Earth
When large earthquakes occur, seismologists are well aware that subsequent, smaller tremors are likely to take place afterwards in the surrounding geographical region. So far, however, few studies have explored how the similarity between these inter-earthquake times and distances is related to their separation from initial events. In a new study published in EPJ B, researchers led by Min Lin at the Ocean University of China in Qingdao show for the first time that the two values become increasingly correlated the closer they are in time and space to previous, larger earthquakes.
Life is rife with patterns. It's common for living things to create a repeating series of similar features as they grow: think of feathers that vary slightly in length on a bird's wing or shorter and longer petals on a rose.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Biomedical engineers at Duke University have devised a method for making small particles that are safe for living tissues that will allow them to create new shapes attractive for drug delivery, diagnostics and tissue engineering.
The results appear online on March 12 in the journal Nature Communications.
Even before uttering their first words, babies master the grammar basics of their mother tongue. Thus eight-month-old French infants can distinguish function words, or functors--e.g. articles (the), personal pronouns (she), or prepositions (on)--from content words--e.g. nouns (rainbow), verbs (to drive), or adjectives (green). Functors are frequently encountered because there are fewer of them, and they are placed before content words in languages such as English and French. In contrast, there is a much greater diversity of content words, which are also longer.
Heat stress from extreme heat and humidity will annually affect areas now home to 1.2 billion people by 2100, assuming current greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Rutgers study.
That's more than four times the number of people affected today, and more than 12 times the number who would have been affected without industrial era global warming.
The research is published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
One of the characteristics of Alzheimer's disease is the presence of knot-like structures between brain cells. These are called "amyloid fibrils" and are formed by the notorious amyloid beta peptide and Tau protein, which are two of the most sought-after targets for the development of therapies to treat Alzheimer's and similar diseases.
Spearheaded by earth scientists of the University of Cologne, an international team of geologists has found evidence that a large proportion of the elements that are important for the formation of oceans and life, such as water, carbon and nitrogen, were delivered to Earth very late in its history. Previously, many scientists believed that these elements were already present when the Earth began to form. However, geological investigations have now shown that most of the water in fact was only delivered to Earth when its formation was almost complete.
Alzheimer's disease, the main cause of dementia in the elderly, is a neurodegenerative disease caused by the irreversible destruction of neuronal networks in certain brain structures affecting memory. While some risk factors are known, such as hypertension or diabetes, the potential role of non-biological factors begins to be discovered.
Launching a two-pronged attack on cancer's ability to safeguard its DNA could offer an effective new way of treating the disease, a new study reports.
Scientists have found that small molecules that stop cancer cells from copying their DNA can boost the effectiveness of drugs called CHK1 inhibitors, which are designed to stop cells from patching up their genomes.
Researchers at the University of Bristol are pioneering the use of virtual reality (VR) as a tool to design the next generation of drug treatments.
The findings, published in the journal PLOS ONE describe how researchers used VR to understand how common medications work on a molecular level.
Many drugs are small molecules, and discovering new drugs involves finding molecules that bind to biological targets like proteins.
Researchers at Louisiana State University have discovered a new species of shrew, which they have named the hairy-tailed shrew, or Crocidura caudipilosa.
"There was no doubt that this was a new species," said LSU Museum of Natural Science Mammal Curator Jake Esselstyn whose work on Sulawesi Island in Indonesia led to the discovery published in the Journal of Mammalogy. "There isn't another species on the island that has as much hair on its tail, in terms of shrews."
DALLAS (SMU) - "Even if she doesn't say it, I know it's my fault that my mother gets sad."
Kids who believe comments like this - assuming blame for their mom's sadness or depression - are more likely to face depression and anxiety themselves, a new study led by SMU has found.
Scientists agree that sea levels will continue to rise this century, but projections beyond 2050 are much more uncertain regarding exactly how much higher ocean levels will be by 2100. While actions to protect against 2050 sea-level rise have a secure scientific basis, this range in late-century estimates makes it difficult for coastal communities to plan their long-term adaptation strategies.
Scientists from China and Russia found a new way of searching for new drug candidates by inactivating the molecular structure of the human muscarinic receptor and applying screening to find drugs that it responds to. The results of their study were published in IUCrJ.
Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reveal how microorganisms could survive in rocks nestled thousands of feet beneath the ocean floor in the lower oceanic crust, in a study published on March 11 in Nature.