Earth
When modeling the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) ocean-climate cycle, adding satellite sea surface salinity -- or saltiness -- data significantly improves model accuracy, according to a new NASA study.
Unlike humans, sea turtles and other reptiles like crocodiles do not have sex chromosomes. Their sex is defined during development by the incubation environment. In sea turtles, sex is determined by the nest's temperature: warmer temperatures produce females and cooler temperatures produce males. It is especially challenging to identify the sex of hatchling sea turtles because they lack external sexual organs and heteromorphic sex chromosomes -- no X or Y. To date, there are a limited number of ways to reliably identify sex in turtle hatchlings.
Some flowers have a remarkable and previously unknown ability to bounce back after injury, according to a new study.
Some injured flowers bent and twisted themselves back into the best possible position to ensure successful reproduction within 10-48 hours of being knocked over, for example, by falling branches or being walked on.
The reproduction of many flowers (and survival of populations) depends on the perfect alignment of their sexual organs and nectar tubes in order for a visiting insect to pollinate them.
Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef is experiencing its third coral bleaching event in just five years. The 2020 bleaching is severe, and more widespread than earlier events.
"We surveyed 1,036 reefs from the air during the last two weeks in March, to measure the extent and severity of coral bleaching throughout the Barrier Reef region," said Professor Terry Hughes, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University.
Physicists at the Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics (CINAP), within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS, South Korea), have reported a new method to identify the aggregation state of amyloid beta (Aβ) proteins in solution. Published in ACS Nano, this finding could represent a step forward in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Scientists have developed a precise, nanotechnology-based treatment to alleviate the pain and fertility problems associated with endometriosis, a common gynecological condition in women of childbearing age.
Research led by Oleh Taratula of the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy and Ov Slayden of the Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University used photo-responsive nanoparticles loaded with dye to find and remove the lesions associated with the disorder.
A new form of magnetic brain stimulation rapidly relieved symptoms of severe depression in 90% of participants in a small study conducted by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The researchers are conducting a larger, double-blinded trial in which half the participants are receiving fake treatment. The researchers are optimistic the second trial will prove to be similarly effective in treating people whose condition hasn't improved with medication, talk therapy or other forms of electromagnetic stimulation.
In the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Texas A&M University chemist Wenshe Ray Liu and his research team have focused their lab solely on searching for drugs to treat COVID-19.
The Liu group was the first to identify the antiviral drug remdesivir as a viable medicine to treat COVID-19 in a research study published in late January. The drug was originally developed in response to the 2014 Ebola pandemic.
The first published data from the Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer's Disease (A4) study supports the hypothesis that higher levels of the amyloid protein in the brain represent an early stage of Alzheimer's disease. Results of an analysis of participant screening data for the study, published April 6 in JAMA Neurology, also show that amyloid burden in clinically normal older adults is associated with a family history of disease, lower cognitive test scores, and reports of declines in daily cognitive function.
Patients with colon cancer, but no distant metastases yet, can benefit from a short course of immunotherapy while waiting for their surgery, as it can cause tumours to shrink substantially or clear up in a very short time. The patient's own immune cells have cleared away the cancer cells. This is the finding of a NICHE study by the Netherlands Cancer Institute, an innovatory phase II clinical trial. In patients with a specific subtype of colon cancer (MSI) 100% of the patients benefited from the therapy. In the other half (with MSS type) this was 25%.
Global climate change will affect fish sizes in unpredictable ways and, consequently, impact complex food webs in our oceans, a new IMAS-led study has shown.
Led by IMAS and Centre for Marine Socioecology scientist Dr Asta Audzijonyte and published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, the study analysed three decades of data from 30 000 surveys of rocky and coral reefs around Australia.
In October 2018, the Tunisian Ro-Ro passenger ship "Ulysse" rammed into the hull of the Cyprus-flagged container ship "Virginia", which was anchored in international waters off the northern tip of Corsica, an area known for its pristine waters and beaches. Bunker fuel from Virginia leaked out of her tanks through a breach several meters long, threatening the marine environment and coastal areas. 530 m3 of oil were released, and in 36 hours the slick had lengthened to cover approximately 35 km.
Marine microorganisms, such as bacteria and so-called protists, form a large part of the biomass in the oceans. Protists are a group of unicellular microorganisms that have a solid cell nucleus and are therefore different from bacteria. Many protists are part of the phytoplankton and as such, they drive important global processes. They perform photosynthesis and thus play an important role in removing CO2 from the atmosphere. They also form the basis of the food web by which marine fisheries are fueled. Yet little is known about how these microorganisms function.
We're familiar with how climate change is impacting the ocean's biology, from bleaching events that cause coral die-offs to algae blooms that choke coastal marine ecosystems, but it's becoming clear that a warming planet is also impacting the physics of ocean circulation.
Lead-based perovskites are very promising materials for the production of solar panels. They efficiently turn light into electricity but they also present some major drawbacks: the most efficient materials are not very stable, while lead is a toxic element. University of Groningen scientists are studying alternatives to lead-based perovskites. Two factors that significantly affect the efficiency of these solar cells are the ability to form thin films and the structure of the materials in the solar cells.