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45 articles from ScienceDaily

Climate cycles and insect pests drive migration timing of reindeer's North American cousin

Biologists have discovered two unexpected drivers for migration timing that dispute long-held assumptions and provide insight into potential future effects of climate change on caribou. First, the start of migration is synchronized across North America and tied to large-scale, ocean-driven climate cycles. Second, warm, windless summers that favored insect pests lead to poorer maternal health and...

Deadly 'superbugs' destroyed by molecular drills

Motorized molecules activated by light target and drill through highly antibiotic resistant bacteria and kill them within minutes. The molecules can open bacteria to attack by drugs they previously resisted. The strategy could be applied to bacterial infections or diseases on the skin, in the lungs or in the gastrointestinal tract.

First identified comet to visit our solar system from another star

Comet 2I/Borisov is a mysterious visitor from the depths of space -- the first identified comet to arrive here from another star. Hubble images capture the comet streaking though our solar system and on its way back to interstellar space. It's only the second interstellar object known to have passed through the solar system.

Breast cancer cells swallow a 'free lunch' of dietary fat particles from the bloodstream

A research team has previously shown that fatty particles from the bloodstream may boost the growth of breast cancer cells. They now show that through an unexpected mechanism not previously described in cancer cells, the fat particles bind to the breast cancer cell surface and are then taken into the cell, providing a large supply of fuel that drives proliferation of the cancer cells.

New drug targets to treat Nipah virus

Nipah virus, which is transmitted to humans from bats and pigs, has a high mortality rate and there are no licensed drugs against it. Now, researchers have used information on the structure of the Nipah virus to identified 150 possible inhibitors of the virus.

The limits of ocean heavyweights: Prey curb whales' gigantic size

Scientists collected data from hundreds of feeding whales, allowing them to determine how much energy species of different sizes invest to capture their prey and which of these species reap the greatest rewards for their efforts. Their findings reveal that body size in all whales is limited by the availability of their prey, but only filter-feeding whales have evolved a feeding strategy that...

Insight into the neglected tropical disease sleeping sickness

Researchers have shed light on how the parasite which causes sleeping sickness multiples inside its host. Human African Trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness, only occurs in Sub-Saharan Africa where an estimated 60 million people in 36 countries are at risk. The infection attacks the central nervous system and is fatal without treatment. Researchers have found that the parasite's cell division...

Scientists map a planet's global wind patterns for the first time, and it's not Earth

A new article documents the global wind patterns on any planet for the first time. Remote repogramming of the MAVEN spacecraft and its NGIMS instrument enabled the data collection. The results reveal seasonal stability in circulation patterns on Mars, but high short-term volatility in wind direction and speed. The data also allow researchers to infer the topography below based on waves created by...

Unique polymer fibers: Light, strong, and tough

Strong and tough yet as light as a feather - materials with this exceptional combination of properties are urgently needed in many industrial sectors and in medicine, as well as being of great interest for scientific research. A research team has developed polymer fibers with precisely these properties.

Researchers perfect nanoscience tool for studies of nuclear waste storage

Studying radiation chemistry and electronic structure of materials at scales smaller than nanometers, scientists prepared samples of clay in ultra-thin layers. Working at the TRIUMF particle accelerator, they bombarded the samples with antimatter subatomic particles. They found their system is a proven tool for radiation studies of material to be used to store nuclear waste -- important for...

Chemists' calculations may advance cancer prediction

A computational study by chemists showed the dynamics of tumor formation don't necessarily correlate with clinical data on lifetime cancer risks. It suggests biomarkers may someday be able to help predict when mutations in cells will turn cancer-prone cells into full-blown cancer.