Search Posts

Nyheder2021april02

| : No comments

Tegn abonnement på BioNyt!

Vil du hjælpe med at finde nyheder? DO YOU WANT TO HELP FINDING SCIENCE NEWS? Email: bionyt@gmail.com Phone-sms: (45)21729908

The Atlantic
Vaccine Cheat Days Are Adding Up
 
A few weeks ago, my partially vaccinated partner and my wholly unvaccinated self got an invitation to a group dinner, held unmasked and indoors. There'd be Thai food for 10, we were promised, and two über-immunized hosts, more than two weeks out from their last Moderna doses. And what about everyone else? I asked. Would they be fully vaccinated, too? Well , came the response. Not really. Some wou
2d
Science | The Guardian
The Brexit elite cannot hope to fool us for much longer | William Keegan
 
Exiting the EU was not good for Britain. Greed did not bring us the vaccine. Johnson's narratives will not stand the light of day There can be few people who have not at some stage in their lives felt that they had been "taken for a ride" or conned. Yet that, I think, will be the dawning realisation of a fair proportion of the 37% of the electorate who – without, in most cases, having the faintes
2d
Science | The Guardian
From housing to vaccine passports, politicians act as if young people don't exist | Zoe Williams
 
The UK's young have become the pigeons of the public realm, only remarked upon when they leave litter in the park House prices were having a mini-boom by last July, buoyed up by what felt like the windfall of a stamp duty holiday and the pent-up demand of the first lockdown. By the autumn, prices were still climbing, but not to worry, said the experts: they'll crash again when people start to los
20h
Science | The Guardian
I don't blame colleagues for leaving the NHS: the government has betrayed them | Samantha Batt-Rawden
 
I thought this crisis had shown who the key workers of the UK were. So why are things now getting worse for us? Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden is president of the Doctors' Association UK and a senior registrar in intensive care medicine. It's 4am and resus looks like a bomb has hit it. We have had to open almost every piece of kit available to keep the patient in front of us alive. Wearily, I register t
18h
Futurism
New Russian Weapon Is Designed to Unleash "Radioactive Tsunamis"
 
Testing Grounds Russia appears to have developed a nuclear weapon capable of sneaking along the bottom of the sea and detonating along the coastline to flood the area with what one official described as "radioactive tsunamis." The nuclear weapon, called the Poseidon 2M39 torpedo, has experts concerned, CNN reports , as the radioactive waves could potentially devastate coastal cities and render hu
1d
Phys.org
Fungi could manipulate bacteria to enrich soil with nutrients
 
A team of researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) has discovered a distinct group of bacteria that may help fungi and plants acquire soil nutrients. The findings could point the way to cost-effective and eco-friendly methods of enriching soil and improving crop yields, reducing farmers' reliance on conventional fertilizers.
4d
Phys.org
Image: Hubble revisits the Veil Nebula
 
This image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope revisits the Veil Nebula, which was featured in a previous Hubble image release. In this image, new processing techniques have been applied, bringing out fine details of the nebula's delicate threads and filaments of ionized gas.
4d
Phys.org
Hubble spots double quasars in merging galaxies
 
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is "seeing double." Peering back 10 billion years into the universe's past, Hubble astronomers found a pair of quasars that are so close to each other they look like a single object in ground-based telescopic photos, but not in Hubble's crisp view.
11h
Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
Model reveals surprising disconnect between physical characteristics and genetic ancestry in certain populations
 
A new study by Stanford University biologists finds an explanation for the idea that physical characteristics such as skin pigmentation are "only skin deep." Using genetic modeling, the team has found that when two populations with distinct traits combine over generations, traits of individuals within the resulting "admixed" population come to reveal very little about individuals' ancestry. Their
1d
Phys.org
A diversity of wildlife is good for our health
 
A growing body of evidence suggests that biodiversity loss increases our exposure to both new and established zoonotic pathogens. Restoring and protecting nature is essential to preventing future pandemics. So reports a new Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) paper that synthesizes current understanding about how biodiversity affects human health and provides recommendations for
1d
Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
Female sheep found to prefer less dominant males when mating
 
A team of researchers from Universidad Autónoma del Estrado de Morelos and Universidad de la República, has found that given the choice, female sheep prefer to mate with less domineering males. In their paper published in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science, the group describe experiments they conducted with male and female sheep and what they learned from them.
1d
Phys.org
Humans were apex predators for two million years
 
Researchers at Tel Aviv University were able to reconstruct the nutrition of stone age humans. In a paper published in the Yearbook of the American Physical Anthropology Association, Dr. Miki Ben-Dor and Prof. Ran Barkai of the Jacob M. Alkov Department of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, together with Raphael Sirtoli of Portugal, show that humans were an apex predator for about two million yea
1d
Phys.org
Dark Energy Survey physicists open new window into dark energy
 
The universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, and while no one is sure why, researchers with the Dark Energy Survey (DES) at least had a strategy for figuring it out: They would combine measurements of the distribution of matter, galaxies and galaxy clusters to better understand what's going on.
8h
Phys.org
Structural biology opens new perspectives for treating psychiatric disorders
 
Glycine is the smallest amino acid—one of the building blocks of proteins. It acts also as a neurotransmitter in the brain, enabling neurons to communicate with each other and modulating neuronal activity. Many researchers have focused on increasing glycine levels in synapses to find an effective treatment for schizophrenia. This could be done using inhibitors targeting Glycine Transporter 1 (GlyT
8h
Futurity.org
What if 70% of the universe isn't dark energy after all?
 
Researchers have tested a model that suggests the universe's expansion is due to a dark substance with a kind of magnetic force, not dark energy. Until now, researchers have believed that dark energy accounted for nearly 70% of the ever-accelerating, expanding universe. For many years, this mechanism has been associated with the so-called cosmological constant, which Einstein developed in 1917, w
1d
EurekAlert! – Breaking News
Less sugar, please! New studies show low glucose levels might assist muscle repair
 
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have shown that skeletal muscle satellite cells, key players in muscle repair, proliferate better in low glucose environments. This is contrary to conventional wisdom that says mammalian cells fare better when there is more sugar to fuel their activities. Because ultra-low glucose environments do not allow other cell types to proliferate, the team cou
3d
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
Impacts of biodiversity and biodiversity loss on zoonotic diseases [Ecology]
 
Zoonotic diseases are infectious diseases of humans caused by pathogens that are shared between humans and other vertebrate animals. Previously, pristine natural areas with high biodiversity were seen as likely sources of new zoonotic pathogens, suggesting that biodiversity could have negative impacts on human health. At the same time, biodiversity…
10h
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
Ranking the risk of animal-to-human spillover for newly discovered viruses [Applied Biological Sciences]
 
The death toll and economic loss resulting from the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic are stark reminders that we are vulnerable to zoonotic viral threats. Strategies are needed to identify and characterize animal viruses that pose the greatest risk of spillover and spread in humans and inform…
10h
ExtremeTechExtreme – ExtremeTech
'Impossible' EmDrive Actually Is Impossible, Comprehensive Test Shows
 
Humanity has come a long way in understanding the universe. We've got a physical framework that mostly matches our observations, and new technologies have allowed us to analyze the Big Bang and take photos of black holes. But the hypothetical EmDrive rocket engine threatened to upend what we knew about physics… if it worked. After the latest round of testing, we can say with a high degree of cert
16h
EurekAlert! – Breaking News
Understanding how cancer can relapse
 
In the fight against cancers, activating mutations in the RAS family of genes stand in the way of finding viable treatment options. Now, scientists at the University of Missouri and Yale University have discovered that one of these mutations — oncogenic RAS or RASV12 — is also responsible for the regrowth of cancer cells following genotoxic therapy treatment, or drugs that cause damage to a canc
1d
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
4E-BP2-dependent translation in parvalbumin neurons controls epileptic seizure threshold [Neuroscience]
 
The mechanistic/mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) integrates multiple signals to regulate critical cellular processes such as mRNA translation, lipid biogenesis, and autophagy. Germline and somatic mutations in mTOR and genes upstream of mTORC1, such as PTEN, TSC1/2, AKT3, PIK3CA, and components of GATOR1 and KICSTOR complexes, are associated…
10h
ScienceDaily
Humans were apex predators for two million years, study finds
 
In a new study, researchers were able to reconstruct the nutrition of stone-age humans. The study's authors collected about 25 lines of evidence from about 400 scientific papers from different scientific disciplines, dealing with the focal question: Were stone-age humans specialized carnivores or were they generalist omnivores?
1d
The Atlantic
Only Congress Could Give Us a Matt Gaetz
Matt Gaetz Florida
•
 
Last week, Representative Matt Gaetz tweeted that if he were ever engulfed in scandal, he wanted it to be called "Gaetzgate." (The Floridian was replying to a groaner of an Elon Musk pun that he seemed to have missed; that lack of perceptiveness was an omen.) Gaetz got his wish quickly, and then some. First, there's reportedly a federal criminal investigation into whether the 38-year-old Gaetz pa
4d
Futurism
NASA Releases Breathtaking Rover Photo of "Rainbow" on Mars
 
Update 4/6/2021: NASA got back to us with an explanation for the image — we've updated the post below, and you can also read our new story about the agency's explanation right here . There shouldn't be any rainbows on Mars. To get rainbows on Earth, you need both sunlight and raindrops in the sky. The thin Martian atmosphere, however, is far dryer than Earth's, to say the least. That's why a new
1d
The Atlantic
The Urgency of Vaccinating Kids
 
Kim Hagood hates needles. But as a middle-aged adult with chronic conditions, she got vaccinated against COVID-19 without delay. "I never thought I'd be so excited to get a shot," she told me, giddily, hours before her appointment. A single mother in Trussville, Alabama, Hagood is less certain about vaccinating her 10-year-old son when the time comes. The fact that the mRNA technology in Pfizer's
1d
Futurism
World's Deepest Shipwreck Dive Reaches Sunken WWII US Battleship
 
Four Miles Under The Sea An American exploration team has completed the world's deepest shipwreck dive to a nearly 80-year-old US navy destroyer sunk in WWII. Caladan Oceanic, an undersea tech company based in Texas, has completed two eight-hour dives almost 6,500 meters into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Philippines to reach the wreckage of the 115-meter-long battleship the USS Johnson,
2d
The Atlantic
'The Narrative Is, "You Can't Get Ahead"'
 
Ndona Muboyayi wants to improve the education that public-school children, including her son and daughter, receive in Evanston, Illinois, where her mother's family history goes back five generations. As a candidate for the school board in District 65, which educates children up until eighth grade, she wants to close the academic-achievement gap separating Black and brown students from white ones,
3d
The Atlantic
America Never Wanted the Tired, Poor, Huddled Masses
 
