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Researchers use the abundant chemical element manganese as active material.

YouTube is a treasure trove of virtual reality fails: users tripping, colliding into walls and smacking inanimate and animate objects. By investigating these "VR Fails" on YouTube, researchers at the University of Copenhagen have sought to learn more about when and why things go sideways for users and how to improve VR design and experiences so as to avoid accidents.

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have developed a novel set of tools for designing vitamin D clinical trials that capture large seasonal and population-wide differences in vitamin D status, typically seen in individuals. Their study provides a framework for clinical trials to establish whether vitamin D supplementation is effective against a given disease.

In many species including humans, the cells responsible for reproduction, the germ cells, are often highly interconnected and share their cytoplasm. In the hermaphrodite nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, up to 500 germ cells are connected to each other in the gonad, the tissue that produces eggs and sperm. These cells are arranged around a central cytoplasmic 'corridor' and exchange cytoplasmic material fostering cell growth, and ultimately produce oocytes ready to be fertilized.

The National Institute of Polar Research publishes Polar Science, a peer-reviewed quarterly journal dealing with polar science in collaboration with the Elsevier B. V.. The most recent issue was a special issue entitled "Arctic Challenge for Sustainability Project (ArCS)," which featured the former national (nationwide) Arctic research project in Japan. The full text of this issue is freely accessible worldwide for a limited time until Sept. 10, 2021.

The intriguing chemistry and biology of sulfur?containing natural products from marine microorganisms (1987-2020)https://doi.org/10.1007/s42995-021-00101-2Announcing a new publication for Marine Life Science & Technology journal. In this review article the authors Yang Hai, Mei?Yan Wei, Chang?Yun Wang, Yu?Cheng Gu and Chang?Lun Shao from Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China and Syngenta Jealott's Hill International Research Centre, Berkshire, UK consider the chemistry and biology of sulfur?containing natural products from marine microorganisms.

Skoltech researchers used the resources of the university's Zhores supercomputer to study a new method of generating gamma-ray combs for nuclear and X-ray photonics and spectroscopy of new materials.

In an article published in JACC, CNIC scientists report a method for improved ranking of cardiovascular risk in individuals without diabetes

New research has found that adolescents with higher levels of an omega-3 fatty acid in their blood were less likely to develop psychotic disorder in early adulthood, suggesting that it may have a potential preventative effect of reducing the risk of psychosis.

The study demonstrates for the first time that a problem with angiogenesis (the mechanism by which new blood vessels are produced) causes the destruction of capillaries and, therefore, a decrease in the supply of nutrients and oxygen to the brain.

RNA sequencing is a powerful technology for studying cells and diseases. Scientists from the research group of Christoph Bock, principal investigator at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and professor at the Medical University of Vienna, developed a new method for sequencing huge numbers of single cells in an efficient manner. The study has now been published in Nature Methods.

Women carrying human papillomavirus (HPV) run an elevated risk of preterm birth, a University of Gothenburg study shows. A connection can thus be seen between the virus itself and the risk for preterm birth that previously has been observed in pregnant women who have undergone treatment for abnormal cell changes due to HPV.

In the deep waters that underlie the productive zones of the ocean, there is a constant rain of organic material called 'marine snow.' Marine snow behaves similarly to real snow: large flakes are rare and fall quickly while abundant smaller flakes take their time. Scientists have now discovered that precisely those features explain why small particles play an important role for the nutrient balance of the oceans. These findings have been published in Nature Communications.

As anyone who has ever procrastinated knows, remembering that you need to do something and acting on that knowledge are two different things. To understand how memory can lead to different behaviors, researchers studied the simpler nervous system of worms.The discovery used a 'robot microscope,' which detects and tracks fluorescent light as a worm crawls around, meaning researchers can record videos of chemical signals traveling between individual neurons in awake, unrestrained animals.

To realize tritium self-sustaining cycle through tritium breeding blanket has been one of the core technologies of future fusion reactor. Therefore the design and function of blanket must be validated by neutronic experiment under D-T neutron environment. But due to the scarcity of DT neutron source, and highly radioactivity during neutronic experiments, it is very difficult to validate the nuclear response of the blanket, the data of tritium production rate mainly rely on Monte Carlo simulation.

Expanding urban habitats are likely to endanger a large number of butterfly species in the long term. This is reported by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Generalists that tolerate large temperature fluctuations and feed on different plants are most likely to benefit from human-modified habitats. In order to preserve biodiversity, urban and spatial planning should take the needs of specialized butterfly species into account, the authors recommend.

In a paper published in NANO, researchers from Guizhou Meiling Power Sources Co., Ltd., China have reviewed the recent progress in biopolymer-based electrolyte. The biopolymer materials with unique characteristics including water solubility, film-forming capability and adhesive property played a key role in the design of zero pollution lithium battery. The biopolymers mentioned in this review were polysaccharide, protein, natural rubber and other polymers.

A new study finds that tropical storm days have had a steady relationship with El Niño and La Niña from 1965 to 2018. And the tropical storm day and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) relationship breakdown in the 1980s is due to the decoupling of SST anomalies associated with the PDO-East and PDO-West. The results have a significant implication for seasonal to decadal predictions of global tropical storm day.

Professor Hyung Joon Cha's team presents the interaction mechanism of components that make up the surface adhesive proteins.The research team reveals new synergy of adhesive molecules, clarifying the design principle of mussels' surface adhesive proteins.

The largest study of its kind has found people in the overweight or obese range who drink alcohol are at greater risk of liver disease and mortality.