ScienceDaily: Latest Science News |
| Surveillance pathway tells cells when they run low on lipids Posted: 18 May 2022 12:23 PM PDT Researchers have discovered a molecular pathway that allows cells to sense when their lipid supplies become depleted, prompting a flurry of activity that prevents starvation. The findings might someday lead to new ways to combat metabolic disorders and a variety of other health conditions. |
| How plants colonize the base of an active stratovolcano Posted: 18 May 2022 11:07 AM PDT New research in plants that colonized the base of an active stratovolcano reveals that two simple molecular steps rewired nutrient transport, enabling adaptation. |
| Keeping buildings cooler with a wood-based foam Posted: 18 May 2022 11:07 AM PDT Summertime is almost here, a time when many people try to beat the heat. But running air conditioners constantly can be expensive and wasteful. Now, researchers have designed a lightweight foam made from wood-based cellulose nanocrystals that reflects sunlight, emits absorbed heat and is thermally insulating. They suggest that the material could reduce buildings' cooling energy needs by more than a third. |
| For wetland plants, sea-level rise stamps out benefits of higher CO2 Posted: 18 May 2022 11:07 AM PDT Wetlands across the globe are in danger of drowning from rising seas. But for decades, scientists held out hope that another aspect of climate change -- rising carbon dioxide (CO2) -- could trigger extra plant growth, enabling coastal wetlands to grow fast enough to outpace sea-level rise. That helpful side effect is disappearing, scientists have discovered. |
| Both nature and nurture contribute to signatures of socioeconomic status in the brain Posted: 18 May 2022 11:07 AM PDT Researchers found that a person's genetics and the environment in which they live contribute to how socioeconomic status shapes the architecture of the brain. |
| Component for brain-inspired computing Posted: 18 May 2022 10:07 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new material for an electronic component that can be used in a wider range of applications than its predecessors. Such components will help create electronic circuits that emulate the human brain and that are more efficient at performing machine-learning tasks. |
| Native plant gardening for species conservation Posted: 18 May 2022 10:07 AM PDT Declining native species could be planted in urban green spaces. Researchers now describe how to use this great potential for species protection. They recommend practical conservation gardening methods in a bid to restructure the horticultural industry and reverse plant species declines. |
| Scientists hone long-range forecasting of US tornadoes, hail Posted: 18 May 2022 08:39 AM PDT New research identifies three specific orientations of atmospheric phenomena occurring near the equator over the Maritime continent that increase the probability of severe U.S. weather events three to four weeks later. |
| Technique protects privacy when making online recommendations Posted: 18 May 2022 08:38 AM PDT Researchers have developed a novel privacy-preserving protocol that could enable an algorithm that provides recommendations to guarantee a user's personal information remains secure while ensuring recommendation results are accurate. Their technique is so efficient it can run on a smartphone over a very slow network. |
| On the road to cleaner, greener, and faster driving Posted: 18 May 2022 08:38 AM PDT Researchers have developed a technique to control a fleet of autonomous vehicles as they approach and pass through a signalized intersection in a way that reduces fuel consumption and greenhouse emissions from idling and stop-and-go traffic, while improving travel speeds. |
| New ALS 'drug' is more effective than existing ones Posted: 18 May 2022 08:38 AM PDT New preclinical research on the experimental drug, NU-9, to treat ALS shows it is more effective than existing FDA-approved drugs for the disease. More importantly, NU-9 has an enhanced effect when given in combination with those drugs. |
| Teaching physics to AI makes the student a master Posted: 18 May 2022 08:38 AM PDT Researchers have demonstrated that incorporating known physics into machine learning algorithms can help the inscrutable black boxes attain new levels of transparency and insight into material properties. |
| Health screening, genetic tests might identify people at risk of premature heart disease Posted: 18 May 2022 08:38 AM PDT Health screening and genetic tests might identify more than 1 million U.S. adults who have familial hypercholesterolemia, a common genetic disorder that causes elevated bad cholesterol levels, which may lead to premature cardiovascular disease. Identifying familial hypercholesterolemia early in adulthood creates an opportunity for early treatment aimed at preventing heart attack and death, according to a new study. |
| Physicists explain how type of aurora on Mars is formed Posted: 18 May 2022 08:38 AM PDT Researchers have learned how a type of aurora on Mars is formed. The physicists report discrete aurora form through the interaction of the solar wind and the crust at Mars' southern hemisphere. |
| Rainforest trees may have been dying faster since the 1980s because of climate change Posted: 18 May 2022 08:38 AM PDT Tropical trees in Australia's rainforests have been dying at double the previous rate since the 1980s, seemingly because of climate impacts, according to the findings of a long-term international study. This research has found the death rates of tropical trees have doubled in the last 35 years, as global warming increases the drying power of the atmosphere. |
