Tech

The number of red squirrels is on the increase in Ireland thanks to the return of the pine marten, a native carnivore, a new survey led by NUI Galway has found.

The new findings indicate that the return of the red squirrel is due to the decrease in the number of grey squirrels, which compete with them for food and carry a disease that is fatal to the native species. The re-emergence of the pine marten, which had previously almost disappeared in Ireland, is linked to the local demise of the greys.

The way a vast amount of schools are setup, with classes grouping children based on their ability, is severely affecting pupil's self-confidence.

This is according to a new substantial study, by experts from the UCL Institute of Education, Queen's University Belfast and Lancaster University, who looked at more than 9,000 12-to-13-year-old students taking part in 'setted' maths and English classes (when classes are grouped by children's ability).

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2020 -- Face masks are thought to slow the spread of viruses, including the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but little is known about how well they work.

In an issue of Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, Talib Dbouk and Dimitris Drikakis, from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, use precise computer models to map out the expected flow patterns of small droplets released when a mask-wearing person coughs repeatedly.

A joint research team from the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Institute of Physics at Chinese Academy of Science, Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Beihang University in Beijing and Fudan University in Shanghai, has provided a successful example of modern era quantum material research.

An international research team comprising scientists from the University of Hong Kong, the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), Macquarie University and the University of Wollongong (Australia) as well as Rutgers University (USA) has predicted that mangroves will not be able to survive with rising sea-level rates reached by 2050, if emissions are not reduced. The team's findings were recently published in one of the world's top peer-reviewed academic journal Science.

According to the Danish Act on Listed Buildings, listed buildings must reflect Danish housing and working conditions throughout history. An extensive study conducted by, among others, a UCPH researcher, demonstrates that since 1945, the vast majority of listed dwellings are unique homes designed by well-known architects in North Zealand.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Scientists built a computer model of a simple brain network based on that of a sea slug, taught it how to get food, gave it an appetite and the ability to experience reward, added a dash of something called homeostatic plasticity and then exposed it to a very intoxicating drug. To no one's surprise, the creature became addicted.

How do you stop something that is faster than anything else, intangible and always in motion by nature? A team led by physicists Dr. Thorsten Peters and Professor Thomas Halfmann is doing the seemingly impossible: stopping light for tiny fractions of a second. They then end the stopover at the push of a button letting the light pulse continue its journey. The researchers are even stopping individual light particles.

How do animals adapt their behaviour during life in order to assure survival and reproduction? This is a question of great interest for behavioural biologists worldwide. An essential step is to examine hormonal mechanisms which have a fundamental impact on the animal's behaviour and thus make adaptations to various social situations possible.

We know how important bacteria and fungi are for the health of plants. In marine environments and in our own gut, bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) are important in regulating the microbiome. Yet, their effect on bacteria living around the roots of plants has hardly been studied. 'I cannot believe that they are not important,' says Joana Falcao Salles, Professor of Microbial Community Ecology at the University of Groningen.

Announcing a new article publication for BIO Integration journal. In this mini review article the authors Yuhao Chen, Meng Du, Jinsui Yu, Lang Rao, Xiaoyuan Chen and Zhiyi Chen from The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Bethesda, MD, USA consider nanobiohybrids in cancer therapy.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - University of Arkansas physicists have documented a means of improving the magnetoelectric response of bismuth ferrite, a discovery that could lead to advances in data storage, sensors and actuators.

Using a first-of-its-class drug in a clinical trial, an international research effort headed by a scientist at University of California San Diego School of Medicine reports that inhibition of a key enzyme safely and effectively improved the health of persons with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a chronic metabolic disorder that affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

To an English scholar or avid reader, the Shakespeare Canon represents some of the greatest literary works of the English language. To a network scientist, Shakespeare's 37 plays and the 884,421 words they contain also represent a massively complex communication network. Network scientists, who employ math, physics, and computer science to study vast and interconnected systems, are tasked with using statistically rigorous approaches to understand how complex networks, like all of Shakespeare, convey information to the human brain.

Planting woody plant species alongside crops could double the number of insect pollinators helping farmers produce food, new research has demonstrated for the first time.

The study, led by the University of Reading and published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, provides the first observed evidence that agroforestry increases wild insect pollinator numbers and increases pollination.