Culture
(Vienna, 09 September 2020) A common consequence of chronically high alcohol consumption is a decline in cognitive function, which can even progress to full-blown dementia. However, we do not yet fully understand how alcohol damages the brain. A research group led by Stephan Listabarth from MedUni Vienna's Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Division of Social Psychiatry, has now developed a hypothesis whereby iron deposits in the brain - resulting from alcohol-induced vitamin B1 deficiency - can be regarded as key factors in cognitive decline.
Climate change is gaining prominence as a political and public priority. But many ambitious climate action plans foresee the use of climate engineering technologies whose risks are insufficiently understood. In a new publication, researchers from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany, describe how evolving modelling practices are trending towards "best-case" projections. They warn that over-optimistic expectations of climate engineering may reinforce the inertia with which industry and politics have been addressing decarbonisation.
Human impact can explain ninety-six percent of all mammal species extinctions of the last hundred thousand years, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Science Advances.
Over the last 126,000 years, there has been a 1600-fold increase in mammal extinction rates, compared to natural levels of extinction. According to the new study, this increase is driven almost exclusively by human impact.
Human impact larger than the effects of climate
Deposits of a protein called "Medin", which manifest in virtually all older adults, reduce the elasticity of blood vessels during aging and hence may be a risk factor for vascular dementia. Experts from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research (HIH) at the University of Tübingen report on this in the scientific journal PNAS. The researchers regard these deposits as targets for future therapies. Their findings are based on studies in mice and the analysis of human tissue samples.
Many complex systems have underlying networks: they have nodes which represent units of the system and their edges indicate connections between the units. In some contexts, the connections are symmetric, but in many they are directed, for example, indicating flows from one unit to another or which units affect which other units.
Researchers from the Severinov Lab at Skoltech have looked at how a poorly studied type of CRISPR-Cas defense system from a bacterium living at extremely high temperature gets to know its enemy by selecting snippets of bacteriophage's genetic information for a genetic "database" it uses to ward off subsequent infections. Understanding of this mechanism opens new ways for further genomic manipulation of both the bacterial host and its virus. The paper was published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.
Plant science research has tremendous potential to address pressing global issues including climate change, food insecurity and sustainability. However, without sustained investment in plant science, the necessary research to generate innovative discoveries that solve these urgent problems is at risk.
Widespread use of contraceptives and, to a lesser extent, girls’ education through at least age 14 have the greatest impact in bringing down a country’s fertility rate.
Education and family planning have long been tied to lower fertility trends. But new research from the University of Washington analyzes those factors to determine, what accelerates a decline in otherwise high-fertility countries.
When vegetable farmers harvest crops, they often rely on postharvest washing to reduce any foodborne pathogens, but a new University of Georgia study shows promise in reducing these pathogens - as well as lowering labor costs-- by applying sanitizers to produce while it is still in the fields.
New research from Oregon Health & Science University for the first time documents the presence of astrocytes in zebrafish, a milestone that will open new avenues of research into a star-shaped type of glial cell in the brain that is critical for nearly every aspect of brain assembly and function.
The research was published this week in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
On Sep. 07, 2020, NOAA/NASA's Suomi NPP satellite provided two different views of how fires are affecting the U.S. A true-color image of the United States shows a blanket of smoke obscuring the surface from California to Arkansas with a haze present over the East Coast as well. The Suomi NPP satellite also provided information about aerosols that were released from these fires and have traveled across the United States' landscape.
Researchers in Korea have successfully developed a high-efficiency large-area organic solution processable solar cell by controlling the speed at which the solution of raw materials for solar cells became solidified after being coated. The team led by Dr.
Earth is getting hotter. Huge amounts of greenhouse gases are warming the planet and altering the climate. Heat waves are harsher. Droughts are longer. And some diseases and pests are stronger than ever.
All of that is bad news for many of Earth's inhabitants. But crops are especially vulnerable. We've bred them to depend on us, and they can succumb to many threats that are likely to get worse in the next century. All as we need more food to feed a growing population.
PITTSBURGH--Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new metric for evaluating how well self-driving cars respond to changing road conditions and traffic, making it possible for the first time to compare perception systems for both accuracy and reaction time.
A new proposal for virtual travel, using advanced mathematical techniques and combining livestream video with existing photos and videos of travel hotspots, could help revitalize an industry that has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.