Earth
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- This is the story of three bird species and how they interact. The brown-headed cowbird plays the role of outlaw: It lays its eggs in other birds' nests and lets them raise its young - often at the expense of the host's nestlings. To combat this threat, yellow warblers have developed a special "seet" call that means, "Look out! Cowbird!"
From birth, we acquire information and learn through interacting with others; that is why it is so important to be able to identify the most suitable individuals to interact with. To interact with others, it is important to understand and predict their actions. It is known that at around six months of age, infants already understand that actions are carried out to achieve certain goals, that is, when someone does an action, they do so to get something.
Entanglement, a powerful form of correlation among quantum systems, is an important resource for quantum computing. Researchers from the Quantum Optomechanics group at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, recently entangled two laser beams through bouncing them off the same mechanical resonator, a tensioned membrane. This provides a novel way of entangling disparate electromagnetic fields, from microwave radiation to optical beams.
Improving care for children with cancer worldwide will bring a triple return on investment and prevent millions of needless deaths, according to a new Commission report published today by The Lancet Oncology entitled Sustainable Care for Children with Cancer.
Charlotte Pearson's eyes scanned a palm-sized chunk of ancient tree. They settled on a ring that looked "unusually light," and she made a note without giving it a second thought. Three years later, and armed with new methodology and technology, she discovered that the light ring might mark the year that the Thera volcano on the Greek island of Santorini erupted over the ancient Minoan civilization. The date of the eruption, which is one of the largest humanity has ever witnessed, has been debated for decades.
Engineers at Caltech have shown that atoms in optical cavities--tiny boxes for light--could be foundational to the creation of a quantum internet. Their work was published on March 30 by the journal Nature.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have explored the relationship between parental alcohol consumption -- before conception in the case of fathers and during pregnancy in the case of mothers -- and offspring development.
Higher levels of the omega-3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) found in the blood--and not a decrease in triglyceride levels as originally thought--appear to explain the striking reductions in cardiovascular events and deaths seen among people taking 4 grams daily of the prescription fish oil, icosapent ethyl, according to findings from a REDUCE-IT substudy presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC).
Smokers who received smoking cessation counseling and used electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) containing nicotine were more than twice as likely to successfully quit smoking compared to those who received counseling but did not use e-cigarettes, in a clinical trial presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC). Researchers cautioned, however, that the health effects of e-cigarettes are unknown, and they should not be used for any purpose other than smoking cessation.
There has been a lot of recent interest in the use of psychedelic drugs to treat depression. A new study from McGill suggests that, in the right context, some people may experience psychedelic-like effects from placebos alone. The researchers reported some of the strongest placebo effects (these are effects from "fake" medication) on consciousness in the literature relating to psychedelic drugs. Indeed, 61% of the participants in the experiment reported some effect after consuming the placebo.
Scientists seeking to bring the fusion that powers the sun and stars to Earth must deal with sawtooth instabilities -- up-and-down swings in the central pressure and temperature of the plasma that fuels fusion reactions, similar to the serrated blades of a saw. If these swings are large enough, they can lead to the sudden collapse of the entire discharge of the plasma. Such swings were first observed in 1974 and have so far eluded a widely accepted theory that explains experimental observations.
Consistent with observations
TAMPA, Fla. - Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cuSCC) is the second most common diagnosed malignancy in the United States, with approximately 700,000 new cases each year. Cumulative exposure to ultraviolet light is the primary environmental risk factor that leads to cuSCC. While the majority of cuSCC cases are easily managed and treated, a small percentage of patients do not respond to treatment and have poor outcomes. Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center want to devise better therapeutic strategies for this patient population by improving their understanding of how cuSCC develops.
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures had a high rate of success and low risk of death or disabling stroke at 30 days in patients with a bicuspid, or two-leaflet, aortic valve, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC).
What do chocolate, migratory birds, flood control and pandas have in common? Many countries benefit from ecosystem services provided outside their nations. This can happen through economic relationships, biological and geographical conditions, but we hardly know how and where these ecosystem service flows occur.
A new approach brings the hope of new therapeutic options for suppressing seasonal influenza and avian flu: On the basis of an empty - and therefore non-infectious - shell of a phage virus, researchers from Berlin have developed a chemically modified phage capsid that "stifles" influenza viruses. Perfectly fitting binding sites cause influenza viruses to be enveloped by the phage capsids in such a way that it is practically impossible for them to infect lung cells any longer. This phenomenon has been proven in pre-clinical trials, also involving human lung tissue.