Eurekalert

Chinese researchers achieved 51.5dB nonreciprocal isolation in the atomic ensemble, which is the highest isolation ratio in the non-magnetic nonreciprocal field.

A research team led by Prof. LI Chuanfeng and Prof. ZHOU Zongquan from University of Science and Technology of China extended the storage time of the optical memories to over one hour. It broke the record of one minute achieved by German researchers in 2013, and made a great stride towards the application of quantum memories.

An international team led by researchers from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Geneva has found that flash floods may triple across the Earth's "Third Pole" in response to ongoing climate change.

Computer scientists at the University of California San Diego have developed a more accurate navigation system that will allow robots to better negotiate busy clinical environments in general and emergency departments more specifically. The researchers have also developed a dataset of open source videos to help train robotic navigation systems in the future. The team detail their findings in a paper for the International Conference on Robotics and Automation taking place May 30 to June 5, 2021 in Xi'an, China.

A new study indicates São Tomé island has two species of caecilians found nowhere else on Earth. The research adds evidence to a century-long scientific debate and reveals how volcanic activity may have driven the divergence of the limbless amphibians.

A new system developed in the lab of Zhen (Jason) He uses bacteria to filter wastewater while creating electricity.

End-of-life circuit boards, certain magnets in disc drives and electric vehicles, EV and other special battery types, and fluorescent lamps are among several electrical and electronic products containing critical raw materials (CRMs), the recycling of which should be made law, says a new UN-backed report funded by the EU.

Modeling shows fluctuating soil microbial populations impact how much carbon is released from soil.

Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have made several discoveries on the functioning mechanisms of the inner hair cells of the ear, which convert sounds into nerve signals that are processed in the brain. The results, presented in the scientific journal Nature Communications, challenge the current picture of the anatomical organisation and workings of the hearing organ, which has prevailed for decades.

A research group led by Dr. Hideyuki Kobayashi at Toho University Omori Medical Center in Tokyo developed an AI-assisted image classifier that provides scores for histological testis images of patients with azoospermia. The objective of Dr. Kobayashi, a urologist, was to create an easy-to-use method of pathological examination for the daily clinical practice setting. With it, testis images could be classified at 82.6% accuracy.

Researchers at the IST Austria led by Björn Hof reports that a small difference in epidemic mitigation levels can cause a discontinuous jump in infection numbers. The researchers show that limits in testing and contact tracing are responsible for this sudden change in the epidemic outcome. Testing followed up by contact tracing is extremely efficient in slowing down epidemics, however, once their limit is exceeded the epidemic accelerates resulting in a faster than exponential spread.

Low levels of serotonin in the brain are seen as a possible cause of depression and many antidepressants act by blocking a protein that transports serotonin away from the nerve cells. A brain imaging study at Karolinska Institutet now shows that the average level of the serotonin transporter increased in a group of 17 individuals who recovered from depression after cognitive behavioural therapy. The results are published in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

In a small study, 82% of the college athletes with COVID-19 had symptoms, of which the majority were mild and did not require treatment.Further screening via cardiac MRI of the 4% of athletes identified with heart abnormalities found no heart damage or inflammation.All athletes resumed regular training and competition without difficulty after recovering from COVID-19.

Having high blood pressure, high cholesterol and/or obesity from childhood through middle age were linked to poorer brain function by middle age.These cardiovascular risk factors were linked with low memory, learning, visual processing, attention span, and reaction and movement time.Strategies to prevent heart disease and stroke should begin in childhood to promote better brain health by middle age.

First-phase ejection fraction, a possible indicator of heart failure, is a strong predictor of survival in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.Hospitalized patients who had impaired first-phase ejection fraction were nearly 5 times more likely to die from COVID-19 compared to patients with normal first-phase ejection fraction.

Physics researchers at the University of Bath discover that assembling 2D materials into a 3D arrangement does not just result in 'thicker' 2D materials but instead produces entirely new materials. The nanomesh technologically pioneered at Bath is simple to produce and offers tunable material properties to meet the demands of future applications. The team's next goal is to use the nanomesh on Silicon (Si) waveguides to develop quantum optical communications.

UK landowners and conservationists welcome wider-spread use of Gene Conservation Units (GCUs) to help protect some of the rarest plants and insects, research at the University of York has shown.

Prof. Jelinek, who is also BGUs vice president of Research & Development and a member of the Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology explained, "The tweezers are just like your home tweezers but a million times smaller, and instead of plucking hairs they attack fibers of the bacteria's biofilm." By doing that they break the biofilm, making it more vulnerable to human immune defenses and external substances that are used against bacteria like antibiotics."

Thousands of sharks have been illegally caught in a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Indian Ocean, new research shows.

For the development of drugs or vaccines against COVID-19, research needs virus proteins of high purity. For most of the SARS-CoV-2 proteins, scientists at Goethe University Frankfurt and a total of 36 partner laboratories have now developed protocols that enable the production of several milligrams of each of these proteins with high purity, and allow the determination of the three-dimensional protein structures. The laboratory protocols and the required genetic tools are freely accessible to researchers all over the world.