Lucas Dörre This article was published online on April 5, 2021. W hen David Dorado Romo was a boy growing up in El Paso, Texas, his great-aunt Adela told him about the day the U.S. Border Patrol melted her favorite shoes. Romo's aunt was Mexican and had a visa that allowed her to commute into South Texas for her job as a maid. Every week she had to report to a Border Patrol station, in accordance
1d
Futurism
Florida Declares State of Emergency Due to Potential Radioactive Material Leak
 
Imminent And Uncontrolled Florida has declared a state of emergency in Manatee County after officials announced a wastewater pond containing radioactive material is at risk of collapsing. Governor Ron DeSantis issued the state of emergency for the region on Saturday, according to CBS News . Officials at the Manatee County Public Safety Department declared a mandatory evacuation notice for the are
2d
The Atlantic
Research Proves It: There's No Such Thing as Noblesse Oblige
 
P aul Piff just landed on Park Place. I own it. "Shit," he says. I also own three railroads, a couple of high-rent monopolies, and a smattering of random properties. Piff is low on cash. He's toast. We're playing Monopoly on a sunny pre-pandemic afternoon in Piff's modest office at UC Irvine. The 39-year-old psychology professor is an expert on how differences in wealth and status affect people's
2d
Science | The Guardian
Blood clot cases 'could dent faith of young women in AstraZeneca'
UK Germany AstraZeneca
•
 
Experts urge public to go for inoculations as benefits far outweigh potential complications Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Health officials are becoming increasingly worried that younger people will reject Covid jabs as concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine continue to grow. A total of 30 cases of rare blood clots have been linked to the jab in the UK, resulting in
2d
Futurism
New Facebook Leak Was So Huge It Included Mark Zuckerberg's Personal Data
Facebook Mark Zuckerberg
•
 
Indiscriminate Hacking Back in 2019, hackers stole the personal information of over 533 million Facebook users from around the world. Now that information is available online, according to Insider , and it turns out that it's so expansive that it even includes Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personal data . The leaked data appeared on a hacking forum on Saturday. First spotted by Alon
1d
Futurism
Pieces of Alien Planet Buried Inside Earth Are "Millions of Times Larger Than Mount Everest"
 
Left Behind Roughly 4.5 billion years ago, an ancient protoplanet called Theia likely crashed into the Earth, sending shrapnel and debris into space and ultimately forming the Moon. But the crash also likely left pieces of Theia buried beneath the Earth in the form of two incredibly huge blobs of rock and metal, according to research by Arizona State University scientists. Now, in a new interview
4d
Futurism
Harvard Scientists Excited by Results on New Cancer Vaccine
 
A team of researchers say they've designed a personalized cancer vaccine capable of inducing an immune response that fights off melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, that lasts for several years. In a study published in the journal Nature Medicine back in January, the scientists examined eight subjects who previously had their melanoma surgically removed, but were still at a high risk of r
4d
Futurism
NASA's Mars Helicopter Is Online and Just Sent Back a Photo
 
First Color Snap NASA's Mars helicopter, dubbed Ingenuity, is online and just snapped its first color photo over the weekend. The agency's Perseverance rover recently lowered the four-pound rotocopter to fend for itself on the rugged Martian surface. Since then, it's weathered its first chilly night alone in the surrounding Jezero Crater, where temperatures can drop down to -130 degrees Fahrenhei
12h
Quanta Magazine
Mathematicians Settle Erdős Coloring Conjecture
 
In the fall of 1972, Vance Faber was a new professor at the University of Colorado. When two influential mathematicians, Paul Erdős and László Lovász, came for a visit, Faber decided to host a tea party. Erdős in particular had an international reputation as an eccentric and energetic researcher, and Faber's colleagues were eager to meet him. "While we were there, like at so many of these tea par
1d
The Atlantic
Could Index Funds Be 'Worse Than Marxism'?
 
T he stock market has had quite a year. Plenty of cash is sloshing around, the pandemic recession notwithstanding, thanks to loose monetary policy, rampant inequality, crypto-speculation, and helicopter drops of cash. Plenty of bored people are reading market rumors on the internet, pumping and dumping penny stocks, riding GameStop to the moon, and bidding up the price of esoteric currencies and
1d
Futurism
Facebook Lets Chinese Government Run Genocide-Denying Ads
 
Misinformation Platform Facebook employees are raising concerns internally about the company's role in enabling the Chinese government to further persecute its Muslim Uyghur population. The Chinese government has been committing acts of genocide against Uyghurs, forcing them into camps in its Xinjiang region and forcibly sterilizing them — all while paying for ads on Facebook saying that people i
11h
The Atlantic
Your Diet Is Cooking the Planet
 
What's for dinner? On a planet wracked by rising seas, expanding deserts, withering biodiversity, and hotter temperatures, that's a fraught question to answer. Food production accounts for roughly a quarter of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions, and scientists have found that limiting global warming will be impossible without significant changes to how the world eats . At the same time, climate
17h
The Atlantic
The Forgotten History of the Western Klan
 
The Ku Klux Klan was on the rise in the spring of 1869. Vigilantes could measure their success that season by the carnage they left behind: marauded homesteads, assaulted politicians, a church burned to the ground. According to a local report, insurance companies considered canceling their policies, "owing to the Ku Klux threats." A school serving students of color was supposedly next on the Klan
17h
Science | The Guardian
Global rollout of vaccines is no longer a guarantee of victory over Covid-19 | Susan Michie, Chris Bullen, et al
 
New variants of concern have changed the game, spreading worldwide and threatening to derail pandemic control efforts At the end of 2020, there was a strong hope that high levels of vaccination would see humanity finally gain the upper hand over Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. In an ideal scenario, the virus would then be contained at very low levels without further societal disruptio
23h
Science | The Guardian
Report claims watchdog looking into use of AstraZeneca jab for under-30s
AstraZeneca Covid UK
•
 
Channel 4 News cites sources saying issue being considered, but regulator says no decision made Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage The UK's medicines regulatory body has said that no decision has been made on any regulatory action relating to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine following reports it is considering restricting use of the vaccine in younger people. Channel 4 Ne
1d
Futurism
NASA's Mars Helicopter Survives First Night On Its Own
 
Bitter Cold NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity has officially survived its first night alone after being deployed by the agency's Perseverance rover. It was a bitterly cold night: temperatures can drop to -130 degrees Fahrenheit (-90 Celsius) in the surrounding Jezero Crater, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory — so the fact that the Marscopter has survived its first night is a promising
1d
Science | The Guardian
Gaming technology recreates 16th-century music in Scottish chapel
 
Researchers capture how choral music would have sounded in birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots The sounds of an Easter concert performed for James IV in a Scottish chapel have been recreated using gaming technology alongside groundbreaking recording techniques that allow specialists to model how acoustics would have been affected by long-destroyed interior details, such as the curve of an alabaster
1d
NYT > Science
Let Us Now Praise Tiny Ants
 
Even in the densest human habitations, there are orders of magnitude more ants than there are of us, doing the hard work of making our crumbs disappear.
1d
Futurism
Paleontologists Discover Dinosaur With Super Hearing
 
The One Who Causes Fear Paleontologists have discovered a new dinosaur species in Patagonia that likely had superior hearing abilities over its fellow dinosaurs. Researchers in Argentina dubbed the new species "Llukalkan aliocranianus," according to a press release from the paleontologists . Llukalkan comes from the Mapuche word for "the one who causes fear," while aliocranianus is Latin for "unu
2d
Futurism
Perseverance Drops Off Ingenuity Helicopter On Martian Surface
 
The Final Drop The Ingenuity helicopter has been dropped off on the surface of Mars by the Perseverance rover. NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab announced on Twitter that Ingenuity has successfully touched down on the Martian surface on Saturday, according to CNET . It was the culmination of nearly a week of deployment procedures — not to mention 293 million miles and about seven months of travel from Ea
2d
Science | The Guardian
Scientists create online games to show risks of AI emotion recognition
 
Public can try pulling faces to trick the technology, while critics highlight human rights concerns It is a technology that has been frowned upon by ethicists: now researchers are hoping to unmask the reality of emotion recognition systems in an effort to boost public debate. Technology designed to identify human emotions using machine learning algorithms is a huge industry , with claims it could
2d
Science | The Guardian
My rock'n'roll friendship with Lindy Morrison
 
She was in the Go-Betweens, Tracey Thorn was in the Marine Girls, their 30-year friendship enhanced both their lives On 31 March 1983, she burst into my dressing room, asking at the top of her voice, " Has anyone here got a lipstick I can borrow? " I looked up to see a tall woman in a Lurex dress, with a mass of blonde hair. Our two bands, Marine Girls and the Go-Betweens , were on the same bill
2d
Science | The Guardian
Undermining the AstraZeneca jab is a dangerous act of political folly | Robin McKie
 
Spreading fears over the Oxford vaccine undercuts science and public health It has been a disquieting week for those concerned about the lifting of Covid restrictions. Numbers of cases and deaths may be declining but the news that the AstraZeneca vaccine has been linked to cases of rare blood clots and has been suspended for use in younger people in Germany and the Netherlands is a disturbing dev
3d
Futurism
Giant Octopus Attacks Australian Geologist
 
Well-Armed Confrontation Most vacation souvenirs come in the form of cheap, plastic tchotchkes bought at gift shops — but sometimes they come in the form of scars from giant octopus attacks. That was the case with an Australian man who was attacked by a giant octopus while on vacation with his family in March. Lance Karlson, a 34-year-old geologist from Perth, was vacationing with his wife and da
3d
Futurism
Something Else Killed Three Times as Many People As COVID This Year
 
Air Raid The death count as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has been astronomical — but there may be an even bigger threat facing humanity that often goes unnoticed: air pollution, as Guardian columnist Rebecca Solnit argues in a recent opinion piece for the newspaper. She points to one recent study that found that air pollution caused by the use of fossil fuels results in the deaths of around
4d
Futurism
Americanized Diets Linked to "Neurocognitive Dysfunction," Doctors Warn
 
In some unfortunate medical news, it turns out that eating lots of delicious calorie- or sugar-rich snacks and junk foods can likely lead to neurological and cognitive impairments later in life. A massive literature review by University of Southern California, Los Angeles scientists pulled the results from dozens of mouse studies found that a high-calorie, high-fat diet — dubbed the "Western diet
7h
Futurism
Navy Official: Mysterious Drones Are Also Swarming Other Countries' Ships
 
