326 articles from THURSDAY 6.2.2020

4 children found alive in remote part of Alaska after being stranded by blizzard for 27 hours

The remote village of Nunam Iqua is located about 160 miles northwest of Bethel. (AccuWeather) Four children between the ages of 2 and 14 were found alive, but suffering from severe hypothermia, on Monday after becoming lost in a blizzard for 27 hours near Nunam Iqua, Alaska, a remote community with a population of less than 200, according to the 2010 census.Alaska State Troopers have...

Researchers study elephants' unique interactions with their dead

Stories of unique and sentient interactions between elephants and their dead are a familiar part of the species' lore, but a comprehensive study of these interactions has been lacking—until now. A recent review of documented field observations of elephants at carcasses reveals patterns of elephants' behavior toward their dead, regardless of the strength of former relationships with the deceased...

Spacewatch: Nasa ends 16-year Spitzer infrared mission

Spitzer became first telescope to directly capture light from planets in orbit around other stars Nasa has ended science operations on its Spitzer infrared space telescope and placed the instrument into safe mode.The mission officially ended at 2230 GMT on 30 January 2020. Spitzer was one of Nasa’s four “great observatories”, alongside the Hubble space telescope, the Chandra X-ray...

How iron carbenes store energy from sunlight—and why they aren't better at it

Photosensitizers are molecules that absorb sunlight and pass that energy along to generate electricity or drive chemical reactions. They're generally based on rare, expensive metals; so the discovery that iron carbenes, with plain old iron at their cores, can do this, too, triggered a wave of research over the past few years. But while ever more efficient iron carbenes are being discovered,...

Beyond Goodfellas and The Godfather: the Cosa Nostra families' rise and fall

Italian American organized crime may conjure images of classic gangster flicks, but as James B. Jacobs explores in the Crime and Justice article "The Rise and Fall of Organized Crime in the United States," its history is unexpectedly nuanced and mutable. The Cosa Nostra families—popularly known as the Mafia—operated, at the height of their power, in at least twenty-four American cities, with...

Storm to usher in more chilly weather and even snow to Southern California, Desert Southwest

A storm forecast to affect the Northwest this weekend will split into two parts -- and one of the pieces will take aim at Southern California and the southwestern United States, dragging chilly air back into the region by early next week.The storm is expected to bring some rain and mountain snow, including at pass levels, to the region. Travel hazards will accompany the beneficial rain and snow...

Majority of US adults believe climate change is most important issue today

As the effects of climate change become more evident, more than half of U.S. adults (56%) say climate change is the most important issue facing society today, yet 4 in 10 have not made any changes in their behavior to reduce their contribution to climate change, according to a new poll by the American Psychological Association.

NASA satellite finds wind shear adversely affecting tropical storm Francisco

Forecasters use a variety of satellite imagery to understand what is happening in a storm, and sometimes just a visible picture can tell a lot. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided forecasters with a visible image of the Tropical Storm Francisco in the Southern Indian Ocean that showed wind shear was pushing clouds away from the storm's center.

NASA sees tropical storm Damien form off Australia's Pilbara coast

The low-pressure area that formed off Australia's Kimberley coast and lingered there for a couple of days has moved west and developed into Tropical Cyclone Damien off the Pilbara coastline. NASA's Terra satellite passed over the Southern Indian Ocean and provided forecasters with a visible image of the new tropical storm.  The Pilbara Coast is also known as the northwest coast of Western...

Artificial evolution of an industry

A research team from the University of Delaware and the Indian Institute of Management took a deeper look into the newly emerging domain of "forward-looking" business strategies and found that firms have far more ability to actively influence the future of their markets than once thought.

How iron carbenes store energy from sunlight -- and why they aren't better at it

Photosensitizers absorb sunlight and pass that energy along to generate electricity or drive chemical reactions. Scientists watched what happened when light hit an inexpensive photosensitizer, iron carbene, and discovered it can respond in two competing ways, only one only one of which allows electrons to flow into the devices or reactions where they're needed. It took this desired path about 60%...

