Brain
Planting trees and preventing deforestation are considered key climate change mitigation strategies, but a new analysis finds the cost of preserving and planting trees to hit certain global emissions reductions targets could accelerate quickly.
Since the discovery of a water-bearing ringwoodite specimen trapped in a superdeep diamond from Brazil by Pearson et al., in 2014 (published in Nature), there is a regained interest for finding and characterizing the potential carrier and host minerals of water in the deep Earth's interior.
People on the autism spectrum face barriers to comprehensive care that may cause their health and quality of life to be worse than that of their peers. While some people may be predisposed to worse health, preventive services and comprehensive health care can go a long way in improving the trajectory of health throughout their lives.
PULLMAN, Wash. - States with college teams in strong conferences, in particular the Southeastern Conference (SEC), were among the last to take up regulations on youth concussions, according to a recent study. The study, which investigated the association between youth sport participation and passage of concussion legislation, uncovered the importance of SEC affiliation, and found a similar connection in states with high rates of high school football participation.
Scientists examining the effects of a megathrust earthquake in the Pacific Northwest say tall buildings across Metro Vancouver will experience greater shaking than currently accounted for by Canada's national seismic hazard model.
Methane, the main component of natural gas, is the cleanest-burning of all the fossil fuels, but when emitted into the atmosphere it is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. By some estimates, seafloor methane contained in frozen formations along the continental margins may equal or exceed the total amount of coal, oil, and gas in all other reservoirs worldwide. Yet, the way methane escapes from these deep formations is poorly understood.
Since plastic was invented in the late 19th century, it was beginning to change human lives. The invention of plastic gives us a lightweight, strong and inexpensive material, which greatly facilitated daily life. Petroleum-based plastics play a critical role in human lives, but the flip side of the coin is, they possess a considerably increasing negative impact on the environment and human health. It's unclear how long it will take for plastics to completely biodegrade into their constituent molecules. Estimates range from 450 years to never.
Hydride transfer is a prevailing protocol for reduction of unsaturated compounds, which is traditionally accomplished under the catalysis of transition-metals, particularly those of noble metals. Because of concerns associated with their low abundance, high toxicity and harmful transition-metal residues, considerable research has recently focused on the use of main-group organic counterparts as surrogates for conventional metal hydrides.
London, 30 November 2020 - In a major scientific advance, the latest version of DeepMind's AI system AlphaFold has been recognised as a solution to the 50-year-old grand challenge of protein structure prediction, often referred to as the 'protein folding problem', according to a rigorous independent assessment. This breakthrough could significantly accelerate biological research over the long term, unlocking new possibilities in disease understanding and drug discovery among other fields.
Researchers at the University of Basel have discovered a molecular mechanism that plays a central role in intact long-term memory. This mechanism is also involved in physiological memory loss in old age.
Decades after two large earthquakes rocked the Mojave Desert in California, the discovery of new post-earthquake displacement features has prompted KAUST researchers to update the existing model for this earthquake-prone region. Their findings support a thin "crème brûlée" model in which the strength lies in the upper crust, while the lower crust exhibits more ductility over time than previously thought.
Over a period of 39 months, invasive keyhole wasps (Pachodynerus nasidens) at the Brisbane Airport were responsible for 93 instances of fully blocked replica pitot probes - vital instruments that measure airspeed -- according to a study published November 30 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Alan House of Eco Logical Australia and colleagues. As noted by the authors, the results underscore the importance of risk-mitigating strategies, such as covering pitot probes when aircraft arrive and setting up additional traps to intercept the wasps.
The covid-19 virus, like all viruses relies on their host for reproduction
How SARS-CoV-2 captures stoichiometric amino and nucleic acids in a human lung cell has been discovered by using a computational model by scientists from the University of Warwick
By understanding host-based metabolic perturbations inhibiting SARS-CoV-2, a rapid, experimentally testable generation of drug predictions can be made
Glass sponges - as the name suggests - have a glass-based skeleton composed of a network of glass needles, hooks, stars, and spheres. To achieve such a unique architecture they have to manipulate the shape of disordered glass to form highly regular and symmetrical elements. Thin crystalline fibers made of a protein, known as silicatein, are present in channels inside of these glass elements. It is known that silicatein crystals are responsible for glass synthesis in sponges and for shaping the glass skeleton.
ITHACA, N.Y. - Prohibiting fishing in conservation reserves is a common strategy for protecting ocean ecosystems and enhancing fisheries management. However, such dedicated reserves are rare in freshwater ecosystems, where conservation efforts generally piggyback on the protection of terrestrial habitats and species.