Earth
Solar-powered water quality sensors could help fish farmers protect their aquatic assets and safeguard the future of food.
A new method developed by a team of Waseda University scientists led by Professor Yasushi Sekine may contribute to reducing the use of fossil fuels and help prevent global warming in the long-run.
The tiny forefoot of a lizard of the genus Anolis was trapped in amber about 15 to 20 million years ago. Every detail of this rare fossil is visible under the microscope. But the seemingly very good condition is deceptive: The bone is largely decomposed and chemically transformed, very little of the original structure remains. The results, which are now presented in the journal "PLOS ONE", provide important clues as to what exactly happens during fossilization.
Boston, MA -- A new study by investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital puts the results of a landmark trial about blood pressure control into terms that may be easier to interpret and communicate to patients. When data from The Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) were published in 2015, the medical community responded enthusiastically to the news that reducing blood pressure lower than the normal targets could reduce overall death rates by 27 percent for adults at high cardiovascular risk.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins report they have designed and successfully tested an experimental, super small package able to deliver molecular signals that tag implanted human cancer cells in mice and make them visible for destruction by the animals' immune systems. The new method was developed, say the researchers, to deliver an immune system "uncloaking" device directly to cancer cells.
WASHINGTON -- Studies have correlated a relationship between smoking or vaping nicotine with misuse of other substances, such as alcohol and prescription drugs. Lately, misuse of prescription benzodiazepines (such as alprazolam or Xanax, and diazepam or Valium) has also been linked to nicotine use. These connections have all been statistically derived -- researchers did not directly study human interaction with these drugs.
In today's narrative of climate change, pollution, and diminishing resources, one fuel could be a game-changer within the energy industry: hydrogen. When burned in a combustion engine or in an electrical power-plant, hydrogen fuel produces only water-making it far cleaner than our current fossil fuels. With no toxic gas production, no contribution to climate change, and no smog, hydrogen may be the answer to a future of cleaner energy, so why is it not more widely used?
For the first time, they did not just investigate one feeding type such as herbivores but the integrated feeding relationships across an entire ecosystem. Previous research examining the effects of biodiversity on the functioning of ecosystems focused mainly on single feeding levels (trophic levels) or simplified food chains.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Massive freshwater river flows stemming from glacier-fed flooding at the end of the last ice age surged across eastern Washington to the Columbia River and out to the North Pacific Ocean, where they triggered climate changes throughout the northern hemisphere, new research published today in Science Advances shows.
Silicon, the best-known semiconductor, is ubiquitous in electronic devices including cellphones, laptops and the electronics in cars. Now, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made the most sensitive measurements to date of how quickly electric charge moves in silicon, a gauge of its performance as a semiconductor. Using a novel method, they have discovered how silicon performs under circumstances beyond anything scientists could test before -- specifically, at ultralow levels of electric charge.
Social media smarts could make you less susceptible to skin cancer as new research shows that media literacy skills can help change people's attitudes about what is believed to be the 'tanned ideal'.
Conducted by the University of South Australia, the research tested the ability of social media to influence people's perceptions of tanning, finding that the greater an individual's ability to critically access and evaluate social media posts, the less likely they were to idealise a golden tan.
Fusion may be the future of clean energy. The same way the sun forces reactions between light elements, such as hydrogen, to produce heavy elements and heat energy, fusion on Earth can generate electricity by harnessing the power of elemental reactions. The problem is controlling the uniformity of hydrogen isotope density ratio in the fusion plasma--the soup of elements that will fuse and produce energy.
A research team in Japan has reached a key understanding of this process that may aid the future development and use of fusion plasma.
Only about ten years ago theories began to appear that astrocytes, along with neurons, are actively involved in processing information and in supporting the activity of the brain.
Recently, an article by an international group of scientists was published in the Nature Communications scientific journal, in which it was proved that astrocytes regulate blood flow in the vessels of the brain, the process called "perfusion".
Professor at the University of Bristol and the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Dr. Segrey Kasparov is one of the article's authors.
When neutrinos crash into water molecules in the billion-plus tons of ice that make up the detector at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica, more than 5,000 sensors detect the light of subatomic particles produced by the collisions. But as one might expect, these grand-scale experiments don't come cheap.
In a paper recently accepted by Physical Review Letters, an international team of physicists working at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory demonstrated an inexpensive way to expand IceCube's neutrino search.
Firefighters have higher rates of some cancers than the general population, which might not be surprising given the many potential carcinogens they encounter while battling blazes. However, previous studies of chemical exposures in this occupation have focused almost exclusively on men. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology have compared poly- and perfluorinated substances (PFAS) in the serum of female firefighters and female office workers, finding higher levels of three compounds in the firefighters.