| New weight-loss intervention targets instinctive desire to eat Posted: 18 May 2022 08:38 AM PDT People who are highly responsive to food lost more weight and kept it off using a new weight loss program that targets internal hunger cues and the ability to resist food. |
| Oat reference genome: Insights into a uniquely healthy cereal crop Posted: 18 May 2022 08:38 AM PDT Cultivated oat (Avena sativa L.) is an old crop thought to have been domesticated over 3,000 years ago, while growing as a weed in wheat and barley fields. Oat has a low carbon footprint, substantial health benefits and the potential to replace animal-based food products. However, lack of genome resources has prevented the application modern methods of plant breeding. An international research team now presents a high-quality reference genome of A. sativa and its most closely related wild relatives. |
| Researchers create photonic materials for powerful, efficient light-based computing Posted: 18 May 2022 08:38 AM PDT Researchers are developing new photonic materials that could one day help enable low power, ultra-fast, light-based computing. The unique materials, known as topological insulators, are like wires that have been turned inside out, where the current runs along the outside and the interior is insulated. In their latest work the researchers demonstrated a new approach to create the materials that uses a novel, chained, honeycomb lattice design. |
| Posted: 18 May 2022 08:33 AM PDT In the wild, it might seem like male animals run the show. But researchers have laid a new framework to assess power distribution between the sexes, and its application has shown that in some animal species, females rule the roost and their paths to power look very different from that of their male counterparts'. |
| Researchers use galaxy as a 'cosmic telescope' to study heart of the young universe Posted: 18 May 2022 08:33 AM PDT A unique new instrument, coupled with a powerful telescope and a little help from nature, has given researchers the ability to peer into galactic nurseries at the heart of the young universe. |
| Scallops swim into illuminated fishing pots Posted: 18 May 2022 07:18 AM PDT Scallops are drawn to illuminated fishing pots like moths to a flame. The study examined the effect of LED lights on crab and lobster pots used by fishing boats off the coast of Cornwall, UK, and the research team was stunned by the results. More than 500 scallops were caught -- 99.6% of them in pots with lights. |
| Nuclear physics and extreme environments of cosmic explosions Posted: 18 May 2022 07:18 AM PDT Researchers have helped peer inside a nova -- a type of astrophysical nuclear explosion -- without leaving Earth. These stellar events help forge the universe's chemical elements, and astronomers have explored their nature with an intense isotope beam and a custom experimental device with record-setting sensitivity. |
| Key to reducing defects in multimaterials Posted: 18 May 2022 07:18 AM PDT Functionally graded materials (FGMs) are high-performance materials with expected applications in aerospace, automobiles, defense, and medicine. These materials are usually employed in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure, therefore making it important for them to be as defect-free as possible. Now, researchers have found a way to minimize defects in FGMs by manipulating the gradient of the elemental composition. |
| New model could improve matches between students and schools Posted: 18 May 2022 07:17 AM PDT Simultaneous and uncoordinated school admissions in situations where students have multiple options can lead to unfilled seats and a lot of stress for families and administrators. To create a fairer, more efficient system, market design researchers created a matchmaking model that draws from game theory, computer science and industrial engineering. |
| Viral infections during pregnancy affect maternal care behavior Posted: 18 May 2022 07:17 AM PDT Viral infections during pregnancy affect the mother's brain and her postpartum care behavior. These are the findings of a research study in a mouse model. |
| Dopamine makes you feel happy, but we probably still have to rewrite the textbooks Posted: 18 May 2022 07:17 AM PDT Researchers have discovered a new piece in the puzzle of the brain's 'feel good' substance, dopamine. According to one of the researchers behind the new study, the discovery may facilitate the development of drugs for i.e. cocaine addiction and ADHD and is most likely to change the general notion of how dopamine is removed from the brain. |
| Bringing order to the chaos of sea level projections Posted: 18 May 2022 07:17 AM PDT In their effort to provide decisionmakers with insight into the consequences of climate change, climate researchers are bringing order to the large amount of sea level projections, translating climate models to expected sea level rise. |
| Reliable diagnostics at the tip of your finger Posted: 18 May 2022 05:06 AM PDT Biomarkers are components that may be present in biological samples and are related to specific diseases. Therefore, doctors can analyze biological samples from a patient to check their health condition or to monitor the progress of a specific therapy. Typically, these samples need to be purified and diluted before the analysis, and current medical diagnostic techniques rely on healthcare facilities and laboratories for these routine analyses. This is a lengthy process that requires trained personnel and expensive instrumentation to extract, transport, store, process, and analyze the samples in centralized locations. Moreover, during a period of global crisis like the ongoing pandemic, the pressure of thousands of analysis requests can saturate and collapse the healthcare system. |
