Culture
Physicists at Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have developed a new detector for measuring energy quanta at unprecedented resolution. This discovery could help bring quantum computing out of the laboratory and into real-world applications. The results have been published today in Nature.
The immune system is equipped with numerous cell types that effectively fight the various pathogens, humans can encounter during their lives. T cells, for example, have a receptor through which they can specifically recognize and bind antigens. However, in recent decades, cell types with similar protective properties have been discovered that do not possess a specific antigen receptor.
The causes of cerebral palsy have long been debated and often are attributed to in utero infections, premature birth, or brain injury to the baby near or during delivery, usually from a lack of oxygen. But many young children diagnosed with cerebral palsy have not experienced such events.
Since first appearing in late 2019, the novel virus, SARS-CoV-2, has had a range of impacts on those it infects. Some people become severely ill with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and require hospitalization, whereas others have mild symptoms or are even asymptomatic.
Intelligent algorithms are used to create paintings, write poems, and compose music. According to a study by an international team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Center of Humans and Machines at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, whether people perceive artificial intelligence (AI) as the ingenious creator of art or simply another tool used by artists depends on how information about AI art is presented. The results were published in the journal iScience.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA--September 29, 2020--The latent reservoir is the last bastion of HIV's resistance to a cure. But it is difficult to destroy because it is invisible: the cells in the reservoir harbor virus that is dormant, so they don't have any viral proteins on their surface that would give them away.
A group of marine biologists is pushing for more international collaboration to manage the Humboldt squid population after their study to identify its genetic stocks revealed its vulnerability to overfishing by fleets trying to feed the world’s hunger for squids.
Hiroshima University marine biologist Gustavo Sanchez led a team of researchers to find out the genetic structure of the Humboldt squid population in the Eastern Pacific Ocean using two types of DNA markers — the mitochondrial ND2 gene and nuclear microsatellite loci.
Rapeseed has the potential to replace soy as the best plant-based source of protein for humans. In a current study, nutrition scientists at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), found that rapeseed protein consumption has comparable beneficial effects on human metabolism as soy protein. The glucose metabolism and satiety were even better. Another advantage: The proteins can be obtained from the by-products of rapeseed oil production. The study was published in the journal Nutrients.
Scientists from the University of Portsmouth and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, have come up with a formula to help plant breeders and farmers around the world grow crops in a more sustainable way.
The new checklist, which has just been published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, will guide plant breeders to better understand the species they are trying to improve. It will also help them find ways to increase growth and yield of crops using wild plant species from which they were once domesticated.
The best way to communicate with parent smokers about the risks of secondhand smoke to their children is to use videos depicting the risks, as well as solutions to reduce those risks.
Experts who study animal pheromones have traced the evolutionary origins of genes that allow mice, rats and other rodents to communicate through smell. The discovery is a clear example of how new genes can evolve through the random chance of molecular tinkering and may make identifying new pheromones easier in future studies. The results, representing a genealogy for the exocrine-gland secreting peptide (ESP) gene family, were published by researchers at the University of Tokyo in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Researchers at Hiroshima University have taught an AI to look at post-disaster aerial images and accurately determine how battered the buildings are — a technology that crisis responders can use to map damage and identify extremely devastated areas where help is needed the most.
A new analysis of data from researchers at King's College London using information from the COVID Symptom Study app and patients admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in London, has shown that delirium - a state of acute confusion associated with a higher risk of serious illness and death - is a key symptom of COVID-19 in frail, older people.
Despite humanity's remarkable engineering prowess, sometimes completely unexpected or poorly understood physical phenomena can rapidly lead to catastrophic failures. Such was the case in Braniff International Airways Flight 542 in 1959 and Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 in 1960, where both aircrafts spontaneously disintegrated in mid-air due to a mechanical phenomenon known as "flutter."
A team of investigators from CDDEP, the Government of Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh studied disease transmission patterns in 575,071 individuals exposed to 84,965 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The study, based on data collected by tens of thousands of contact tracers in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu is the largest and most comprehensive analysis of COVID-19 epidemiology to date.