and hurricanes can be powerful agents of natural selection, producing acute selective pressures very different from the everyday pressures acting on organisms. However, it remains unknown whether these infrequent but severe disruptions are quickly erased by quotidian selective forces, or whether they…
Owing to internal homeostatic mechanisms, cellular traits may experience long periods of stable selective pressures, during which the stochastic forces of drift and mutation conspire to generate variation. However, even in the face of invariant selection, the drift barrier defined by the genetic effective population size, which is negatively associated…
The evolution of ballistic tongue projection in plethodontid salamanders—a high-performance and thermally robust musculoskeletal system—is ideal for examining how the components required for extreme performance in animal movement are assembled in evolution. Our comparative data on whole-organism performance measured across a range of temperatures and the musculoskeletal morphology of the…
How a new wave of research on venoms from an array of creatures could seed future pharma development. Pediatric neurosurgeon Amy Lee works by the small, bright light of a microscope, her gaze focused on the opened skull of a child. Lee moves her hands calmly and confidently over the…
Problems of flexible mechanical metamaterials, and highly deformable porous solids in general, are rich and complex due to their nonlinear mechanics and the presence of nontrivial geometrical effects. While numeric approaches are successful, analytic tools and conceptual frameworks are largely lacking. Using an analogy with electrostatics, and building on recent…
Self-organization, and transitions from reversible to irreversible behavior, of interacting particle assemblies driven by externally imposed stresses or deformation is of interest in comprehending diverse phenomena in soft matter. They have been investigated in a wide range of systems, such as colloidal suspensions, glasses, and granular matter. In different density…
Researchers and policy makers worldwide are interested in measuring the subjective well-being of populations. When users post on social media, they leave behind digital traces that reflect their thoughts and feelings. Aggregation of such digital traces may make it possible to monitor well-being at large scale. However, social media-based methods…
People evaluate a stranger's trustworthiness from their facial features in a fraction of a second, despite common advice "not to judge a book by its cover." Evaluations of trustworthiness have critical and widespread social impact, predicting financial lending, mate selection, and even criminal justice outcomes. Consequently, understanding how people perceive…
There's good news and bad news about the impact social distancing is having on the spread of COVID-19 in the United States, according to a new study. The good news: In all but three states, social distancing reduced the rate at which confirmed cases were doubling. Across all states, the average doubling rate decreased sharply from 3.31 days to about 100 days. The bad news: the measures have not b
Children and young adult burn survivors are more troubled by staring, bullying, and uncomfortable questions than the actual physical discomfort and memories of their accidents, according to research that was selected to be presented at the American Burn Association's Annual Meeting and published in the Journal of Burn Care & Research. While treatment is typically focused primarily on acute care fo
Researchers working in Alberta's Peace-Athabasca Delta found that DNA metabarcoding is an effective tool for detection of a broad range of biodiversity in water samples compared to traditional morphological identification methods.
Platelets not only play a key role in blood clotting, but can also significantly intensify inflammatory processes. This is shown by a new study carried out by scientists from the University of Bonn together with colleagues from Sao Paulo (Brazil). In the medium term, the results could open up new ways to treat autoimmune diseases. They have now been published in the renowned journal Cell Reports.
The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has infected more than 4 million people and killed close to 280,000.1 Finding a vaccine has become a global public health priority.
Researchers in Trinity College Dublin are urging the Irish government to immediately change recommendations on vitamin D supplements given recent changes by Welsh, English and Scottish governments.
Hospital staff may be carrying SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease, without realising they are infected, according to a study by researchers at the University of Cambridge.
Fatty food may feel like a friend during these troubled times, but new research suggests that eating just one meal high in saturated fat can hinder our ability to concentrate – not great news for people whose diets have gone south while they're working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Machine learning and AI are highly unstable in medical image reconstruction, and may lead to false positives and false negatives, a new study suggests.
By combining CRISPR-based approaches with single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), scientists can learn a lot about what genes do and how they are controlled. However, technical hurdles and cost concerns have hampered this approach. New work by Princeton researcher Britt Adamson and colleagues breaks down these barriers, providing a simpler and cheaper way for scientists to reap their molecular har
For normal gut and body function, the diet should contain sufficient amounts of (at least 25 — 35 grams of) various (a variety of )dietary fibres. Fibres are a type of carbohydrates forming a big group of molecules of very different structures and sizes that have different functions in our body.
We have two main memory systems that influence learning: declarative memory, which consists of facts that can be consciously recalled, and procedural memory, which consists of different "procedures" we learn that are more instinctual to recall. Young children are able to access their procedural memory systems without the distraction of a declarative memory system. That means they can pick up gram
On Tuesday, top U.S. COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci urged the Senate against prematurely lifting lockdown restrictions. Pressure is mounting from President Trump to resume normal life and business operations in the U.S. But Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, argues that doing so would be ill-advised, The New York Times reports . Hastily lifting the lockd
The Super Steel project led by Professor Huang Mingxin at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), with collaborators at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), has made important breakthrough in its new super D&P steel (produced using a new deformed and partitioned method) to greatly enhance its fracture resistance while maintaining super strong in strengt
In a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have discovered two important functions of a protein called RTEL1 during cell division. The researchers hope that the new knowledge will help to find new cancer treatments.
In a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have discovered two important functions of a protein called RTEL1 during cell division. The researchers hope that the new knowledge will help to find new cancer treatments.
The COVID-19 pandemic has serious implications for environmental conservation and research, a biologist argues. Research often takes Richard Primack , a professor of biology at Boston University, beyond his classroom to places like Malaysia, China, Japan, and Germany for extensive fieldwork and writing. For the time being, however, Primack's research and travels have been curtailed because he, li
Over the past few months, the best place to trace America's deepening pandemic anxieties has been the shelves of grocery and big-box stores. The first common household goods to disappear were disinfectants: hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes, Lysol. Bottled water and toilet paper were snatched up once companies started advising workers to stay home. Next up were rice and dried pasta, followed by video-
The measurement of a strontium ion lasts barely a millionth of a second but the researchers have managed to make a 'film' of the process by reconstructing the quantum state of the system at different moments. The results confirm one of the most subtle predictions in quantum physics.
Social and community disruptions caused by the COVID-19 restrictions could have a lasting effect on child wellbeing, Flinders University researchers warn. While health, safety and education responses are the focus of restrictions, the needs of childhood independence, self-determination and play are less acknowledged, Flinders University experts explain in a new publication.
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden show that different measures of psychopathology can be combined into a single factor, 'p', which predicts the patient's prognosis and need of extra support. The general factor of psychopathology reflects the overall risk of adverse psychiatric outcomes with an accuracy equal to that currently used for intelligence, they report in a paper published in
Transcranial direct current stimulation, tDCS, is a promising treatment for conditions such as depression and addictive disorders. New evidence on the safety of transcranial direct current stimulation was recently offered by a new study showing that tDCS does not affect metabolism.