| How the brain changes during depression treatment Posted: 18 May 2022 05:05 AM PDT Researchers have shown what happens to the brain when a person receives a depression treatment known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). rTMS is a depression treatment typically used when other approaches -- such as medications -- haven't been effective for a patient. By stimulating the dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex, rTMS activates several other regions of the brain involved in multiple functions, from managing emotional responses to memory and motor control. |
| Posted: 18 May 2022 05:04 AM PDT A new study has found contaminants, banned decades ago, are still imperiling critically endangered California condors. The condors may be at increased risk for reproductive impairment because they consume dead marine mammals along the California coast. |
| High rates of landscape degradation not product of landscape fires Posted: 18 May 2022 05:03 AM PDT Once humans discovered how to tame fire, they began using it for heat, cooking, to scare away animals and to alter their environs, especially burning areas to plant and to restore grazing land. In Madagascar, scientists and conservationists have long believed that fire is a leading cause of high landscape degradation, but an international team of researchers have found that medium to large fires on the island are similar to those on other tropical locations. |
| Energy-efficient AI hardware technology via a brain-inspired stashing system? Posted: 17 May 2022 06:04 PM PDT Researchers have proposed a novel system inspired by the neuromodulation of the brain, referred to as a 'stashing system,' that requires less energy consumption. Computer scientists have now developed a technology that can efficiently handle mathematical operations for artificial intelligence by imitating the continuous changes in the topology of the neural network according to the situation. |
| New material can 'capture toxic pollutants from air' Posted: 17 May 2022 06:04 PM PDT A new material is capable of capturing trace amounts of benzene, a toxic pollutant, from the air and crucially use less energy than existing materials to do so. |
| Study gives animal testing alternatives a confidence boost Posted: 17 May 2022 06:04 PM PDT As part of a government effort to reduce animal testing, researchers have worked to produce a new protocol for screening skin allergens. The method is potentially cheaper and faster than animal testing, while maintaining a similar performance. |
| Astronauts may one day drink water from ancient moon volcanoes Posted: 17 May 2022 06:04 PM PDT If any humans had been alive 2 to 4 billion years ago, they may have looked up and seen a sliver of frost on the moon's surface. Some of that ice may still be hiding in craters on the lunar surface today. |
| Timing of heart surgery crucial, research shows Posted: 17 May 2022 06:04 PM PDT The timing of valve replacement heart surgery is crucial, and should be performed earlier than previously thought for people with aortic stenosis, a new study shows. The condition is one of the most common and serious valve disease problems, caused by a narrowing of the aortic valve opening. |
| Seafloor animal cued to settle, transformed by a bacterial compound Posted: 17 May 2022 06:04 PM PDT A new study has revealed that a large, complex molecule, called lipopolysaccharide, produced by bacteria is responsible for inducing larval marine tubeworms, Hydroides elegans, to settle to the seafloor and begin the complex processes of metamorphosis. |
| Automated platform for plasmid production Posted: 17 May 2022 02:02 PM PDT Researchers have developed PlasmidMaker, a versatile automated platform for plasmid design & construction. These circular DNA molecules are used by scientists to introduce new genes into a target organism, and have extensive use in basic and applied biology. In particular, they have applications in the large-scale production of bioproducts. |
| Chemists skew the odds to prevent cancer Posted: 17 May 2022 02:02 PM PDT A theoretical framework shows how to increase the odds of identifying cancer-causing mutations before tumors take hold. Researchers demonstrate that only a few energetically favorable pathways are likely to lead to cancer. |
| New protein structures to aid rational drug design Posted: 17 May 2022 02:02 PM PDT In a major advance for rational drug design, chemists have described several protein structures of a crucial player in cellular processes. The advance could bring new ideas for treatments of diseases such as Alzheimer's, AIDS, cancer and others. |
| Algorithms empower metalens design Posted: 17 May 2022 01:05 PM PDT Researchers have developed a new method for designing large-scale metasurfaces that uses techniques of machine intelligence to generate designs automatically. The method will enable new metasurface designs that can make an impact on virtual or augmented reality, self-driving cars, and machine vision for embarked systems and satellites. |
| If you take several medications, 'polypharmacy' is a word to know Posted: 17 May 2022 12:46 PM PDT Taking multiple prescription drugs and supplements can be fraught with risk, a new study suggests -- but it's hard for many people to part with their medications. |
| First animals developed complex ecosystems before the Cambrian explosion Posted: 17 May 2022 12:18 PM PDT Early animals formed complex ecological communities more than 550 million years ago, setting the evolutionary stage for the Cambrian explosion, according to a new study. |
| mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna fare better against COVID-19 variants of concern Posted: 17 May 2022 12:18 PM PDT A comparison of four COVID-19 vaccinations shows that messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines -- Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna -- perform better against the World Health Organization's variants of concern (VOCs) than viral vector vaccines -- AstraZeneca and J&J/Janssen. Although they all effectively prevent severe disease by VOCs, the research suggests that people receiving a viral vector vaccine are more vulnerable to infection by new variants. |
| Concussion symptoms in children may have multiple underlying causes Posted: 17 May 2022 12:18 PM PDT Different types of brain damage caused by a concussion may lead to similar symptoms in children, according to new research. A new way of studying concussions could help develop future treatments. |
| Type-I interferon stops immune system 'going rogue' during viral infections Posted: 17 May 2022 12:18 PM PDT Researchers have discovered that Type I interferon (IFN) plays a key role in helping the immune system effectively target viruses, while stopping white blood cells from 'going rogue' and attacking the body's own organs. This opens the way to potential new treatments that can save many lives. |
| Time-restricted eating may lower CVD risk for older breast cancer survivors Posted: 17 May 2022 12:18 PM PDT Older breast cancer survivors with cardiometabolic risk factors who restricted food intake to eight hours during the weekday, followed by 16 hours of fasting, lowered their risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) after a few weeks, according to a new research letter. |
| Statins may provide protection against depression Posted: 17 May 2022 10:07 AM PDT Statins have been hailed as a wonder drug; the cholesterol-lowering drugs have been prescribed to tens of millions of people since their approval in the late 1980s to prevent heart attack and stroke. But the drugs may yet have additional benefits, some research has hinted, including on mental health. Now, a new study examines the influence of statins on emotional bias, a marker for risk of depression. |
| Scientists see signs of traumatic brain injury in headbutting muskox Posted: 17 May 2022 10:07 AM PDT Scientists saw for the first time hallmarks of concussions and other head trauma in the brains of deceased headbutting animals -- muskoxen and bighorn sheep. The results may contradict the commonly-held belief that ramming animals do not suffer brain injuries and support the notion that studies on animals with brains evolutionarily similar to those of humans may help researchers understand and reduce traumatic brain injuries. |
| Friendly fungi announce themselves to their hosts Posted: 17 May 2022 10:07 AM PDT Commensal fungi need to be alive and actively making proteins that stimulate our immune cells to elicit that commensal benefit, according to new findings. |
| Aerodynamics of perching birds could inform aircraft design Posted: 17 May 2022 10:07 AM PDT To uncover the mystery behind the differences in motion, a team of researchers studied the aerodynamics of bird perching maneuvers and their implications for aircraft design. |
| Protein linked to intellectual disability has complex role Posted: 17 May 2022 08:23 AM PDT Researchers have identified a previously unknown function for the fragile X protein, the loss of which is the leading inherited cause of intellectual disability. The researchers showed that the protein modulates how neurons in the brain's memory center process information, a central part of learning and memory. |
| Scientists nail down 'destination' for protein that delivers zinc Posted: 17 May 2022 08:22 AM PDT New research describes a 'chaperone' protein that delivers zinc, a trace element essential for survival in all living things, to where it's needed. The chaperone could be especially important when access to zinc is limited -- for example in nutrient deficient diets and for growing crops on depleted soils. |
| Major infrared breakthrough could lead to solar power at night Posted: 17 May 2022 08:22 AM PDT Based on similar technology to night-vision goggles, researchers have developed a device that can generate electricity from thermal radiation. |
| How is it possible to remember selfless experiences? Posted: 17 May 2022 08:22 AM PDT People who practice intensive meditation report memories of states in which their sense of self dissolves. Is this at all possible? |
| Motivation for sports and school go hand in hand for adolescent athletes Posted: 17 May 2022 08:22 AM PDT Adolescent athletes with high motivation for school also have high motivation for sports. Male students tend to be less interested in school than their female peers, a new study shows. |
| Early warning system forecasts who needs critical care for COVID-19 Posted: 17 May 2022 08:22 AM PDT An algorithm can accurately predict which hospitalized patients are at the highest risk of death and require critical care, regardless of immune protection status and virus variant. |
| Density, benign disease raise risk of breast cancer Posted: 17 May 2022 08:22 AM PDT Women with dense breast tissue and benign breast disease face an elevated risk of future breast cancer and could benefit from a tailored mammogram screening strategy, according to a large study. |
| Posted: 17 May 2022 08:22 AM PDT Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) secreted from sensory neuron-interneuron crosstalk is key to the spreading of inflammation across joints, acting as a neurotransmitter and inflammation enhancer. |
| New silicon nanowires can really take the heat Posted: 17 May 2022 08:22 AM PDT A research team has demonstrated an ultrathin silicon nanowire that conducts heat 150% more efficiently than conventional materials used in advanced chip technologies. The device could enable smaller, faster, energy-efficient microelectronics. |
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