Culture
Light--and all waves--can bend around the corners of obstacles found along its path. Because of this phenomenon, called diffraction, it is impossible to focus light onto a spot that is smaller than half its wavelength. In other words, the highest resolution one can theoretically achieve using an optical microscope is approximately 250 nm, a barrier called the diffraction limit. Unfortunately, this resolution is not enough for observing fine cellular structures, such as those found in neurons.
Stem cell biologist Hugo Vankelecom (KU Leuven) and his colleagues have discovered that the pituitary gland in mice ages as the result of an age-related form of chronic inflammation. It may be possible to slow down this process or even partially repair it. The researchers have published their findings in PNAS.
The inclusion of biological uncertainty and the latest case data can significantly improve the prediction accuracy of standard epidemiological models of virus transmission, new research led by KAUST and the Kuwait College of Science and Technology (KCST) has shown.
Pesticides safeguard agricultural yields by controlling harmful insects, fungi, and weeds. However, they also enter neighbouring streams and damage the aquatic communities, which are crucial for maintaining biodiversity, are part of the food web and support the self-purification of water. In a nationwide monitoring programme, a consortium of scientists led by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) has shown that the governmental thresholds for pesticides are generally too high and that even these excessively high levels are still exceeded in over 80% of water bodies.
DUBLIN, June 15, 2021 - Scientists have identified how and why some Covid-19 patients can develop life-threatening clots, which could lead to targeted therapies that prevent this from happening.
The work, led by researchers from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, is published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.
The University of Ottawa has been awarded four new Canada Research Chairs (CRC) that will strengthen its expertise in artificial intelligence, health and law. The University is also proud to announce the renewal of two CRCs that will conduct leading-edge research in quantum communications and photonics.
A review of more than 9,000 U.S. patients with severe COVID-19 infection showed less than 1% contracted the illness again, with an average reinfection time of 3.5 months after an initial positive test. Those are the findings from a study conducted by researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine and MU Health Care.
June 15, 2021 - Canadian researchers have discovered that a bee thought to be one of the rarest in the world, as the only representative of its genus, is no more than an unusual specimen of a widespread species.
A recent UCLA clinical trial has shown encouraging results in helping daily smokers who are also heavy drinkers quit smoking and cut down their alcohol intake.
The study of 165 people tested two prescription drugs -- varenicline, for smoking addiction, and naltrexone, which is used to treat alcoholism. Studies have shown that varenicline, marketed under the brand name Chantix, may also be effective in reducing alcohol consumption.
A new model that applies artificial intelligence to carbohydrates improves the understanding of the infection process and could help predict which viruses are likely to spread from animals to humans. This is reported in a recent study led by researchers at the University of Gothenburg.
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have developed two rapid diagnostic tests for COVID-19 that are nearly as accurate as the gold-standard test currently used in laboratories. Unlike the gold standard test, which extracts RNA and uses it to amplify the DNA of the virus, these new tests can detect the presence of the virus in as little as five minutes using different methods.
WASHINGTON -- Researchers have fabricated a magnetically driven rotary microfilter that can be used to filter particles inside a microfluidic device. They made the tiny turning filter by creating a magnetic material that could be used with a very precise 3D printing technique known as two-photon polymerization.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- An international research team has described a new species of Oculudentavis, providing further evidence that the animal first identified as a hummingbird-sized dinosaur was actually a lizard.
PULLMAN, Wash. - You can take a fish out of toxic water, but its epigenetic mutations will remain for at least two generations.
A research team led by Washington State University scientists analyzed the epigenetics--molecular factors and processes that determine whether genes are turned on or off--of a group of Poecilia mexicana fish, or Atlantic molly, that live in springs naturally high in hydrogen sulfide, which is normally toxic to most organisms.
EVANSTON, Ill. --- The human gut is more than a source of instinct.
A new Northwestern University study is the first to explicitly address the gut microbiome as a pathway to understanding how environmental inequities could lead to health disparities.
Biological anthropologist Katherine Amato, assistant professor of anthropology at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern, is the study's lead author.