Earth
The history of our planet has been written, among other things, in the periodic reversal of its magnetic poles. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science propose a new means of reading this historic record: in ice. Their findings, which were recently reported in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, could lead to a refined probing ice cores and, in the future, might be applied to understanding the magnetic history of other bodies in our solar system, including Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa.
Cancers arise when the genetic code of normal cells is altered, causing excessive growth. Researchers from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have discovered a protein that drives the growth of cancers of the esophagus or liver by altering the genetic code in a novel way.
In water, hydrophobic molecules are surrounded by a two different water populations: the inner shell forms a two-dimensional network of water molecules. The next layer is formed by a second water population that is almost bulk like but forms slightly stronger hydrogen bonds to the bulk water. The assumption to date was that tetrahedral, "ice-like" water dominate in the innermost hydration shell of hydrophobic molecules. The opposite is the case.
Sophia Antipolis, 29 June 2020: Sugar consumption is linked with larger fat deposits around the heart and in the abdomen, which are risky for health. That's the finding of a study published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1
A new mathematical model for predicting variations in solar irradiance has been developed at Uppsala University. It may help to promote more efficient use of electricity from solar energy. In tests of various data models, the model proved capable of making highly reliable forecasts, and emerged as the best for this purpose in some respects. The results have now been published in two articles in the journal Solar Energy.
A deep-sea soft coral garden habitat has been discovered in Greenlandic waters by scientists from UCL, ZSL and Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, using an innovative and low-cost deep-sea video camera built and deployed by the team.
The soft coral garden, presented in a new Frontiers in Marine Science paper, is the first habitat of this kind to have been identified and assessed in west Greenland waters.
Environmental destruction may make pandemics more likely and less manageable, new research suggests.
The study, by the University of the West of England and the Greenpeace Research Laboratories at the University of Exeter, presents the hypothesis that disease risks are "ultimately interlinked" with biodiversity and natural processes such as the water cycle.
AMES, Iowa - Researchers dipped their new, printed sensors into tuna broth and watched the readings.
It turned out the sensors - printed with high-resolution aerosol jet printers on a flexible polymer film and tuned to test for histamine, an allergen and indicator of spoiled fish and meat - can detect histamine down to 3.41 parts per million.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has set histamine guidelines of 50 parts per million in fish, making the sensors more than sensitive enough to track food freshness and safety.
A new analysis of 16 years of publicly accessible health data on 68.5 million Medicare enrollees provides broad evidence that long-term exposure to fine particles in the air - even at levels below current EPA standards - leads to increased mortality rates among the elderly.
Dust storms from Africa's Saharan Desert traveling across the Atlantic Ocean are nothing new, but the current dust storm has been quite expansive and NASA satellites have provided a look at the massive June plume. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite showed the blanket of dust had moved over the Gulf of Mexico and extended into Central America and over part of the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Using the large synchrotron radiation facility SPring-8 in Japan, a collaboration of researchers from Kumamoto University, the University of Tokyo, and others from Japan and France have precisely measured the density of liquid iron under conditions similar to those at Earth's outer core: 1,000,000 atm and 4,000 degrees C. Accurate density measurements of liquid iron under such extreme conditions is very important for understanding the chemical make-up of our planet's core.
The sweeping pink salt lakes across Australia's interior are all that remain of the lush green places three species of pink flamingos once thrived the outback.
Some much larger than flamingos now found in Africa and other parts of the world, Australian flamingos enjoyed a range of freshwater habitats for about 25 million years, Flinders University researchers say.
After several Ice Ages and millions of years, the last Australian flamingos died out about 140,000 years ago as the inland lakes disappeared due to climate change.
Creating social bonds is essential for our health and well-being. In a new study conducted at Center for Music in the Brain at Aarhus University, Denmark, postdoctoral researcher Jan Stupacher and colleagues showed that music provides a unique context for social bonding.
The findings, which were published in Scientific Reports suggest that when moving together with music, synchronous movements between individuals increase social closeness.
Jan Stupacher explains:
A research team lead by Ludmilla Morozova Roche at Umeå University, Sweden, has provided the mechanistic insight into protein co-aggregation in Alzheimer's disease. The templating mechanism of S100A9 amyloids on Aβ fibrillar surfaces during co-aggregation process was revealed by synergy of biophysical methods including charge detection mass spectrometry, microscopy, kinetic and microfluidic analyses.
The long-running study on aging and brain health at the University of Kentucky's Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Alzheimer's Disease Center has once again resulted in important new findings - highlighting a complex and under-recognized form of dementia. The work was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA): Neurology.