Earth
Collapsed houses, destroyed port facilities and thousands of victims -- on 22 May 1766 an earthquake of approximately 7.5 magnitude units and a subsequent water surge triggered a catastrophe in Istanbul. The origin of the quake was located along the North Anatolian fault in the Sea of Marmara. It was the last major earthquake to hit the metropolis on the Bosporus.
Tsukuba, Japan - A team at the University of Tsukuba introduced a new procedure of harvesting energy and organic molecules from algae using nanoporous graphene and porous graphene foams. By developing a reusable system that can evaporate water at high rate without the need for centrifugation or squeezing. This research has a great potential for the application of producing cleaner, cheaper, and more efficient biofuels, vitamins, and chemicals.
A new study, published in Psychiatry Research, has concluded that psychiatric diagnoses are scientifically worthless as tools to identify discrete mental health disorders.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Liverpool, involved a detailed analysis of five key chapters of the latest edition of the widely used Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), on 'schizophrenia', 'bipolar disorder', 'depressive disorders', 'anxiety disorders' and 'trauma-related disorders'.
Predicting the impact of DNA sequence variants is important for sorting disease-associated variants (DVs) from neutral variants. Korean researchers at Pohang University of science and technology (POSTECH) report the development of a method to predict the impact of DVs. The study appears in the journal Nucleic Acids Research in June.
For more than 150 years, scientists have debated whether the success of organisms is mainly down to environmental factors such as climate change or whether - as advocated by Charles Darwin - interaction between species has a significantly more important role to play. A British-German study involving palaeobiologist Prof. Dr.
Certain plants, insects, crustaceans and fish possess the uncanny ability to change the sex of their offspring before they are born. Mammals have never before demonstrated this genetic skill, until now.
A new Tel Aviv University study reveals a genetic system in mammals that enables two animals to mate and produce only females. A similar system based on identical principles would produce only males.
Researchers in Japan have identified the potential genes responsible for coral bleaching caused by temperature elevation.
Pharmaceutical companies' payments to doctors may be influencing them to prescribe more expensive, brand-name versions of the pain drug gabapentin, a team of researchers report in the July 8 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, and the increasing use of the drug suggests it may be being abused.
Researchers in Japan have edited plant mitochondrial DNA for the first time, which could lead to a more secure food supply.
Nuclear DNA was first edited in the early 1970s, chloroplast DNA was first edited in 1988, and animal mitochondrial DNA was edited in 2008. However, no tool previously successfully edited plant mitochondrial DNA.
Researchers used their technique to create four new lines of rice and three new lines of rapeseed (canola).
An expert panel convened by the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) has identified Canada's top climate change risks and determined that many costs and damages could be avoided with prompt and thoughtful adaptation.
Canada's climate is changing, with recent research showing that temperatures are rising twice as fast as the global average. Over the next 20 years, Canada can expect more frequent and severe hot extremes, thawing of permafrost, and increases in extreme precipitation.
Research by scientists into why some bacteria have different shapes has found that a curved shape can make it easier to find food.
The findings pose questions around whether disease-causing bacteria have different shapes.
Life Sciences researchers at the University of Lincoln conducted computer simulations to compare the swimming of differently shaped bacteria. Results showed that a curved shape can be beneficial for efficient swimming and for finding food through the use of chemical trails (known as chemotaxis) - but at the expense of higher cell construction costs.
Media consumption by schoolchildren in the 3rd year (8-9 year-olds) and 6th year (11-12 year-olds) of Primary Education, their narrative skills and the perceptions they have about the values/countervalues of the cartoons was explored by the Department of Evolutionary Psychology and Education of the UPV/EHU's Faculty of Education, Philosophy and Anthropology. The research was conducted in various phases divided into two subcategories.
Gas hydrate plugs not only obstruct flow but also speed up metal deformation. Resulting accidents are both a financial and an environmental burden. Previously, such plugs were removed mechanically, but today this method is being replaced by inhibitors.
Thermodynamic inhibitors (based mostly on methanol) obstruct the gas hydrate formation reactions, but methanol is quite detrimental to the environment. Kinetic inhibitors create physical obstacles for the gas flow so that gas hydrates form significantly slower; however, they are relatively expensive and not biodegradable.
Boston, MA - Two new studies developed algorithms that can identify patients who are at risk of acquiring HIV and may benefit from preventive care. Both studies appear in the July 5 issue of The Lancet HIV.
If scientists could find a way to control the process for making semiconductor components on a nanometric scale, they could give those components unique electronic and optical properties - opening the door to a host of useful applications.