Culture

Despite the traditional view that species do not exchange genes by hybridisation, recent studies show that gene flow between closely related species is more common than previously thought. A team of scientists from Uppsala University and Princeton University now reports how gene flow between two species of Darwin's finches has affected their beak morphology. The study is published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

(Boston)--Researchers have developed a computer algorithm based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can accurately predict the risk for and diagnose Alzheimer's disease using a combination of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), testing to measure cognitive impairment, along with data on age and gender.

As the coronavirus pandemic has swept across the U.S., in addition to tracking the number of COVID daily cases, there is a worldwide scientific community engaged in tracking the SARS-CoV-2 virus itself.

Efrem Lim leads a team at ASU that looks at how the virus may be spreading, mutating and adapting over time.

To trace the trail of the virus worldwide, Lim's team is using a new technology called next-generation sequencing at ASU's Genomics Facility, to rapidly read through all 30,000 chemical letters of the SARS-CoV-2 genetic code, called a genome.

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State University College of Engineering researchers used a vacuum cleaner and the personalities of three of the Seven Dwarfs from Snow White to demonstrate that people can correctly infer a robot's personality solely by how it moves.

Unexpectedly, study participants also discerned intelligence from robot motion behaviors, suggesting people might trust an autonomous system more or less depending on their observations of its movements.

Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School student Paul Lavadera expected his career would put him on the front lines of dealing with medical emergencies.

But he never could have imagined he'd be graduating during the biggest global pandemic in a century when he joined forces two years ago with Tracey Shors, Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology, on a study to find out whether aerobic exercise and meditation would reduce stress and improve the quality of life for medical students like him.

By studying how the tiniest organisms in the Atacama Desert of Chile, one of the driest places on Earth, extract water from rocks, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University, University of California, Irvine, and U.C. Riverside revealed how, against all odds, life can exist in extreme environments.

If warming continues unabated in the Midwest, in 50 years we can expect the best conditions for corn and soybean production to have shifted from Iowa and Illinois to Minnesota and the Dakotas, according to Penn State researchers.

A study has shown how ecotourism in the Philippines has transformed people's attitudes towards marine conservation.

Researchers from the University of Victoria in Canada and Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines (LAMAVE), visited three sites where tourists pay to swim with whale sharks in the wild. They interviewed a range of locals who work for the tour operators in Oslob, Donsol and Pintuyan, including fishers and ex-whale shark hunters.

BOSTON - Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, striking as many as one in four women and one in eight men in their lifetime. While more than 17 million adults in the United States struggled with the disease in 2017 according to the most recent government statistics, clinicians have long recognized that depression manifests in different ways across individuals; official diagnostic criteria include weight loss or weight gain, excessive sleeping or insomnia, inability to concentrate or obsessive rumination.

When we speak, we give little thought to how the words form in our brain before we say them. It's similar for deaf people using sign language.

Speaking and signing come naturally, except when we stumble over words, or swap one word for another when we speak or sign too quickly, are tired or preoccupied.

Fluency and the occasional disfluency both happen because of how we choose what to say or sign, when a neural mechanism takes place in our brains as we make decisions and monitor how we communicate.

Threat detection and prevention are essential to ensuring the safety and security of warfighters. Researchers have developed a way to speed up the processing of extremely large graphs and data, making the most efficient use of modern Army computational resources before and during Soldier deployment.

Whether there is life elsewhere in the universe is a question people have pondered for millennia; and within the last few decades, great strides have been made in our search for signs of life outside of our solar system.

Most newly discharged patients who recently recovered from COVID-19 produce virus-specific antibodies and T cells, suggests a study published on May 3rd in the journal Immunity, but the responses of different patients are not all the same. While the 14 patients examined in the study showed wide-ranging immune responses, results from the 6 of them that were assessed at two weeks after discharge suggest that antibodies were maintained for at least that long.

ITHACA, N.Y. - A new device that attaches to e-cigarettes can unobtrusively monitor inhalations - yielding important information for research about when and where people vape, how deeply they inhale and how much nicotine they consume.

The first-of-its-kind device, which can be easily attached to all types of e-cigarettes and other nicotine-delivery kits, can help fill gaps in knowledge about vaping that might help users curtail it, said Cornell Tech researchers who developed the tool.

DALLAS, May 4, 2020 -- The American Heart Association, together with 14 cardiovascular societies in North America, today issued joint guidance, "Safe Reintroduction of Cardiovascular Services during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Guidance from North American Society Leadership," to outline a systematic, phased approach to safely reintroducing cardiovascular procedures for diagnosis and treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.