Heavens
The discovery of the first known fossil iguana nesting burrow, on an outer island of the Bahamas, fills in a gap of scientific knowledge for a prehistoric behavior of an iconic lizard. PLOS ONE published the finding by scientists from Emory University, which also uncovers new clues to the geologic and natural history of the Bahamas.
The fossilized burrow dates back to the Late Pleistocene Epoch, about 115,000 years ago, and is located on the island of San Salvador -- best known as the likely spot where Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in his 1492 voyage.
WASHINGTON, December 8, 2020 -- Ultrasound can be used to treat cancer when used in combination with molecules that sensitize the system to sound waves. These sonosensitizers generate toxic reactive oxygen species that attack and kill tumor cells.
HOUSTON - (Dec. 8, 2020) - Inspired by light-sensing bacteria that thrive near hot oceanic vents, synthetic chemists at Rice University have found a mild method to make valuable hydrocarbons known as olefins, or alkenes.
Like the bacteria, the researchers use vitamin B12, eliminating harsh chemicals typically needed to make precursor molecules essential to the manufacture of drugs and agrochemicals.
The open-access work by Julian West, an assistant professor of chemistry, and his colleagues appears in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Chemical Science.
Scientists from Japan and the USA have confirmed the presence in meteorites of a key organic molecule which may have been used to build other organic molecules, including some used by life. The discovery validates theories of the formation of organic compounds in extraterrestrial environments.
In a new paper published in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment, researchers at the University of Rochester were able to use magnetism to determine, for the first time, when carbonaceous chondrite asteroids--asteroids that are rich in water and amino acids--first arrived in the inner solar system. The research provides data that helps inform scientists about the early origins of the solar system and why some planets, such as Earth, became habitable and were able to sustain conditions conducive for life, while other planets, such as Mars, did not.
A new study by scientists at the University of Southampton has made a breakthrough that could help the search for treatments against age related sight loss.
With an aging society, conditions such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are becoming more frequent, affecting around 300 new patients every week in the UK. AMD and similar conditions currently have no effective treatments.
Long ago, all the continents were crammed together into one large land mass called Pangea. Pangea broke apart about 200 million years ago, its pieces drifting away on the tectonic plates -- but not permanently. The continents will reunite again in the deep future. And a new study, presented today during an online poster session at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union, suggests that the future arrangement of this supercontinent could dramatically impact the habitability and climate stability of Earth. The findings also have implications for searching for life on other planets.
Giant planets that developed early in a star system's life could solve a mystery of why spiral structures are not observed in young protoplanetary discs, according to a new study by University of Warwick astronomers.
The research, published today (26 November) in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and part supported by the Royal Society, provides an explanation for the lack of spiral structure that astronomers expect to see in protoplanetary discs around young stars that also suggests that scientists may have to reassess how quickly planets form in a disc's lifecycle.
As temperatures rise due to climate change, the melting of polar ice sheets is accelerating. An international team of researchers led by geoscientist Dr Kim Jakob from Heidelberg University has now examined the dynamics of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet more closely. This is by far the largest ice mass on Earth and is assumed to be less sensitive to climate change than other ice sheets simply because of its size. The researchers analysed data that they had obtained from deep-sea sediments dating back approximately 2.5 million years.
The uranium-bearing mineral zircon is an abundant constituent of Earth's continental crust, providing information about the age and origin of the continents and large geological features such as mountain chains and giant volcanoes. But unlike Earth, Mars's crust is not evolved and is compositionally similar to the crust found under the Earth's oceans, where zircon is rare. Therefore, zircon is not expected to be a common mineral on Mars.
The strong interaction is one of the fundamental forces of nature, which binds quarks into hadrons such as the proton and the neutron, the building blocks of atoms. According to the quark model, hadrons can be formed by two or three quarks, called mesons and baryons respectively and collectively referred to as conventional hadrons. The quark model also allows for the existence of so-called exotic hadrons, composed by four (tetraquarks), five (pentaquarks) or more quarks. A rich spectrum of exotic hadrons is expected just as for the conventional ones.
The emergence of life is a mystery. Nevertheless, researchers agree that water is a precondition for life. The first cell emerged in water and then evolved to form multicellular organism. The oldest known single-cell organism on Earth is about 3.5 billion years old.
So far, so good. But if life emerged in water, where did the water come from?
A collaboration between the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) radio telescope in Europe, the Gemini North telescope, and the NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility (IRTF), both on Maunakea in Hawai'i, has led to the first direct discovery of a cold brown dwarf from its radio wavelength emission. Along with paving the way for future brown dwarf discoveries, this result is an important step towards applying radio astronomy to the exciting field of exoplanets.
DALLAS, Nov. 9, 2020 -- Smoking marijuana increases the risk of complications after cardiovascular procedures, and marijuana users who had a heart attack or cardiac intervention were more likely to be readmitted to the hospital for recurrent heart attacks or coronary procedures, according to two preliminary studies to be presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2020.
Most active volcanoes on Earth are dormant, meaning that they have not erupted for hundreds or even thousands of years, and are normally not considered hazardous by the local population. A team of volcanologists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), working in collaboration with the University of Heidelberg in Germany, has devised a technique that can predict the devastating potential of volcanoes.