Culture
ITHACA, N.Y. - A new Cornell University-led study describes the first successful rearing of engineered tobacco plants in order to produce medical and industrial proteins outdoors in the field, a necessity for economic viability, so they can be grown at large scales.
The market for such biologically derived proteins is forecast to reach $300 billion in the near future. Industrial enzymes and other proteins are currently made in large, expensive fermenting reactors, but making them in plants grown outdoors could reduce production costs by three times.
Many familiar grains today, like quinoa, amaranth, and the millets, hemp, and buckwheat, all have traits that indicate that they coevolved to be dispersed by large grazing mammals. During the Pleistocene, massive herds directed the ecology across much of the globe and caused evolutionary changes in plants. Studies of the ecology and growing habits of certain ancient crop relatives indicate that megafaunal herds were necessary for the dispersal of their seeds prior to human intervention.
The positive-phase of Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) can indeed cause Eurasian summer nonuniform warming, according to Prof. Shuanglin Li, Dean of Atmospheric Science at the University of Geosciences (Wuhan) and Executive Vice-Director at the Climate Change Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and one of the authors of a recently published study.
2019 A team of scientists led by Dr Enrique Lara Pezzi at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) has identified the RNA-binding protein SRSF3 as an essential factor for proper heart contraction and survival. In a study published in Circulation Research, the researchers found that loss of cardiac expression of SRSF3 leads to a critical reduction in the expression of genes involved in contraction. Knowledge of the mechanism of action of SRSF3 in the heart could open the way to the design of new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of heart disease.
A survey of more than 3,400 university students in the USA has found that one in five respondents reported problematic smartphone use. Female students were more likely be affected and problematic smartphone use was associated with lower grade averages, mental health problems and higher numbers of sexual partners.
Wind and warmth can improve travel time for the billions of insects worldwide that migrate each year, according to a first-ever radio-tracking study by University of Guelph biologists.
Researchers equipped monarch butterflies and green darner dragonflies with radio transmitters and tracked them through southern Ontario and several northern States to learn how environmental factors affect daytime insect migration.
The impact of interruption of anti-osteoporosis treatment in patients on therapy with bisphosphonates or denosumab is reviewed in a new International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) working group paper 'Fracture risk following intermission of osteoporosis therapy' published in the journal Osteoporosis International.
You often hear it framed in a comic sense, though it's a form of stereotyping, and even prejudice. "You all look alike to me."
To one race, the tired adage implies, people in other races are tough to differentiate from each other. Some call it the "other-race effect."
It's something more than a wince-worthy punchline. New UC Riverside research bears it out, finding we are hard-wired to process-- or not process-- facial differences based on race. And that process occurs in the earliest filters of our thought process.
TORONTO, July 4, 2019 - More than 20 million people develop heart disease globally each year, but there is only one cardiac rehab spot for every 12 of those patients to prevent another heart event, according to new research from York University.
Japan -- From peacocks to butterflies and betta fish, mother nature never disappoints when it colors the males of a species. Which makes sense, in species with traditional sex roles, males are more involved in competing for mates, leading females to be choosier in their selection. As a result, males evolve to display even flashier and attractive ornaments.
Cancer research is a field that has been especially dependent on public funding. The National Cancer Institute (NCI), an independent institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was established in 1937 to provide for, foster and coordinate research relating to cancer. As the largest funder of cancer research in the world, it has spent an estimate of more than USD 100 billion on research and treatment.
New research has found the record-breaking South American drought of 2013/14 with its succession of heatwaves and long lasting marine heatwave had its origins in a climate event half a world away - over the Indian Ocean.
The findings published in Nature Geoscience by an international research team with authors from the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil, Australia's ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and NOAA in the US suggest this may not have been the first time the Indian Ocean has brought extraordinary heat to the region.
An international team of scientists has shown it is possible to breed cattle to reduce their methane emissions.
Published in the journal Science Advances, the researchers showed that the genetics of an individual cow strongly influenced the make-up of the microorganisms in its rumen (the first stomach in the digestive system of ruminant animals which include cattle and sheep).
Bacteria of the Acinetobacter ACB complex, which are frequently acquired in hospital settings, can also be found in beef meat, according to a study led by ISGlobal, an institution supported by "la Caixa" and performed with meat samples from markets in Lima, Peru. Although the isolates were susceptible to most antibiotics, these results suggest that raw meat can act as a reservoir for these pathogenic bacteria.
Researchers at LSTM, along with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh and the University Medical Center Utrecht have looked at the impact of the natural microbial flora or microbiota in the nose and viral co-infection on pneumococcal acquisition in healthy adults.