Drone Swarms Reports of mysterious swarms of drones buzzing US Navy ships in July 2019 have top military officials puzzled. A series of lights appeared to "swarm" a fleet of American destroyers off the coast of Southern California, The Drive reported at the time. The Navy still has no idea what could be behind the lights, which were traveling far too fast to be consumer drones. "No, we have not,"
8h
Futurism
Scientists About to Start Testing a Universal Coronavirus Vaccine in Humans
 
Imagine how differently the past year of our lives would have gone if we already had a vaccine that prevented SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. That's what scientists want to be the case next time a dangerous coronavirus rolls around. Multiple teams of researchers from various institutions are working on universal coronavirus vaccines, New Scientist reports , and clinical experime
9h
The Atlantic
'Woke Capital' Doesn't Exist
 
Republicans are ready to take on "woke capital." After losing elections for president and U.S. Senate, Georgia Republicans passed a series of restrictions that specifically targets the voting methods used disproportionately by Democratic constituencies during the unusual circumstances of the pandemic. Whether those restrictions will have the desired effect of either placating the conservative bas
11h
Futurism
NASA: That's Not a Rainbow We Photographed on Mars
 
A new image taken by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover shows what appears to be a rainbow . But since there are no rain droplets in the dry Martian atmosphere, it couldn't have been a rainbow as we experience them back on Earth — so what was it? After the image went viral , netizens offered up several possible explanations: it either could have been a "dustbow" caused by dust particles in the air, o
13h
Phys.org
Researchers develop materials for oral delivery of insulin medication
 
A revolutionary technology developed within the Trabolsi Research Group at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) could dramatically improve the wellbeing of diabetic patients: an insulin oral delivery system that could replace traditional subcutaneous injections without the side effects caused by frequent injections.
15h
The Atlantic
You Won't Remember the Pandemic the Way You Think You Will
 
Illustrations by Chloe Scheffe This article was published online on April 6, 2021. M y plague year began on the evening of Wednesday, March 11, 2020, when I was compelled to cancel the Atlanta-to-Denver plane tickets my husband and I had purchased for the next day, for a long visit with our oldest son, daughter-in-law, and small grandson. I was all packed. For the first half of the week, I'd trie
17h
Science | The Guardian
James Mcallister was a much-loved family man. Did the Christmas mixing confusion cause his death?
 
In the run-up to Christmas, the government dithered and made last-minute rule changes that left many people baffled. A surge in coronavirus cases soon followed All through the spring of 2020, and into the summer, Michelle Mcallister carefully shielded her husband, James Mcallister. Michelle, 39, who lives in the Wednesfield area of Wolverhampton, was a full-time carer to James, 52. A former used
22h
Phys.org
NIST demo adds key capability to atom-based radio communications
 
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and collaborators have demonstrated an atom-based sensor that can determine the direction of an incoming radio signal, another key part for a potential atomic communications system that could be smaller and work better in noisy environments than conventional technology.
1d
Futurism
Watch NASA Astronauts Take SpaceX Spacecraft for a Joyride
 
Port Relocation Four current crew members on the International Space Station took SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, nicknamed Resilience, for a spin early Monday morning. The team, comprised of NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, departed from one docking port of the ISS to relocate to a different dock to prepare for an upcoming new cr
1d
Phys.org
Hand signals improve video meeting success
 
Using a simple set of hand signals can improve the experience of online meetings, make groups feel closer to each other and that they are learning and communicating better, finds a new study by UCL researchers.
1d
The Atlantic
The Surprising Comedic Genius of Daniel Kaluuya
 
Who's afraid of Daniel Kaluuya? According to the actor, that would be the British monarchy. "I'm Black and I'm British," he explained in his opening monologue during last night's Saturday Night Live . "Basically I'm what the Royal Family was worried the baby would look like." That dig at the royals comes just a few weeks after Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, told Oprah Winfrey that th
2d
Science | The Guardian
UK's Covid traffic light travel plan too simplistic, say scientists
 
Idea raises concerns among some scientists who say it could fail to stop new variants entering country Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Potential plans to introduce a traffic light scheme for travel abroad have prompted concerns among scientists that the approach is too simplistic and could fail to prevent new variants from entering the UK. At present, it is illegal t
2d
Science | The Guardian
'A life-changer': NHS England rolls out five-minute breast cancer treatment
 
New 'quicker and kinder' treatment combining drugs cuts length of time some patients have to spend in hospital A new breast cancer treatment will cut the amount of time some patients have to spend in hospital from two and a half hours to five minutes. The treatment, called Phesgo, is being rolled out across England by the NHS and will be offered to breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
2d
Futurism
NASA Tests Propulsion System for Lunar Space Station
 
Power and Propulsion NASA has recently tested a propulsion system for its future lunar space station. The agency conducted the ground test of a subsystem for their Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), according to a NASA press release . The PPE will allow NASA's Gateway , an outpost to orbit the Moon, to maneuver above the lunar surface. Check out a video of the ground test below (complete with ch
3d
Futurism
Mars Lander Detects Mysterious "Marsquakes"
 
Insightful Observation NASA has recently observed two strong quakes on Mars — but still aren't clear on their origins. The agency's InSight lander detected the magnitude 3.3 and 3.1 rumblings on March 7 and 18 (respectively) in a region on Mars called Cerberus Fossae, according to a NASA press release . The lander has previously detected two other powerful " Marsquakes" in the same region measuri
3d
Science | The Guardian
'Has everyone in Kent gone to an illegal rave?': on the variant trail with the Covid detectives
 
At the end of last year, a crack team of British scientists discovered a new coronavirus strain that would spread across the world. As new variants emerge, can they keep them at bay? In late November last year, the people of Swale in Kent were being lambasted for disobedience. They were being Covid-shamed. The district, home to a large number of apple orchards, as well as the historic towns of Fa
3d
Science | The Guardian
Australian Covid vaccine rollout to continue after blood clot case in Melbourne
 
The acting chief medical officer says it is 'likely' the 44-year-old Victorian man's condition is related to the vaccine Seven UK recipients of Oxford jab reported dead after clotting Australia's acting chief medical officer says there will be no changes to the national vaccination program for Covid-19 while health authorities continue to investigate whether blood clots developed by a 44-year-old
4d
The Atlantic
The Threat That COVID-19 Poses Now
 
After more than a year of pandemic, after months of an aggressive vaccination campaign, the United States should finally be better positioned to protect itself against the coronavirus. Nearly all of our long-term-care residents are vaccinated . Tens of millions of other people have been vaccinated, and tens of millions more have some level of immunity from previous infection. With more people pro
4d
Futurism
US Military Working on Supersonic Air Force One
 
Going Supersonic Last year, Californian startup Exosonic revealed that it's working with the US Air Force on a supersonic Air Force One jet that could be used to ferry the US executive branch around the globe at twice the speed of sound. Now, CNN got an exclusive look at the interior of the 31-passenger jet. The craft is based on a larger 70-passenger commercial airliner concept and has all the b
4d
Futurism
Chinese Astronauts Prepare To Assemble Space Station in Orbit
 
Gearing Up As China prepares to launch the modules of its next space station into orbit, the astronauts who will help assemble it in space are completing rigorous training. China plans to launch several individual space station modules in the coming months, Space.com reports , and human crews will follow to help with assembly. China plans to get the components and modules of its Tiangong-3 space
4d
Futurism
Hackers Are Stealing Sex Vids From Home Security Systems and Selling Them
 
Do Not Disturb Hackers in China are tapping into unsuspecting victims' home security cameras, recording them having sex, and selling the videos online. It's a disturbing but surprisingly common crime, the South China Morning Post reports , as there seems to be a huge online market for the videos. Overall, it reveals just how vulnerable — and counterproductive — the internet-enabled cameras we kee
4d
NPR
Scientists Race To Develop Next Generation Of COVID Vaccines
 
The three vaccines available in the U.S. are safe and effective, but not ideal. Now, work is underway to create more convenient and potent vaccines, including a tablet and nasal spray. (Image credit: Government Pharmaceutical Organization of Thailand via Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
10h
Futurism
This High Tech COVID Mask Was Designed by SpaceX's Spacesuit Creator
 
William "Will.i.am" Adams, rapper and founder of the Black Eyed Peas, is back with another gadget that may or may not be way ahead of its time. His newest creation is a smart facemask. But it isn't just any mask. The " Xupermask ," a collaboration with N95 face mask manufacturer Honeywell, is a mask that arguably has more bells and whistles than sense. It costs $299 and is partly made of silicon
11h
The Atlantic
Canada's Vaccine Mess
 
By the time you read this, at least a quarter of Americans will have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. It's a stunning turnaround for a country where a bungled early response, inadequate financial support to keep people home, and a mishmash of mask requirements have led to more than 30 million infections and more than 554,000 deaths. Just north of the border, Canadians—usually so
13h
Phys.org
Research team discovers use of elasticity to position microplates on curved 2D fluids
 
A team of polymer science and engineering researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has demonstrated for the first time that the positions of tiny, flat, solid objects integrated in nanometrically thin membranes—resembling those of biological cells—can be controlled by mechanically varying the elastic forces in the membrane itself. This research milestone is a significant step toward
1d
Futurism
Elon Musk Reveals Why Last Starship Prototype Exploded Before Landing
 
SpaceX's Starship prototype SN11 wasn't long for this world. During its fateful launch last week, the massive spacecraft took off inside a cloud of heavy fog at the company's facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, obscuring its ascent to roughly ten kilometers completely. Several minutes into the flight, SpaceX's official video feeds cut out. Shortly after, a massive explosion could be heard on various
1d
The Atlantic
The Biggest Party of 2021 Is About to Start
 
A lot can change in 17 years. The last time the cicadas were here, the virus behind the SARS outbreak had finally retreated. George W. Bush was campaigning for his second presidential term, and Myspace had commenced its meteoric rise . Tobey Maguire was still the reigning Spider-Man. The year was 2004, and a roaring mass of red-eyed, black-bodied insects had just mated and died—and left behind bi
1d
Science | The Guardian
Keir Starmer considers whether to back ministers over Covid certificates
 
Labour leader must decide if he will support plan some Tory MPs have called 'divisive and discriminatory' Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Keir Starmer is weighing up whether to support Covid status certificates in a vote within weeks for which he could lend the government crucial support to pass one of its most controversial coronavirus policies. The Labour leader ha
1d
Phys.org
A Swiss army knife for genomic data
 
A good way to find out what a cell is doing—whether it is growing out of control as in cancers, or is under the control of an invading virus, or is simply going about the routine business of a healthy cell—is to look at its gene expression. Though a vast majority of cells in an organism all contain the same genes, how those genes are expressed is what gives rise to different cell types—the differe
1d
Science | The Guardian
The 'elite controllers' who can naturally suppress HIV
 
Research into how some HIV-positive people keep the virus at bay promises to yield new treatment possibilities, from vaccines to gene therapies The year was 1998 when Joel Blankson encountered a patient he would never forget. Blankson was working in the HIV clinic at John Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, when an HIV-positive woman in her mid-40s arrived for some routine tests. Blankson gave
2d
Science | The Guardian
Empathy, compassion, personality, attitudes: can people change?
 
