231 articles from MONDAY 8.6.2020

Titan is migrating away from Saturn 100 times faster than previously predicted

By Earthly standards, Saturn's moon Titan is a strange place. Larger than the planet Mercury, Titan is swaddled in a thick atmosphere (it is the only moon in the solar system to have one) and covered in rivers and seas of liquid hydrocarbons like methane and ethane. Beneath these is a thick crust of water ice, and beneath that may be a liquid water ocean that could potentially harbor life.

Milkweed, only food source for monarch caterpillars, ubiquitously contaminated

New evidence identifies 64 pesticide residues in milkweed, the main food for monarch butterflies in the west. Milkweed samples from all of the locations studied in California's Central Valley were contaminated with pesticides, sometimes at levels harmful to monarchs and other insects. 32% of the samples contained pesticide levels known to be lethal to monarchs, according to a new study.

Radiocarbon dating pins date for construction of Uyghur complex to the year 777

Dating archaeological objects precisely is difficult, even when using techniques such as radiocarbon dating. Using a recently developed method, based on the presence of sudden spikes in carbon-14 concentration, scientists have pinned the date for the construction of an eighth-century complex in southern Siberia to a specific year. This allows archaeologists to finally understand the purpose for...

Research team builds better rock models

Once you crush, cut or fracture a rock, there are no do-overs. It's a fact that means geoscientists have to be particularly careful about which rock samples they can sacrifice to physics experiments versus which ones should stay on the shelf. A team of geoscience researchers is working to change that with a new method for creating digital replicas of rock samples that is more accurate and simpler...

Physicists study mirror nuclei for precision theory test

It's not often in nuclear physics that you can clearly get both sides of the story, but a recent experiment allowed researchers to do just that. They compared very similar nuclei to each other to get a clearer view of how the components of nuclei are arranged and found that there's still more to learn about the heart of matter. The research, carried out at the Department of Energy's Thomas...

Researchers build better rock models

Once you crush, cut or fracture a rock, there are no do-overs. It's a fact that means geoscientists have to be particularly careful about which rock samples they can sacrifice to physics experiments versus which ones should stay on the shelf.

Gently caressing atoms

Oxygen is highly reactive. It accumulates on many surfaces and determines their chemical behavior. At the Vienna University of Technology, scientists study the interaction between oxygen and metal oxide surfaces, which play an important role in many technical applications, from chemical sensors and catalysts to electronics.

Scientists engineer one protein to fight cancer and regenerate neurons

Our lungs, bones, blood vessels and other major organs are made up of cells, and one way our bodies keep us healthy is by using protein messengers known as ligands that bind to receptors on the surfaces of cells to regulate our biological processes. When those messages get garbled, it can make us ill with a host of different diseases.

Using multiomics in an agricultural field, scientists discover that organic nitrogen plays a key rol

Researchers from a collaboration led by the RIKEN BioResource Science Center in Japan have analyzed agricultural systems using a multiomics approach, and successfully digitalized the complex interactions between plants, microbes and soil in an agricultural field. Using the new approach, they made the surprising finding that organic nitrogen plays a key role in promoting plant growth. The study,...

New technique pinpoints locations of individual molecules in their cellular neighborhoods

Scientists have married two of today's most powerful microscopy techniques to make images that pinpoint, for the first time, the identities and precise locations of individual proteins within the detailed context of bacterial cells. This information is crucial for learning how protein molecules work together to organize cell division and carry out other important tasks, such as enabling microbes...

UK ministers face legal challenge for refusal to order PPE inquiry

Doctors and campaigners seek judicial review of government’s efforts to provide PPE for NHSCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageMinisters are facing a high court legal challenge after they refused to order an urgent investigation into the shortages of personal protective equipment faced by NHS staff during the coronavirus pandemic.Doctors, lawyers and campaigners for...

Researchers shed light on new enzymatic reaction

Researchers have discovered that repurposed enzymes and light are key to producing chemical compounds in an environmentally friendly fashion. By blending bio- and photocatalysis and experimenting with reactionary 'ingredients,' the research team developed a visible-light-induced reaction using the enzyme family ene-reductase (ER). The substrates used in this study, alkenes, can be derived in...

Protection of seagrasses is key to building resilience to climate change and disasters

Seagrass meadows can be a powerful nature-based climate solution and help sustain communities hard-hit by stressors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, but these important ecosystems continue to decline. The importance of seagrasses is highlighted in a new report, "Out of the Blue: The Value of Seagrasses to the Environment and to People," released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)...

Crystalline 'nanobrush' clears way to advanced energy and information tech

A team led by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory synthesized a tiny structure with high surface area and discovered how its unique architecture drives ions across interfaces to transport energy or information. Their "nanobrush" contains bristles made of alternating crystal sheets with vertically aligned interfaces and plentiful pores.

Facebook needs 30,000 of its own content moderators, says a new report

Imagine if Facebook stopped moderating its site right now. Anyone could post anything they wanted. Experience seems to suggest that it would quite quickly become a hellish environment overrun with spam, bullying, crime, terrorist beheadings, neo-Nazi texts, and images of child sexual abuse. In that scenario, vast swaths of its user base would probably leave, followed by the lucrative advertisers....

Temperate insects as vulnerable to climate change as tropical species

In previous research, it has been assumed that insects in temperate regions would cope well with or even benefit from a warmer climate. Not so, according to researchers from the Universities of Uppsala and Lund in Sweden and Oviedo, Spain, in a new study. The earlier models failed to take into account the fact that insects in temperate habitats are inactive for much of the year.

Chemists are able to induce uniform chirality

Chirality is a fundamental property of many organic molecules and means that chemical compounds can appear in not only one form, but in two mirror-image forms as well. Chemists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg have now found a way to spontaneously induce chirality in crystalline, liquid-crystalline and liquid substances, without requiring any external influence. The findings could be...

Novel eco-friendly electrochemical reaction can synthesize useful semiconductor materials

Organic solar cells have a variety of applications in the field of electronics, especially in the development of novel electronic devices like wearable devices. Often, these batteries are composed of organic semiconductor molecules, which are light and robust. Thus, finding novel strategies for the development of these semiconductor molecules has been the goal of many scientists globally. But...