Earth

LA JOLLA, CA--Fast-spreading variants of the COVID-19-causing coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, carry mutations that enable the virus to escape some of the immune response created naturally or by vaccination. A new study from scientists at Scripps Research, along with collaborators in Germany and the Netherlands, has revealed key details of how these escape mutations work.

WASHINGTON--Yellowstone National Park is famous for harsh winters but a new study shows summers are also getting harsher, with August 2016 ranking as one of the hottest summers in the last 1,250 years.

So, you thought the problem of false information on social media could not be any worse? Allow us to respectfully offer evidence to the contrary.

Not only is misinformation increasing online, but attempting to correct it politely on Twitter can have negative consequences, leading to even less-accurate tweets and more toxicity from the people being corrected, according to a new study co-authored by a group of MIT scholars.

Durham, NC -- Bone marrow failure due to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a significant factor behind the disease's high rate of morbidity and mortality. Previous studies in mice suggest that AML cells inhibit healthy hematopoietic (blood) stem and progenitor cells (HSPC).

Syracuse, N.Y. - The COVID-19 death rate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) is higher than the general population in several states across the U.S., according to a new study published in Disability and Health Journal.

The research team that conducted the study analyzed data from 12 U.S. jurisdictions: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington and Washington, D.C.

Since they are far more compact than today's accelerators, which can be kilometers long, plasma accelerators are considered as a promising technology for the future. An international research group has now made significant progress in the further development of this approach: With two complementary experiments at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU), the team was able to combine two different plasma technologies for the first time and build a novel hybrid accelerator.

A newly developed tool will allow scientists to better gauge how centuries of fossil fuel emissions could be skewing the data they collect from marine environments.

Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks led the effort, which created a way for marine scientists to factor into their results the vast amounts of anthropogenic carbon dioxide that are being absorbed by oceans. Those human-caused carbon sources can muddy research results -- a problem known as the Suess effect -- leading to flawed conclusions about the health and productivity of marine ecosystems.

Fixed-dose combination of nivolumab and relatlimab holds the cancer in check significantly longer than nivolumab alone

This is the first regimen to demonstrate a statistical benefit over anti-PD-1 monotherapy in metastatic melanoma

Water in the high-mountain regions has many faces. Frozen in the ground, it is like a cement foundation that keeps slopes stable. Glacial ice and snow supply the rivers and thus the foothills with water for drinking and agriculture during the melt season. Intense downpours with flash floods and landslides, on the other hand, pose a life-threatening risk to people in the valleys. The subsoil with its ability to store water therefore plays an existential role in mountainous regions.

Scientists from Hokkaido University have shown that an antigen-based test for quantifying SARS-CoV-2 in saliva samples is simple, rapid, and more conducive for mass-screening.

Scientists have successfully treated flies displaying behavioural problems linked to newly discovered schizophrenia-associated genes in humans, using common anti-psychotics.

Schizophrenia is a severe long-term mental health condition that is historically poorly understood and treated. It is relatively common, affecting one to two per cent of the population, and is known to be up to 80 per cent genetic in origin.

A research team has found that a method commonly used to skirt one of metal 3D printing's biggest problems may be far from a silver bullet.

For manufacturers, 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, provides a means of building complex-shaped parts that are more durable, lighter and more environmentally friendly than those made through traditional methods. The industry is burgeoning, with some predicting it to double in size every three years, but growth often goes hand in hand with growing pains.

For the first time, geological records have been used to reconstruct the history of Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The ice shelf is the largest remaining remnant of a much more extensive area of ice on the Antarctic Peninsula that began to break up during the 1990s (Larsen A), and saw a huge collapse in 2002 (Larsen B). This new reconstruction enables scientists to better understand if and when the remaining ice shelf could collapse in the future.

In recent years, foresters have been able to observe it up close: First, prolonged drought weakens the trees, then bark beetles and other pests attack. While healthy trees keep the invaders away with resin, stressed ones are virtually defenseless. Freiburg scientist Sylvie Berthelot and her team of researchers from the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources and the Faculty of Biology are studying the importance of tree diversity on bark beetle infestation. They are investigating whether the composition of tree species affects bark beetle feeding behavior.

NEWPORT, Ore. - The population of white sharks that call the Central California coast their primary home is holding steady at about 300 animals and shows some signs of growth, a new long-term study of the species has shown.

Between 2011 and 2018, researchers were able to identify hundreds of individual adult and subadult white sharks, which are not fully mature but are old enough to prey on marine mammals. They used that information to develop estimates of the sharks' abundance.