There is plenty of evidence that empathy can be taught in childhood, but it gets more complicated when it comes to adults, especially when it is forced Can people change? That's the question behind the multibillion-dollar self-help industry , the proliferation of blogs and podcasts that promise to make you a better human, and the ubiquitous and vacuous "inspo" memes. Continue reading…
3d
Futurism
NASA Says There Are Still Easter Eggs on Its Mars Rover That Nobody Has Discovered
 
I Spy NASA has been hinting that it hid two more Easter eggs on the Perseverance rover it's currently steering around the surface of Mars — and that nobody has spotted them yet. The space agency posted a few clues on Twitter, urging followers to investigate and uncover them before a big, on-theme Easter reveal this upcoming Sunday. NASA says that both hidden surprises can be seen in Perseverance'
4d
The Atlantic
Florida Man
 
Florida man, Florida man, great head of hair, studio tan, if I were hitching in the Everglades and you pulled up, I'd be afraid. I wouldn't climb into your minivan, your swampmobile, O Florida man. I'd wait for a ride with an honest trucker. Anyone but you, you sleazy fucker.
4d
Futurism
Professor Says We Could Already Build a Floating Space Elevator
 
The concept of a space elevator, a consistently popular topic in works of science fiction, has been around since at least the late 19th century . The basic idea is to allow us to reach space by using a cable that's tethered to the Earth on one end and to a counterweight, orbiting the Earth, on the other. But rather than having one end cemented in the Earth, scientists are now arguing that a more
4d
Futurism
People Are Experiencing a "Contact High" at Vaccination Centers
 
There's something exhilarating about getting a COVID-19 vaccine injected into your arm. The past year and change has been a disaster, especially in the United States: Over 500,000 of our friends, family members, loved ones, and neighbors have died, and the government's response illuminated and exacerbated the structural inequalities that are deeply entrenched in American society. But for many — s
4d
Phys.org
Ancient atmospheric oxygen sleuthing with ocean chromium
 
Found in jewelry, car parts, pigments, and industrial chemical reactions, the metal chromium and its compounds are often employed for their color, finish, and anti-corrosive and catalytic properties. Currently, geoscientists and paleoceanographers from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) are looking to add another use to that list: as a way to examine chemical shifts in ancient
14h
Science | The Guardian
UK star count shows drop in light pollution under lockdown
 
Highest proportion of participants since 2013 saw 30 or more stars in Orion constellation The number of stars visible in the skies above Britain increased in this year's annual count, indicating a lessening of light pollution in lockdown. CPRE, the countryside charity, said 51% of people taking part in its citizen science count in February noted 10 or fewer stars in the Orion constellation , indi
22h
The Atlantic
April Blooms: Spring Is on the Way
 
Spring started about two weeks ago, and the Northern Hemisphere has begun to warm, with flowers and trees in bloom. Gathered here today, a small collection of images from the past few weeks from North America, Asia, and Europe, of tulips, sunshine, and cherry blossoms—surely signs of warmer days to come.
1d
Phys.org
New 'quantum' approach helps solve an old problem in materials science
 
One of the most important classes of problems that all scientists and mathematicians aspire to solve, due to their relevance in both science and real life, are optimization problems. From esoteric computer science puzzles to the more realistic problems of vehicle routing, investment portfolio design, and digital marketing—at the heart of it all lies an optimization problem that needs to be solved.
1d
Futurism
Study: Turns Out People Are Sexist To Female Robots Too
 
"Alexa, what is gender bias?" Researchers have discovered evidence that users are biased towards female AI, believing them to be "more human" than male AI. In a study published in Psychology & Marketing , researchers found that consumers tend to perceive female robots as having more positive human traits such as warmth and emotion than male robots, according to The Academic Times . The researcher
3d
Futurism
Amazon Admits It Was Fibbing About the Pee Thing
Amazon Bottles Pocan
•
 
Sorry Not Sorry Amazon has issued a rare public apology related to its whole creating-a-harmful-and-oppressive-work-environment-that-forces-employees-to-urinate-in-bottles problem — but it wasn't aimed at its workers. After the tech company was caught lying to Rep. Mark Pocan and denying that Amazon workers don't pee in bottles because of how oppressive working conditions are, they admitted that
3d
Science | The Guardian
Chronic pain sufferers should take exercise, not analgesics, says Nice
 
Medicines watchdog recommends physical and psychological therapies when treating pain with no known cause People suffering from chronic pain that has no known cause should not be prescribed painkillers, the medicines watchdog has announced, recommending such patients be offered exercise, talking therapies and acupuncture instead. In a major change of pain treatment policy, the National Institute
4h
Phys.org
NASA's first weather report from Jezero Crater on Mars
 
The weather often plays a role in our daily plans. You might put on a light jacket when the forecast calls for a cool breeze or delay your travel plans because of an impending storm. NASA engineers use weather data to inform their plans, too, which is why they're analyzing the conditions millions of miles away on Mars.
7h
Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
An international study reveals how the 'guardian' of the genome works
 
Scientists from the Genomic Integrity and Structural Biology Group led by Rafael Fernández-Leiro at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) have discovered how certain proteins ensure the repair of errors introduced into the DNA during its replication. Using cryo-electron microscopy, they made the MutS protein, also known as the guardian of our genome, visible. That enabled them to desc
12h
The Atlantic
An Unexpected Boon to America's Vaccine Towns
 
At 8 a.m. on February 14, the very minute New York made me eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, I fired up my laptop and started looking for a shot. Over the course of five torturous minutes, I blasted my way through a laggy eligibility screener, waited for the confirmation page to unfreeze, and finally landed on the portal listing the state's mass-vaccination sites. "Appointments available," promise
16h
Futurism
Scientists Want to Replace Seeing Eye Dogs With Robodogs
 
Workplace Automation Artificial intelligence technology threatens to automate yet another job into nonexistence. This time, it's coming for seeing-eye dogs that help visually impaired people safely navigate the world . A team of scientists from the University of California, Berkeley have developed a four-legged robodog that they say can autonomously steer people around obstacles, New Scientist re
1d
Singularity Hub
This Huge Hologram-Like 3D Display Is Made of Thousands of Tiny LED Lights
 
Though we don't quite have the technology to make three-dimensional holograms a reality yet, companies like PORTL and Microsoft are working on it. But a third company decided to forego the traditional approach and came up with a whole new way to create 3D shapes made of light. LED Pulse uses thousands of strings of LED lights to make volumetric displays that, while not technically holograms, look
1d
Phys.org
Astronomer publishes survey of young stars
 
An international research group led by a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Virginia's Department of Astronomy identified a rich organic chemistry in young disks surrounding 50 newly formed stars.
1d
The Atlantic
Scale Was the God That Failed
 
On March 9, management at HuffPost notified 47 employees that they were being laid off as part of a cost-cutting effort following the digital journalism pioneer's acquisition by BuzzFeed . The brass handled the layoffs in a particularly ham-fisted way, but no amount of finesse would have made so many pink slips any less brutal to the staffers. For years now, journalists have watched their industr
4d
Quanta Magazine
Iceland's Eruptions Reveal the Hot History of Mars
 
After 15 months of increasingly intense and disruptive earthquakes on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula, the region finally let off some pressure. On March 19, lava roared out of the ground in the uninhabited valley of Geldingadalur, marking the first time in 800 years that this southwesterly strip of land has been rocked by an eruption. Volcanologists are thrilled, but this spectacle isn't just an o
11h
MIT Technology Review
The future of work is uniquely human
 
The disruptive shifts of 2020, including covid-19 shutdowns that led to millions of workers working remotely, forced organizations to radically rethink everything from worker well-being, business models and operations to investments in cloud-based collaboration and communication tools. Across every industry, last year's best-laid plans were turned upside down. So it's not surprising that technolo
11h
Science | The Guardian
First US trachea transplant offers hope to Covid patients with windpipe damage
 
Social worker, 56, treated at Mt Sinai hospital in New York Some patients left with serious damage from ventilators Surgeons in New York City have performed the first windpipe transplant in the US, giving a woman who suffered severe asthma a new trachea, the tube that transports air from the mouth to the lungs. Doctors say such operations could help Covid-19 patients left with serious windpipe da
12h
The Atlantic
An Interstellar Visitor Had a Sad Story to Tell
 
In 2019, Gennady Borisov, an amateur astronomer in Crimea, discovered his seventh comet. This icy object wasn't like the others Borisov had found, or like any of the other comets in the solar system. This one wasn't orbiting the sun. Instead, it had been drifting alone in interstellar space, following its own path, until one day, it entered our solar system and grazed past the sun. Warmed by the
12h
Phys.org
Curbing coronavirus spread in enclosed spaces means better masks, adequate ventilation
 
With research increasingly showing the COVID-19 virus is transmissible via smaller droplets suspended in air, there is a growing concern current public health guidelines of mask wearing and social distancing are insufficient in combating its spread in indoor environments, like prisons, hospitals, and meatpacking plants, where people tend to be in close quarters.
12h
Science | The Guardian
Fire on Australia's Antarctic resupply vessel leaves expeditioners shaken
 
Australian Antarctic Division says 109 people on board were uninjured, but the incident was 'potentially traumatic' for some An engine room fire that destroyed two vessels on board Australia's Antarctic resupply ship has left expeditioners shaken as they begin their journey home. The vessel, the MPV Everest, was in the middle of the Southern Ocean, four days into a two-week journey, when the ship
20h
MIT Technology Review
The CDC's $1.75 billion sequencing boom may be throwing money at the wrong problem
 
Shortly after President Biden was inaugurated, the man who was being given command of his coronavirus response had a message about what America needed to do. "We're 43rd in the world in genomic sequencing," said Jeff Zients at a press conference in January . "Totally unacceptable." The answer, he suggested, was to "do the appropriate amount of genomic sequencing, which will allow us to spot varia
1d
Phys.org
New method expands the world of small RNAs
 
A team led by a biomedical scientist at the University of California, Riverside, has developed a new RNA-sequencing method— "Panoramic RNA Display by Overcoming RNA Modification Aborted Sequencing," or PANDORA-seq—that can help discover numerous modified small RNAs that were previously undetectable.
1d
Phys.org
New web app ranks spillover risk for newly detected viruses
 