ROBYN BECK / Chip Somodevilla / SAUL LOEB / NICHOLAS KAMM / BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP / Getty A couple of years ago, BuzzFeed asked a former White House official to explain the logic behind some bizarre Trump action. The official responded with one of the master quotes of the Trump era. President Trump, the official said, is not playing "the sort of three-dimensional chess people ascribe to decisi
Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, is planning to test all 11 million inhabitants, according to a state media report, as the BBC reports . The move comes after the city reported six new cases over the weekend. Before this weekend, the city had recorded no new cases since April 3 and started easing restrictions on April 8 — with schools reopening, public transpor
Researchers have mapped how certain neurons act as the brain's "steering wheel" to control whether mice turn right or left while walking. Researchers hope the findings, which clarify how the brain controls walking, will one day prove useful for people with motor disorders. Walking is one of the most important motor skills for animals and humans. In spite of this, which signals and electrical impu
Tom Hurd, who was at Eton and Oxford with PM, parachuted in to launch new coronavirus unit Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage A senior Home Office counter-terrorism official who was at Eton and Oxford with Boris Johnson has been parachuted in to take temporary charge of the newly established joint biosecurity centre, responsible for coronavirus threat levels. Tom Hurd h
Every last particle in the universe — from a cosmic ray to a quark — is either a fermion or a boson. These categories divide the building blocks of nature into two distinct kingdoms. Now researchers have discovered the first examples of a third particle kingdom. Anyons, as they're known, don't behave like either fermions or bosons; instead, their behavior is somewhere in the middle. In a recent p
The presence and variety of mobile devices in Spanish households, regardless of social and economic circumstances, has been mainstream for years. Several studies focus on parental mediation in children's consumption of smart screens, although there is a lack of scientific evidence concerning how the level of training and the professional profile of mothers and fathers affect children's digital med
In a recent study published in Molecular Cell, researchers at Kanazawa University report the role of cellular structures called PML bodies in regulating gene function.
Understanding unidirectional and topological wave phenomena requires the unveiling of intrinsic geometry and symmetry for wave dynamics. This is an essential challenging for the flexible control of near-field evanescent waves. However, exploitations of near-field waves are limited due to the lack of fundamental understanding about inherent near-field symmetries and directional couplings at subwave
Hydrogen flames can propagate even with very little fuel, within surprisingly narrow gaps and can extend breaking up into fractal patterns. That is the unexpected physical behavior of this gas when it burns, which has been detected by a scientific team led by researchers from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M). These results can help to improve the safety of Hydrogen-powered devices.
Fu et al. outlined a systems approach, Classification-Coordination-Collaboration (3C), to advance Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 3C approach provides a feasible way in which to promote the overall implementation of the SDGs in various countries worldwide, consisting of the necessary processes and essential means for advancing the SDGs. This approach allows to make SDGs realize key break
In a new study in mice, neuroscientists from the University of Copenhagen have found neurons in the brain that control how the mice turn right and left. They hope that the new knowledge can be used in connection with motor disorders in humans.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, as demand for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing has far outweighed the supply, academic research scientists have begun converting their labs to testing facilities. In a paper published May 10 in the journal Med, a team of investigators from Boston University School of Medicine outline how they adapted their lab to test patient samples for SARS-CoV-2, and they provide a bl
The Super Steel project led by Professor Huang Mingxin at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), with collaborators at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), has made important breakthrough in its new super D&P steel (produced using a new deformed and partitioned method) to greatly enhance its fracture resistance while maintaining super strong in strengt
Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and Loma Linda University Health have demonstrated the promise of applying magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to predict the efficacy of using human neural stem cells to treat a brain injury — a first-ever 'biomarker' for regenerative medicine that could help personalize stem cell treatments for neurological disorders and improve effi
Researchers looked at the association between prenatal alcohol and tobacco smoking exposure and brain activity in 1,700 newborns measured during sleep.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data were used to examine changes in rates of deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease from 1999 to 2017 in urban and rural areas of the US overall and by age, sex and race/ethnicity.
Claims data for nearly 200,000 Medicare patients were used to examine the association between starting pulmonary rehabilitation within 90 days of being hospitalized for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and survival after one year. Pulmonary rehabilitation involves exercise training and self-management education.
Researchers combined gas foaming and 3D molding technologies to quickly transform electrospun membranes into complex 3D shapes for biomedical applications. The new approach demonstrates significant improvements in speed and quality compared with other methods, and is the first successful demonstration of formation of 3D neural tissue constructs with an ordered structure through differentiation of
Access to PrEP and the stigma that surrounds it has created significant barriers for nearly every group that needs the drug, including teenagers. (Pexels/) Adolescence, that hard-to-forget period of life between age 13 and 19, is a time of exploration and development. For many teens, it's a time where they begin the process of figuring out their sexuality and sexual identity. That process, like a
Scientists at Waseda University succeeded in developing a method for a total synthesis of cotylenin A, a plant growth regulator which has attracted considerable attention from the scientific community due to its promising bioactivity as an anti-cancer agent. This method was reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on March 16, 2020.
För ungefär 46 000 år sedan tappade en modern människa en hörntand i den bulgariska grottan Bacho Kiro. Det är det allra tidigaste spåret av våra förfäder i Europa.
Scientists at Waseda University succeeded in developing a method for a total synthesis of cotylenin A, a plant growth regulator which has attracted considerable attention from the scientific community due to its promising bioactivity as an anti-cancer agent. This method was reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on March 16, 2020.
Nearly half a million people in the US are in jail right now without being convicted of a crime, simply because they can't come up with the money to pay cash bail. To try and fix this system, public defender and activist Robin Steinberg asked a straightforward question: What if we paid bail for them? In conversation with TED Radio Hour host Manoush Zomorodi, Steinberg shares how her nonprofit The
In the movie "Transformers," cars morph into robots, jets or a variety of machinery. A similar concept inspired a group of researchers to combine gas foaming, which is a blend of chemicals that induces gas bubbling, and 3-D molding technologies to quickly transform electrospun membranes into complex 3-D shapes for biomedical applications.
The declaration of the novel coronavirus as a pandemic was a call to arms for governments to take urgent and immediate action. However, many feel the response from some countries was too little, too late.
In a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have discovered two important functions of a protein called RTEL1 during cell division. The researchers hope that the new knowledge will help to find new cancer treatments.
ETH researchers have developed a new method in which they use light to draw patterns of molecules that guide living cells. The approach allows for a closer look at the development of multicellular organisms — and in the future may even play a part in novel therapies.
