Earth
Squids, octopuses and cuttlefish are undisputed masters of deception and camouflage. Their extraordinary ability to change color, texture and shape is unrivaled, even by modern technology.
Nearly half of Americans in their 50s and early 60s think they're likely to develop dementia as they grow older, but only 5% of them have actually talked with a doctor about what they could do to reduce their risk, a new study finds.
Meanwhile, a third or more say they're trying to stave off dementia by taking supplements or doing crossword puzzles - despite the lack of proof that such tactics work.
The new findings suggest a need for better counseling for middle-aged Americans about the steps they can take to keep their brains healthy as they age.
The western corn rootworm causes economic losses of over 2 billion US dollars in maize cultivation and is thus a serious agricultural pest. Originally from America, the western corn rootworm is currently invading Europe, including Switzerland.
A successful pest
The world's tropical forests store huge quantities of carbon in their biomass and thus constitute an important carbon sink. However, current estimates of the amount of carbon dioxide stored in tropical forests of the Amazon vary largely. Scientists at the UFZ have developed an approach that uses recent satellite data to provide much more precise estimates of the amount of biomass in tropical forests than in the past. This makes it possible to obtain a more exact picture of the consequences of droughts and forest fires for the Amazon.
Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have found that older Mexican Americans who suffer from pain were 1.7 times likelier to become frail, compared to study participants who did not report pain. The study published in the Journal of Pain by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, looked at pain as a predictor of frailty in older Mexican American adults in a follow-up period of 18 years. All participants were non-frail at the start of the study.
Despite great efforts in medicine and science, more than 400,000 people worldwide are still dying of malaria. The infectious disease is transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium. The genome of the parasite is relatively small with about 5,000 genes. In contrast to human cells, Plasmodium parasites only have a single copy of each individual gene. If one removes a gene from the entire genome of the parasite, this leads therefore directly to a change in the phenotype of the parasite.
The terahertz frequency range - which sits in the middle of the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared light -- offers the potential for high-bandwidth communications, ultrahigh-resolution imaging, precise long-range sensing for radio astronomy, and much more.
But this section of the electromagnetic spectrum has remained out of reach for most applications. That is because current sources of terahertz frequencies are bulky, inefficient, have limited tuning or have to operate at low temperature.
In a breakthrough with important implications for the future of immunotherapy for breast cancer, UC San Francisco scientists have found that blocking the activity of a single enzyme can prevent a common type of breast cancer from spreading to distant organs.
Homes and communities across the UK have felt the full force of torrential downpours in recent weeks. And the UK's uplands could in future see significantly more annual rainfall than is currently being predicted in national climate models, according to new research by the University of Plymouth, UK.
Scientists analysed rainfall records from the 1870s to the present day and compared them against those featured in the Met Office's UK Climate Projections 2018 (UKCP18) report.
In a year that has seen the largest measles outbreak in the US in more than two decades, the role of social media in giving a platform to unscientific anti-vaccine messages and organizations has become a flashpoint.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - What happens behind the scenes when employees are accused of harassment? New research from Michigan State University revealed that almost half of accused harassers can go back to work when disputes are settled by arbitrators - or, third-parties who resolve disputes.
The findings, published by the Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal, closely examine the outcomes of arbitration awards involving harassers, as well as providing insight as to whether arbitration is the best solution to addressing workplace harassment.
Scientists have long theorized that the energy stored in the atomic bonds of nitrogen could one day be a source of clean energy. But coaxing the nitrogen atoms into linking up has been a daunting task. Researchers at Drexel University's C&J Nyheim Plasma Institute have finally proven that it's experimentally possible - with some encouragement from a liquid plasma spark.
Some molecules can exist in two mirror-image forms, similar to our hands. Although such so-called enantiomers have almost identical physical properties, they are not the same. The fact that they behave to each other like image and mirror image is called chirality (from the Greek cheiro for hand). In nature, however, often only one enantiomer exists, for example in amino acids, DNA or sugars. The enzymes that produce these molecules are themselves chiral and therefore only produce one type of enantiomer.
November 14, 2019 -- Binge drinking among U.S. adolescents precipitously declined from 1991 to 2018, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Depressive symptoms among U.S. adolescents have sharply increased since 2012. And for the first time in the past 40 years, binge drinking and depressive symptoms among adolescents are no longer associated. The findings are published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Global climate change could cause Africa's Lake Victoria, the world's largest tropical lake and source of the Nile River, to dry up in the next 500 years, according to new findings from a team of researchers led by the University of Houston. Even more imminent, the White Nile -- one of the two main tributaries of the Nile -- could lose its source waters in just a decade.