SARS-CoV-2 showed the world with devastating clarity the threat undetected viruses can pose to global public health. SpillOver, a new web application developed by scientists at the University of California, Davis, and contributed to by experts from all over the world, ranks the risk of wildlife-to-human spillover for newly-discovered viruses.
1d
Phys.org
Study reveals uncertainty in how much carbon the ocean absorbs over time
 
The ocean's "biological pump" describes the many marine processes that work to take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and transport it deep into the ocean, where it can remain sequestered for centuries. This ocean pump is a powerful regulator of atmospheric carbon dioxide and an essential ingredient in any global climate forecast.
1d
Futurism
Scientists Finally Explain Mysterious "Spiders" Spotted on Mars
 
Creepy Crawlies For decades, scientists have been baffled by bizarre formations on Mars' south pole that look like gigantic spiders. That's not to say that astronomers were concerned that future Martian outposts would be attacked by giant alien arthropods, but the unusual geologic formations still eluded explanation for years, Live Science reports . Now, a team of scientists from the UK seems to
1d
Phys.org
CRISPR-SNP-chip enables amplification-free electronic detection of single point mutations
 
Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) Assistant Professor and University of California, Berkeley Visiting Scientist Dr. Kiana Aran first introduced the CRISPR-Chip technology in 2019. Now just two years later, she has expanded on its application to develop CRISPR-SNP-Chip, which enables detection of single point mutations without amplification in Sickle Cell Disease and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
1d
Undark Magazine
Covid Put Remote Abortion to the Test. Supporters Say It Passed.
 
For years, federal regulations have limited telemedicine abortion services in the U.S., despite evidence of their safety. But for six months during the Covid-19 pandemic, fully remote abortion access was available in some states — and advocates say they don't want to go back. "The genie is out of the bottle."
1d
Science | The Guardian
UK restaurants and pubs see spike in bookings for planned reopening
 
Venues prepare to be busy from 12 April if coronavirus data allows outdoor hospitality to reopen Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Restaurants and bars with outdoor seating say bookings are at unprecedentedly high levels before a possible reopening next Monday, with people eager not to miss their first chance to eat out since lockdown was imposed. Some venues have inve
2d
Science | The Guardian
Two new vaccines on the way – with more to follow this year
 
Half of UK adults have had a first jab, and future supplies of millions of doses look assured Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Two very different jabs have been responsible for inoculating Britain's strikingly high number of vaccine recipients – with more than half of the country's adult population having now received a first dose and several million people having rec
2d
NYT > Science
Things To Do At Home
 
This week, whip up a drink while learning about art, meditate with the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco or listen to an audio play.
3d
The Atlantic
The Atlantic Daily: What the New CDC Travel Guidance Means—And Doesn't
CDC Vaccinated Travel
•
 
Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox. Today, the CDC updated its domestic travel guidance to say that fully vaccinated people can travel safely—but that doesn't mean the agency is recommending it. Why is that? We called up Katherine,
3d
RealClimate
Should the official Atlantic hurricane season be lengthened?
 
By Jim Kossin, Tim Hall, Mike Mann, and Stefan Rahmstorf The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season broke a number of records , with the formation of an unprecedented 30 "named storms" (storms that reach wind-speed intensity of at least 18 m/s and are then given an official name). The season also started earlier than normal. In fact, when ranked by their order in the season, the date of formation of ever
4d
Science | The Guardian
AstraZeneca Covid vaccine: weighing up the risks and rewards
 
Despite scientific advice to continue getting the jab, answers about fatal blood clots are urgently needed Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Vaccines have side-effects, as do all medicines. Most often, jabs cause sore arms, a headache or a bit of nausea – none of which would be very significant when weighed against the toll of a serious virus such as Covid-19. But some
5h
Futurism
Check Out This Deadly Robot Arm With an Actual Chainsaw
 
Stay Back It's like something straight out of a sci-fi horror movie. YouTube tinkerer Shane Wighton, behind the channel Stuff Made Here, built a giant chainsaw-wielding robotic arm that can chisel a dog shape out of bits of foam board. Wighton's original plan was to use his invention to create a bear cut out of a piece of wood, like the ones you see at the entrances to state parks. But several it
6h
Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
Great tits change their traditions for the better
 
Researchers at the University of Konstanz and Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany have found that birds are able to change their culture to become more efficient. Populations of great tits were able to switch from one behavior to a better alternative when their group members were slowly replaced with new birds. Published today as open access in the journal Current Biology, this res
7h
Futurism
Starship Exploding in the Fog Looks Amazing in Slow Motion
 
Now in Slow Motion On March 30, SpaceX's Starship SN11 prototype blew up in a massive cloud of orange light — a side effect of the space company having launched the full-scale spacecraft inside a thick layer of dense fog. Livestreams of the event didn't catch much of the explosion, except for massive pieces of debris raining down from the skies, wreaking havoc with the remotely controlled cameras
7h
Phys.org
A novel form of cellular logistics
 
Biophysicists from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have shown that a phenomenon known as diffusiophoresis, which can lead to a directed particle transport, can occur in biological systems.
8h
Science | The Guardian
The Guardian view on the pandemic: a universal crisis is revealing our divisions | Editorial
 
The UK must tread carefully. While some countries seem to be emerging from the shadows, no one is safe when Covid spreads so freely The pandemic has transformed the lives of billions around the globe, but beyond that common experience, it has highlighted and deepened divides rather than closed them. On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund warned that inequality both within and between countri
9h
Phys.org
Americans are super-spreaders of COVID-19 misinformation: study
 
Misinformation about COVID-19 is spreading from the United States into Canada, undermining efforts to mitigate the pandemic. A study led by McGill University shows that Canadians who use social media are more likely to consume this misinformation, embrace false beliefs about COVID-19, and subsequently spread them.
10h
Biochemistry News – Chemistry News
Stimulation of tiny areas on cellular surfaces with free radicals using a microfluidic probe
 
Could there be a way to chemically manipulate small, confined areas on cellular surfaces? Scientists have developed a microfluidic probe to send a flow of free radicals on live cells and track the outcome using fluorescence imaging. As outlined in the journal Angewandte Chemie, this approach makes it possible for the first time to generate a reaction zone of free radicals with controlled size and
10h
Phys.org
Researchers reveal elusive inner workings of antioxidant enzyme with therapeutic potential
 
Mitochondria, known as the powerhouses within human cells, generate the energy needed for cell survival. However, as a byproduct of this process, mitochondria also produce reactive oxygen species (ROS). At high enough concentrations, ROS cause oxidative damage and can even kill cells. An overabundance of ROS has been connected to various health issues, including cancers, neurological disorders, an
10h
Singularity Hub
How Scientists Grew Human Muscles in Pig Embryos, and Why It Matters for Organ Transplants
 
The little pigs bouncing around the lab looked exceedingly normal. Yet their adorable exterior hid a remarkable secret: each piglet carried two different sets of genes. For now, both sets came from their own species. But one day, one of those sets may be human. The piglets are chimeras—creatures with intermingled sets of genes, as if multiple entities were seamlessly mashed together. Named after
13h
Phys.org
A safer way to deploy bacteria as environmental sensors
 
In recent years, scientists have developed many strains of engineered bacteria that can be used as sensors to detect environmental contaminants such as heavy metals. If deployed in the natural environment, these sensors could help scientists track how pollutant levels change over time, over a wide geographic area.
14h
Phys.org
How baked bat guano helped archaeologists understand our ancient past
 
In an experiment to understand better how ancient artifacts are altered by the sediment in which they are buried for thousands of years, Australian archaeological scientists buried bones, stones, charcoal and other items in bat guano, cooked it, and analyzed how this affected the different items.
15h
The Atlantic
Democrats Are Short on Votes and Long on Irony
 
Call it a catch-535: Democrats in Congress are trying to pass a huge slate of voting-related reforms, under the name of the For the People Act, or H.R. 1, that could aggressively reshape U.S. elections, change the way Americans vote, and also go a long way toward alleviating the Democratic Party's structural electoral disadvantages. But the Democrats have to pass this bill with the tight margins
16h
The Atlantic
The Biggest Problem for America's Schools
 
B rian Woods has seen a lot in his nearly 30 years as an educator in the Northside Independent School District, in San Antonio. Tornadoes and storms have damaged buildings and left area campuses without power for weeks. Hurricanes have sent an unexpected surge of students into the district. In hindsight, each of those disruptions seems temporary—minor, even—compared with what he's seen over the p
17h
Science | The Guardian
UK Covid live news: Labour hardens opposition to 'digital ID card' Covid passports plan
 
Latest updates: Labour scepticism over Covid-status certificates intensifies, meaning government may lose vote in Commons on issue Keir Starmer likely to oppose Covid status certificates if put to vote What are Covid-status certificates and how might they work? Boris Johnson confirms easing of England lockdown next week Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage 10.23am BST Las
19h
Science | The Guardian
Bat catchers fight the next pandemic – in pictures
 
Researchers at the University of the Philippines Los Baños aim to catch thousands of bats to develop a Japanese-funded simulation model over the next three years that they believe could help avert potential pandemics. They hope the bats will help in predicting the dynamics of a coronavirus outbreak by analysing factors such as climate, temperature and ease of spread Continue reading…
21h
Science | The Guardian
Why has the African elephant been split into two species? – podcast
 
Recently, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessed the African elephant as two separate species – the forest elephant and savannah elephant. The move has increased these animals' ' red list ' categorisation to endangered for savannah elephants and critically endangered for forest elephants. In an Age of Extinction extra for Science Weekly, Patrick Greenfield asks why
23h
Futurism
The CEO of Apple Thinks People Will Use Augmented Reality for Something Absolutely Hilarious
 
During a chat with Kara Swisher for The New York Times today, Apple CEO Tim Cook sang the praises of the company's upcoming augmented reality glasses. Basically, he suggested that AR is going to turn regular conversations into Powerpoint presentations — complete with "graphs" that'll pop up while you're talking to illustrate the point you're trying to make. "Well, I can't talk about anything that
1d
Science | The Guardian
Medical tests promoted in media with no mention of potential harm, Australian study finds
 
Stories all reported potential benefits of tests, some using smartphone or watch, but 60% failed to mention limitations Medical tests often offered through smartphones and watches and designed to detect the early signs of disease are being promoted by media without mention of their potential harms, an Australian study published in the leading US medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine has found. R
1d
Phys.org
Under the radar: Searching for stealthy supersymmetry
 
