DURHAM, N.C. -- Thousands of marine species could be at risk if a new United Nations high-seas biodiversity treaty, now being negotiated in New York, does not include measures to address the management of all fish species in international waters, not just the commercial species, warns an analysis by American, Dutch, Swiss and French researchers.
WASHINGTON -- Researchers have developed the first fully-integrated, non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) gas sensor enabled by specially engineered synthetic materials known as metamaterials. The sensor has no moving parts, requires little energy to operate and is among the smallest NDIR sensors ever created.
The sensor is ideal for new Internet of Things and smart home devices designed to detect and respond to changes in the environment. It also could find use in future medical diagnostics and monitoring equipment.
EUGENE, Ore. -- Researchers at the University of Oregon have uncovered a molecular mechanism by which the human stomach pathogen Helicobacter pylori is attracted to bleach, also known as hypochlorous acid or HOCI. The study revealed that H. pylori uses a protein called TlpD to sense bleach and swim toward it, and that the bacteria Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli can use TlpD-like proteins to detect bleach in the environment.
The behavior of giraffe groups with calves is influenced more strongly by the risk of predators than is the behavior of all-adult groups, which is mostly determined by the availability of food. An international team of researchers from Penn State and the University of Zürich studied giraffe behavior in a 2,000 square kilometer region of Africa and pinpointed some of the special requirements needed by mother giraffes to keep their babies safe.
Scientists have created miniature brains from stem cells that developed functional neural networks. Despite being a million times smaller than human brains, these lab-grown brains are the first observed to produce brain waves that resemble those of preterm babies. The study, published August 29 in the journal Cell Stem Cell, could help scientists better understand human brain development.
Brain organoids -- also called mini-brains -- are 3D cellular models that represent aspects of the human brain in the laboratory. Brain organoids help researchers track human development, unravel the molecular events that lead to disease and test new treatments. They aren't prefect replicas, of course. Brain organoids do not replicate cognitive function, but researchers can check how an organoid's physical structure or gene expression changes over time or as a result of a virus or drug.
CINCINNATI - One of the most common brain cancers in children, Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) medulloblastoma, also is one of the more survivable for most kids. Unfortunately, for a subset of patients the cancer resists treatment and relapses with a vengeance to then turn deadly.
WASHINGTON -- Even the most powerful computers are still no match for the human brain when it comes to pattern recognition, risk management, and other similarly complex tasks. Recent advances in optical neural networks, however, are closing that gap by simulating the way neurons respond in the human brain.
Imperfections of crystal structure, especially edge dislocations of an elongated nature, deeply modify basic properties of the entire material and, in consequence, drastically limit its applications. Using silicon carbide as an example, physicists from Cracow and Warsaw have shown that even such computationally demanding defects can be successfully examined with atomic accuracy by means of a cleverly constructed, small in size, model.