Earth
Ever since the isolation of graphene was first achieved in 2004, there has been an explosion in graphene-related research and development, with hundreds of business opportunists producing graphene to capitalise on this rapidly expanding industry. However, a new study by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has uncovered a major problem - a lack of production standards has led to many cases of poor quality graphene from suppliers. Such practices can impede the progress of research that depend fundamentally on the use of high-quality graphene.
DARIEN, IL - A new study conducted among more than 177,000 students suggests that insufficient sleep duration is associated with an unhealthy lifestyle profile among children and adolescents.
Tokyo, Japan - Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have shown that the environment-driven evolution of a unique ovipositor in the female fruit fly Drosophila suzukii may have caused coevolution of the male genitalia; new features were found to cause mechanical incompatibility during reproduction with similar species, impeding crossbreeding and isolating the species. The dual role of the female genitalia was found to trigger coevolution and speciation, a generic pathway which may apply to many other organisms.
The history of the peopling of the Americas has just been interpreted afresh. The largest and most comprehensive study ever conducted on the basis of fossil DNA extracted from ancient human remains found on the continent has confirmed the existence of a single ancestral population for all Amerindian ethnic groups, past and present.
There is widespread concern that global warming will have a strong negative effect on crop yields. Recent research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on historical maize yields across the U.S. Corn Belt suggests that a continuation of the historical yield trend will depend on a stable climate and continued farmer adjustments.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University researchers have invented a new smart drainage device to help patients with glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness in the world, as they try to save their eyesight.
Glaucoma can be treated only with medications or surgical implants, both of which offer varying degrees of success in helping to improve sight and to relieve pressure buildup inside the eye. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 3 million Americans have glaucoma.
An innovative San Francisco program of community choirs for older adults found that singing in a choir reduced loneliness and increased interest in life, but did not improve cognition or physical function, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco.
The Deciphering Developmental Disorders study has discovered that only a small fraction of rare, undiagnosed developmental disorders in the British Isles are caused by recessive genes. The study by researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators estimated that only five per cent of the patients had inherited a disease-causing gene mutation from both parents, far fewer than previously thought. This will guide research and could lead to a better understanding of the risk for future pregnancies.
A theory called the cultural brain hypothesis could explain extraordinary increases in brain size in humans and other animals over the last few million years, according to a study published in PLOS Computational Biology by Michael Muthukrishna of the London School of Economics and Political Science and Harvard University, and colleagues at the University of British Columbia and Harvard University.
New research from the University of Washington and the University of Massachusetts - Amherst looks at how the most common cause of sneezing and sniffling in North America is likely to shift under climate change.
A recent study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE finds that common ragweed will expand its range northward as the climate warms, reaching places including New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, while retreating from some current hot spots.
We all start out as a clump of identical cells. As these cells divide and multiply, they gradually take on distinct identities, acquiring the traits necessary to form, for instance, muscle tissue, bone, or nerves. A recent study from Rockefeller scientists offers new insight into how these cellular identities are cultivated over the course of development.
Hip replacement surgery is highly successful in relieving pain, restoring mobility and improving quality of life. More than 330,000 procedures are performed each year in the United States, and that number is expected to almost double by the year 2030.
Melbourne scientists have discovered how tumour development is driven by mutations in the most important gene in preventing cancer, p53.
The research revealed that in the early stages of cancer, mutant p53 'tackles' the normal p53 protein and blocks it from carrying out its protective role. As a result, p53 can no longer activate natural defences against cancer - such as the body's DNA repair process - increasing the risk of cancer developing.
Tropical Cyclone 03S formed in the Southern Indian Ocean and the NOAA-20 satellite passed overhead and captured a visible image of the storm.
Asian jumping earthworms are carving out territory all over the U.S. Midwest and East Coast, leaving in their wake changed soils that are just beginning to be studied.