The standard model of particle physics encapsulates our current knowledge of elementary particles and their interactions. The standard model is not complete; for example, it does not describe observations such as gravity, has no prediction for dark matter, which makes up most of the matter in the universe, or that neutrinos have mass.
1d
Phys.org
If astronomers see isoprene in the atmosphere of an alien world, there's a good chance there's life there
 
It is no exaggeration to say that the study of extrasolar planets has exploded in recent decades. To date, 4,375 exoplanets have been confirmed in 3,247 systems, with another 5,856 candidates awaiting confirmation. In recent years, exoplanet studies have started to transition from the process of discovery to one of characterization. This process is expected to accelerate once next-generation teles
1d
MIT Technology Review
How the pandemic is fueling the tech industry's union push
 
The last votes for one of the most closely watched unionization drives in modern history came in on Monday, March 29, and results could be announced shortly. The vote among almost 6,000 workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, on whether to join the Retail Warehouse and Department Store Union, or RWDSU, drew reaction from every corner, from the National Football Players Playe
1d
Science | The Guardian
Starwatch: look out for Leo the Lion
 
The constellation is beautifully placed for evening observation in the northern hemisphere At this time of year in the northern hemisphere, the constellation of Leo, the Lion, is beautifully placed for observation in the evenings. Continue reading…
1d
ScienceDaily
Research reveals why redheads may have different pain thresholds
 
Humans and mice with red hair have a different tolerance for pain because their skin's pigment-producing cells lack the function of a certain receptor. Lack of this receptor function causes changes that tip the balance between pain sensitivity and pain tolerance. The findings may be helpful for designing new treatments for pain.
2d
Science | The Guardian
Lack of Covid help puts medical research at risk, UK charities warn
 
Institutions dismayed at ministers' failure to protect research worth hundreds of millions of pounds Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Medical charities have expressed dismay at the UK government's failure to act over hundreds of millions of pounds of research that is at risk because of the catastrophic impact of Covid on fundraising. With charity shops closed and fund
2d
Phys.org
Births among endangered right whales highest since 2015
 
North Atlantic right whales gave birth over the winter in greater numbers than scientists have seen since 2015, an encouraging sign for researchers who became alarmed three years ago when the critically endangered species produced no known offspring at all.
3d
The Atlantic
When America Couldn't Bring Back Our Girls
 
I n 2014 , three months after Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 girls from a school in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok, a photo landed on a bank of monitors in the CIA's Abuja station, a group of sealed drop-ceiling rooms concealed behind the blast-proof walls of the United States embassy. The picture was the spy agency's best clue in months as to the location of the Chibok girls. It ha
3d
Science | The Guardian
Coronavirus live news: two visitors for England care home residents from mid-April; India cases hit six-month high
 
Children in England can visit grandparents for first time from next week; India's daily coronavirus infections hit six-month high NHS feels strain as tens of thousands of staff suffer long Covid Care home residents in England allowed two visitors from 12 April Australia vaccine rollout to continue after blood clot case Europe faces another Easter of Covid restrictions See all our coronavirus cove
3d
Science | The Guardian
Queensland reports one new case of locally acquired coronavirus
 
Chief medical officer Jeannette Young says state will stop sending Covid-19 patients to Princess Alexandra hospital Queensland will temporarily stop sending Covid-19 infected patients to Brisbane's highly-regarded Princess Alexandra hospital after authorities discovered it was the source of two separate clusters which forced the city into a three-day lockdown last week. The news came as the state
4d
ScienceDaily
Toddler TV time not to blame for attention problems
 
It's a common belief that exposure to television in toddlerhood causes attention-deficit problems in school-age children — a claim that was born from the results of a 2004 study that seemed to show a link between the two. However, a further look at the evidence suggests this is not true.
4d
Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
How pathogenic bacteria weather the slings and arrows of infection
 
Infectious diseases are a leading cause of global mortality. During an infection, bacteria experience many different stresses—some from the host itself, some from co-colonizing microbes and others from therapies employed to treat the infection. In this arms race to outwit their competition, bacteria have evolved mechanisms to stay alive in the face of adversities. One such mechanism is the stringe
4d
Phys.org
Biodiversity's healthy byproduct—nutrient-rich seafood
 
High levels of biodiversity in aquatic settings offers a wide range of vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids crucial for human health, a range of nutrients that are lacking in ecosystems where the number of species have been reduced by overfishing, pollution, or climate change, researchers report April 5 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
1d
Futurism
Simulation Shows This Fusion Reactor Doing Something Amazing
 
Simulation Theory A team of scientists may have cracked the code for self-sustaining nuclear fusion reactors that actually produce more electricity than they consume — an amazing accomplishment, at least in theory. In a series of simulations, the team from the Oak Ridge and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories and the private company General Atomics demonstrated how a tiny tokamak reactor cou
10h
ScienceDaily
Nearly 40,000 kids who lost a parent to COVID-19 need immediate support
 
Approximately 40,000 children in the United States may have lost a parent to COVID-19 since February 2020, according to a statistical model created by a team of researchers. The researchers anticipate that without immediate interventions, the trauma from losing a parent could cast a shadow of mental health and economic problems well into the future for this vulnerable population.
1d
Undark Magazine
In Mauritius, Locals United to Keep an Oil Spill at Bay
 
In July 2020, a cargo-ship ran aground in the pristine waters off the island of Mauritius. To protect the coast and the economy the from the resulting oil spill, hundreds of locals made DIY booms from any absorbent material they could find, eventually removing 75 percent of the oil from the coastline.
17h
Phys.org
How preprints accelerated science communication during the pandemic
 
During the early phase of the pandemic, approximately 40% of the COVID-19 literature was shared as preprints—freely available manuscripts that are shared prior to peer-review. In a new study publishing in the open access journal PLOS Biology, researchers led by Dr. Jonathon Coates (Queen Mary University of London), Dr. Nicholas Fraser (Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, Germany) and Dr. Lia
8h
ScienceDaily
New batteries give jolt to renewables, energy storage
 
Researchers have been exploring the use of low-cost materials to create rechargeable batteries that will make energy storage more affordable. Now, they have shown that a new technique incorporating aluminum results in rechargeable batteries that offer up to 10,000 error-free cycles.
1d
Phys.org
Oxygen-promoted synthesis of armchair graphene nanoribbons on Cu(111)
 
On-surface synthesis has received great attention as a method to create atomically-precise one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) polymers with intriguing properties. In particular, graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), a category of quasi-1D nanomaterials derived from graphene, have been widely studied due to their tunable electronic properties and potential applications in semiconductor devices, s
4d
Phys.org
Investigating the interplay of topology and non-Hermitian physics with nonlinear effects
 
An international team of researchers has investigated the interplay of topology and non-Hermitian physics with nonlinear effects. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes contructing an optical waveguide lattice using a biased photorefractive crystal and experiments introducing nonlinear effects. Piotr Roztocki and Roberto Morandotti with INRS-Énergie, Matériaux et Télé
14h
ExtremeTechExtreme – ExtremeTech
NASA's InSight Lander Detects Major Marsquakes
 
The NASA InSight lander. Mars is shaking, and we'd never know were it not for the trailblazing InSight lander. This mission touched down on the red planet in 2018, making history by deploying the first and only seismometer on another planet. NASA has been listening for rumbles ever since, and it just heard some big ones . NASA reports that InSight detected two strong quakes, originating in a regi
1d
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
Potential ecological impacts of climate intervention by reflecting sunlight to cool Earth [Environmental Sciences]
 
As the effects of anthropogenic climate change become more severe, several approaches for deliberate climate intervention to reduce or stabilize Earth's surface temperature have been proposed. Solar radiation modification (SRM) is one potential approach to partially counteract anthropogenic warming by reflecting a small proportion of the incoming solar radiation to…
10h
The Atlantic
Homeroom: My Daughter Is Lying to Me About School
 
Editor's Note: Every Tuesday, Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer take questions from readers about their kids' education. Have one? Email them at homeroom@theatlantic.com. Dear Abby and Brian, I'm writing about my daughter, a seventh grader whom I'll call Z. Her school has been fully remote since last spring. Z used to love school, but after a year of remote classes, she is totally unmotivated. I'm
16h
The Atlantic
9 Pieces of Advice to Help You See Relationships More Clearly
 
Editor's Note: With Lori Gottlieb on book leave, Rebecca J. Rosen, the editor of "Dear Therapist," begins another month as The Atlantic 's "Dear Therapist" archivist , pointing readers to some of Lori's most beloved columns. For this month's look-back at Dear Therapist columns, I've decided to turn not to a specific theme, but to a handful of columns that have been reader favorites over the years
1d
Sciencemag
Watching mRNA Do Its Thing, In Living Cells
 
This is a nice chemical biology paper that hits on a hot topic of the day: the uptake and function of mRNA when administered to cells. You can always look for downstream effects to show that you achieved both those goals, but it would be very useful to get images of this process in real time. Here's a heavily cited paper from 2013 that was able to do this for siRNA species, but the colloidal gold
1d
ScienceDaily
Outside factors may help children develop internal control
 
The ability to control your own behavior, known as executive function, might not exist all in your head. A new theory proposes it develops with many influences from outside the mind. It draws on dynamic systems theory which has been used to describe complex organizing phenomena like cloud formation. Now, researchers are applying it to executive function, which affects everything from children's re
1d
ScienceDaily
New blueprint of brain connections reveals extensive reach of central regulator
 
Researchers have generated a new map of connectivity from a part of the brain called the basal ganglia, a hub for regulating motor and behavior functions. The breadth of connections revealed could potentially open avenues for intervention of Parkinson's disease and other disorders such as Tourette's syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
1d
ScienceDaily
Making cleaner, greener plastics from waste fish parts
 
Polyurethanes are nearly everywhere, but these highly versatile materials can have a major downside. Derived from crude oil, toxic to synthesize, and slow to break down, conventional polyurethanes are not environmentally friendly. Now, researchers discuss devising what they say should be a safer, biodegradable alternative derived from fish waste — heads, bones, skin and guts — that would otherwi
1d
ScienceDaily
Study finds psychiatric disorders persist 15 years after youth are detained
 
Research shows nearly two-thirds of males and more than one-third of females with one or more existing psychiatric disorders when they entered detention, still had a disorder 15 years later. The findings are significant because mental health struggles add to the existing racial, ethnic and economic disparities as well as academic challenges from missed school, making a successful transition to adu
1d
ScienceDaily
Paleopharmaceuticals from Baltic amber might fight drug-resistant infections
 
