252 articles from TUESDAY 2.6.2020

Stretchable variable color sheet that changes color with expansion and contraction

Toyohashi University of Technology research team have succeeded in developing a variable color sheet with a film thickness of 400 nanometers that changes color when stretched and shrunk. The developed stretchable color sheets are expected to be applied to adhesive-type display elements, as they can adhere to skin or be transferred to various electronic devices at room temperature utilizing the...

Study casts doubt on usefulness of Ofsted ratings

A study, led by the University of York, suggests that Ofsted ratings of secondary school quality account for less than one percent of the differences in students' educational achievement at age 16. For example, if one student attending a school rated "good" achieves an A at GCSE and another student from a school that "requires improvement" gets a B - the study reveals that only one tenth of the...

Study finds COVID-19 convalescent plasma therapy safe, with 76% patients improving

The first convalescent plasma transfusion trial results from Houston Methodist have been released. Of the study's 25 patients, 19 have improved and 11 have been discharged. With no adverse side effects caused by the therapy, the study concluded convalescent plasma is a safe treatment option for patients with severe COVID-19. This is the largest cohort assessed for outcomes related to convalescent...

Study reveals continuous pathway to building blocks of life

A new study conducted by scientists at the Institute for Advanced Study, the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), and the University of New South Wales, among other participating institutions, marks an important step forward in the effort to understand the chemical origins of life. The findings of this study demonstrate how 'continuous reaction networks' are capable of producing RNA precursors and...

Swing voters, swing stocks, swing users

A new technique could help identify prime candidates for changing election outcomes, or lead to a better understanding of how institutional and environmental factors shape the emergence of social structure.

Tulane scientists find a switch to flip and turn off breast cancer growth and metastasis

Researchers at Tulane University School of Medicine identified a gene that causes an aggressive form of breast cancer to rapidly grow. More importantly, they have also discovered a way to "turn it off" and inhibit cancer from occurring. The animal study results have been so compelling that the team is now working on FDA approval to begin clinical trials and has published details in the journal...

Tuning the interfacial properties of 2D heterophases though tilt-angles

For devices based on atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) materials, the properties of the interface play important roles in determining their performances. Chinese scientists correlated the electronic states of the 2D 1T'/2H-MoTe2 (metallic/semiconducting) interface with its atomic structures and found that its contact characteristics are tilt angle-dependent, providing useful guidelines to tune...

Two lefties make a right -- if you are a one-in-a-million garden snail

A global campaign to help find a mate for a left-coiling snail called 'Jeremy' has enabled scientists to understand how mirror-image garden snails are formed.The findings, published today in the journal Biology Letters, show that the rare left-spiralling shell of some garden snails is usually a development accident, rather than an inherited condition.

Researchers develop method to probe phase transitions in 2-D materials

Phase transitions play an important role in materials. However, in two-dimensional materials, the most famous of which is graphene, phase transitions can be very difficult to study. Researchers from Delft University of Technology and the University of Valencia have developed a new method that helps to solve this problem. They suspended ultrathin layers of 2-D-materials over a cavity and tracked...

Ten years of ecosystem services matrix: Review of a (r)evolution

One of the methods to assess Ecosystem Services (ES) - the benefits people obtain from ecosystems: the ES Matrix approach, has been increasingly used in the last decade. A review of its application confirms its flexibility, appropriateness and utility for decision-making, as well as its ability to increase awareness. Nevertheless, it is often used in a 'quick and dirty' way that calls for more...

Researchers map SARS-CoV-2 infection in cells of nasal cavity, bronchia, lungs

Researchers have characterized the specific ways in which SARS-CoV-2 infects the nasal cavity to a great degree -- replicating specific cell types -- and infects and replicates progressively less well in cells lower down the respiratory tract. The findings suggest the virus tends to become firmly established first in the nasal cavity, but in some cases the virus is aspirated into the lungs, where...