Culture
Newly published research carried out at the University of Guam has used a critically endangered species to show how trees modify leaf function to best exploit prevailing light conditions. The findings revealed numerous leaf traits that change depending on the light levels during leaf construction.
"The list of ways a leaf can modify its shape and structure is lengthy, and past research has not adequately looked at that entire list," said Benjamin Deloso, lead author of the study.
A Nagoya University-led research team in Japan has found a new neural pathway that links the circadian clock, stress, and wakefulness in mammals. The team identified a neuron, called the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) neuron, that becomes excessively active when the mammal is under stress, which could trigger insomnia and other sleep disorders. Their findings were recently published in the journal Science Advances.
Tsukuba, Japan -- With fall and winter holidays coming up, many will be pondering the relationship between food and sleep. Researchers led by Professor Masashi Yanagisawa at the University of Tsukuba in Japan hope they can focus people on the important middlemen in the equation: bacterial microbes in the gut. Their detailed study in mice revealed the extent to which bacteria can change the environment and contents of the intestines, which ultimately impacts behaviors like sleep.
Through video tracking and examination of museum specimens, scientists have discovered why Siberia's Lake Baikal seals are thriving when so many other seal populations are suffering from human-caused environmental stresses.
Lake Baikal is the largest and deepest freshwater lake in the world, containing more water than all of North America's Great Lakes combined. Native only to the lake whose name it bears, the Baikal seal is the only exclusively freshwater seal in the world.
In 2018 an international team of researchers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and several other observatories uncovered, for the first time, a galaxy in our cosmic neighborhood that is missing most of its dark matter. This discovery of the galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 was a surprise to astronomers, as it was understood that dark matter is a key constituent in current models of galaxy formation and evolution. In fact, without the presence of dark matter, the primordial gas would lack enough gravitational pull to start collapsing and forming new galaxies.
Going through a divorce is extremely challenging and previous research has highlighted the adverse effects that it can have on divorcees. A recent study in open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology is the first to examine health impacts immediately after a divorce. The study found that the mental and physical health of recent divorcees was worse than that of the background population and that higher levels of conflict predicted worse mental health, regardless of other factors.
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Anyone who has undergone a nasal swab or saliva test for COVID-19 knows that the virus is most easily detected in the nose and mouth. That's why, University at Buffalo researchers argue in a new paper, more COVID-19 studies should be devoted to how immunity emerges to SARS-CoV-2 in the mucous membranes of the nose and mouth.
The paper was published Nov. 30 in Frontiers in Immunology.
A unique stage of planetary system evolution has been imaged by astronomers, showing fast-moving carbon monoxide gas flowing away from a star system over 400 light years away, a discovery that provides an opportunity to study how our own solar system developed.
Astronomers have detected fast-moving carbon monoxide gas flowing away from a young, low-mass star: a unique stage of planetary system evolution which may provide insight into how our own solar system evolved and suggests that the way systems develop may be more complicated than previously thought.
DURHAM, N.C. - The proliferation of pits and ponds created in recent years by miners digging for small deposits of alluvial gold in Peru's Amazon has dramatically altered the landscape and increased the risk of mercury exposure for indigenous communities and wildlife, a new study shows.
We’ve all been there. Whether we’re waiting for a bus that is stuck in traffic, or eagerly anticipating the release of a new book, film or album, there are times when we need to be patient. Learning to suppress the impulse for instant gratification is often vital for future success, but how patience is regulated in the brain remains poorly understood.
Finding medicines that can kill cancer cells while leaving normal tissue unscathed is a Holy Grail of oncology research. In two new papers, scientists at UC San Francisco and Princeton University present complementary strategies to crack this problem with "smart" cell therapies--living medicines that remain inert unless triggered by combinations of proteins that only ever appear together in cancer cells.
The abrupt shift to hotter and drier conditions over inner East Asia is unprecedented and may herald an irreversible shift to a new climate regime for the region, according to a new study. The findings reveal a positive feedback loop fueled by declining soil moisture, which may have nudged the area's climate over an important tipping point. Extreme heatwaves and droughts are two of society's most pressing concerns as climate change driven by human activity continues unabated.
Tortoise refugees with the highest genetic variation are far more likely to survive conservation translocation than tortoises whose genetic diversity is lower, according to a new study. The findings suggest that translocation efforts should account for genetic variation when selecting target individuals rather than focusing solely on those determined to be most geographically or genetically similar to the target populations.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - New research has identified and described a cellular process that, despite what textbooks say, has remained elusive to scientists until now - precisely how the copying of genetic material that, once started, is properly turned off.
The finding concerns a key process essential to life: the transcription phase of gene expression, which enables cells to live and do their jobs.
In Nevada's dry Ivanpah Valley, just southeast of Las Vegas, a massive unintended experiment in animal conservation has revealed an unexpected result.
From 1997 to 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service moved more than 9,100 Mojave desert tortoises to the 100-square-kilometer (about 39 miles square) Large Scale Translocation Site. The newcomers, many of which were abandoned pets or had been displaced by development, joined nearly 1,500 desert tortoises already living there.