For centuries, people in Baltic nations have used ancient amber for medicinal purposes. Even today, infants are given amber necklaces that they chew to relieve teething pain, and people put pulverized amber in elixirs and ointments for its purported beneficial properties. Now, scientists have pinpointed compounds that help explain Baltic amber's therapeutic effects and that could lead to new medic
1d
The Atlantic
The Awful Wisdom of the Hostage
 
Gérard DuBois This article was published online on April 5, 2021. I n October 2012 , in the second year of the Syrian civil war, a 44-year-old freelance journalist named Theo Padnos crossed from Turkey into Syria with two young men he thought were his friends. Padnos made friends easily and indiscriminately: In 2006, he was in Yemen researching a book about foreign converts on the path of jihad,
1d
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
Global warming is causing a more pronounced dip in marine species richness around the equator [Ecology]
 
The latitudinal gradient in species richness, with more species in the tropics and richness declining with latitude, is widely known and has been assumed to be stable over recent centuries. We analyzed data on 48,661 marine animal species since 1955, accounting for sampling variation, to assess whether the global latitudinal…
10h
forskning.se
Bättre återhämtning för vältränade efter kirurgi
 
Personer som är fysiskt aktiva återhämtar sig bättre efter att de opererats för tjock- eller ändtarmscancer. Men att börja träna när diagnosen är ett faktum hjälper inte. I sin avhandling har Aron Onerup, disputerad i kirurgi vid Sahlgrenska akademin, studerat patienter diagnosticerade med tjock- eller ändtarmscancer. De deltagare som varit fysiskt inaktiva visade sig ha högre risk att inte känna
17h
ScienceDaily
Doping by athletes could become tougher to hide with new detection method
 
As the world awaits the upcoming Olympic games, a new method for detecting doping compounds in urine samples could level the playing field for those trying to keep athletics clean. Now, scientists report an approach using ion mobility-mass spectrometry to help regulatory agencies detect existing dopants and future 'designer compounds.
1d
Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
Fireflies have a potential—protective 'musical armor' against bats
 
A new study at Tel Aviv University reveals a possible defense mechanism developed by fireflies for protection against bats that might prey on them. According to the study, fireflies produce strong ultrasonic sounds—soundwaves that the human ear, and more importantly the fireflies themselves, cannot detect. The researchers hypothesize that these sounds are meant for the ears of bats, keeping them a
1d
Phys.org
Toward a better understanding of 'fake news'
 
Duncan Watts, a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor and computational social scientist with appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication, School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Wharton School, has published a new framework for studying media bias and misinformation. Publishing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and co-authored by colleagues at Mic
15h
ScienceDaily
Key brain molecule may play role in many brain disorders
 
Scientists have identified a molecule called microRNA-29 as a powerful controller of brain maturation in mammals. Deleting microRNA-29 in mice caused problems very similar to those seen in autism, epilepsy, and other neurodevelopmental conditions. The results, published in Cell Reports, illuminate an important process in the normal maturation of the brain and point to the possibility that disrupti
6h
The Atlantic
As From a Quiver of Arrows
 
Carl Phillips, the former chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, has often described poetry as a way to wrestle with ambiguity—to attempt to contain it . "Poetry is a form of control," he once said . So Phillips chooses subjects—love, power, freedom, grief—that are particularly hard to grasp. In "," Phillips wrestles with death in a series of questions that progresses from the specific to t
2d
Futurity.org
School integration isn't a panacea for Black students
 
Integrating American classroom has not produced all the benefits ascribed to it, report researchers. Integrating schools has long been a goal of many who seek to eradicate racial discrimination. But the new paper from four economists suggests Black students do not always benefit from attending racially balanced schools. Instead, Black adults who attended racially balanced high schools in the mid-
15h
Discover Magazine
Is Coffee Good for You or Not?
 
Confused by the dizzying array of studies that seem contradictory at times? You've come to the right place. Here's what to know about coffee's — mostly beneficial — health impacts.
1d
ScienceDaily
Womens' pain not taken as seriously as mens' pain
 
Researchers found that when male and female patients expressed the same amount of pain, observers viewed female patients' pain as less intense and more likely to benefit from psychotherapy versus medication as compared to men's pain, exposing a significant patient gender bias that could lead to disparities in treatments.
6h
Vetenskap och Folkbildning
Ordsallad
 
Ett verkligt symptom Personer diagnostiserade med vissa mentala hälsoproblem, som till exempel Schizofreni, kan ibland uppvisa ett symtom som kallas schizofasi. Det innebär att de formulerar grammatiskt korrekta meningar, men … Continued Inlägget dök först upp på Vetenskap och Folkbildning .
1d
ScienceDaily
Deep learning networks prefer the human voice — just like us
 
A study proves that AI systems might reach higher levels of performance if they are programmed with sound files of human language rather than with numerical data labels. The researchers discovered that in a side-by-side comparison, a neural network whose 'training labels' consisted of sound files reached higher levels of performance in identifying objects in images, compared to another network tha
6h
Retraction Watch
Seven barred from research after plagiarism, duplications in eleven papers
 
A retired Nepali professor and six others have been barred from research after plagiarism and duplicated images were found in 11 of their papers. Parashuram Mishra, a retired crystallographer at Tribhuvan University, in Nepal, is the lead author on all the studies. Most of the papers contain image duplications; the same figures were reused across … Continue reading
1d
The Atlantic
The Atlantic Daily: Index Funds Could Hurt the Economy
 
Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox. While meme stocks and NFTs draw headlines, a group of economists and Wall Street experts worries that a much more traditional style of investing is stifling the economy, our staff writer Annie Low
12h
Phys.org
Lessons from the past: Protecting women and girls from violence during COVID-19
 
COVID-19 has impacted women and girls around the globe in adverse ways. However, little attention has been paid to women and girls in humanitarian settings, those whose safety has already been reduced due to conflict, natural disaster or displacement. For these women and girls, COVID-19 has made them particularly vulnerable to increases in gender-based violence.
1d
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
Impact of prenatal maternal cytokine exposure on sex differences in brain circuitry regulating stress in offspring 45 years later [Neuroscience]
 
Stress is associated with numerous chronic diseases, beginning in fetal development with in utero exposures (prenatal stress) impacting offspring's risk for disorders later in life. In previous studies, we demonstrated adverse maternal in utero immune activity on sex differences in offspring neurodevelopment at age seven and adult risk for major…
10h
ScienceDaily
Maddening itch of liver disease comes from a surprising source
 
A devastating itching of the skin driven by severe liver disease turns out to have a surprising cause. Its discovery points toward possible new therapies for itching, and shows that the outer layer of the skin is so much more than insulation. The finding indicates that the keratinocyte cells of the skin surface are acting as 'pre-neurons.'
4h
ScienceDaily
Screening for skin disease on your laptop
 
A biomedical engineer is reporting a new deep neural network architecture – to be used on a standard laptop – that provides early diagnosis of systemic sclerosis (SSc), a rare autoimmune disease marked by hardened or fibrous skin and internal organs.
9h
Futurism
Watch as NASA Drops a Spacecraft Into a Huge Dunk Tank
 
Dunk Tank On Tuesday afternoon, NASA Dropped a 14,000-pound model of its Orion spacecraft into a gigantic swimming pool. The test, which looked like a scaled-up version of a carnival dunk tank — minus the stuffed animal prize — seems silly at first glance. In video footage , the mock Orion fell a few feet before floating to the side while various NASA techs murmured their approval. But as Gizmodo
7h
ExtremeTechExtreme – ExtremeTech
Musk Blames Starship SN11 Failure on Methane Fuel Leak
 
We've been treated to a series of spectacular rocket tests lately, courtesy of SpaceX and the Starship development process. Of course, most of these rockets are exploding, but that only makes the tests more dramatic for outside observers. The most recent Starship rocket blew up in mid-air while beginning its landing burn. Now, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has announced a cause: a leaky pipe. We've all be
7h
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
Aquatic biodiversity enhances multiple nutritional benefits to humans [Sustainability Science]
 
Humanity depends on biodiversity for health, well-being, and a stable environment. As biodiversity change accelerates, we are still discovering the full range of consequences for human health and well-being. Here, we test the hypothesis—derived from biodiversity–ecosystem functioning theory—that species richness and ecological functional diversity allow seafood diets to fulfill multiple…
10h
Phys.org
Microbial production of a natural red colorant carminic acid
 
A research group at KAIST has engineered a bacterium capable of producing a natural red colorant, carminic acid, which is widely used for food and cosmetics. The research team reported the complete biosynthesis of carminic acid from glucose in engineered Escherichia coli. The strategies will be useful for the design and construction of biosynthetic pathways involving unknown enzymes and consequent
12h
Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
Finding gene neighbors leads to new protein functions
 
Access to sequenced genomes was a watershed moment in life science research. Genome sequences spell out an organism's DNA, the genetic code for how the organism develops, reproduces, and functions. As new technologies have developed, the availability of these gene sequences has grown exponentially. Unfortunately, scientists' ability to decipher the functions encoded in these sequences has not kept
15h
Phys.org
COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse gains made on Sustainable Development Goal 1 and 2
 
A new study analyzing bean production and food security across 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, found COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions to significantly impact bean production. Border controls and high transport costs have led to drops in production of the key food security crop, threatening to reverse gains made in achieving Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2, towards no poverty and ze
20h
ScienceDaily
Atom-based radio communications for noisy environments
 
Researchers have demonstrated an atom-based sensor that can determine the direction of an incoming radio signal, another key part for a potential atomic communications system that could be smaller and work better in noisy environments than conventional technology.
1d
Phys.org
Scientists unlock the secrets of glacier-fed streams, from Greenland to Switzerland
 
The field scientists working on the Vanishing Glaciers project aren't afraid of heights. They climb to the icy peaks of mountain ranges from the Himalayas to the Alps, equipped with vials, pipettes, thermometers and liquid-nitrogen cylinders (which they've nicknamed Dido and Fido). Their goal is to collect samples of the microorganisms living in glacier-fed streams and bring them back to EPFL for
1d
Phys.org
Nonlinear wave mixing facilitates subwavelength imaging
 
The diffraction limit, also known as the Abbe diffraction limit in optics, poses a great challenge in many systems that involve wave dynamics, such as imaging, astronomy, and photolithography. For example, the best optical microscope only possesses resolution around 200 nm, but the physical size of the photolithography process with an excimer laser is around tens of nanometers. Meanwhile, physical
1d
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
Combat stress in a small-scale society suggests divergent evolutionary roots for posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms [Anthropology]
 
Military personnel in industrialized societies often develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during combat. It is unclear whether combat-related PTSD is a universal evolutionary response to danger or a culture-specific syndrome of industrialized societies. We interviewed 218 Turkana pastoralist warriors in Kenya, who engage in lethal cattle raids, about their combat…
10h
EurekAlert! – Breaking News
For 80% of Americans with resolved drug problem, significant personal achievements
 
