Tech
With its elegant double helix and voluminous genetic script, DNA has become the of darling of nucleic acids. Yet, it is not all powerful. In order for DNA to realize its potential--for genes to become proteins--it must first be transcribed into RNA, a delicate molecule that requires intense care and guidance.
More than half of the top-grossing movies in Ontario in the past 16 years featured smoking, according to University of Toronto researchers with the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit - and most of these films were rated as acceptable for youth.
Since 2002, Adult Accompaniment (AA) or 14A rated movies have delivered 5.7 billion tobacco images to Ontario moviegoers -- three times as many as 18A or R-rated movies delivered in the same period, according to the report, released July 23.
In a study published in Nature Communications, BU researchers Jake Hinman, William Chapman, and Michael Hasselmo, director of BU's Center for Systems Neuroscience and a College of Arts & Sciences professor of psychological and brain sciences, confirmed the presence of specialized brain cells that provide rats with personal maps of their surroundings. They believe that human brains likely have these neurons too, although further research is needed to be certain of this.
Levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) are rising, which experts predict could produce more droughts and hotter temperatures. Although these weather changes would negatively impact many plants' growth, the increased CO2 availability might actually be advantageous because plants use the greenhouse gas to make food by photosynthesis. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry say that a much higher CO2 level could increase wheat yield but slightly reduce its nutritional quality.
ANN ARBOR--The fact that millions of North American monarch butterflies fly thousands of miles each fall and somehow manage to find the same overwintering sites in central Mexican forests and along the California coast, year after year, is pretty mind-blowing.
Once they get there, monarchs spend several months in diapause, a hormonally controlled state of dormancy that aids winter survival. Though diapause is not as obviously impressive as the celebrated annual migrations, it holds mysteries that have perplexed scientists who study biological timing.
July 24, 2019 (Arlington, VA) -- Below is a summary of a study published online today in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. This article will be freely available for a limited time. SHEA members have full access to all ICHE articles through the online portal.
Title: Attributable Costs and Length of Stay of Hospital-Acquired Clostridioides difficile: A population-based matched cohort study in Alberta, Canada
Homeowners who rely on private wells as their drinking water source can be vulnerable to bacteria, nitrates, and other contaminants that have known human health risks. Because they are not connected to a public drinking water supply, the homeowners are responsible for ensuring that their own drinking water is safe.
Similar to concerns that public drinking water treatment plants face, groundwater wells may be impacted by another group of contaminants -- and they might be part of your daily use!
For decades, the transistors on our microchips have become smaller, faster and cheaper. Approximately every two years the number of transistors on commercial chips has doubled - this phenomenon became known as "Moore's Law". But for several years now, Moore's law does not hold any more. The miniaturization has reached a natural limit, as completely new problems arise when a length scale of only a few nanometers is approached.
Experts are urging parents to brush up on national guidelines following a rapid rise in screen time on electronic devices for children under two.
A University of Queensland study found some young children might average 50 minutes per day, where the national guidelines called for zero screen time in children under the age of two.
UQ School of Public Health lead author Associate Professor Leigh Tooth said the guidelines were there to give children the best start in life.
Just half of 11-19 year old drinkers recall seeing health messages or warnings on alcohol packaging - despite being an important target market for this information, according to new research.
Published in the Journal of Public Health, the research - led by the University of Stirling and the Cancer Policy Research Centre at Cancer Research UK - investigated to what extent 11-19 year olds in the UK were aware of product information, health messaging or warnings on alcohol packaging during the previous month.
DGIST research team discovered a theory that can expand the development of valleytronics technology, which has been drawing attention as a next generation semiconductor technology. This is expected to advance the development of valleytronics technology one level further, a new magnetic technology of next generation that surpasses the existing data processing speed.
Osaka, Japan - Organic materials that can conduct charge have the potential to be used in a vast array of exciting applications, including flexible electronic devices and low-cost solar cells. However, to date, only organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) have made a commercial impact owing to gaps in the understanding of organic semiconductors that have limited improvements to charge carrier mobility. Now an international team including researchers from Osaka University has demonstrated the mechanism of charge mobility in an organic single crystal.
The chemical interactions that give proteins their shape may be weaker and more numerous than previously recognized. These weak connections provide a new way for researchers to understand proteins that cause disease and help them gain insights into the fundamentals of chemistry.
Chemists at the University of Tokyo modeled the building blocks of the protein structure that causes Alzheimer's disease, amyloid beta sheets. Their calculations revealed that some atoms too far apart to bond were still in each other's "electron neighborhoods."
Being sprayed by a skunk is no fun for people or their pets, and the strong, stinky secretions can serve as a nasty reminder of the wildlife encounter for days or weeks. Available "de-skunking" formulas often either don't work well or can irritate the skin and eyes. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Journal of Natural Products have identified a compound from fungi that safely and effectively neutralizes skunk spray odor.
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is set to become the largest radio telescope on Earth. Bielefeld University researchers together with the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) and international partners have now examined the SKA-MPG telescope--a prototype for the part of the SKA that receives signals in the mid-frequency range.