Brain
Ship movements on the world's oceans dropped in the first half of 2020 as Covid-19 restrictions came into force, a new study shows.
Researchers used a satellite vessel-tracking system to compare ship and boat traffic in January to June 2020 with the same period in 2019.
The study, led by the University of Exeter (UK) and involving the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System and the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (both in Spain), found decreased movements in the waters off more than 70 per cent of countries.
A study led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History has resolved a long-standing controversy about an extinct "horned" crocodile that likely lived among humans in Madagascar. Based on ancient DNA, the research shows that the horned crocodile was closely related to "true" crocodiles, including the famous Nile crocodile, but on a separate branch of the crocodile family tree.
In a uniquely deep and detailed look at how the commonly used anesthetic propofol causes unconsciousness, a collaboration of labs at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT shows that as the drug takes hold in the brain, a wide swath of regions become coordinated by very slow rhythms that maintain a commensurately languid pace of neural activity. Electrically stimulating a deeper region, the thalamus, restores synchrony of the brain's normal higher frequency rhythms and activity levels, waking the brain back up and restoring arousal.
Researchers have developed the first LiDAR-based augmented reality head-up display for use in vehicles. Tests on a prototype version of the technology suggest that it could improve road safety by 'seeing through' objects to alert of potential hazards without distracting the driver.
Proteins are undoubtedly some of the most fascinating biomolecules, and they perform many of the functions that (in our eyes) separate life from inanimate matter. Multi-molecular protein assemblies even have large-scale structural functions, as evidenced by feathers, hair, and scales in animals. It should come as no surprise that, with progress in advanced nanotechnology and bioengineering, artificial protein assemblies have found applications in a variety of fields, including catalysis, molecular storage, and drug delivery systems.
Fentanyl, oxycodone, morphine--these substances are familiar to many as a source of both pain relief and the cause of a painful epidemic of addiction and death.
Scientists have attempted for years to balance the potent pain-relieving properties of opioids with their numerous negative side effects--with mostly mixed results.
A phenomenon of "photoexpansion" in hard plastic films with a high glass transition temperature in the dry state was established, which was essentially different from very soft actuators, such as elastomers or gels. The photoexpanding hard actuators were expected to apply in the wide fields because they do not contain vaporable matters such as solvents and were much more thermoresistant than conventional ones.
Rain is a common phenomenon on Earth. There is a similar phenomenon on the Sun, called coronal rain. It is related to the coronal heating and magnetic field, and plays a fundamental role in the mass cycle between the hot, tenuous corona and the cool, dense chromosphere.
Coronal rain usually takes place in post-flare loops and the non-flaring active region coronal loops. It is generally classified into two categories: flare-driven and quiescent coronal rain, depending on its relation to the flare. Both kinds of coronal rain form along structures that are magnetically closed.
Chestnut Hill, Mass. (4/22/2021) - Confirming anecdotal evidence that the spread of the coronavirus has strained Americans' mental health, Boston College researchers found reports of anxiety increased to 50 percent and depression to 44 percent by November, 2020 - rates six times higher than 2019 - according to a new report in the journal Translational Behavioral Medicine.
For reasons not yet clear, pregnant women infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 are more likely to experience preterm births, pre-eclampsia, and other neonatal problems than non-infected women.
A study that appeared today on Current Biology sheds new light on the continental migrations which shaped the genetic background of all present Europeans. The research generates new ancient DNA evidence and direct dating from a fragmentary fossil mandible belonging to an individual who lived ~17,000 years ago in northeastern Italy (Riparo Tagliente, Verona). The results backdate by about 3,000 years the diffusion in Southern Europe of a genetic component linked to Eastern Europe/Western Asia previously believed to have spread westwards during later major warming shifts.
Certain signalling proteins, which are responsible for the development of innate immune function in almost all animals are also required for the formation of the dorsal-ventral (back-belly) axis in insect embryos. A new study by researchers from the University of Cologne's Institute of Zoology suggests that the relevance of these signalling proteins for insect axis formation has increased independently several times during evolution.
PHILADELPHIA--Piperlongumine, a chemical compound found in the Indian Long Pepper plant (Piper longum), is known to kill cancerous cells in many tumor types, including brain tumors. Now an international team including researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has illuminated one way in which the piperlongumine works in animal models -- and has confirmed its strong activity against glioblastoma, one of the least treatable types of brain cancer.
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- In nature, many molecules possess a property called chirality, which means that they cannot be superimposed on their mirror images (like a left and right hand).
Chirality can influence function, impacting a pharmaceutical or enzyme's effectiveness, for example, or a compound's perceived aroma.
Now, a new study is advancing scientists' understanding of another property tied to chirality: How light interacts with chiral materials under a magnetic field.
Video: https://bit.ly/pelicanflightvideo
It's a common sight: pelicans gliding along the waves, right by the shore. These birds make this kind of surfing look effortless, but actually the physics involved that give them a big boost are not simple.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have recently developed a theoretical model that describes how the ocean, the wind and the birds in flight interact in a recent paper in Movement Ecology.