This study is the first to report the national prevalence of personal, civic and economic achievements among people in addiction recovery. The majority of Americans who have resolved an alcohol or other drug problem report achievements related to self-improvement, family engagement, and civic and economic participation since resolving their addiction. It appears these achievements accumulate with
1d
EurekAlert! – Breaking News
Certain high blood pressure medications may alter heart risk in people with HIV
 
Some blood pressure medications altered the likelihood of subsequent heart disease, stroke or heart failure in a study of veterans who have HIV (human immunodeficiency virus).Patients with HIV prescribed beta-blockers were more likely to develop cardiovascular disease compared to patients taking other blood pressure medications, even if their blood pressure was well controlled. All other classes o
1d
Discover Magazine
The Cicadas Are Coming
 
Brood X, perhaps the largest in the country, will emerge this spring after 17 subterranean years. Here's why it takes so long for them to emerge and how they will spend their fleeting time above ground.
4d
ScienceDaily
A new, positive approach could be the key to next-generation, transparent electronics
 
A new study could pave the way to revolutionary, transparent electronics for potential integration in glass, flexible displays and smart contact lenses — bringing to life futuristic 'scifi-like' devices. A decades-long search for electronics based on semiconducting oxides could also find use in power electronics and communications, reducing the carbon footprint of our utility networks. The introd
1d
Phys.org
New report shows high levels of arsenic and uranium in some wells
 
A new U.S. Geological Survey study provides an updated, statewide estimate of high levels of naturally occurring arsenic and uranium in private well water across Connecticut. This research builds on a USGS report published in 2017, with the new study including additional groundwater samples and focusing on previously underrepresented areas.
8h
ScienceDaily
'Brain glue' helps repair circuitry in severe TBI
 
In a new study, researchers have demonstrated the long-term benefits of a hydrogel, which they call 'brain glue,' for the treatment of traumatic brain injury. The gel protects against loss of brain tissue after a severe injury and might aid in functional neural repair.
9h
ScienceDaily
COVID-19: Tsunami of chronic health conditions expected, research and health care disrupted
 
Cardiometabolic diseases including heart disease, obesity, hypertension and type 2 diabetes, are at the crest of an impending tsunami of chronic health conditions as a result of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic that will affect society for decades. Interventions and universal health care are recommended to focus on prevention of cardiometabolic diseases, including programs that support healthy lifestyle be
11h
Science | The Guardian
What are thoughts? Where do they come from – and where do they go?
 
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts What are thoughts? Where do they come from, and where do they go when they disappear? Are they "filed" somewhere, a bit like memories, where we can find them again, or once a thought has gone is that it? Sue Christian, Oswestr
16h
Phys.org
Team uses mass spectrometry to study composition of meteorites
 
Scientists from Russia and Germany studied the molecular composition of carbonaceous chondrites—the insoluble organic matter of the Murchison and Allende meteorites—in an attempt to identify their origin. Ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry revealed a wide diversity of chemical compositions and unexpected similarities between meteorites from different groups. The research was published in Scie
1d
EurekAlert! – Breaking News
Going deep: Artificial intelligence improves accuracy of breast ultrasound diagnoses
 
Ultrasound is widely used to detect breast cancer early, but misdiagnosis of benign lesions as malignant tumors sometimes leads to unnecessary biopsies. To tackle this problem, scientists conducted a large multi-center study involving 13 hospitals in China to train deep learning models to accurately classify breast masses. Their results, published in Chinese Medical Journal, showcase how artificia
1d
ScienceDaily
Being top baboon costs males their longevity
 
A male baboon's social dominance requires constant physical defense and leaves its mark on his genes. Tracing the activity of 500 methylation sites on the baboon genome, a team of researchers working with the famous Amboseli baboon troop has found that the dominant males trade longevity for fecundity. The dominant males get more babies, but they have fewer years. If a male drops in social status,
10h
ScienceDaily
Separating beer waste into proteins for foods, and fiber for biofuels
 
All brewers experience the same result of the beer-making process: leftover grain. Once all the flavor has been extracted from grains, what's left is a protein- and fiber-rich powder that is used in cattle feed or put in landfills. Scientists now report a new way to extract the protein and fiber and use it to create new types of protein sources, biofuels and more.
13h
NeuroLogica Blog
The Great Oxygenation Events
 
The deep history of the Earth is fascinating, and while we have learned much about the distant past there are still many puzzle pieces missing. A new study tweaks our understanding of one of the biggest events in Earth's history – the Great Oxygenation Event, and also helps better align the other big events in the past. The Earth as we know it formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Earth is actually
1d
Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
Newly identified protein enables cells to sense surroundings and anchor in the right places
 
A combined team of researchers from the University of Geneva and the University of Tampere has identified a protein that plays a major role in enabling cells to perceive their environment and also to anchor in the right places. In their paper published in the journal Communications Biology, the group describes experiments they conducted that involved combining photoactivation, FA isolation and mol
14h
ScienceDaily
Fossil discovery deepens snakefly mystery
 
The recent discovery of four new species of ancient insects are leading scientists to question the evolutionary history of the snakefly. The fossils, discovered in British Columbia and Washington State, are estimated to be 52 million years old and were unearthed in a region once thought uninhabitable.
6h
ScienceDaily
Leptin puts the brakes on eating via novel neurocircuit
 
A new study in mice describes novel neurocircuitry between midbrain structures that control feeding behaviors that are under modulatory control by leptin, a hormone made by body fat. Since the discovery of leptin in the 1990s, researchers have wondered how leptin can suppress appetite.
9h
ScienceDaily
Scientists reveal elusive inner workings of antioxidant enzyme with therapeutic potential
 
The enzyme manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) plays a critical role in maintaining human health by keeping the amount of harmful reactive oxygen molecules in cells under control. By using neutron scattering, researchers have now obtained a complete atomic portrait of the enzyme, revealing key information about its catalytic mechanism. The work could help experts develop MnSOD-based treatments
9h
ScienceDaily
Tattoo made of gold nanoparticles revolutionizes medical diagnostics
 
Scientists have developed a novel type of implantable sensor that continuously transmits information on vital values and concentrations of substances or drugs in the body and can be operated in the body for several months. The sensor is based on color-stable gold nanoparticles that are modified with receptors for specific molecules.
14h
Phys.org
Molybdenum titanium carbide viable in additive manufacturing
 
Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists proved molybdenum titanium carbide, a refractory metal alloy that can withstand extreme temperature environments, can also be crack free and dense when produced with electron beam powder bed fusion. Their finding indicates the material's viability in additive manufacturing.
15h
Phys.org
The Deep-time Digital Earth program: Data-driven discovery in geosciences
 
Humans have long explored three big scientific questions: the evolution of the universe, the evolution of Earth, and the evolution of life. Geoscientists have embraced the mission of elucidating the evolution of Earth and life, which are preserved in the information-rich but incomplete geological record that spans more than 4.5 billion years of Earth history. Delving into Earth's deep-time history
15h
Biochemistry Research News — ScienceDaily
Elasticity to position microplates on curved 2D fluids
 
A team of polymer science and engineering researchers has demonstrated for the first time that the positions of tiny, flat, solid objects integrated in nanometrically thin membranes – resembling those of biological cells – can be controlled by mechanically varying the elastic forces in the membrane itself. This research milestone is a significant step toward the goal of creating ultrathin flexible
1d
Phys.org
Streamlining the process of materials discovery
 
Developing new materials and novel processes has continued to change the world. The M3I3 Initiative at KAIST has led to new insights into advancing materials development by implementing breakthroughs in materials imaging that have created a paradigm shift in the discovery of materials. The Initiative features the multiscale modeling and imaging of structure and property relationships and materials
1d
Phys.org
Actor in a supporting role: Substrate effects on 2D layers
 
Atomically thin layers are of great technological interest because of potentially useful electronic properties that emerge as the layer thickness approaches the 2D limit. Such materials tend to form weak bonds outside the layer and are thus generally assumed to be unaffected by substrates that provide physical support.
1d
Phys.org
Scientists develop a safe, cheap technology for disinfection of packed eggs
 
Russian researchers have developed an inexpensive, safe, and reliable surface disinfection technology for packed eggs. This technology helps to kill bacteria, including salmonella, on eggshells. Also, it allows growing broiler chickens with strong immunity to viral diseases. Packed eggs are disinfected with an electron beam for 50 nanoseconds (one-billionth of a second). Disinfection takes place i
1d
Retraction Watch
Weekend reads: Peer review 'brutality'; COVID-19 vaccine trial scandal; homeopathy researcher admits 'unethical behavior'
 
Before we present this week's Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: 25,000: That's how many retractions are now in the Retraction … Continue reading
3d
EurekAlert! – Breaking News
Novel cancer vaccine targets oncogenes known to evade immunity in melanoma and neuroblastoma models
 
A personalized tumor cell vaccine strategy targeting Myc oncogenes combined with checkpoint therapy creates an effective immune response that bypasses antigen selection and immune privilege, according to a pre-clinical study for neuroblastoma and melanoma. The neuroblastoma model showed a 75% cure with long-term survival, researchers at Children's National Hospital found.
4d
Phys.org
Ammonia decomposition for hydrogen economy, improvement in hydrogen extraction efficiency
 
For the implementation of an effective hydrogen economy in the forthcoming years, hydrogen produced from sources like coal and petroleum must be transported from its production sites to the end user, often over long distances and to achieve successful hydrogen trade between countries. Drs. Hyuntae Sohn and Changwon Yoon and their team at the Center for Hydrogen-fuel Cell Research of the Korea Inst
10h
Phys.org
At the crossroads of cell survival and death
 
National University of Singapore researchers discovered that a protein, known as MOAP-1, plays a crucial role in facilitating autophagy, a cellular "self-eating" process that recycles non-essential components during starvation.
1d
ScienceDaily
Raindrops also keep fallin' on exoplanets
 
Researchers found that raindrops are remarkably similar across different planetary environments, even planets as drastically different as Earth and Jupiter. Understanding the behavior of raindrops on other planets is key to not only revealing the ancient climate on planets like Mars but identifying potentially habitable planets outside our solar system.
14h
Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
What can we learn from vanishing wildlife species: The case of the Pyrenean Ibex
 
Likely the first extinction event of the 2000s in Europe, the sad history of the Pyrenean Ibex (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica) is a powerful example of the ever-increasing species loss worldwide due to causes related to human activity. It can, however, give us valuable information on what should be done (or avoided) to halt this extinction vortex.
20h