Earth
Researchers have developed a 'library of properties' to help identify the environmental impact of nanomaterials faster and more cost effectively.
Whilst nanomaterials have benefited a wide range of industries and revolutionised everyday life, there are concerns over potential adverse effects - including toxic effects following accumulation in different organs and indirect effects from transport of co-pollutants.
In a study of healthy volunteers, National Institutes of Health researchers have mapped out the brain activity that flows when we learn a new skill, such as playing a new song on the piano, and discovered why taking short breaks from practice is a key to learning. The researchers found that during rest the volunteers' brains rapidly and repeatedly replayed faster versions of the activity seen while they practiced typing a code. The more a volunteer replayed the activity the better they performed during subsequent practice sessions, suggesting rest strengthened memories.
Last year, Anupam Mazumdar, a physicist from the University of Groningen, jointly proposed an experiment together with colleagues from the UK that could conclusively prove whether gravity is a quantum phenomenon. This experiment would focus on observing two relatively large, entangled quantum systems in free fall. In a new article, published on 4 June in Physical Review Research, the scientists describe in more detail how two types of noise could be reduced.
A new Alzheimer's disease drug will hit the market soon, the first in nearly two decades. But some experts say the evidence for it isn't terribly strong and worry that it may cost a lot.
Still, the announcement of its approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made headlines nationwide. The attention reflects the toll dementia takes on patients, families and society, and the lack of good treatment options.
Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have shown that even after lung tissue has been damaged, it may be possible to reverse fibrosis and promote tissue repair through treatment with microgel-coated mesenchymal stromal cells.
The analysis of very old plant fossils discovered in South Africa and dating from the Lower Devonian period documents the transition from barren continents to the green planet we know today. Cyrille Prestianni, a palaeobotanist at the EDDy Lab at the University of Liège (Belgium), participated in this study, the results of which have just been published in the journal Scientific Reports.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Scientists working to understand the cellular processes linking high cholesterol to breast cancer recurrence and metastasis report that a byproduct of cholesterol metabolism causes some cells to send out cancer-promoting signals to other cells. These signals are packaged in membrane-bound compartments called extracellular vesicles.
Reported in the journal Endocrinology, the discovery could lead to the development of new anti-cancer therapies, researchers say.
Forty years ago, the first cases of HIV/AIDS in the U.S began to raise public awareness- but new research highlights the struggle people living with the disease still face against stigma, discrimination and negative labelling in their own families, communities and even amongst healthcare professionals.
A trial using mice has shown that a diet high in sugar from childhood could lead to significant weight gain, persistent hyperactivity and learning impairments
Many people on 'western' diets consume four times more the sugar recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO)
Reducing sucrose intake in mice by four-fold prevented sugar-induced increase in weight gain, supporting the WHO's recommendations of 25g per person a day.
Researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Beijing Tiantan Hospital have recently uncovered a new gene mutation responsible for the non-familial patients of cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM) - a brain vascular disorder which inflicted about 10~30 million people in the world.
Of all the different types of cancer known, a subtype of pancreatic cancer called pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is among the most aggressive and deadly. This disease begins in the cells that make up certain small ducts in the pancreas and progresses silently, usually causing no symptoms until advanced tumors actually obstruct these ducts or spread to other places. PDAC is not only difficult to diagnose, but also very unresponsive to available treatments.
The Amami, Okinawa region of Japan may be designated a World Heritage Site in July of 2021 based on the recent recommendation from the IUCN. The Iriomote wild cat is a symbolic species of the region, having evolved independently on the island. The area is home to many other highly endemic and unique evolutionary species. A research group comprised mostly of former students of Professor Koji Tojo's Faculty of Science lab of Shinshu University focused on the study of dragonflies, continuing from their previous study of their comparative embryogenesis.
A long-standing basic question in biology relates to how life satisfies the fundamental constraints put on it by physics and chemistry. Darwin's warm pond hypothesis for the origin of primordial cells is a familiar one. Advances have been made in mapping out the organic molecules that likely existed on the early Earth, and recently candidate prototypic pathways in early cells have been formulated. But how did these candidates' early biochemistry actually function as a system, on which subsequent cellular life is based?
The fluorescence dyes were dominant species of the near-infrared (NIR) dyes, but the energy gap of the NIR dyes between S1 state and S0 state is generally small to induce the ultrafast internal conversion dynamics to quench the NIR emission of the fluorescence dyes. Therefore, the quantum yield of the fluorescence NIR dyes is usually low. On the other hand, the organic dyes with room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) in the NIR region could prevent the ultrafast internal conversion dynamics quenching because of the T1 state and S0 state the organic molecules are spin forbidden.
As Australia officially enters winter, UniSA ecologists are urging coastal communities to embrace all that the season brings, including the sometimes-unwelcome deposits of brown seaweed that can accumulate on the southern shores.
While tidal seaweed (or sea wrack) may seem unsightly - especially at beach-side tourist destinations - new research from the University of South Australia shows that it plays a vital role for many migratory seabirds and should be protected.