Tech
Like many industries, big data is driving innovations in agriculture. Scientists seek to analyze thousands of plants to pinpoint genetic tweaks that can boost crop production--historically, a Herculean task. To drive progress toward higher-yielding crops, a team from the University of Illinois is revolutionizing the ability to screen plants for key traits across an entire field.
A team of researchers from the Center for Soft and Living Matter, within the Institute of Basic Science (IBS, South Korea) and affiliated with Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has discovered a novel approach to selectively target and kill several types of cancer cells.
Terahertz waves are becoming ever more important in science and technology. They enable us to unravel the properties of future materials, test the quality of automotive paint and screen envelopes. But generating these waves is still a challenge. A team at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), TU Dresden and the University of Konstanz has now made significant progress.
Some commercial password managers may be vulnerable to cyber-attack by fake apps, new research suggests.
Security experts recommend using a complex, random and unique password for every online account, but remembering them all would be a challenging task.
That's where password managers come in handy.
Encrypted vaults accessed by a single master password or PIN, they store and autofill credentials for the user and come highly recommended by the UK's National Cyber Security Centre.
In her 30 years working as a researcher in Madagascar, CU Boulder Anthropology Professor Michelle Sauther has had a number of chance encounters with a strange forest creature: a wild, oversized cat with a characteristic tabby-like coloring.
"When I first started working in Madagascar, I noticed that these cats all seemed to look the same," said Sauther, whose research focuses on primates. "They were big, and they were always the same color."
Scientists had no idea where they came from--the island nation has no native cats of its own.
NASA's Terra satellite passed over the Southern Pacific Ocean and captured an image of Tropical Storm Gretel as it was transitioning into an extra-tropical cyclone, northwest of New Zealand.
Tropical Cyclone 23P formed on March 14 at 4 p.m. EDT (2100 UTC) between Australia and New Caledonia. Once it intensified into a tropical storm, it was renamed Gretel.
Russian researchers from the Federal Research Clinical Center of Physical-Chemical Medicine, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and Lomonosov Moscow State University showed the possibility of blending two incompatible components -- a protein and a polymer -- in one electrospun fiber. Published in RSC Advances, the study also demonstrates that the resulting mat can gradually release the protein. Blended mats containing proteins are promising for biomedical applications as burn and wound dressings, matrices for drug delivery and release, and in tissue engineering.
Some 20 percent of breast cancer survivors will suffer from lymphedema, a potentially severe side effect of treatment that makes arms swell with lymph. The disease is often overlooked, but commercially available app-based technology now makes early detection easier, allowing for proactive treatment.
Ann Arbor, March 16, 2020 - A new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, found that motor vehicle crashes involving drivers with blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) below the legal limit of 0.08 percent accounted for 15 percent of alcohol-involved crash deaths in the United States.
Focusing on urbanization as a key driver of environmental change in the 21st century, researchers at Princeton University have created a framework to understand and compare cities' food systems and their effects on climate change, water use and land use. The research will allow planners to estimate the impact of a city's food system and evaluate policy actions.
Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have created a new, rubber-like material with a unique set of properties, which could act as a replacement for human tissue in medical procedures. The material has the potential to make a big difference to many people's lives. The research was recently published in the highly regarded scientific journal ACS Nano.
Children who are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes under the age of seven have a different form (or "endotype") of the condition compared with those diagnosed aged 13 or above, new research has shown.
Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body's immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, destroying them. This means they no longer regulate blood sugar levels effectively and people affected by the condition must inject insulin several times a day to do this job.
PITTSBURGH, March 13, 2020 - Inspired by a tactic cancer cells use to evade the immune system, University of Pittsburgh researchers have engineered tiny particles that can trick the body into accepting transplanted tissue as its own.
Rats that were treated with these cell-sized microparticles developed permanent immune tolerance to grafts -- including a whole limb -- from a donor rat, while keeping the rest of their immune system intact, according to a paper published today in Science Advances.
The South Asian summer monsoon (SASM) provides the principal water supply for over a billion people. In good monsoon years, farmers reap a rich harvest, while in bad monsoon years, severe droughts wipe out crops. And heavy rains during monsoon season cause floods and hit economy badly. Policy-makers and stakeholders urgently need projection of SASM for the coming 15-30 years --usually termed as "near future" in climate research community. Unfortunately, there are large uncertainties in current projection due to climate internal variability.
Pathogens such as viruses and bacteria have been at war with their hosts for millions of years. The arms race between the immune system of the hosts and infectious pathogens is considered to be a critical driver of evolution. All vertebrates, including humans, developed a very sophisticated self-protection device, which is called the adaptive immune system. Specialized immune cells called T cells and B cells detect and destroy invading pathogens. One of its key features and its secret weapon is immunological memory.