Earth

RICHLAND, Wash.--Earth bears many signs of human influence, from warming that exceeds pre-industrial temperatures to a rising sea. Add to that list, now, the human influence on the timing of Earth's water cycle, revealed by a new study led by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Babies are generally poorer at seeing and recognizing objects than adults because of their immature visual abilities. However, a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on June 23 reported that, in some circumstances, infants younger than 7 months old can perceive objects that older infants and adults cannot. This surprising result demonstrates the distinct mechanisms of visual perception between young infants and adults.

In 2021 Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B (APSB) is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The journal was founded with the goal of creating a global high-level forum centred around drug discovery and pharmaceutical research/application. APSB was included by Chemical Abstracts in 2011, accepted by PubMed Central in 2015, indexed by Science Citation Index in 2017 and has evolved to become one of the most important international journals in the field of pharmaceutical sciences.

Scientists from within the Antibody and Vaccine Group at the University of Southampton have gained novel insights into how an important class of immune receptors called tumour necrosis factor receptors (TNFR) are activated.

To make computer chips, technologists around the world rely on atomic layer deposition (ALD), which can create films as fine as one atom thick. Businesses commonly use ALD to make semiconductor devices, but it also has applications in solar cells, lithium batteries and other energy-related fields.

Today, manufacturers increasingly rely on ALD to make new types of films, but figuring out how to tweak the process for each new material takes time.

Toronto, ON - Despite research showing associations between anabolic steroid use and criminal offending, the possibility of a similar association between legal performance-enhancing substance use, such as creatine, and criminal offending remained unknown. A new study published online in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence now shows that both forms of performance-enhancing substance use is longitudinally associated with criminal offending among U.S. adults.

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology design polymers infused with a stress-sensitive molecular unit that respond to external forces by switching on their fluorescence. The researchers demonstrate the fluorescence to be dependent on the magnitude of force and show that it is possible to detect both, reversible and irreversible polymer deformations, opening the door to the exploration of new force regimes in polymers.

Amphiphilic molecules, which aggregate and encapsulate molecules in water, find use in several fields of chemistry. The simple, additive-free connection of hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules would be an efficient method for amphiphilic molecule synthesis. However, such connections, or bonds, are often fragile in water. Now, scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed an easy way to prepare water-stable amphiphiles by simple mixing. Their new catalyst- and reagent-free method will help create further functional materials.

Scientists from the University of Michigan have developed an innovative way to use NASA satellite data to track the movement of tiny pieces of plastic in the ocean.

New Rochelle, NY, June 24, 2021—The American Thyroid Association, the European Association of Nuclear Medicine, the European Thyroid Association, and the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging released a joint statement on three key topics addressing controversies in thyroid cancer care. The joint statement is published in the peer-reviewed journal Thyroid®, the official journal of the American Thyroid Association® (ATA®).Click here to read the statement now.

Night and day, oil tankers, yachts and cargo ships stacked with shipping containers ply the 80-kilometer (50-mile) waterway through the jungles of Panama between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean: about 40 ships every 24 hours. But even though the Canal is fed by freshwater rivers that empty through the locks on each end, a system that generally prevents fish and smaller marine invertebrates from hopping from ocean to ocean, some still manage to get through, clinging to the hulls of ships.

Irvine, CA - June 25, 2021 - New research from the University of California, Irvine reveals how the circadian regulation of glucose production in the liver is lost during lung cancer progression, and how the resulting increase in glucose production may fuel cancer cell growth.

FINDINGS

A UCLA-led study comparing brain cells known as astrocytes in humans and mice found that mouse astrocytes are more resilient to oxidative stress, a damaging imbalance that is a mechanism behind many neurological disorders. A lack of oxygen triggers molecular repair mechanisms in these mouse astrocytes but not in human astrocytes. In contrast, inflammation activates immune-response genes in human astrocytes but not mouse astrocytes.

BACKGROUND

A new University of Liverpool study could help scientists mitigate the future spread of zoonotic and livestock diseases caused by existing viruses.

Researchers have used a form or artificial intelligence (AI) called machine-learning to predict more than 20,000 unknown associations between known viruses and susceptible mammalian species. The findings, which are published in Nature Communications, could be used to help target disease surveillance programmes.