Culture
Presently, the moon does not have an internal magnetic field as it can be observed on Earth. However, there are localized regions on its surface up to several hundred kilometers in size where a very strong magnetic field prevails. This has been shown by measurements on rocks from the Apollo missions. Since then, research has puzzled about the origin of these magnetic spots. One theory is that they are in some way remnants of an ancient core magnetic field. Possibly similar to what can still be observed on Earth today.
A rapid and simple method for testing the efficacy of antibacterial drugs on infectious microbes has been developed and validated by a team of Penn State researchers.
Antimicrobial resistant infection is one of the major threats to human health globally, causing 2.5 million infections and 35,000 deaths annually, with the potential to grow to 10 million deaths annually by 2050 without improved techniques for detection and treatment.
(Vienna, 15 October 2020) Poverty is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Globally, one out of every 10 people lives in extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1.90 per day. Many of them live in rural areas where the poverty rate is 17.2 per cent - more than three times higher than in urban areas. If current trends continue, the number of hungry people will reach 840 million or one ninth of the world's population by 2030 according to the World Food Programme.
LONDON, ON - Lawson Health Research Institute and the Centre of Excellence on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are partnering with a population at high risk of mental illness - Canadian Veterans and spouses of Canadian Veterans - to study how they have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through online surveys, the project will hear directly from Veterans and their spouses to assess the pandemic's effects on their wellbeing over time.
Both seasonal migration and the maintenance and use of an effective immune system come with substantial metabolic costs and are responsible for high levels of oxidative stress. How do animals cope in a situation when energy is limited and both costly body functions are needed? A team of scientists led by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) investigated whether and how the immune response changes between pre-migration and migration seasons in the Nathusius pipistrelle bat.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., October 15, 2020 - Synthego, the genome engineering company, has collaborated with The Krogan Lab, a world-renowned scientific research unit at the Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), to deliver multiple CRISPR-based engineered cell lines to accelerate the study of potential treatment targets for SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease.
Plastic gathered from remote corners of the South Pacific Ocean, including nesting areas of New Zealand albatrosses, has confirmed the global threat of plastic pollution to seabirds.
Published on 12 October in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, the study looks for patterns in the plastics seabirds from around the South Pacific ingest.
It uses data gathered by Canterbury Museum Senior Curator Natural History Dr Paul Scofield and Wellington ornithologist Christopher Robertson in the late 1990s and 2000s.
The number of trees inhabiting the Western Sahara, the Sahel and the Sudanian zone has exceeded the expectations of scientists, with more than 1.8 billion having been located thanks to an international collaboration including researchers from the CNRS*. High-resolution remote sensing made it possible to gather a multitude of satellite images of these areas, which were then analysed by applying an artificial intelligence pattern recognition method.
Favourable climatic conditions influenced the sequence of settlement movements of Homo sapiens in the Levant on their way from Africa to Europe. In a first step, modern humans settled along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Only then did they spread out into the Sinai desert and the eastern Jordanian Rift Valley. This is the result of archaeological research conducted by Collaborative Research Centre 'Our Way to Europe' (CRC 806) at the universities of Cologne, Bonn, and Aachen.
Researchers from the University of Seville, in collaboration with colleagues from the Universities of Murcia and Marburg (Germany) have identified a new protein that makes it possible to repair DNA. The protein in question, called cryptochrome, has evolved to acquire this and other functions within the cell.
While most people dying from COVID-19 are elderly, up to 5 to 10 percent of younger adults and children can also be seriously infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Researcher from all over the world have tried to determine why some people become very ill and others are barely affected with COVID-19.
Researchers from the University of Bergen and their French colleagues are getting closer to an answer.
Tsukuba, Japan - End-of-life discussions, considered an essential part of high-quality end-of-life care for patients with life-threatening illnesses, make it easier to provide treatment and care that satisfy the patient's wishes. They also contribute to reducing depression and complicated grief among bereaved family members. In countries with increasing numbers of older people, such as Japan, there's a strong need to find how to have these discussions and how to make them effective.
(Vienna, 14 October 2020) Numerous scientific studies indicate that inflammatory processes play a key role in the development of psychiatric disorders. One of the areas of particular interest is the interleukin 6/STAT3 signal transduction pathway, which is associated with depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.
Fanconi anaemia (FA) is a genetic disease affecting small children characterized by bone-marrow failure, developmental abnormalities and predisposition to multiple forms of cancer. The molecular mechanisms behind FA are inherited mutations in genes encoding for DNA repair proteins, leading to irreversible bone marrow failure. The exact mechanisms how these genetic mutations lead to the exhaustion of stem cells from the bone marrow has been unknown.
A new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows that a bettor likely stays away from betting for a 27% longer time after a losing day than after a day on which they won or broke even. The study looked at how losing or winning on the previous betting day predicts how long it takes from a bettor to return to the next session of online horse race betting. The study also found that high wins or losses on the previous betting day do not predict the timing of the next betting session.