245 articles from TUESDAY 23.6.2020

Airborne mapping sheds light on climate sensitivity of California redwoods

Throughout California, the effects of climate change are evident from increasing frequencies of intense wildfires and mudslides to widespread and prolonged droughts. These changes also threaten one of California's most iconic endemic species: coastal redwoods. Coastal redwoods are not only some of the tallest and oldest trees on Earth, but redwood forests are also capable of storing three times...

Introducing a new isotope: Mendelevium-244

A team of scientists working at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has discovered a new form of the human-made element mendelevium. The newly created isotope, mendelevium-244, is the 17th and lightest form of mendelevium, which is element 101 on the periodic table.

Simple device monitors health using sweat

A device that monitors health conditions in the body using a person's sweat has been developed by Penn State and Xiangtan University researchers, according to Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics, Penn State.

NASA analyzes the newest Atlantic Ocean subtropical depression

NASA's Aqua satellite used infrared light to analyze the strength of storms in the North Atlantic Ocean's newly formed Subtropical Depression 4. Infrared data provides temperature information to find the strongest thunderstorms that reach high into the atmosphere which have the coldest cloud top temperatures.

Welfare concerns highlighted over 'institutional hoarding' of cats

The compulsive hoarding of animals is a poorly understood psychiatric disorder in people. Characterised by failure to provide minimum standards of care, it can result in malnourishment, uncontrolled breeding, overcrowding and neglect. Typically there is denial of this failure and its impact on the animals and people involved. Even less well understood is the growing trend of 'institutional...

NASA satellite gives a hello to tropical storm Dolly

During the morning of June 23, the fourth system in the Northern Atlantic Ocean was a subtropical depression. By the afternoon, the subtropical depression took on tropical characteristics and was renamed Dolly. NASA's Terra satellite greeted Tropical Storm Dolly by taking an image of the new tropical storm.

Innovative smartphone-camera adaptation images melanoma and non-melanoma

An article published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics (JBO), "Point-of-care, multispectral, smartphone-based dermascopes for dermal lesion screening and erythema monitoring," shows that standard smartphone technology can be adapted to image skin lesions, providing a low-cost, accessible medical diagnostic tool for skin cancer.

Slow-growing rotavirus mutant reveals early steps of viral assembly

Rotavirus is responsible for more than 130,000 deaths in infants and young children younger than five years, every year. The virus causes severe, dehydrating diarrhea as it replicates in viral factories called viroplasms that form inside infected cells. Viroplasms have been difficult to study because they normally form very quickly, but a serendipitous observation led researchers at Baylor College...

Reopening of pubs, restaurants and hairdressers not risk free, say top advisers

Lockdown in England to be mostly lifted on 4 July but ‘rules must be rigorously kept to’Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageBoris Johnson hailed the beginning of the end of “our long national hibernation” as he set out a dramatic easing of lockdown rules amid warnings from government scientists that the move was “not risk-free”.From 4 July in England,...

Slow-growing rotavirus mutant reveals early steps of viral assembly

Rotavirus is responsible for more than 130,000 deaths in infants and young children younger than five years, every year. The virus causes severe, dehydrating diarrhea as it replicates in viral factories called viroplasms that form inside infected cells. Viroplasms have been difficult to study because they normally form very quickly, but a serendipitous observation led researchers to uncover new...

Tool to protect children's online privacy

A new study of 100 mobile apps for kids found that 72 violated a federal law aimed at protecting children's online privacy. Researchers developed a tool that can determine whether an Android game or other mobile app complies with the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Universal flu vaccine may be more challenging than expected

Some common strains of influenza have the potential to mutate to evade broad-acting antibodies that could be elicited by a universal flu vaccine, according to a new study. The findings highlight the challenges involved in designing such a vaccine, and should be useful in guiding its development.

Prenatal stress associated with infant gut microbes

Mother's chronic prenatal psychological distress and elevated hair cortisol concentrations are associated with gut microbiota composition of the infant, according to a new publication. The results help to better understand how prenatal stress can be connected to infant growth and development.

Deep drone acrobatics

A navigation algorithm enables drones to learn challenging acrobatic maneuvers. Autonomous quadcopters can be trained using simulations to increase their speed, agility and efficiency, which benefits conventional search and rescue operations.

Size matters in the sex life of salmon

For Atlantic salmon, size matters when it comes to love. Larger males and females that may spend up to four years at sea produce many more babies, but they are very rare compared to younger fish.

Scientists use protein, RNA to make hollow, spherical sacks called vesicles

Using protein and RNA, scientists have created hollow, spherical sacks known as vesicles. These bubble-like entities -- which form spontaneously when specific protein and RNA molecules are mixed in an aqueous buffer solution -- hold potential as biological storage compartments. They could serve as an alternative to traditional vesicles that are made from water-insoluble organic compounds called...

The Guardian view lifting lockdown: setting a dangerous pace | Editorial

Boris Johnson’s determination to kickstart economic recovery is a gamble, when test-and-trace systems are a work in progress and the coronavirus threat is still substantialCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic gripped Britain, Boris Johnson was able on Tuesday to offer a glimpse of the “Merrie England” kind of prime...

NASA lays out a plan to qualify suborbital spacecraft for its astronauts and scientists

NASA says it'll formulate a plan to assess the safety of suborbital spacecraft — such as Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket ship or Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane — so that astronauts, researchers and other space agency personnel can be cleared for takeoff. Today's announcement, and the release of an official request for information, follows through on hints about...

NASA's first planetary defense mission target gets a new name

Nearly two decades ago, a near-Earth asteroid was discovered to have a moon and the binary system was given the name "Didymos"—Greek for "twin," a loose description of the larger main body and the smaller orbiting moon, which became unofficially known as Didymos B.

Suomi NPP satellite captures 63 mile smoke trail from bush fire

NOAA/NASA's Suomi NPP satellite captured this image of the Bush Fire on June 22, 2020 showing clouds of smoke pouring off the Bush Fire that is plaguing Arizona. Overnight (to the 23rd) the fire grew to 186,848 acres, growing 2,200 acres overnight. On June 23 the fire was 61 percent contained.

3-D-printed neutrino detectors

Plastic scintillators are one of the most used active materials in high-energy physics. Their properties make it possible to track and distinguish between particle topologies. Among other things, scintillators are used in the detectors of neutrino oscillation experiments, where they reconstruct the final state of the neutrino interaction. Measurements of oscillation phenomena are carried out...

Biomechanical analyses and computer simulations reveal the Venus flytrap snapping mechanisms

The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) takes only 100 milliseconds to trap its prey. Once their leaves, which have been transformed into snap traps, have closed, insects can no longer escape. Using biomechanical experiments and virtual Venus flytraps a team from Freiburg Botanical Garden and the University of Stuttgart has analyzed in detail how the lobes of the trap move. Freiburg biologists Dr....