Waseda University scientists succeeded in developing the world's first method for a total synthesis of cotylenin A, a plant growth regulator which has attracted considerable attention from the scientific community due to its promising bioactivity as an anti-cancer agent. With this new method, a new anticancer drug that exhibits stronger anticancer activity and causes no side effects could be devel
A group of researchers from Alaska and Germany is reporting for the first time on remote sensing methods that can observe thousands of lakes and thus allow more precise estimates of methane emissions. The study, in which several researchers from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences were involved, is published in the journal Nature Climate Change. According to the results, the total emiss
Children and young adults with high blood levels of pesticides—and with high levels of pesticide-related chemicals called dichlorodiphenyldichlorethylenes—were twice as likely to receive a new diagnosis of celiac disease than those without high levels, report researchers. People with the immune disorder have severe gut reactions, including diarrhea and bloating, to foods containing gluten, a prot
Warm winter spells in the United Kingdom have increased in frequency and duration two to three times over since 1878, report scientists. In a new analysis of historical daily temperature data, scientists examined data from the Central England Temperature (CET) record, the longest available instrumental record of temperature in the world. They focused on warm spells during the winter months, defin
Many species of birds and mammals reproduce better in the wild than in captivity. When wild populations are threatened, it is of utmost importance to conservation that captive populations are healthy and sustainable. In a new paper, wildlife biologists Werner Kaumanns (LTM-Research and Conservation), Nilofer Begum (Freie Universität Berlin) and Heribert Hofer (Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlif
When magnetic materials are nanometric at least in one dimension, the surface effect often dominates the static and transport behaviors due to the limited long-range order and broken translation symmetry. The perturbations in spin-spin correlation length and unperfect spin coordination structures make low-dimensional magnetic materials an ideal platform for exploring magnetism in reduced dimension
Many species of birds and mammals reproduce better in the wild than in captivity. When wild populations are threatened, it is of utmost importance to conservation that captive populations are healthy and sustainable. In a new paper, wildlife biologists Werner Kaumanns (LTM-Research and Conservation), Nilofer Begum (Freie Universität Berlin) and Heribert Hofer (Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlif
Scientists from The University of Western Australian and University of Cambridge have made a chance discovery in UK museum collections, finding hollow ball-like structures in 80-million-year-old fossils from species believed to be related to starfish and sea urchins.
Today, sea-level rise is a great concern of humanity as climate change warms the planet and melts ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Indeed, great coastal cities around the world like Miami and New Orleans could be underwater later in this century.
Nitrogen-based fertilizer contributes to the high yields expected from crops in the developed world, but its high use also damages nearby waters and ecosystems. Conversely, developing countries that most need yield improvements face bottlenecks in getting those fertilizers because of high costs and low crop prices.
All over the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen more and more people admitted to hospital, where the high infection rate of the virus makes use of personal protection equipment (PPE) vital for healthcare workers. PPE includes single-use gloves, aprons and gowns, surgical masks, respirators and face protectors in the form of glasses, goggles or face shields.
Med hjälp av en kortlek med 52 kort som belyser olika utmaningar i föräldraskapet är tanken att föräldrar ska dela erfarenheter med varandra och samtidigt få vägledning av praktiker. Tillsammans med familjecentraler har Terese Glatz, forskare i psykologi vid Örebro universitet, tagit fram Föräldraskapsleken – ett kortspel som kan användas av praktiker för att hjälpa föräldrar att hitta lösningar
Utbrott av harpest upptäcks ofta först när människor insjuknar. Då är det ofta för sent att försöka begränsa smittspridningen eller förvarna sjukvården. Ett sätt att jobba förebyggande vore att utveckla tidiga prognoser som bygger på smittade djur – som fångas och lagras av pärlugglor under häckningen. Forskarna bakom studien har upptäckt att pärlugglan gärna inriktar sig på just smittade djur. H
Some light-emitting diodes (LEDs) created from perovskite, a class of optoelectronic materials, emit light over a broad wavelength range. Scientists have now shown that in some cases, the explanation of why this happens is incorrect. Their new explanation should help scientists to design perovskite LEDs capable of broad-range light emission.
Scientists have uncovered a novel mechanism by which abnormalities in mitochondrial fission in endothelial cells contribute to inflammation and oxidative stress in the cardiovascular system. They further show how the fission-fusion balance can be stabilized to lower inflammation using salicylate, the main active ingredient in everyday pain-relieving drugs like aspirin.
The Colorectal Cancer Lab at IRB Barcelona identifies the capacity to synthesize proteins (or biosynthetic capacity) as a key property for the regenerative potential of colon cancer cells. Published in Cell Stem Cell, the study proposes a new therapeutic focus for the scientific community and the pharmaceutical industry to explore.
Recently, researchers from Peking University, Shenzhen University and National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) report that the altered passivation of specified facets can direct the synthesis of fluoride nanocrystals into dimension-controlled products in a colloidal approach. An anomalous hysteretic behavior together with thermal dependent exchange anisotropy and high field irreversibility
Public health bodies should consider incentivizing social media influencers to encourage adolescents to follow social distancing guidelines, say researchers. Many adolescents are choosing to ignore the guidelines set out by governments during the COVID-19 pandemic, and peer-to-peer campaigns are likely to be more successful in changing attitudes.
Reproducing efficiently in captivity is crucial for the survival of many wildlife species, yet reproductive success is often lower than in the wild. Currently, many zoo population management strategies prioritize the genetic diversity of captive populations. Scientists now argue that a broader perspective is required which also includes behavior, life-history, husbandry and environmental considera
Researchers propose six levels of critical thinkers. The framework comes from educational psychologists Linda Elder and Richard Paul. Teaching critical thinking skills is a crucial challenge in our times. The coronavirus has not only decimated our populations, its spread has also attacked the very nature of truth and stoked inherent tensions between many different groups of people, both at local
How many people can safely shop in the same grocery store? Are masks really important? Is six feet far enough? Increasingly specific social distancing questions are weighing on states and municipalities as they inch toward relaxing COVID-19 restrictions. Now, a team of computer science and medical researchers is working on a tool that could provide more precise answers.
ETH researchers find climate change is increasing the risk of late-spring frost in areas where plants are not adapted to this kind of temperature swing, putting some forests of Europe and Asia at higher risk of damage.
Bredbåndsudbydere fremskynder nu investeringer i netværksinfrastrukturen, især på de bredbåndsforbindelser der kører over kabel-tv. De har nemlig flere gange være overbelastede under corona-krisen, hvor internettrafikken er vokset med op til 20 procent. For der er ikke udsigt til at danskernes di…
The coronavirus crisis has acted as a catalyst for two powerful transformative forces: automation and universal basic income. These two intertwined forces will undoubtedly gain steam, writes Frederick Kuo, and the pandemic will hasten the acceptance of them from a scale of decades to years or mere months. This crisis has ushered in a glimpse of what a dystopian future could look like as a rapidly
I mentioned the other day that what was reported as a hydroxychloroquine trial in China may well have been (or at least begun as) a trial of "traditional Chinese medicine" (TCM). It doesn't take much digging to turn up a number of registered clinical trials for coronavirus therapy via TCM, actually. Here are a few at Clinicaltrials.gov , and while it's harder to do a single search for the topic i
An environmental scientist, who led medical waste treatment during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, says that COVID-19 is one of the "easiest pathogens to destroy" and hospitals need not resort to environmentally unfriendly incineration to dispose of biomedical waste piling up from treating those infected with the virus.
Monitor lizard, Malayan porcupine, Indochinese tiger, Malayan tapir, great argus pheasant, sun bear and gaur. No, this isn't the answer to the question "what are your seven favorite forest-dwelling animals?" Instead, these species have all shown up on camera traps installed by Fauna & Flora International (FFI) teams in the Tanintharyi region of southern Myanmar.
Islands contribute enormously to global biodiversity, but are threatened by human activities. To understand why some islands have been more impacted since first human settlement than others, a new study compared environmental and societal variables of 30 islands in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean. The study by an international team of scientists, including ecologists from the University of Amsterdam, i
A new machine learning tool can calculate the energy required to make—or break—a molecule with higher accuracy than conventional methods. While the tool can currently only handle simple molecules, it paves the way for future insights in quantum chemistry.
