Culture
The protection of Australia's threatened species could be improved by a factor of seven, if more efficient 'umbrella' species were prioritised for protection, according to University of Queensland research.
Umbrella species are species which when preserved, indirectly protect many other plant and animal species.
UQ PhD candidate Michelle Ward said different choices in Australia could provide more assistance for threatened species.
"The Australian Federal Government's umbrella prioritisation list identifies 73 species as conservation priorities," she said.
NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its first Earth-size planet in its star's habitable zone, the range of distances where conditions may be just right to allow the presence of liquid water on the surface. Scientists confirmed the find, called TOI 700 d, using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and have modeled the planet's potential environments to help inform future observations.
Chinese researchers under the direction of Profs. LI Xianfeng and ZHANG Huamin from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently developed an ultrathin ion-conducting membrane with high selectivity and conductivity that can boost the power of flow batteries. The study was published in Nature Communications.
Classical physics is characterised by the precision of its equations describing the evolution of the world as determined by the initial conditions of the Big Bang - meaning there is no room for chance. Yet our day-to-day experience and intuition are struck by this deterministic vision of the world: has everything really been written in advance? Is randomness nothing more than an illusion? A physicist from UNIGE, Swizerland, has been analysing the classical mathematical language used in modern physics.
With more people with diabetes and pre-diabetes looking for strategies to help control blood sugar, new research from UBC's Okanagan campus suggests that ketone monoester drinks--a popular new food supplement--may help do exactly that.
The zebrafish is a master of regeneration: If brain cells are lost due to injury or disease, it can simply reproduce them - contrary to humans where this only happens in the fetal stage. However, the zebrafish is evolutionarily related to humans and, thus, possesses the same brain cell types as humans. Can a hidden regeneration potential also be activated in humans? Are therapies for stroke, craniocerebral trauma and presently incurable diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's possible?
Observations with the 8-meter Gemini North telescope, a program of the NSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, have allowed astronomers to pinpoint the location of a Fast Radio Burst in a nearby galaxy -- making it the closest known example to Earth and only the second repeating burst source to have its location pinpointed in the sky. The source of this burst of radio waves is located in an environment radically different from that seen in previous studies.
Philadelphia, January 7, 2020 -- Physicians should prescribe testosterone for men with age-related low testosterone only to treat sexual dysfunction, the American College of Physicians (ACP) says in a new evidence-based clinical practice guideline published today in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Irvine, Calif. -- Young people's view of their family's social status was more strongly associated with their mental health and readiness for future education and work than how much money, education or occupational prestige their parents have, according to new research led by the University of California, Irvine.
Researchers from King's College London have shown that the brains of young adult Romanian adoptees who were institutionalised as children are around 8.6% smaller than the brains of English adoptees who have not suffered this form of deprivation.
A study published today (January 6) in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that health care bureaucracy cost Americans $812 billion in 2017. This represented more than one-third (34.2%) of total expenditures for doctor visits, hospitals, long-term care and health insurance. The study estimated that cutting U.S. administrative costs to Canadian levels would have saved more than $600 billion in 2017.
Researchers have copied the way organisms produce toxic chemicals without harming themselves, paving the way for greener chemical and fuel production.
The new technique, pioneered by Imperial College London scientists, could reduce the need to use fossil fuels to create chemicals, plastics, fibres and fuels.
Imagine a fleet of 100 Hubble Space Telescopes, deployed in a strategic space-invader-shaped array a million miles from Earth, scanning the universe at warp speed.
With NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, scheduled for launch in the mid-2020s, this vision will (effectively) become reality.
For the first time, scientists identified and mapped the location of structural proteins in a pig ovary. Ongoing development of an "ink" with these proteins will be used for 3-D printing an artificial (or bio-prosthetic) ovary that could be implanted and allow a woman to have a child. Findings were recently published in Scientific Reports.
One day, soldiers could cool down on the military battlefield -- preventing heat stroke or exhaustion -- by using "wearable air conditioning," an on-skin device designed by engineers at the University of Missouri. The device includes numerous human health care applications such as the ability to monitor blood pressure, electrical activity of the heart and the level of skin hydration.
The findings are detailed in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.