Eurekalert

Rather than levelling inequality, as the Great Depression did, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequalities around the world allowing some wealthy investors to benefit from the crisis and make a fortune on the misfortune of others.

People who have contact with other social groups are more likely to be committed to social justice. However, an international study led by the University of Zurich has shown that for this to be the case, power relations and discrimination must be actively addressed and group-specific needs must be met. It is important that disadvantaged group members, such as racial minorities and LGBTIQ+ individuals, are given a voice, and that those who belong to advantaged groups do not feel labeled as biased.

A research team led by Professor Jang-Sik Lee of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at POSTECH has successfully developed the halide perovskite-based memory with ultra-fast switching speed. The findings from this study were published in Nature Communications on June 10, 2021.

SUTD researchers have used nanotechnology to create a unique print that displays a glasses-free 3D image under ordinary white light. The appearance of the image changes as the print is viewed from varying angles. The print is called a 'light field print' for its unique design and appearance as compared to conventional 2D images.

Teacher training students who practiced teaching virtual pupils developed greater confidence in their teaching ability, according to a study from Linköping University. In the long term, simulation can make the students better prepared for their workforce debut.

Researchers from the Turku PET Centre and Technical University of Munich have discovered a new mechanism controlling satiation. According to the recently published study, the hormone secretin induces satiation by activating brown adipose tissue.

A team of researchers composed of physicists and mathematicians from the University of Namur (UNamur), the Free University of Brussels (ULB) and the Ecole Normal Supérieure (ENS) of ParisSaclay, offers an innovative experiment to enable the detection of primordial black holes the size of a tennis ball. Such a discovery could shake up our understanding of the cosmos!

The venom of a caterpillar, native to South East Queensland, shows promise for use in medicines and pest control, Institute for Molecular Bioscience researchers say.

Scientists in Japan have uncovered a mechanism that allows a protein complex to bind to DNA without impeding some of the important processes of cell division. Their findings could further understandings of developmental disorders arising from mutations in the gene that codes for the complex.

Oregon State University research has identified the oldest known specimen of a fungus parasitizing an ant, and the fossil also represents a new fungal genus and species.

A new study shows inherited risk of early-onset cancer is significantly higher among Latino and African American families for solid tumors, and Asian/Pacific Islander families for blood-based cancers, compared to non-Latino white families in California. Researchers used California population-based health registries to evaluate the relative cancer risk among first-degree relatives of patients diagnosed with cancer by the age of 26. This study demonstrates the need for increased scrutiny on familial cancer clustering in minority populations.

To understand what role an individual gene plays, biologists have, for 100 years, been using a trick of nature: While in principle, the genome in all cells of an organism is the same, mutations arise in individual cells. These mutations differentiate a cell from its neighbors, forming a 'genetic mosaic.' Now, Simon Hippenmeyer, Professor at IST Austria, advanced genetic mosaic analysis, making almost all genes in the mouse genome accessible to single-cell genetic mosaic analysis.

A study on the role of microscopic particles in virus transmission suggests pollen is nothing to sneeze at. In Physics of Fluids, researchers investigate how pollen facilitates the spread of an RNA virus like the COVID-19 virus. The study draws on cutting-edge computational approaches for analyzing fluid dynamics to mimic the pollen movement from a willow tree, a prototypical pollen emitter. Airborne pollen grains contribute to the spread of airborne viruses, especially in crowded environments.

Emerging open-source programming language Julia is designed to be fast and easy to use. Since it is particularly suited for numerical applications, scientists are using it to explore the challenges in transitioning to all-renewable power generation. Decarbonization implies a radical restructuring of power grids, which will become even more complex, so new computational tools are needed. In Chaos, researchers describe a software package they built to enable the simulation of general dynamical systems on complex networks.

In Physics of Fluids, researchers report using environmental fluid dynamics -- advanced computational multiscale multiphysics modeling and simulations -- to develop a constitutive relationship between weather seasonality conditions, such as temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed, and having two pandemic curves per year.

What The Study Did: Researchers report their study found no association in SARS-CoV-2 positivity rates among health care workers wearing respirator masks compared with medical masks when performing nonaerosolizing routine patient care.

An analysis of survey data from more than 280,000 young adults ages 18-35 showed that cannabis (marijuana) use was associated with increased risks of thoughts of suicide (suicidal ideation), suicide plan, and suicide attempt. These associations remained regardless of whether someone was also experiencing depression, and the risks were greater for women than for men.

Without an audience, men run slower and women faster: The lack of spectators during the coronavirus pandemic appears to have had a noticeable effect on the performance of athletes at the 2020 Biathlon World Cup, a new study by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in Psychology of Sport and Exercise shows. According to the new analysis, women also performed better in complex tasks, such as shooting, when an audience was present while men did not.

In a world-first, a Kobe University research group led by Associate Professor FUKAYAMA Hiroshi of the Graduate School of Agricultural Science has used rice to successfully illuminate the mechanism by which plants regulate the amount of starch produced via photosynthesis. This knowledge could contribute towards improving the quality and yield of agricultural crops.

Sufficiently early identification of lack of oxygen in the fetus enables timely measures to ensure a safe delivery.