Monitor lizard, Malayan porcupine, Indochinese tiger, Malayan tapir, great argus pheasant, sun bear and gaur. No, this isn't the answer to the question "what are your seven favorite forest-dwelling animals?" Instead, these species have all shown up on camera traps installed by Fauna & Flora International (FFI) teams in the Tanintharyi region of southern Myanmar.
Islands contribute enormously to global biodiversity, but are threatened by human activities. To understand why some islands have been more impacted since first human settlement than others, a new study compared environmental and societal variables of 30 islands in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean. The study by an international team of scientists, including ecologists from the University of Amsterdam, i
The prime minister is handling coronavirus so badly now, he makes even his most unpopular predecessors look public-spirited Though it majors in killing, coronavirus certainly enjoys a sideways glance at inequality. In April, we discovered that the British TV show Holby City owned only one fewer working ventilator than the African country Liberia. On Sunday, construction and manufacturing workers
New research describes the structure and composition of supramolecular attack particles (SMAPs) and their role in killing targeted cells. Identified as having a core of cytotoxic proteins surrounded by a glycoprotein shell the SMAPs are released by killer T cells and can be left in the environment like a landmine to await and destroy infected and cancerous cells.
A popular theory in neuroscience called predictive coding proposes that the brain produces all the time expectations that are compared with incoming information. Errors arising from differences between actual input and prediction are then iteratively minimized along a hierarchical processing scheme. It is assumed that such stepwise iteration leads to updating of brain predictions so that internal
Vaccination against rotavirus has led to a significant decrease in hospitalisations and deaths of children due to severe diarrhoea in the Western Pacific region, a new study has found.
Current research of metal complexes with organic ligands at Kazan Federal University concentrates on complex compounds of transition metals in aqueous and aqueous-organic solutions. So far, data has been obtained about the composition and stability of complexes of cobalt (II), nickel (II), copper (II) and vanadium oxide (IV) with mono-, di- and tetrahydrazides of various nature (aliphatic, aromati
A powerful new insight, linked to recent studies by Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI), has provided a new understanding of Glycopeptide antibiotics (GPAs) biosynthesis that allows new GPAs to be made and tested in the laboratory. This is vital in the quest to develop new antibiotics to keep pace with the ever-evolving 'superbugs' that continue to pose a serious threat to global public h
A powerful new insight, linked to recent studies by Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI), has provided a new understanding of Glycopeptide antibiotics (GPAs) biosynthesis that allows new GPAs to be made and tested in the laboratory. This is vital in the quest to develop new antibiotics to keep pace with the ever-evolving 'superbugs' that continue to pose a serious threat to global public h
Parts of China's gigantic Long March 5B rocket finally made their uncontrolled descent back to Earth on Monday, CNN reports . Pieces of debris soared over the continental United States before splashing into the Atlantic Monday afternoon, as confirmed by the US Air Force . "For a large object like this, dense pieces like parts of the rocket engines could survive reentry and crash to Earth," Harvar
Tusentals frivilliga kan tänka sig att bli smittade av covid-19 för att snabba på utvecklingen av ett vaccin. Spela videon för att höra en av volontärerna berätta varför.
A powerful new insight, linked to recent studies by Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI), has provided a new understanding of Glycopeptide antibiotics (GPAs) biosynthesis that allows new GPAs to be made and tested in the laboratory. This is vital in the quest to develop new antibiotics to keep pace with the ever-evolving 'superbugs' that continue to pose a serious threat to global public h
Many dangerous diseases such as COVID-19, Ebola and Q fever have jumped from animals to humans. But it is not only because of these diseases that we should include animals in our health policy, but also because of their right to health, writes Ph.D. candidate Joachim Nieuwland. Ph.D. defense on 13 May.
An interdisciplinary team of Kansas State University researchers developed a computer simulation that revealed beef supply chain vulnerabilities that need safeguarding—a realistic concern during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Astronomers from China and Australia have observed almost 90 pulsars with the Nanshan Radio Telescope in order to investigate their properties. Using the timing analysis method, the researchers determined positions, proper motions and rotation parameters of dozens of pulsars from the sample, and also detected glitches in three sources. The study was published May 5 on the arXiv pre-print server.
Many dangerous diseases such as COVID-19, Ebola and Q fever have jumped from animals to humans. But it is not only because of these diseases that we should include animals in our health policy, but also because of their right to health, writes Ph.D. candidate Joachim Nieuwland. Ph.D. defense on 13 May.
The UC San Diego researchers who developed algae-based flip-flops and surfboards are at it again. This time they are advancing their brand of renewable and biodegradable materials for use in other products like coated fabrics, patent leather and adhesives, with some foodie flare, too—flavors and fragrances.
A series of saliva HPV tests detected an asymptomatic throat cancer during a trial of a new saliva diagnostic. Further validation studies are needed to confirm this finding. It is a world-first discovery, previously there was no screening test for HPV-DNA oropharyngeal cancers. The patient had surgery in which a 2 mm cancer was removed and has had no recurrence of HPV-DNA in his saliva.
Nature, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-01390-w The pandemic is devastating economies. As countries look to revive growth, recovery must go with — not against — the grain of nature.
Dmitry Peskov confirms to Russian media that he is being treated for Covid-19 Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Vladimir Putin's press secretary has been diagnosed with coronavirus and is being treated in hospital. "Yes, I am sick, and receiving treatment," Dmitry Peskov told Russian outlets by telephone on Tuesday. He said he had not seen Putin in person for more than
A trio of researchers from the University of New Mexico, Harvard University and the University of Southern California has found evidence that suggests the curved phalange in apes is an inherited trait, not one that comes about from climbing. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ian Wallace, Loring Burgess and Biren Patel describe their study of the skeletal
The demands of miniaturization and integration of photonic components, such as nanolasers, have opened up and pushed the development of integrated optical systems. Halide perovskite semiconductor materials have shown tremendous potential in nanophotonics, particularly in miniaturized lasers, due to their outstanding properties.
Three researchers from Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart, Naturhistorisches Museum Schloss Bertholdsburg and Urweltmuseum GEOSKOP/Burg Lichtenberg, all in Germany, have found the oldest salamander fossil ever uncovered. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Rainer Schoch, Ralf Werneburg and Sebastian Voigt describe their find and where it fits in
A large team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions across the U.S. and one in Canada has found that the 2000-2010 drought in the Upper Missouri River Basin was the driest in the past 1,200 years. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their analysis of data from the PAGES 2k project and what it showed them.
In the past weeks, there have been dozens of scientific papers and thousands of news articles that focus on the links between this pandemic and air pollution. Dramatic work lockdowns and decreases in travel and in industry have significantly reduced air pollution to unexpectedly low levels. Major cities that suffer from the world's worst air pollution have seen reductions of deadly particulate mat
Physicists have measured the flight times of electrons emitted from a specific atom in a molecule upon excitation with laser light. This has enabled them to measure the influence of the molecule itself on the kinetics of emission.