Doctor who blew whistle over coronavirus has died, hospital says

Early reports of death of Li Wenliang were retracted, only for doctor to succumb to disease later in dayCoronavirus – latest updatesA whistleblowing Chinese doctor who tried to raise the alarm about the coronavirus outbreak has died, a Communist party-controlled newspaper has confirmed.Li Wenliang, 34, was declared dead at 2.58am local time on Friday morning after “emergency treatment” at a...

Engineered living-cell blood vessel provides new insights to progeria

Scientists have developed the most advanced disease model for blood vessels to date and used it to discover a unique role of the endothelium in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome. This devastating and extremely rare genetic disease causes symptoms resembling accelerated aging in children. The model is the first to grow both the smooth muscle and inner lining, or endothelium, layers of blood...

Toxic protein, linked to Alzheimer's and neurodegenerative diseases, exposed in new detail

The protein tau has long been implicated in Alzheimer's and a host of other debilitating brain diseases. But scientists have struggled to understand exactly how tau converts from its normal, functional form into a misfolded, harmful one. By analyzing brain tissue from patients, researchers have revealed that modifications to the tau protein may influence what type of disease that will develop --...

Molecular 'switch' reverses chronic inflammation and aging

Scientists have identified a molecular 'switch' that controls the immune machinery responsible for chronic inflammation in the body. The finding could lead to new ways to halt or even reverse many age-related conditions, from from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to diabetes and cancer.

Antioxidant reverses BPD-induced fertility damage in worms

From plastics to pesticides, it seems like every week delivers fresh news about the dangers of endocrine disruptors -- chemicals in the environment that alter the body's hormones and can lead to reproductive, developmental, neurologic and immune problems and cancer. Industry regulation and individual consumer choice can reduce exposure to such chemicals, but there are few options to counteract...

Water-conducting membrane allows carbon dioxide to transform into fuel more efficiently

Methanol is a versatile and efficient chemical used as fuel in the production of countless products. Carbon dioxide (CO2), on the other hand, is a greenhouse gas that is the unwanted byproduct of many industrial processes. Converting CO2 to methanol is one way to put CO2 to good use. Chemical engineers have now demonstrated how to make that conversion process from CO2 to methanol more efficient by...

Key molecular machine in cells pictured in detail for the first time

Scientists used biochemical experiments and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to determine the atomic structure of a complex assembly of molecules known as the histone mRNA three-prime (3') end-processing machine. This machine plays a fundamental role in proper activity and duplication of the cell genome and when defective, it may lead to human diseases, including cancers.

Why bumble bees are going extinct in time of 'climate chaos'

Researchers have created a new technique that shows which species will be at risk from climate change, where those risks are most severe, and even suggests things we can do to reduce those risks. The method to predict extinction risk works very well for bumble bees and could in theory be applied universally to other organisms.

AccuWeather's retail sales prediction rings true for the 2019 holiday season

Macy's Herald Square opens its doors at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day for thousands of Black Friday shoppers in search of amazing sales and doorbuster deals, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019 in New York. (Diane Bondareff/AP Images for Macy's) AccuWeather accurately forecast that the weather would be "less of a factor" impacting 2019 holiday retail sales than in most years and the...

Bumblebees' decline points to mass extinction – study

Populations disappearing in areas where temperatures are getting hotter, scientists sayBumblebees are in drastic decline across Europe and North America owing to hotter and more frequent extremes in temperatures, scientists say.A study suggests the likelihood of a bumblebee population surviving in any given place has declined by 30% in the course of a single human generation. The researchers say...

How farmers' opinions determine success of plant-disease control strategies

To successfully combat a crop-threatening disease, it may be more important to educate growers about the effectiveness of control strategies than to emphasize the risk posed by the disease, according to new research by Alice Milne of Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, U.K., and colleagues. These findings appear in PLOS Computational Biology.

Collaboration lets researchers 'read' proteins for new properties

Clumps of proteins inside cells are a common thread in many neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease. These clumps, or solid aggregates of proteins, appear to be the result of an abnormality in the process known as liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), in which individual proteins come together to form a liquid-like droplet.