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Evidence for a previously unknown extinction event that decimated ocean shark species
Nineteen million years ago, sharks nearly disappeared from Earth's oceans, according to a new study, which provides evidence for a previously unknown mass ocean extinction event.
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Surveillance for endemic respiratory viruses needed to understand post-COVID-19 circulation
The widespread non-pharmaceutical interventions implemented to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 have led to drastic reductions in the annual circulation patterns of other endemic respiratory viruses, including influenza and the common cold.
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High energy telescopes dissect the afterglow of a gamma ray burst
Astronomers have measured very-high-energy gamma rays coming from the aftermath of a gamma ray burst - an enormously energetic explosion of a star in another galaxy.
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Passing the acid test: New, low-pH system recycles more carbon into valuable products
An engineering researcher from the University of Sydney, in collaboration with a team at the University of Toronto, has developed an electrochemical system that coverts a greater amount of CO2 into valuable products, such as ethylene and ethanol. These are used in everyday materials, from plastic to Lycra.
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Passing the acid test: New low-pH system recycles more carbon into valuable products
Researchers from University of Toronto Engineering have developed an improved electrochemical system that raises the value of captured CO2 by converting more of it into valuable products than ever before.
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Healing hydrogels
Hydrogels are polymer materials made mostly from water. They can be used in a wide range of medical and other applications. However, previous incarnations of the materials suffered from repeated mechanical stress and would easily become deformed. A novel crystal that can reversibly form and deform, allows hydrogels to rapidly recover from mechanical stress. This opens up the use of such biocompatible materials in the field of artificial joints and ligaments.
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First cells reprogrammed to make synthetic polymers; also making them resistant to viruses
Scientists have developed the first cells that can construct artificial polymers from building blocks that are not found in nature, by following instructions the researchers encoded in their genes. The study, led by scientists from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology, in Cambridge, UK, also found the synthetic genome made the bacteria entirely resistant to infection by viruses.
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A shark mystery millions of years in the making
The biggest shark attack in history did not involve humans.A new study by Earth scientists from Yale and the College of the Atlantic has turned up a massive die-off of sharks roughly 19 million years ago. It came at a period in history when there were more than 10 times more sharks patrolling the world's oceans than there are today.
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Front-row view reveals exceptional cosmic explosion
Scientists have gained the best view yet of the brightest explosions in the universe: A specialised observatory in Namibia has recorded the most energetic radiation and longest gamma-ray afterglow of a so-called gamma-ray burst to date. The observations with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) challenge the idea of how gamma-rays are produced in these colossal stellar explosions which are the birth cries of black holes, as the international team reports in the journal Science.
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Study finds age doesn't affect perception of 'speech-to-song illusion'
Researchers from the University of Kansas have published a study in PLOS ONE examining if the speech-to-song illusion happens in adults who are 55 or older as powerfully as it does with younger people.
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Life stage differences shield ecological communities from collapse
A new study by ecologist André de Roos shows that differences between juveniles and adults of the same species are crucial for the stability of complex ecological communities. The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, represents a major advance in ecological modeling at a time when biodiversity is declining and species around the world are rapidly going extinct.
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A better way to introduce digital tech in the workplace
After a detailed study of digital technology in a hospital, MIT Sloan professor Kate Kellogg finds that experimenting with the technology, and then working to implement the best practices through coordinated governance, can help organizations better integrate technology in the workplace.
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University study highlights alarming rise in usage and costs of antidepressants
The open-access study, published by the international DARU Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, is entitled 'Surging trends in prescriptions and costs of antidepressants in England amid COVID-19' and has investigated the trends in prescriptions and costs of various antidepressants in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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New tech predicts chemotherapy effectiveness after one treatment
Interdisciplinary team finds combining certain data after a patient's first treatment can predict how a tumor will respond to chemotherapy.
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Negative relationships linked to worse physical and mental health in postpartum women
Postpartum women in bad romantic relationships are not only more likely to suffer symptoms of depression, they are also at greater long-term risk of illness or death, according to new research from Rice University, Ohio State University and the University of California, Irvine.
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Underwater ancient cypress forest offers clues to the past
Louisiana State University marine geologist and paleoclimatologist Kristine DeLong's new research findings uncover new information about the underwater ancient cypress forest and the Gulf Coast's past.
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Polar vortex, winter heat may change bird populations
Researchers set out to learn how extreme winter cold and heat affected 41 common bird species in eastern North America. They found that individual bird species respond differently to these weather events, and extreme winter heat may lead to longer-term changes in bird populations.
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Which way does the solar wind blow?
High performance computers are central to the quest to understand the sun's behavior and its role in space weather events. With funding from NSF and NASA, scientists are using the Frontera supercomputer to improve the state-of-the-art in space weather forecasting. Writing in the Astrophysical Journal in April 2021, researchers described the role of backstreaming pickup ions in the acceleration of charged particles in the universe, which play an important role in space weather.
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Let's talk about the elephant in the data
Many data scientists try to create models that can "fit an elephant," referring to a complex set of data points. CSHL Professor Partha Mitra describes how he views problems like these in Nature Machine Intelligence. While the role of strong prior knowledge can work well in some situations, the complete absence of prior assumptions will work adequately in others. Mitra discusses a middle ground that incorporates a little bit of both points of view.
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Fifty years of progress in women's health
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the National Academy of Medicine, Manson and co-author Cynthia Stuenkel, M.D., of the University of California San Diego's School of Medicine, wrote a Perspective piece for The New England Journal of Medicine chronicling major points of progress in women's health since the 1970s and expectations for the future.
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