- PhysOrg
- 20/5/25 21:00
Glass frogs are well known for their see-through skin but, until now, the reason for this curious feature has received no experimental attention.
Glass frogs are well known for their see-through skin but, until now, the reason for this curious feature has received no experimental attention.
When University of Ottawa biologists Kim Mitchell and Vance Trudeau began studying the effects of gene mutations in zebrafish, they uncovered new functions that regulate how males and females interact while mating. We sat down with senior author Professor Trudeau, Research Chair in Neuroendocrinology at the Faculty of Science, to learn more.
Space is getting crowded. Aging satellites and space debris crowd low-Earth orbit, and launching new satellites adds to the collision risk. The most effective way to solve the space junk problem, according to a new study, is not to capture debris or deorbit old satellites: it's an international agreement to charge operators "orbital-use fees" for every satellite put into orbit.
The formation of the Sun, the Solar System and the subsequent emergence of life on Earth may be a consequence of a collision between our galaxy, the Milky Way, and a smaller galaxy called Sagittarius, discovered in the 1990s to be orbiting our galactic home.
How do you feed a city? It is one of the great questions of our time. After all, for a species that ultimately depends on plants to feed ourselves, we do tend to cram ourselves into places that are rather unfriendly towards them. Our cities are built around cars, offices and perhaps the odd park—not fields of crops.
Astronomers have captured an image of a super-rare type of galaxy—described as a "cosmic ring of fire"—as it existed 11 billion years ago.
An international team of scientists have identified candidate resistance genes that could protect ash trees from the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), a deadly pest that is expected to kill billions of trees worldwide.
The world's deep oceans are warming at a slower rate than the surface, but it's still not good news for deep-sea creatures according to an international study.
Scientists have developed a new type of laser that can deliver high amounts of energy in very short bursts of time, with potential applications in eye and heart surgery or the engineering of delicate materials.
Stem cell researchers from the University of Copenhagen have designed a model of an early embryonic brain. The model will increase our understanding of how the human brain develops and can thereby accelerate the development of stem cell treatments for brain disorders such as Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and dementia.
Early detection of tumors is extremely important in treating cancer. A new technique developed by researchers at the University of California, Davis offers a significant advance in using magnetic resonance imaging to pick out even very small tumors from normal tissue. The work is published May 25 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Global warming is causing species to search for more temperate environments to which to migrate, but it is marine species that are leading the way by moving up to six times faster towards the poles than their terrestrial congeners, according to the latest results of a Franco-American study mainly involving scientists from the CNRS, Ifremer, the Université Toulouse III—Paul Sabatier and the...
When most people think of ceramics, they might envision their favorite mug or a flowerpot. But modern technology is full of advanced ceramics, from silicon solar panels to ceramic superconductors and biomedical implants.
Many Germans have difficulty gauging the negative impact of weather conditions such as ground frost, heat, or UV radiation. This is one of the key results of a representative survey conducted by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, published in Weather, Climate, and Society. The study's authors advocate new impact forecasts that predict not only what the weather will be,...
A team of researchers from Harvard Medical School, Nanjing Agricultural University and the University of Wisconsin has found that the protein RDE-3 in nematode worms adds pUG tails to targets of RNA interference and transposon RNAs. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describe their findings and the ways their work could impact the study of gene silencing through generations....
The H+ proton consists of a single ion of hydrogen, the smallest and lightest of all the chemical elements. These protons occur naturally in water where a tiny proportion of H2O molecules separate spontaneously. Their amount in a liquid determines whether the solution is acidic or basic. Protons are also extremely mobile, moving through water by jumping from one water molecule to another.
Skoltech and MIPT scientists have predicted and then experimentally confirmed the existence of exotic hexagonal thin films of NaCl on a diamond surface. These films may be useful as gate dielectrics for field effect transistors in electric vehicles and telecommunication equipment. The research, supported by the Russian Science Foundation, was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry...
Researchers have investigated the impact of heat stress in Australian dairy cows grazing summer pastures, revealing high temperature and humidity leads to a significant drop in milk production, but that this can be rectified through the provision of shade and more water troughs.
A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in China has developed a new process to produce well-aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays on a 10-centimeter silicon wafer. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their process and how well it compared to similar type silicon designs.
Bullet trains are back on the political agenda. As the major parties look for ways to stimulate the economy after the COVID-19 crisis, Labor is again spruiking its vision of linking Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane with high-speed trains similar to the Eurostar, France's TGV or Japan's Shinkansen.
Is it time to re-imagine our fundamental relationship with cities?
An international team of researchers from University College Dublin (UCD) and University of Saskatchewan, Canada, have observed 'proton-hopping' movement in a high-pressure form of ice (Ice VII lattices).
A key epigenetic mark can block the binding of an important gene regulatory protein, and therefore prohibit the gene from being turned off, a new UNSW study in CRISPR-modified mice—published this month in Nature Communications—has shown.
The National Science Foundation should invest in new initiatives, partnerships and infrastructure to answer 12 priority research questions relevant to society in the next decade, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. A Vision for NSF Earth Sciences 2020-2030: Earth in Time says that a scientifically and demographically diverse group of...
The lengthy process of breeding better peanut plants can be sped up by using a biophysics technique, Raman spectroscopy.