The genetic information within cells makes individuals unique. The cell nucleus has a complex structure that harbors this genetic information. The main component of the nucleus is chromatin, an intercalated pool of genes and proteins. Promyelocytic leukemia (PML) bodies are structures found closely associated with chromatin, suggesting that they may be involved with genetic function. However, the
I ett framtida varmare klimat kommer avdunstningen från norra halvklotets våtmarker att öka betydligt mer än vad som tidigare varit känt. Det visar en internationell studie där forskare från Lunds universitet och Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet deltagit. Den nya upptäckten ger oss viktig kunskap kring hur den globala vattenbalansen kommer att påverkas i framtiden. Tillgång till vatten är en av de m
A trio of researchers from the University of New Mexico, Harvard University and the University of Southern California has found evidence that suggests the curved phalange in apes is an inherited trait, not one that comes about from climbing. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ian Wallace, Loring Burgess and Biren Patel describe their study of the skeletal
The genetic information within cells makes individuals unique. The cell nucleus has a complex structure that harbors this genetic information. The main component of the nucleus is chromatin, an intercalated pool of genes and proteins. Promyelocytic leukemia (PML) bodies are structures found closely associated with chromatin, suggesting that they may be involved with genetic function. However, the
The private Slack message arrived at 12:15 p.m., as I was toasting a year-old bagel, exhumed from my freezer: "Are you around?" It was the CEO, my direct manager. Normally she texts my phone when she wants to chat. Weird. "Yup!" I typed back. Where else would I be? I spread the last of the cream cheese onto the bagel and took a bite. Passable. How quickly one adapts to new realities in a pandemic
It was January when I first heard about the mysterious viral pneumonia circulating in Wuhan, China. I had some major worries—was this SARS redux, or something else?—but also a small, selfish lament. I was eager to go back to Hong Kong, where I had been conducting research on its protest movement. A new epidemic there would likely mean that visiting the city anytime soon would be unsafe. I worried
As part of an international collaboration with Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen (China), London Centre for Nanotechnology researchers at King's College London have developed a novel way of generating color 3-D images using a reflective metasurface performing through the entire visible spectral range. Metasurfaces are 2-D engineered materials typically made of subwavelength
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen and Microsoft Quantum Lab Copenhagen have recently carried out a study investigating the potential of Majorana zero modes, zero-energy quasiparticle states that can be found in superconductive hybrid nanowires, as a means of protecting quantum data. Their paper, published in Nature Physics, outlines the observation of photon-assisted tunneling signatures
Environmentalists have criticised Laos for pressing ahead with plans for another "destructive dam" on the Mekong River, a waterway already strangled by hydropower schemes.
Researchers at the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have come a step closer to making a viable, high-output battery based on magnesium (Mg), an element the United States Geological Survey reports is far more abundant than lithium.
On the eve of his move back to his native Tel Aviv, photographer Natan Dvir made a final tour of the streets that he had called home for the past 11 years.
"First, do no harm" is a core principle for all physicians. Yet with the new coronavirus wreaking havoc across the globe, the medical community is now asking: What if "first, do harm" is the right path forward? On the surface, it seems preposterous that we would deliberately infect healthy volunteers with Covid-19, a potentially life-threatening illness with no cure. However, the hope is that the
A study led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) researchers has revealed how the physical presence of spouses who are co-parenting can alter each other's brain activity.
Butchers and deli workers become desensitised to handling meat within the first two years of handling it as part of their job say psychologists. The longer our participants had worked in the meat industry, the less disgust and empathy they felt towards meat and the animals involved, and this reduced sense of empathy and disgust was observable within the first two years of work. This suggests that
Two important functions of the protein RTEL1 during cancer cell division could help pinpoint new cancer treatments, researchers report. One of the body's most important processes is cell division, which occurs throughout life. Normal cells only have a limited number of divisions, while in cancer cells the cell division goes awry and is uncontrollable. Therefore, researchers are working to identif
Our COVID-era "new normal" is clearly impacting the economy, our healthcare systems, our social lives, and even the way we protest . But what about our memories? Last summer, new research showed that increased internet usage might not only inhibit our ability to concentrate on a single task but the way we store information in our brains. A year later, we're spending more time on the internet than
Plant leaves exhibit a great diversity of forms that can be grouped into two types: simple leaves with a single blade, and compound leaves with multiple units called leaflets. A major question for plant developmental biologists is the molecular mechanism underlying diversity of compound leaf form during evolution.
The amount of data generated by businesses today has reached unprecedented levels following successive waves of digitalization across products, services, operations, and supply chains, and as a result of ubiquitous cloud computing technology. Data volumes are set to increase further still, as 5G leads to exponential growth in connectivity and makes largescale IoT deployments a reality. Yet harnes
Plant leaves exhibit a great diversity of forms that can be grouped into two types: simple leaves with a single blade, and compound leaves with multiple units called leaflets. A major question for plant developmental biologists is the molecular mechanism underlying diversity of compound leaf form during evolution.
Abraham Ortelius, with his comprehensive atlas, gave us not disenchantment, but a differing enchantment—a sense of the sheer magnitude of the planet. Wikicommons Now that we're corralled into our homes and apartments, something seems pre-modern in how our worlds have shrunk. Unlike past quarantines, we're also connected by digital technology to the rest of the globe, calling to mind poet John Don
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers are developing safe anti-viral nanoparticle coatings that demonstrate significant potential in preventing active surface infection with SARS-CoV-2.
Repeat sequences are ubiquitous in the genomes of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The rearrangement between direct repeats can result in deletions or expansions of DNA sequences, contributing to the genetic plasticity, regulation of transcription and protein coding sequence variations.
The modern environment of southern China is dominated by a humid monsoon climate, and presents a striking contrast to the widespread deserts found at similar latitudes elsewhere.
A new study by the University of Liverpool has found that sheep grazing does negatively affect the diversity of plant species of upland areas of the British countryside, and it could take up to 60 years for it to recover.
In the depths of the night sky lies a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 3583, imaged here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This is a barred spiral galaxy with two arms that twist out into the universe. This galaxy is located 98 million light-years away from the Milky Way. Two supernovae exploded in this galaxy, one in 1975 and another, more recently, in 2015.
A series of saliva HPV tests detected an asymptomatic throat cancer during a trial of a new saliva diagnostic. Further validation studies are needed to confirm this finding. It is a world-first discovery, previously there was no screening test for HPV-DNA oropharyngeal cancers. The patient had surgery in which a 2 mm cancer was removed and has had no recurrence of HPV-DNA in his saliva.
A new report from Kyoto University shows that freezing in action when a snake and frog face off is not about fear but rather a delicate waiting game of patience, with each animal waiting for and anticipating its opponent's actions.
Repeat sequences are ubiquitous in the genomes of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The rearrangement between direct repeats can result in deletions or expansions of DNA sequences, contributing to the genetic plasticity, regulation of transcription and protein coding sequence variations.
A new study by the University of Liverpool has found that sheep grazing does negatively affect the diversity of plant species of upland areas of the British countryside, and it could take up to 60 years for it to recover.
A major independent review has confirmed freshwater flows are vital to maintaining the health of the Murray River's lower lakes, striking a blow to demands by New South Wales that seawater flow in.
