In the deep sea, far away from the light of the sun, organisms use chemical energy to fix carbon. At hydrothermal vents - where hot, mineral-rich water gushes out of towering chimneys called black smokers - vibrant ecosystems are fueled by chemical energy in the vent waters. Mussels thrive in this seemingly hostile environment, nourished by symbiotic bacteria inside their gills. The bacteria convert chemicals from the vents, which the animals cannot use, into tasty food for their mussel hosts.
Tracking the lateral position of single cells and particles plays an important role in evaluating the efficiency of microfluidic cell focusing, separation and sorting. Traditionally, the performance of microfluidic cell separation and sorting is evaluated either by analyzing the input and collected output samples requiring extra multiple steps of off-chip analysis or the use of expensive equipment (e.g., flow cytometry), or by detecting the lateral positions of cells using an expensive high-speed imaging setup with intricate image processing algorithms or laborious manual analysis.
The discovery of gases released from deep beneath the Earth's crust could help to explain Southern Africa's unusual landscape, a study suggests.
Scientists have long puzzled over why areas such as South Africa's Highveld region are so elevated and flat, with unexpectedly hot rocks below the surface.
Geologists have revealed that carbon dioxide-rich gases bubbling up through natural springs in South Africa originate from a column of hot, treacle-like material - called a hotspot - located deep inside the Earth.
Echocardiography is a test that uses ultrasound techniques to produce images of the heart in real time. Stress echocardiography uses this technique to evaluate the heart rate response while performing an activity in which the heart has to work (stress). Stress echocardiography can reveal traces of cardiovascular disease in its early stages, before it manifests, and so this technique becomes a valuable screening tool.
According to the World Health Organization, cervical cancer is the fourth most common type of cancer affecting women worldwide. Currently, early screenings of pre-cancerous tissues and vaccination have proven to be the most effective treatment strategies. However, the lack of such interventions in developing nations has led to its high occurrence. Among the South East Asian nations alone, India has the highest incidence rate of cervical cancer.
The South Pole-Aitken (SPA) is the largest and deepest basin on the Moon, theoretically opening a window into the lunar lower crust and likely into the upper mantle. However, compositional information of the SPA basin was mainly obtained from orbital remote sensing. Chang'E-4 landed in the SPA Basin, providing a unique chance for in situ probing the composition of the lunar interior. The landing site is located on ejecta strips radiating from Finsen crater, which lies ~135 km to the northeast.
Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) have found many uses in electronics and new touch screen devices. Carbon nanotubes are sheets of one atom-thick layer of graphene rolled up seamlessly into different sizes and shapes. To be able to use them in commercial products like transparent transistors for phone screens, researchers need to be able to easily test nanotubes for their materials properties, and the new method helps with this.
15-meter high waves that pushed boulders the weight of a Leopard tank inland: This is more or less how one can imagine the tsunami that hit the coast of today's Sultanate of Oman about 1,000 years ago, as concluded by a recent study by the universities of Bonn, Jena, Freiburg and RWTH Aachen. The findings also show how urgently the region needs a well-functioning early warning system. But even then, coastal residents would have a maximum of 30 minutes to get to safety in a similar catastrophe.
Zoology researchers from Trinity College Dublin, working with the Department of Agriculture, Food and The Marine (DAFM) and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), have unlocked the secrets of dispersing badgers.
Their research has major implications for implementing vaccination programmes to limit the spread of bovine tuberculosis (TB).
The findings come at an opportune time, as DAFM has commenced rolling out a national programme to vaccinate badgers in its efforts to eradicate TB.
In 2006, Japanese researchers came up with a new way of creating pluripotent stem cells through epigenetic reprogramming of connective tissue cells. Their discovery has yielded a highly valuable cell type which scientists can use to grow all cells of the human body in a Petri dish.