Eurekalert

The farming of livestock to feed the global appetite for animal products greatly contributes to global warming. A new study however shows that emission intensity per unit of animal protein produced from the sector has decreased globally over the past two decades due to greater production efficiency, raising questions around the extent to which methane emissions will change in the future and how we can better manage their negative impacts.

People who eat too many refined carbs and fatty meats for dinner have a higher risk of heart disease than those who eat a similar diet for breakfast, according to a nationwide study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

A new paper that has been accepted for publication in Ophthalmic & Physiological Optics, the peer-reviewed journal of The College of Optometrists (UK), furthers understanding of myopia control efficacy in the context of normal childhood eye growth. Axial Length Targets for Myopia Control (Chamberlain P, et al.) is now available online via Open Access.

Time not only flies when you're having fun - sometimes anticipating a fun event makes it feel like it will be over as soon as it begins, a new study suggests.Researchers found that people judge future positive events as being both farther away as well as shorter in duration than negative or neutral events.

Tobacco use continues to be a primary contributor to the global burden of disease, causing an estimated 12% of deaths worldwide among people aged 30 and over. Four leading cardiovascular organizations - American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, European Society of Cardiology and World Heart Federation - today released a joint opinion calling for greater action at the global scale to end the tobacco epidemic once and for all.

Social isolation and quarantine can have a detrimental impact on physical and mental health of people living with pre-existing conditions, according to two studies being presented at the 23rd European Congress of Endocrinology (e-ECE 2021) on Wednesday 26 May at 14:14 CET (www.ece2021.org).

The biological clock is present in almost all cells of an organism. As more and more evidence emerges that clocks in certain organs could be out of sync, there is a need to investigate and reset these clocks locally. Scientists from the Netherlands and Japan introduced a light-controlled on/off switch to a kinase inhibitor, which affects clock function. This gives them control of the biological clock in cultured cells and explanted tissue.

What information is retained in a memory over time, and which parts get lost? These questions have led to many scientific theories over the years, and now a team of researchers at the Universities of Glasgow and Birmingham have been able to provide some answers.

A multi-national effort involving scientists from Denmark, Canada, Germany and Japan reports the first-ever direct measurements of mercury deposition in the deepest trenches of the Pacific Ocean, 8 to 10 kilometers under the sea, revealing unprecedented amounts of highly toxic mercury. The high mercury levels may be representative of the collective increase in anthropogenic emissions of mercury into our oceans. On the other hand, ocean trenches may act as a permanent dump.

Kobe University researchers have successfully detected the environmental DNA of the invasive Argentine ant in surface soil samples, and have demonstrated that eDNA can provide a more accurate understanding of habitat distribution. It is hoped that combining this with pest control plans will contribute towards the successful elimination of destructive, invasive ant species. 

Current vaccination programmes alone will have a limited effect in stopping the second wave of COVID infections in the US, according to a study conducted by scientists from Reykjavik University, University of Lyon, University of Southern Denmark and University of Naples Federico II, and published in the Nature Group journal Scientific Reports today. The findings suggest that strict social distancing and other non-pharmaceutical methods are still necessary to end the ongoing second wave in the US and prevent a new one from rising.

The pandemic has increased older adults' willingness to receive the flu shot, new research shows.

Even among a large group of cancer survivors who were mostly insured, college educated and had annual incomes above the national average, up to 10% delayed care in the previous 12 months because they simply could not afford out of pocket expenses like copays and deductibles, investigators report.

These Oncotarget data reveal a new class of mibefradil-based DNA repair inhibitors which can be further advanced into pre-clinical testing and eventually clinical trials, as potential GBM radiosensitizers.

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), which causes tingling and numbness in the hand, more commonly affects women than men and tends to peak around the age of menopause. A new study suggests the risk of severe CTS increases in women who underwent bilateral oophorectomy before menopause, and estrogen therapy didn't provide a protective effect. Study results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).

An intimate CuPd(100) interface was designed to lower the energy barriers of intermediate reaction (CO2* hydrogenation and C-C coupling) and improve the efficiency of C2 products. The optimal CuPd(100) interface catalyst exhibited a C2 Faradaic efficiency of 50.3%, which was 2.1 times higher than that of Cu catalyst (23.6%) at -1.4 VRHE in 0.1 M KHCO3

Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) located at Sichuan, China, detected dozen Ultra-high Energy gamma-ray sources, opening a new window into the γ-ray sky.

Researchers hope industry and governments worldwide will use the SSSAFE model to help early warning systems mitigate landslide risks

MIT researchers developed a "Digger Finger" robot that digs through granular material, like sand and gravel, and senses the shapes of buried objects. The technology could aid in disarming buried bombs or inspecting underground cables.

Genetic diversity, which reflects the variation in DNA within species and populations and is the key to their capacity to adapt in times of change, is being lost at an alarming rate. According to an article by 28 authors representing 16 countries, the loss of genetic diversity can affect resiliency in the face of environmental change and result in the loss of important services provided to society.