Tech
COLUMBUS, Ohio - To truly understand an animal species is to observe its behavior and social networks in the wild. With new technology described today (April 2) in PLOS Biology, researchers are able to track tiny animals that divide their time between flying around in the sky and huddling together in caves and hollow trees - by attaching little backpacks to them with glue.
The same basic tools that allow computers to function are now being used to control life at the molecular level. The advances have implications for future medicines and synthetic biology.
Reporting April 2 in the journal Science, a team led by the University of Washington School of Medicine has created artificial proteins that function as molecular logic gates. These tools, like their electronic counterparts, can be used to program the behavior of more complex systems.
NASA analyzed the cloud top temperatures in the newly formed Tropical Cyclone Irondro using infrared light to determine where the strongest storms were located.
One of the ways NASA researches tropical cyclones is to use infrared data that provides temperature information. Cloud top temperatures identify where the strongest storms are located. The stronger the storms, the higher they extend into the troposphere, and the colder the cloud temperatures.
Before they were banned about a half century ago, psychedelic drugs like LSD and psilocybin showed promise for treating conditions including alcoholism and some psychiatric disorders. In a commentary publishing April 2 in the journal Cell, part of a special issue on medicine, researchers say it's time for regulators, scientists, and the public to "revisit drugs that were once used but fell out of use because of political machinations, especially the war on drugs."
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Researchers used accelerometers to measure daily physical activity in 30 stroke survivors for a week, assessing how much the participants moved and how well they performed routine physical tasks. The study revealed that stroke survivors who engaged in a lot of light physical activity - taking leisurely walks or attending to nonstrenuous household chores, for example - also reported fewer physical limitations than their more sedentary peers.
The researchers describe their findings in the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
2 April 2020 - Geneva, Switzerland: Currently, there are limited data on the impact of pre-existing liver disease and the course of SARS-CoV-2 infection, with many open questions.
A new study in Neuron offers clues to why autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is more common in boys than in girls. National Institutes of Health scientists found that a single amino acid change in the NLGN4 gene, which has been linked to autism symptoms, may drive this difference in some cases. The study was conducted at NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
Bottom Line: An analysis of a large Swedish cohort revealed that breast density, microcalcifications, and masses are heritable features, and that breast density and microcalcifications were positively associated with a genetic predisposition to breast cancer.
Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research
Author: Natalie Holowko, PhD, postdoctoral researcher in the department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm
Newly discovered single-celled creatures living deep beneath the seafloor have given researchers clues about how they might find life on Mars. These bacteria were discovered living in tiny cracks inside volcanic rocks after researchers persisted over a decade of trial and error to find a new way to examine the rocks.
Eastern oysters and three species of clams can be farmed together and flourish, potentially boosting profits of shellfish growers, according to a Rutgers University-New Brunswick study.
By repurposing badges originally designed to locate nurses and other hospital staff, Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists say they can precisely monitor how patients in the hospital are walking outside of their rooms, a well-known indicator and contributor to recovery after surgery.
A team of engineers and clinicians at The Johns Hopkins Hospital developed the repurposed badges to study their value in tracking "ambulation," or mobility, among inpatients who had undergone cardiac surgery.
Turbulent flows are chaotic yet feature universal statistical properties.Over the recent years, seemingly turbulent flows have been discovered in active fluids such as bacterial suspensions, epithelial cell monolayers, and mixtures of biopolymers and molecular motors. In a new study published in Nature Physics, researchers from the University of Barcelona, Princeton University and Collège de France have shown that the chaotic flows in active nematic fluids are described by distinct universal scaling laws.
A sea cage can hold up to 200000 farmed salmon. If the cage sustains damage, such as a hole in the nets, the fish could swim out through the opening and make their escape in short order.
Clearly, the aquaculture industry wants to avoid this scenario. Not only do escapes lead to large losses for the industry, but no one wants farm-raised salmon to mix and interbreed with wild populations.
Keeping an eye on what is going on inside the cages is critical for being able to respond and repair any damage promptly.
Previous research studies have revealed how rising temperatures and melting ice in the Arctic may impact the rest of Earth's climate over seasons, years and even longer. Now, two researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, are making the argument that the effects may actually be felt in a matter of weeks, but more robust, observational-based analysis is needed to fully understand how quickly Arctic events impact the rest of Earth.