For the first time since March, Americans can watch major team sports on live TV. A week ago, ESPN started broadcasting games from the Korea Baseball Organization, which began its delayed season after a marked downturn in new daily COVID-19 cases in South Korea. The games have since been airing daily on the company's networks, buttressing a slate that for weeks had leaned on debate shows and re-a
COVID-19 has shattered the basic economic rationale President Donald Trump had put forward in running for reelection and forced him to come up with another: Joe Biden's handling of the catastrophe would be worse. Trump and his allies are working to graft his own vulnerabilities onto Biden, painting him as a feeble alternative to a president tested by the coronavirus pandemic and the economic tail
COVID-19, combined with the effects of ongoing civil conflicts, hotter and drier weather in many areas, and an unfolding locust invasion in Africa and the Middle East, could cut off access to food for tens of millions of people. The world is "on the brink of a hunger pandemic," according to World Food Program executive director David Beasley, who recently warned the United Nations Security Counci
A new study reports that astronauts excrete less sodium in space than on land, a finding that could have implications for the heart health of future space travelers.
As news of the pandemic began circulating, Canadians hurried to grocery stores, laying in supplies for the upcoming crisis. By mid-March, experts had begun warning against hoarding. There is plenty of food in our supply chain, they said; do not "panic buy" lest we create shortages—and very real hardships—for vulnerable members of our communities.
Many commentators have speculated on how the coronavirus pandemic will alter cities and the ways they are planned and used. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has tweeted: "There is a density level in NYC that is destructive […] NYC must develop an immediate plan to reduce density."
Researchers from Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) have developed an innovative method to visualize up to tens of different proteins simultaneously in the same cell. This technology could help scientists elucidate the complex protein interactions involved in degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, deepening the understanding of their mechanisms and allowing for early d
Det är svårt att jämföra olika områden med varandra när det gäller värdet av att bevara biologisk mångfald. Dessutom är de områden som idag är avsatta för skydd av biologisk mångfald inte tillräckligt skyddade för att uppnå den mest grundläggande nivån av långsiktigt bevarande av biodiversitet. Det visar nya studier från Sverige, USA och Storbritannien. – Vår forskning har fokuserat på en viktig
A new machine learning tool can calculate the energy required to make — or break — simple molecules with higher accuracy than conventional methods. Extensions to more complicated molecules may help reveal the inner workings of the chemical reactions that nourish the global ecosystem.
In the third week of March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic escalated, large hospitals in the Northeast experienced a 26 percent decline in average per-facility revenues based on estimated in-network amounts as compared to the same period in 2019. Nationally, the decrease in revenue for large hospitals was 16 percent. These are among the findings of FAIR Health's second COVID-19 study.
Researchers take waste products from algae-based omega-3 oil production and convert them into valuable and renewable polyurethane foams with a range of of commercial applications — from flip-flops and running shoe soles to mattresses and yoga mats.
Researchers at the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have come a step closer to making a viable, high-output battery based on magnesium (Mg), an element the United States Geological Survey reports is far more abundant than lithium.
Researchers from Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology(DGIST) have developed an innovative method that allows them to visualize up to tens of different proteins simultaneously in the same cell. This technology could help scientists elucidate the complex protein interactions involved in degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, deepening our understanding of their mechanisms and allo
The majority of pregnancies that fail do so at a very early developmental stage, before the pregnancy is even detectable by tests. This critical stage, occurring about a week after fertilization, is when an embryo implants itself into the uterus and begins to grow in a complex manner. Now, using mouse embryos, Caltech researchers have new insights into the embryo's architecture and the structures
The majority of pregnancies that fail do so at a very early developmental stage, before the pregnancy is even detectable by tests. This critical stage, occurring about a week after fertilization, is when an embryo implants itself into the uterus and begins to grow in a complex manner. Now, using mouse embryos, Caltech researchers have new insights into the embryo's architecture and the structures
Jupiter's moon Europa is the smoothest object in the Solar System. There are no mountains, very few craters, and no valleys. It's tallest features are isolated massifs up to 500 meters (1640 ft) tall.
Climate warming is leading to early springs and delayed autumns in colder environments, allowing plants to grow for a longer period of time during each growing season. Plants are absorbing more carbon dioxide (CO2) as a result of this longer growing season.
Editor's Note: Read "The Blood Tax," new fiction from Emma Donoghue. "The Blood Tax" is taken from Emma Donoghue's forthcoming novel, The Pull of the Stars (available on July 21). To mark the story's publication in The Atlantic , Emma and Thomas Gebremedhin, a senior editor at the magazine, discussed the story over email. Their conversation has been lightly edited for clarity. Thomas Gebremedhin:
Det har i medier spekulerats mycket kring huruvida coronapandemin i olika länder används som ett svepskäl för att avskaffa demokratin. Inte sällan dras paralleller till mellankrigstiden 1918–1945 och den turbulenta ekonomiska och politiska situation som då rådde i Europa och resten av världen.
Maybe this is the time for that career change. (Tyler Franta / Unsplash/) If you have some extra time on your hands and you want to do something productive, you might want to learn a new skill. Consider coding—it's easy to get started, everything you need is online (oftentimes for free), you can make a career out of it, and the possibilities are endless. Literally. There are a lot of online resou
E-handeln behöver förfina sina rekommendationssystem med bättre användardata för att nå fram med rätt produkt till rätt kund. Och användaren måste kunna lite på rekommendationerna utifrån sina klick. Malmöforskaren Dimitris Paraschakis visar hur rättvisa algoritmer ger träffsäkra system som gynnar båda parter. Dimitris Paraschakis vid Malmö universitet undersökt hur företag på nätet kan ge person
Opholdsforbuddet på Islands Brygge for at minimere smittespredningen af corona, stemmer ikke overens med videnskabelige studier, men sundheds- og ældreminister kommer ikke med forklaring.
The worldwide economic landscape has changed dramatically over the past four months, as the COVID-19 pandemic has stalled activity in nearly every corner of the world.
A material consisting of a polymer compound embedded with bismuth trioxide particles holds tremendous potential for replacing conventional radiation shielding materials, such as lead, a new study shows. The bismuth trioxide compound is lightweight, effective at shielding against ionizing radiation such as gamma rays, and can be manufactured quickly. Those qualities make it a promising material fo
Genom att ta stamceller från en persons bukfett och underhudsfett och spruta in dem i en skadad muskel, kan kroppens läkning påskyndas efter en nervskada. Det visas i en ny avhandling vid Umeå universitet. – Det här kan vara en öppning mot en möjlig framtida behandling för personer som drabbas av nervskador som annars leder till muskelförtvining och försämrad rörlighet, säger Roine El-Habta, dokt
Women are more likely to conceive fraternal twins once they reach their 30s as a result of an evolutionary response to combat declining embryo viability, according to a new international collaboration involving researchers at The University of Western Australia.
Insects in products such as pasta or bread, microalgae, and single-cell proteins derived from wood could feed and nourish humans and animals in the future. Now, those exploring alternative proteins for more sustainable eating are working out how to make the switch to bug-based food a reality.
Researcher Alfonso Benito Calvo, head of the Geomorphology and Formation Processes line of research at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, is the lead author of a paper just published in the journal Quaternary Research that analyzes the formation of Roca dels Bous (Lleida, Spain), which was inhabited by Neanderthals, in relation to the evolution that took place of this
Women are more likely to conceive fraternal twins once they reach their 30s as a result of an evolutionary response to combat declining embryo viability, according to a new international collaboration involving researchers at The University of Western Australia.
A minimally invasive biosensor system could help people better manage gout, say researchers. Gout is a painful joint disease that affects over 8 million Americans. Patients with gout tend to have higher levels of urate salts circulating in their bloodstream, a condition called hyperuricemia. These urate crystals then diffuse out of blood vessels and accumulate in the space between joints. The sal
It took seven years, countless beetle penis field investigations, and hours upon hours on hands and knees in coastal wetlands. This is the story of all the research that has to happen before a new species can finally get its official name.
