Earth
Effective weight-loss strategies call for eating less food, burning more calories--or ideally, both. But for the more than 90 million Americans who suffer from obesity, a disease that contributes to conditions ranging from cancer to heart disease, behavioral change is hard to accomplish or not effective enough--which is why scientists have long sought drugs that would help people shed pounds. Yet effective, long-lasting treatments have thus far eluded them.
Additive manufacturing built an early following with 3D printers using polymers to create a solid object from a Computer-Aided Design model. The materials used were neat polymers--perfect for a rapid prototype, but not commonly used as structural materials.
A new wave of additive manufacturing uses polymer composites that are extruded from a nozzle as an epoxy resin, but reinforced with short, chopped carbon fibers. The fibers make the material stronger, much like rebar in a cement sidewalk. The resulting object is much stiffer and stronger than a resin on its own.
LA JOLLA, CALIF. - June 27, 2019 - Desperate for nutrients, rapidly growing pancreatic tumors resort to scavenging "fuel" through an alternative supply route, called macropinocytosis. Scientists are hopeful that blocking this process, often described as "cellular drinking," could lead to tumor-starving drugs. First, however, fundamental information is needed--such as the invisible molecular signals that drive the process.
A new study explains why lung cancer spreads faster in patients with certain genetic changes, and suggests that taking vitamin E, long thought of as preventive, may cause the same spread.
Led by researchers at NYU School of Medicine and Perlmutter Cancer Center, experiments in mice and human tissue revealed how mechanisms that protect cancer cells from the byproducts of their own aggressive growth are connected by the protein BACH1 to cancer cell migration and tissue invasion.
In a world first, an Australian-led international team of astronomers has determined the precise location of a powerful one-off burst of cosmic radio waves.
The discovery was made with CSIRO's new Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope in Western Australia. The galaxy from which the burst originated was then imaged by three of the world's largest optical telescopes - Keck, Gemini South and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope - and the results were published online by the journal Science today.
A new computational modeling method uses snapshots of which types of microbes are found in a person's gut to predict how the microbial community will change over time. The tool, developed by Liat Shenhav, Leah Briscoe and Mike Thompson from the Halperin lab, University of California Los Angeles, and colleagues at the Mizrahi lab at Ben-Gurion University, Israel, is presented in PLOS Computational Biology.
Throughout the gastrointestinal tract there are specialized hormone-producing cells called enteroendocrine cells and, although they comprise only a small population of the total cells, they are one of the most important moderators of communication between the gut and the rest of the body. Studying these cells, however, has been difficult.
A group of histologists and dentists from School of Biomedicine, Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU), teamed up with Russian and Japanese colleagues and found cells that are probably responsible for the formation of human dental tissue. Researchers propose to apply the study outcome within the development of bioengineering techniques in dentistry aimed at growing new dental tissue for patients. A related article is published in the International Journal of Applied and Fundamental Research.
The white matter structure in the brain reflects music sensitivity, according to a study by the research group on Cognition and Brain Plasticity of the Institute of Neurosciences of the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (UB-IDIBELL).
Much greater awareness, improved diagnosis and enhanced treatment are all required in order to reduce the burden on society of the severe behavioural condition conduct disorder, according to a new expert review led by the University of Bath (UK).
Conduct Disorder (CD), which is a common and highly impairing psychiatric disorder, usually emerges in childhood or adolescence and is characterized by severe antisocial and aggressive behaviour, including physical aggression, theft, property damage and violation of others' rights.
EVANSTON, Ill. -- A new form of electron microscopy allows researchers to examine nanoscale tubular materials while they are "alive" and forming liquids -- a first in the field.
Developed by a multidisciplinary team at Northwestern University and the University of Tennessee, the new technique, called variable temperature liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy (VT-LPTEM), allows researchers to investigate these dynamic, sensitive materials with high resolution. With this information, researchers can better understand how nanomaterials grow, form and evolve.
A new artificial-intelligence tool captures strategies used by top players of an internet-based videogame to design new RNA molecules. Rohan Koodli and colleagues at the Eterna massive open laboratory present the tool, called EternaBrain, in PLOS Computational Biology. Eterna is directed by the lab of Prof. Rhiju Das at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California.
Main sequence star, red giant, white dwarf - in the course of their lifespan covering millions or even billions of years, stars pass through different stages of stellar evolution - all differing greatly in appearance. Yet, stars do not reveal their ages easily, at least not at first glance. The duration of each phase differs too greatly from star to star. With deeper look, however, researchers can reconstruct the star's life story. Various methods now make it possible to reliably determine the age of a star.
Finnish researchers have compiled guidelines for international use for utilising music to support the development of spoken language. The guidelines are suitable for the parents of children with hearing impairments, early childhood education providers, teachers, speech therapists and other rehabilitators of children with hearing disabilities, as well as the hearing-impaired themselves.
The oceans are losing oxygen. Numerous studies based on direct measurements in recent years have shown this. Since water can dissolve less gas as temperatures rise, these results were not surprising. In addition to global warming, factors such as eutrophication of the coastal seas also contribute to the ongoing deoxygenation. Will the oceans become completely oxygen-depleted at some point in the future if global warming continues? Such anoxic phases have actually occurred several times in the Earth's history, combined with major mass extinction events.