Eurekalert

When a liquid is cooled rapidly, it gains viscosity and eventually becomes a rigid solid glass. The point at which it does so is known as the glass transition. A collaborative research group has furthered our understanding of this phenomenon through the use of high entropy metallic glasses.

RUDN University biologists discovered the way how macrophages (the cells of the "first line" immune response) respond to inflammation and identified how the immune response depends on their origin. It turned out that when exposed to an inflammatory stimulus, two opposing mechanisms are activated in macrophages simultaneously -- inducing and inhibiting inflammation. These data can potentially be useful in the treatment of cancer, as targeted activation of macrophages will strengthen the immune response of the organism in the fight against a tumor.

Publication in Nature Communication: Neuro-evolutionary robotics is an approach to realize collective behaviors for swarms of robots. A comparative study of the most popular neuro-evolutionary methods shows that the control software produced by most of the analyzed methods gives good results in simulation.

Developed by two researchers at the University of Malaga, This methodology enables the reduction of costs and time in engineering design optimisation thanks to artificial intelligence

A new way of producing coherent light in the ultra-violet spectral region, which points the way to developing brilliant table-top x-ray sources, has been produced in research led at the University of Strathclyde.

The brain mechanisms underlying the suppression of fear responses have attracted a lot of attention as they are relevant for therapy of human anxiety disorders. Despite our broad understanding of the different brain regions activated during the experience of fear, how fear responses can be suppressed remains largely elusive. Researchers at the University of Bern and the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel have now discovered that the activation of identified central amygdala neurons can suppress fear responses.

This is the first ever capture of the ultrafast motions of a high intensity laser produced plasma on a solid surface, simultaneously at different spatial locations. It achieves an experimental leap in Doppler spectrometry and is important for tracking the flow of heat and energy along the surface and watching the growth of plasma instabilities, all very important for understanding laser plasma science and pushing forward applications of high intensity, femtosecond laser driven laser plasmas.

Although some people may yearn for sports to be free of political or racial divisiveness, a new study shows how impossible that dream may be.Researchers found that Americans' views on two hot-button issues in sports were sharply divided by racial, ethnic and political identities. In addition, their opinions on topics unrelated to sports, like the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, also were linked to their beliefs about the two sports issues.

A team of astronomers has released new observations of nearby galaxies that resemble colourful cosmic fireworks. The images, obtained with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), show different components of the galaxies in distinct colours, allowing astronomers to pinpoint the locations of young stars and the gas they warm up around them.

Researchers took 3-D printed reconstructions of fossil cephalopods to actual water tanks (including a University of Utah swimming pool) to see how their shell structure may have been tied to their movement and lifestyle.

The investigational therapeutic ficlatuzumab in combination with chemotherapy showed signs of clinical efficacy in patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

A team of researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the University of Liège and the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy have developed a microswimmer that appears to defy the laws of fluid dynamics: their model, consisting of two beads that are connected by a linear spring, is propelled by completely symmetrical oscillations. The findings have been published in the academic journal 'Physical Review Letters'.

Migration is a major phenomenon across developing economies. Marketers and policymakers should harness the power of migrants' remittances--both economic and social--to allocate marketing resources.

Satellite observations of XCO2 show greater biases apparently over oceans than over the land surface. However, no effective ways to evaluate space-time XCO2 variations over wide geographical areas exist. Observations on commercial ship tracks and aircraft routes, together with atmospehric model calculations, provide a new reference XCO2 dataset for the otherwise inaccesible areas of the world. High quality satellite observations are a requirement for better understanding of the carbon cycle in response to climate change.

This Oncotarget finding might have potential therapeutic implications, as anti-EGFR could be reconsidered in primarily RAS mutant patients reverted to a wild-type status after bevacizumab exposure.

A new study from WCS and WWF reveals that nearly 20 percent of tropical Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) overlap with concessions for extractive industries such as mining, oil and gas.

Short-term financial difficulties prevent poor people in Germany from voting and participating in politics. Such are the findings of a study by Max Schaub, a research fellow at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), published in American Political Science Review. Among individuals at risk of poverty, both turnout intentions and actual turnout are reduced by 5 percentage points when election days coincide with phases of acute financial hardship.

Using a D-Wave quantum-annealing computer as a testbed, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have shown that it is possible to isolate so-called emergent magnetic monopoles, a class of quasiparticles, creating a new approach to developing "materials by design."

Science snapshots from Berkeley Lab: Energy-saving windows, microbial fingerprints, lithium-ion batteries & fuel cells

A new study by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers of more the 400,000 Medicare patients taking medications for insomnia found that the risk of death is increased when either benzodiazepines or "z-drugs" are taken with opioids.