New research in Nature Climate Change provides evidence that rising temperatures are likely to increase crop losses as warmer soils favor the growth of pathogenic soil fungi species.
Many island nations, including the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, are facing an existential threat as a result of a rising sea level induced by global climate change. A group of MIT researchers led by Skylar Tibbits, an associate professor of design research in the Department of Architecture, is testing ways of harnessing nature's own forces to help maintain and rebuild threatened islands and coast
It took seven years, countless beetle penis field investigations, and hours upon hours on hands and knees in coastal wetlands. This is the story of all the research that has to happen before a new species can finally get its official name.
New research in Nature Climate Change provides evidence that rising temperatures are likely to increase crop losses as warmer soils favor the growth of pathogenic soil fungi species.
With their rich repertoire of anti-infective substances, medicinal plants have always been key in the human fight to survive pathogens and parasites. The search for herbal drugs with novel structures and effects is still one of the great challenges of natural product research today. Scientists from Leipzig University (UL), the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB) and the German Centre for
A research team from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena (Germany) and Louisiana State University has clarified the molecular mechanism behind the anti-inflammatory effect of a natural product from frankincense resin. The enzyme 5-lipoxygenase plays a key role, reprogramming the normally pro-inflammatory enzyme into an anti-inflammatory protein.
'Myopia Control 2020: Where are we and where are we heading?' has been published in Ophthalmic & Physiological Optics, the peer-reviewed journal of The College of Optometrists, giving eye care practitioners a comprehensive analysis of evidence-based information needed to help manage myopia.
With their rich repertoire of anti-infective substances, medicinal plants have always been key in the human fight to survive pathogens and parasites. The search for herbal drugs with novel structures and effects is still one of the great challenges of natural product research today. Scientists from Leipzig University (UL), the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB) and the German Centre for
A research team from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena (Germany) and Louisiana State University has clarified the molecular mechanism behind the anti-inflammatory effect of a natural product from frankincense resin. The enzyme 5-lipoxygenase plays a key role, reprogramming the normally pro-inflammatory enzyme into an anti-inflammatory protein.
Scientists around the world are intensively working on memristive devices that draw extremely low power and behave similarly to neurons in the brain. Researchers from the Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA) and the German technology group Heraeus now report the systematic control of the functional behavior of these elements. The smallest differences in material composition turned out to be cruc
The question of whether or not wearing a facemask "works" is incredibly complicated. It may not seem so at first, but let me list some of the specific questions contained in that broad question. We need to consider different kinds of masks – cloth, surgical, N95. We need to consider who is wearing the mask – someone known to be infected, someone who is well, and in what setting, out in public or
I månens ungdom bildades nya mineral vid jättelika meteoritnedslag. Det visar nya analyser av gamla månprov. Samma sak antas ha hänt under vårt jordklots tidiga utveckling. Sedan Apollo-färderna hämtat markprover från månen, för omkring 50 år sedan, har forskare vetat att månens yta mest består av basalt, en vulkanisk bergart som även är vanlig på Jorden och bildas vid en temperatur på 1 300 grad
Coming out of lockdown, the country is relying on thousands of local case trackers and on software, once used to protect rhinoceroses, for disease surveillance — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Coming out of lockdown, the country is relying on thousands of local case trackers and on software, once used to protect rhinoceroses, for disease surveillance — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
China, Denmark and Singapore expand testing; Spain to quarantine new arrivals; France bans drinking on Seine Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Countries are taking urgent steps to avoid a damaging second wave of Covid-19 infections, stepping up mass testing programmes and announcing strict quarantines on incoming travellers in a bid to keep the virus under control. Chi
Georgian Spring Series by Mark Power/Magnum Editor's Note: This article is part of Uncharted , a series about the world we're leaving behind, and the one being remade by the pandemic. W alking into the Kiln Theatre in North London is like uncovering a time capsule—from before lockdown, before social distancing, before face masks and injunctions to stay six feet apart. When staff do their regular
Mens corona-epidemien forsinker udrulningen af 5G i Europa, blæser Kina derudaf med 50 millioner 5G-brugere. Efter Folketinget netop har sagt nej til en ekstraordinær 5G-pulje på 300 millioner kroner, afsætter Industriens Fond tre millioner til 5G-test hos danske virksomheder.
Äldreomsorgen är en resursmässigt eftersatt och undervärderad del av samhället, både i Sverige och internationellt. I coronapandemins inledningsskede glömdes äldreomsorgen helt enkelt bort, vilket är en av huvudorsakerna till att smittan fått så omfattande spridning i många länders äldreboenden. Det menar Marta Szebehely, professor emeritus i socialt arbete vid Stockholms universitet. Hon har for
The virus that causes COVID-19 can persist in aerosol form, some studies suggest. But the potential for transmission depends on many factors, including infectiousness, dose and ventilation — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
The virus that causes COVID-19 can persist in aerosol form, some studies suggest. But the potential for transmission depends on many factors, including infectiousness, dose and ventilation — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Scientists worldwide have long debated our ability to identify male and female dinosaurs. Now, research led by Queen Mary University of London has shown that despite previous claims of success, it's very difficult to spot differences between the sexes.
Four of six critically ill COVID-19 (coronavirus) patients significantly improved after receiving an experimental therapeutic designed to reduce inflammation, a major cause of death from this disease, according to a case series published by Cedars-Sinai and Capricor Therapeutics. The four patients got well enough to be discharged from the hospital.
Scientists warn of rolling lockdowns if government fails to reconsider its approach Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Further outbreaks of coronavirus and rolling lockdowns are inevitable under government plans to ease restrictions and send people back to work in England without a robust strategy to suppress Covid-19, an independent group of scientists has warned. The
I Silkeborg har man prøvet at forholde sig til den situation, som den praktiserende læge faktisk sidder i, skriver de fratrådte medlemmer af Advisory Board på Diagnostisk Center i Silkeborg.
It would be nice to have a serious discussion of the Supreme Court's new telephone-argument format. Alas, that discussion has already been largely derailed by what dramatists call " noises off ." There's embarrassment enough to go around in that episode; my shamefaced confession is that I didn't hear it. So I will move on to matters of substance. Is the new format better? [ Garrett Epps: A citize
Scientists worldwide have long debated our ability to identify male and female dinosaurs. Now, research led by Queen Mary University of London has shown that despite previous claims of success, it's very difficult to spot differences between the sexes.
Scientists worldwide have long debated our ability to identify male and female dinosaurs. Now, research led by Queen Mary University of London has shown that despite previous claims of success, it's very difficult to spot differences between the sexes.
