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Shifting sands, creeping soils, and a new understanding of landscape evolution
A new study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University finds that piles of sand grains, even when undisturbed, are in constant motion. These experimental results challenge existing theories in both geology and physics about how soils and other types of disordered materials behave.
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Microspheres quiver when shocked
Columbia Engineering and Northwestern researchers report that they have demonstrated the use of DC electric fields to drive back-and-forth rotation of micro-particles in electric boundary layers. These particle oscillators could be useful as clocks that coordinate the organization of active matter and even, perhaps, orchestrate the functions of micron-scale robots.
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High-resolution microscope built from LEGO and bits of phone
Microscopy is an essential tool in many fields of science and medicine, but many have limited access to this technology due to cost and fragility. Researchers from the Universities of Göttingen and Münster managed to builld a high-resolution microscope using nothing more than LEGO® and affordable parts from a mobile phone. Then they showed that children significantly increased their understanding of microscopy by making it and working with it. Their results were published in The Biophysicist.
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Food protein can eliminate pungency and bitterness of extra virgin olive oil
Monell researchers have shown that the presence of certain food proteins, such as those in egg yolk, suppresses extra virgin olive oil's purported less desirable sensory qualities, such as bitterness and pungency.
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New class of compounds found to block coronavirus reproduction
A human genetic mechanism hijacked by SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, to help it spread also makes it vulnerable to a new class of drug candidates, a new study finds.
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New research uncovers how cancers with common mutation develop resistance to targeted drugs
A new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers has given scientists their first look at the genomic landscape of tumors that have grown resistant to drugs targeting the abnormal KRASG12C protein. Their work shows that, far from adopting a common route to becoming resistant, the cells take a strikingly diverse set of avenues, often several at a time. The findings, reported online today in the New England Journal of Medicine, underscore the need for new drugs that inhibit KRAS differently than current agents do.
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Smoother silicone breast implants may reduce severity of immune system reactions
According to researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Rice University in Houston, silicone breast implants with a smoother surface design have less risk of producing inflammation and other immune system reactions than those with more roughly textured coatings.
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Increased organizational support for employees' adoption efforts yields positive benefits
When an organization supports its employees who choose to adopt children, the employees, their families, the adopted children and the organization itself experience positive benefits and outcomes, according to new research from Baylor University.
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Coral offspring physiology impacted by parental exposure to intense environmental stresses
Adult corals that survive high-intensity environmental stresses, such as bleaching events, can produce offspring that are better suited to survive in new environments. Results from a series of experiments are deepening scientists' understanding of how the gradual increase of sea surface temperatures and other environmental disturbances may influence future coral generations. This study's experimental design provides a unique perspective on how multiple types of thermal events accumulate over time and have lasting consequences across generations.
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Research provides a roadmap to HIV eradication via stem cell therapy
A groundbreaking study found that stem cells reduce the amount of virus causing AIDS, boost the body's antiviral immunity, and restore the gut's lymphoid follicles damaged by HIV. It provided a roadmap for multi-pronged HIV eradication strategies.
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Firearm injuries in children, teens costly for US health care system, study finds
Hospitalizations to treat pediatric gun injuries are expensive, and U.S. taxpayers and the poor are bearing the price, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
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Study finds abnormal response to cellular stress is associated with Huntington's disease
A new University of California, Irvine-led study finds that the persistence of a marker of chronic cellular stress, previously associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), also takes place in the brains of Huntington's disease (HD) patients.
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'On/off' switches for self-assembling hydrogels could advance wound healing and more
A team of researchers at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering who previously reported on a responsive hydrogel, investigated its gelation at distinct temperatures and pH conditions. The study, "Self-assembly of stimuli-responsive coiled-coil fibrous hydrogels," appears in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Soft Matter.
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Powerful people are less likely to be understanding when mistakes are made
Those with power, such as the wealthy are more likely to blame others for having shortcomings and they are also less troubled by reports of inequality, according to recent research from the University of California San Diego's Rady School of Management.
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US beekeepers continue to report high colony loss rates, no clear improvement
US beekeepers lost 45.5% of their managed honey bee colonies from April 2020 to April 2021, according to preliminary results of the 15th annual nationwide survey conducted by the University of Maryland-led nonprofit Bee Informed Partnership (BIP). These losses mark the second highest loss rate the survey has recorded since it began in 2006. The survey results highlight the continuing high rates of honey bee colony turnover.
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GSA's journal's add seven articles on COVID-19 and aging
The Gerontological Society of America's highly cited, peer-reviewed journals are continuing to publish scientific articles on COVID-19. The following were published between May 4 and June 14; all are free to access:
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You can have too much of a good thing, says study financial analysts' work-life balance
Drawing from more than 6,000 employee reviews of their workplaces and data on their firms' forecasting accuracy, a study from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management shows that making improvements to hardworking analysts' work-life balance produces dividends for the company and for the analysts' careers.
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Cold weather cost New England electric customers nearly $1.8 billion in one month; A new study suggests ways to mitigate fuel shortages
In a new study, researchers used data from power plant failures in the 2010s to develop a supply curve of the costs required for generators to mitigate fuel shortages in the region. The study found that storing both oil and gas on-site could reduce dependence by power plants on gas grids in geographic areas with few pipelines.
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Cancer survivors' tongues less sensitive to tastes than those of healthy peers
In a study of taste and smell dysfunction with 40 cancer survivors, scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found that the tips of these individuals' tongues were significantly less sensitive to bitter, salty or sweet tastes than peers in the control group who had never been diagnosed with cancer.
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Drug doubles down on bone cancer, metastasis
Researchers at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine develop an antibody conjugate called BonTarg that delivers drugs to bone tumors and inhibits metastasis.
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