Feed aggregator
Engineered defects in crystalline material boosts electrical performance
Researchers have discovered that engineering one-dimensional line defects into certain materials can increase their electrical performance.
Categories: Content
Partners in crime: Agricultural pest that relies on bacteria to overcome plant defenses
The oral secretions of herbivorous insects can activate plant defense mechanisms that protect plant cells from being digested. However, scientists at the Tokyo University of Science have discovered that some larvae "partner up" with bacteria that help interrupt these plant defense mechanisms. This disrupts the plant's defenses before the digestive proteins that the larvae smear on them. These findings may help agricultural scientists devise countermeasures that protect important agricultural species from the larvae.
Categories: Content
Books on health, economic inequalities in Latin America, Caribbean shed light on content, impact of health policies
A new article analyzes seven books* that discuss these inequalities, including questions of who gets health care and what interdependent roles societies, social movements, and governments play. To end inequality in the region, the author calls for a universal approach to health care.
Categories: Content
Aging: Clinical trial on potential reversal of epigenetic age using a diet and lifestyle
Aging published "Potential reversal of epigenetic age using a diet and lifestyle intervention: a pilot randomized clinical trial" which reported on a randomized controlled clinical trial conducted among 43 healthy adult males between the ages of 50-72. The 8-week treatment program included diet, sleep, exercise and relaxation guidance, and supplemental probiotics and phytonutrients.
Categories: Content
Exploring optimization of duplex velocity criteria for diagnosis of ICA stenosis
Published online May 19, 2021 in Vascular Medicine, researchers from the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) Vascular Testing division report findings of their multi-centered study of duplex ultrasound for diagnosis of internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis. The study was developed in response to wide variability in the diagnostic criteria used to classify severity of ICA stenosis across vascular laboratories nationwide and following a survey of members of IAC-accredited facilities supporting efforts toward standardization.
Categories: Content
The new species of bacteria killing palms in Australia
While investigating a disease outbreak in a Queensland botanical gardens, researchers discovered a new species of bacteria that causes a fatal disease in palms.
Categories: Content
Three years younger in just eight weeks? A new study suggests yes!
A groundbreaking clinical trial shows we can reduce biological age (as measured by the Horvath 2013 DNAmAge clock) by more than three years in only eight weeks with diet and lifestyle through balancing DNA methylation.
Categories: Content
Astonishing quantum experiment in Science raises questions
Quantum systems are considered extremely fragile. Even the smallest interactions with the environment can result in the loss of sensitive quantum effects. In the renowned journal Science, however, researchers from TU Delft, RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Jülich now present an experiment in which a quantum system consisting of two coupled atoms behaves surprisingly stable.
Categories: Content
Changes in how cholesterol breaks down in the body may accelerate progression of dementia
The blood-brain barrier is impermeable to cholesterol, yet high blood cholesterol is associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. However, the underlying mechanisms mediating this relationship are poorly understood. A study published in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Vijay Varma and colleagues at the National Institute on Aging, suggests that disturbances in the conversion of cholesterol to bile acids may play a role in the development of dementia.
Categories: Content
How more inclusive lab meetings lead to better science
A new paper, published recently in PLOS Computational Biology by a team including UMass Amherst researchers, seeks to help scientists structure their lab-group meetings so that they are more inclusive, more productive and, ultimately, lead to better science.
Categories: Content
Seabirds face dire threats from climate change, human activity — especially in Northern Hemisphere
Many seabirds in the Northern Hemisphere are struggling to breed -- and in the Southern Hemisphere, they may not be far behind. These are the conclusions of a study, published May 28 in Science, analyzing more than 50 years of breeding records for 67 seabird species worldwide.
Categories: Content
Biologists construct a 'periodic table' for cell nuclei
One hundred fifty years after Dmitri Mendeleev's periodic table classified atomic nuclei, biologists have created a new classification system for cell nuclei - and shown how they can be transmuted from one type into another.
Categories: Content
Managing global climate change--and local conditions--key to coral reefs' survival
According to a new study, "Local conditions magnify coral loss after marine heatwaves," published in the journal Science, what's key to coral reefs surviving climate-driven heatwaves and subsequent bleaching is managing global climate change--and local conditions.
Categories: Content
Seabirds' success reveals asymmetry in ocean health
In a study that uniquely evaluates marine ecosystem responses to a changing climate by hemisphere, researchers report that the fish-eating, surface-foraging bird species of the Northern Hemisphere suffered greater breeding productivity stresses over the last half-century than their Southern Hemisphere counterparts.
Categories: Content
Seabirds sound alarm: Breeding success corresponds to hemispheric rates of ocean warming
Some seabirds are struggling to raise young where the globe is most rapidly warming - in the northern hemisphere, according to a study published in the journal Science. The research was undertaken by an international team of 40 scientists led by Farallon Institute in California.
Categories: Content
Reducing metabolic cost of walking while generating electricity using an exoskeleton
An exoskeleton can reduce the metabolic cost of walking not by adding energy or by recycling energy from one gait phase to another, as other exoskeletons have done, but by removing the kinetic energy of a striding person's swinging leg so they don't have to tense their muscles so much.
Categories: Content
Local management crucial to helping coral reefs survive warming waters
Local management of coral reefs to ease environmental stressors, such as overfishing or pollution, could increase reefs' chances of recovery after devastating coral bleaching events caused by climate change, a new study finds.
Categories: Content
Scientists overhear two atoms chatting
How materials behave depends on the interactions between countless atoms. You could see this as a giant group chat in which atoms are continuously exchanging quantum information. Researchers from Delft University of Technology in collaboration with RWTH Aachen University and the Research Center Jülich have now been able to intercept a chat between two atoms. They present their findings in Science on 28 May.
Categories: Content
DNA vaccines for COVID-19 effective in mice, hamsters
Currently available COVID-19 vaccines rely on mRNA strands to teach the human immune system to recognize the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Now, researchers reporting in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases have reported the successful development of a vaccine that instead uses DNA encoding the virus' spike protein.
Categories: Content
Mass gatherings during Malaysian election directly and indirectly boosted COVID-19 spread
New estimates suggest that mass gatherings during an election in the Malaysian state of Sabah directly caused 70 percent of COVID-19 cases detected in Sabah after the election, and indirectly caused 64.4 percent of cases elsewhere in Malaysia. Jue Tao Lim of the National University of Singapore, Kenwin Maung of the University of Rochester, New York, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Computational Biology.
Categories: Content