It's been 111 days since the first reported case of the coronavirus in the United States. It's been 57 days since President Trump issued social-distancing guidelines, and 12 days since they expired. Yet the Trump administration still has no plan for dealing with the global pandemic or its fallout. The president has cast doubt on the need for a vaccine or expanded testing. He has no evident plan f
The discrepancy could be a statistical fluke—or a sign that physicists will need to revise the standard model of cosmology — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
The discrepancy could be a statistical fluke—or a sign that physicists will need to revise the standard model of cosmology — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Courtesy of Bridget Phetasy / The Atlantic Editor's Note: This is the third in a series of commencement addresses commissioned by The Atlantic for students who will not be able to attend their graduations because of the pandemic. When I was 12, I bet my cousin $100 that I would graduate from an Ivy League school. I didn't really care which one, but Georgetown—not an Ivy, but what did I know?—and
Nature, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-01412-7 Real spinach and artificial chemistry combine to turn sunlight into sugar. Plus, the first CRISPR test for the coronavirus is approved in the United States and how swamped preprint servers are blocking bad coronavirus research.
Amerikanske og britiske børn dør af noget, der ligner Kawasaki-syndrom, hvor immunforsvaret overreagerer efter en infektion. Der kan også være en stigning herhjemme, men det er uklart om det er sæsonbetinget.
When George Costanza's father, Frank, is introduced in Season 4 of Seinfeld , he is a typically world-weary sitcom dad played by the theater veteran John Randolph. Hen-pecked by his wife, he reacts to his son's antics with little more than a sigh; the only indication of sublimated rage comes in a scene where he smacks his son on the forehead in frustration. The role of Frank was recast in Season
Even before librarians closed their doors against the pandemic, they started moving fast to keep their work going. They began shifting regular programming online; distributing stockpiles of mobile technology to the digitally needy; strengthening partnerships with schools and food donation sites; activating their maker-technology to produce PPE; helping prepare the homeless population with alterna
A team of researchers in France has lost two papers on their studies of yeast because the work was "a complete work of fiction," in the words of one colleague. The papers came from the lab of Jean-Luc Parrou, of the University of Toulouse, and involved work by a former PhD student of his named … Continue reading
It might just look like a funky beaver, but this guy's skeleton is almost alien-like. (Andrey Atuchin/) The world is already full of zany animals, from giant murder hornets to freaky deep-sea creatures . But some of the organisms that wandered around Earth in the distant past look downright alien in comparison. A new study in the journal Nature highlights a particularly kooky-looking Cretaceous-e
Er det fornuftigt at indkalde 93 patienter til CT-skanning med kontrast i Silkeborg for at finde ét tilfælde af overset kræft med en sandsynlighed på mellem en og to promille? Nej, hospitalsledelsen og Styrelsen for Patientsikkerhed har ikke tænkt sig om, skriver tre overlæger.
Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom. Find out how many confirmed cases have been reported in each of England's local authorities Coronavirus – live news updates Find all our coronavirus coverage here How to protect yourself from infection Please note: these are government figures on numbers of confirmed cases – some people who report sympt
Den danske strategi bevæger sig nu endnu længere i retning af omfattende test og opsporing af smittekæder. Fremover skal coronasyge danskere isoleres på feriecentre og hoteller og deres kontakter skal testes.
The news: Wuhan's entire population of 11 million people will be tested for coronavirus after the city, where the pandemic started, discovered new infections for the first time since its lockdown was lifted. Each district in the city has been instructed to create a plan to test every resident within 10 days, according to a document from Wuhan's anti-virus department published by Chinese state med
The United States' top infectious disease expert plans to testify at a Senate hearing that moving too quickly to ease restrictions could undermine the country's quest to return to normalcy.
The man behind Trump's favorite unproven treatment has made a great career assailing orthodoxy. His claim of a 100 percent cure rate shocked scientists around the world.
Nature Communications, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15724-9 Despite the importance of neural-network quantum states, representing fermionic matter is yet to be fully achieved. Here the authors map fermionic degrees of freedom to spin ones and use neural-networks to perform electronic structure calculations on model diatomic molecules to achieve chemical accuracy.
Nature Communications, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16050-w Naked mole rats are the longest-lived rodents and produce very-high-molecular-mass hyaluronan (vHMM-HA). Here the authors show that naked mole rat vHMM-HA is better at protecting mouse and human cells from cell cycle arrest and cell death, compared to the high-molecular-mass hyaluronan produced by these species.
Nature Communications, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16081-3 Immune tolerance is mediated by the deletion of autoreactive T cells via medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTEC) and dendritic cells (DC), and by the induction of regulatory T cells (Treg). Here the authors show that mTEC receiving toll-like receptor signaling control the recruitment of CD14+Sirpα+ DC population
Nature Communications, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16098-8 The formation of chiral molecules generally relies on direct chirality transfer from catalyst to products. Here, the authors report a strategy based on point chirality transfer from the catalyst to a dirhodium carbene intermediate with axial chirality, which is then transferred to products via C(sp2)-H functional
Nature Communications, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16211-x The Legionella pneumophila effector MavC inhibits the human ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme Ube2N. Here, the authors combine NMR, X-ray crystallography and biochemical assays and show that MavC catalyses the intramolecular transglutaminase reaction between the Ube2N and Ub subunits of the Ube2N∼Ub conjugate and pres
Nature Communications, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15930-5 Neuroinflammation has been proposed to accompany the peripheral inflammation observed in PTSD. Here, authors find lower in vivo and postmortem levels of neuroimmune marker TSPO (translocator protein) in PTSD, in association with greater PTSD severity and higher plasma CRP.
Nature Communications, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16235-3 Plastic pollution has infiltrated every ecosystem, but few studies have quantified the biogeochemical or ecological effects of plastic. Here the authors show that microplastics in ocean sediment can significantly alter microbial community structure and nitrogen cycling.
Nature Communications, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15775-y Prismatic dislocation loops (PDLs) form during the elastic-to-plastic transition of a dislocation-free volume under nanoindentation. Here the authors observe the initial plasticity and burst-like emission of PDLs in Au nanowires by in-situ transmission electron microscopy, elucidating fundamental aspects of the f
Nature, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-01408-3 A detailed study shows that young migrants' risk of developing psychiatric disorders rises stepwise with the number of traumas experienced.
The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically shrunk the number of patients showing up at hospitals with serious cardiovascular emergencies. Now, doctors worry a new wave of patients is coming — people who have delayed care and will be far sicker by the time they finally arrive in emergency rooms.
Nature, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-01369-7 For visually impaired researchers, learning to program can be challenging. A tool called CuriO offers a mutisensory route.
Nature, Published online: 12 May 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-01370-0 Energy researcher Jessika Trancik has designed an app that helps users choose vehicles with low environmental impacts.
Selvom det danske projekt Dreamwind har lange udsigter og udgør en investeringsrisiko, så afskrækker det ikke vindmøllegiganten Vestas, der vil være 'zero waste' i 2040 og derfor støtter en række bæredygtighedsprojekter.
Some people are lucky enough to look back at their childhood with affection for a time in life without much stress and anxiety. They might think of long hours spent playing in the backyard free of worry, or pursuing projects and relationships without apprehension or fear. Such tender memories are often in stark contrast to the lives many lead as adults, where stress and anxiety seem to dominate.
Det går att robotsvetsa komplexa komponenter i aluminium med hjälp av friktionsomrörningssvetsning (FSW). Hemligheten är effektiv temperaturstyrning under hela svetsprocessen. – Då blir kvaliteten på fogarna blir bättre, och man sparar både tid och material, säger Ana Magalhães. Ana Magalhães, doktorand vid Högskolan Väst, har visat att det som tidigare ansetts vara omöjligt faktiskt fungerar; nä
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