Brain
Orlando, Fla. (April 6, 2019) - Despite decades of fascination with dolphins, scientists have long overlooked one aspect of the species' anatomy. For the first time, researchers offer an up-close look at the clitoris of female dolphins along with insights on the potential for the animals to experience sexual pleasure.
In a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory and Northeastern University, scientists have developed a model for predicting the shape of metal nanocrystals or "islands" sandwiched between or below two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene. The advance moves 2D quantum materials a step closer to applications in electronics.
ORLANDO, Fla., April 3, 2019 -- Science-fiction writers have long envisioned human¬-machine hybrids that wield extraordinary powers. However, "super plants" with integrated nanomaterials may be much closer to reality than cyborgs. Today, scientists report the development of plants that can make nanomaterials called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and the application of MOFs as coatings on plants. The augmented plants could potentially perform useful new functions, such as sensing chemicals or harvesting light more efficiently.
Scientists from the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research and collaborators have used simulations to show that the photons emitted by long gamma-ray bursts--one of the most energetic events to take place in the universe--originate in the photosphere--the visible portion of the "relativistic jet" that is emitted by exploding stars.
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered and characterized a new form of oxygen dubbed "featherweight oxygen" -- the lightest-ever version of the familiar chemical element oxygen, with only three neutrons to its eight protons.
Oxygen is one of the most abundant elements in the solar system, but oxygen-11 can be produced only in a laboratory. It decays immediately after its creation by emitting two protons, and it can be observed solely through detection of its decay products. Two-proton decay is the most recently discovered nuclear decay channel.
HOKKAIDO, JAPAN (March 29, 2019) - Paleontologists from Hokkaido University in Japan, in cooperation with paleontologists from the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas, have discovered the first-confirmed occurrence of a lambeosaurine (crested 'duck-billed' dinosaur) from the Arctic - part of the skull of a lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Liscomb Bonebed (71-68 Ma) found on Alaska's North Slope. The bonebed was previously known to be rich in hadrosaurine hadrosaurids (non-crested 'duck-billed' dinosaurs).
White individuals disproportionately affect the environment through their eating habits by eating more foods that require more water and release more greenhouse gases through their production compared to foods black and Latinx individuals eat, according to a new report published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology.
A team of biologists and physicists, led by the University of Bristol, have uncovered new insights into how antlions - one of the fiercest and most terrifying predators in the insect kingdom - build their deadly pit traps.
Antlions - with their nightmarish fish-hook sharp jaws which can drain the bodily fluids of its victims within minutes - are iconic within entomology and they have been studied for 200 years.
It was known that they make pits lined with fine sand grains and that they throw large debris out of the pit.
Children are more likely to suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) if they think their reaction to traumatic events is not 'normal' - according to new research from the University of East Anglia.
While most children recover well after a traumatic event, some go on to develop PTSD that may stay with them for months, years, or even into adulthood.
A new study, published today, reveals that children begin down this route when they have trouble processing their trauma and perceive their symptoms as being a sign that something is seriously wrong.
Improvements in the precision of mobile technologies make it possible for advertisers to go beyond using static location and contextual information about consumers to increase the effectiveness of mobile advertising based on customers' location. A new study used a targeting strategy that tracks where, when, and for how long consumers are in a shopping mall to determine how shoppers' physical movements affect their economic choices. The study found that targeting potential customers in this way can significantly improve advertising via mobile phones.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - The string of volcanoes in the Cascades Arc, ranging from California's Mt. Lassen in the south to Washington's Mt. Baker in the north, have been studied by geologists and volcanologists for over a century. Spurred on by spectacular events such as the eruption of Mount Lassen in 1915 and Mount St. Helens in 1980, scientists have studied most of the Cascade volcanoes in detail, seeking to work out where the magma that erupts comes from and what future eruptions might look like.
Patients in a new Northwestern Medicine study were able to comprehend words that were written but not said aloud. They could write the names of things they saw but not verbalize them.
Even though these patients could hear and speak perfectly fine, a disease had crept into a portion of their brain that kept them from processing auditory words while still allowing them to process visual ones. Patients in the study had primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a rare type of dementia that destroys language and currently has no treatment.
Female birds age more slowly and live longer when they have help raising their offspring, according to new research from the University of Sheffield.
Researchers studied the relationship between ageing and offspring rearing patterns in the Seychelles warbler, and found that females who had assistance from other female helpers benefitted from a longer, healthier lifespan.
The findings help explain why social species, such as humans, which live in groups and cooperate to raise offspring, often have longer lifespans.
Searching high-Tc superconductor has become a hot topic in physics since superconducting mercury was first reported more than one century ago. Dense hydrogen was predicted to metalize and become superconductor at high pressure and room temperature. However, it has been very challenging and no widely accepted experimental work has been reported yet. In 2004, Ashcroft predicted hydrogen-dominant hydrides could become high-Tc superconductor at high pressure, due to the 'chemical precompression'. Later, Drozdov et al.
Quantum computers are designed to process information using quantum bits, and promise huge speedups in scientific computing and codebreaking
Current prototype devices are publicly accessible but highly error prone: information can 'leak' into unwanted states
Computer program designed and run by University of Warwick physicists can tell when a quantum computer is 'leaking'
Results will inform the development of future quantum computers and error correction techniques