Brain
Fossil bones collected in the early 1990s on Henderson Island, part of the Pitcairn Group, have revealed a new species of Polynesian sandpiper.
The Henderson Sandpiper, a small wading bird that has been extinct for centuries, is described in an article in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society published last week.
The newly-described bird is formally named Prosobonia sauli after Cook Islands-based ornithologist and conservationist Edward K Saul.
Osaka, Japan - Many plants, including legumes, make naturally occurring chemicals called saponins. For example, the medicinal plant licorice produces the saponin glycyrrhizin, a potent natural sweetener that also has antiviral and other pharmacological activity. Soyasaponins, found in soybeans, have anticarcinogenic and antioxidant properties.
Projections of atmospheric and oceanic processes in the Red Sea are informing the design of sustainable megacities being planned and built along its shores.
Elite runners need a specific combination of physiological abilities to have any chance of running a sub-two-hour marathon, new research shows.
The study is based on detailed testing of athletes who took part in Nike's Breaking2 project - an ambitious bid to break the two-hour barrier.
Professor Andrew Jones, of the University of Exeter, said the findings reveal that elite marathon runners must have a "perfect balance" of VO2 max (rate of oxygen uptake), efficiency of movement and a high "lactate turn point" (above which the body experiences more fatigue).
A major technical challenge for any practical, real-world quantum computer comes from the need for a large number of physical qubits to deal with errors that accumulate during computation. Such quantum error correction is resource-intensive and computationally time-consuming. But researchers have found an effective software method that enables significant compression of quantum circuits, relaxing the demands placed on hardware development.
Scientists from the Skoltech Center for Design, Manufacturing, and Materials (CDMM) have developed a method for designing and manufacturing complex-shaped ceramic bone implants with a controllable porous structure, which largely enhances tissue fusion efficiency. Their research was published in the journal Applied Sciences.
MIT chemists have determined the molecular structure of a protein found in the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This protein, called the envelope protein E, forms a cation-selective channel and plays a key role in the virus's ability to replicate itself and stimulate the host cell's inflammation response.
School districts across the U.S. are increasingly using student test scores to rate the effectiveness of teachers, but a new Portland State University study found that the scores have less to do with individual teachers and more to do with their students and schools.
Dara Shifrer, the study's author and assistant professor of sociology at PSU, said these findings are especially salient now as the public education system is dismantled by a pandemic, fundamentally altering the lives of children and their parents.
TORONTO (Nov. 12, 2020) - A staggering 3 million deaths occur every year as result from harmful use of alcohol, according to the World Health Organization.
Present in alcoholic drinks, ethanol, normally referred to as 'alcohol', affects every part of the human body. Brain function, circulation and even nail growth are impacted. When a certain level of blood alcohol concentration is reached, the intoxication can damage organs and lead to death.
(Philadelphia, PA) - Winding and twisting like a labyrinth, the brain consists of an elaborate network of passages through which information flows at high speeds, rapidly generating thoughts, emotions, and physical responses. Much of this information is relayed by chemical messengers, or neurotransmitters - like dopamine and serotonin.
Climate change is a major global crisis. Despite international agreements to fight climate change, greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase and global temperatures continue to rise. The potential effects on our lives are drastic: recent wildfires in the US and Australia, floods due to heavier precipitation, and heavy losses of crops are all indicative of this. But simply reducing the production of greenhouse gases, although crucial, is not enough. The CO2 that we've released, and are continuing to release into the atmosphere, remains there indefinitely.
A team of researchers from the Universitat Politècnica de València and the Spanish National Research Council has discovered a new method that makes it possible to transform electricity into hydrogen or chemical products by solely using microwaves - without cables and without any type of contact with electrodes. This can represent a disruption in the field of energy research and a key development for the decarbonisation of process industry, as well as for the future of the automotive sector and the chemical industry, among many others.
The gut-associated lymphoid tissue represents an integral part of the immune system. Among the powerful players of the mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue are isolated lymphoid structures (ILSs). Additionally, in the course of cancer, ectopic lymphoid structures (ELSs; also known as tertiary lymphoid structures, TLSs) were shown to be formed at the tumor site. Both ILSs and ELSs act as multitasking information centers triggering multifaceted immune responses.
Narrow-band near infrared (NIR) photodetectors (PDs) capable to simultaneously detect light in multi-spectral bands, e.g., in the NIR I and NIR II regions, are attracting prodigious attention in diverse areas including biological analysis, multicolor bio-imaging/sensing, and encrypted communications. UCNCs, due to their unique two-photons or multi-photons excitation nature as well as their non-toxic characteristics and low preparation cost, have emerged as a superior solution by converting NIR photons into easily detectable visible photons.
The development of laser frequency combs has revolutionized optical communication, photonic sensing, precision spectroscopy, and astronomical observation. Stable frequency combs could be achieved via mode locking in rare-earth doped fiber lasers, generating Kerr solitons in parametric oscillators, or opto-electrically modulating lithium niobate microresonators with strong second-order nonlinearity.