163 articles from FRIDAY 17.7.2020

When Scott Morrison muses about crossroads, he's really pondering his own prime ministership

With close to a million Australians unemployed, the government’s next run of decisions will need to be right, or at least right enoughScott Morrison has been musing out loud about crossroads. The brief foray into symbolism was prompted by the cluster of coronavirus infections at the Crossroads hotel in Casula in New South Wales. So far, state authorities seem to be on top of that outbreak....

A call to arms: Enlisting private land owners in conservation

In 1872 the United States created Yellowstone, the first National Park in the world. Since then many more parks, monuments, preserves, wildernesses and other protected areas have been created in the USA. Protected areas, like Yellowstone, are invaluable, but are they actually effective at preserving endangered species? And if not, how can future protected areas do better?

The Guardian view on the government’s coronavirus gamble: winter will come | Editorial

Boris Johnson suggested that England could see something like normality by Christmas. Don’t count on itCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageIn Aesop’s fable, the ant uses summer to prepare for the bleak months to come, while the grasshopper idles its time away, only to regret it as temperatures plummet. England must hope Boris Johnson remembers the tale, since as of...

Scientists achieve major breakthrough in preserving integrity of sound waves

In a breakthrough for physics and engineering, researchers from the Photonics Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center at The Graduate Center, CUNY (CUNY ASRC) and from Georgia Tech have presented the first demonstration of topological order based on time modulations. This advancement allows the researchers to propagate sound waves along the boundaries of topological metamaterials...

Study reveals intricate details about Huntington's disease protein

The research focuses on axonal transport -- the way in which vital materials travel along pathways called axons inside nerve cells, or neurons. Scientists found that HTT sometimes journeys along these roadways in cellular vehicles (called vesicles) that also carry freight including a protein called Rab4. The research also identified other materials that may be present in these shipments.

Pesticides speed the spread of deadly waterborne pathogens

Widespread use of pesticides can speed the transmission of the debilitating disease schistosomiasis, while also upsetting the ecological balances in aquatic environments that prevent infections, finds a new study. The infection, which can trigger lifelong liver and kidney damage, affects hundreds of millions of people every year and is second only to malaria among parasitic diseases, in terms of...

Scientists count all the tiny snails in the Arctic

Shell-bearing microgastropods are snails whose size is less than five millimeters. They represent one of the least studied groups of metazoan living organisms in the oceans. Ivan Nekhaev is a senior research associate at the Department of Applied Ecology at St Petersburg University, and Ekaterina Krol is a doctoral student. They have summarized and analyzed the currently known information on the...

Image: Hubble spies sparkling galaxy

As beautiful as the surrounding space may be, the sparkling galaxy in the foreground of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope undeniably steals the show.

Released Siamese crocodile found nesting in the wild

A Siamese crocodile that was released into the wild in 2018 has been recorded nesting in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains. The female crocodile was identified by her tail scute markings as one that had previously been cared for at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center and this finding provides evidence that released Siamese crocodiles are not only surviving in the wild, but are also able to nest.

Where is water distributed during a drought?

In low precipitation periods, where and how is the limited available water distributed, and what possibilities are there for improving retention in the soil and the landscape? Dörthe Tetzlaff and her team from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) have discovered that vegetation has a major influence on this. The researchers are investigating the storage,...

How well do you know your bumblebees?

A citizen science collaboration, of which the University of Aberdeen is part of, launched a new tool this week to help members of the public learn more about bumblebees.

New explosive materials to bring nontoxic ammunition

Every time a gun fires, lead leaches into the air. A scientific advancement could provide a comparable replacement for lead-based explosive materials found in ammunition, protecting soldiers and the environment from potential toxic effects.

Separating gamma-ray bursts

By applying a machine-learning algorithm, scientists at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, have developed a method to classify all gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), rapid highly energetic explosions in distant galaxies, without needing to find an afterglow—by which GRBs are presently categorized. This breakthrough, initiated by first-year B.Sc. students, may prove key in finally...

The Anthropocene signature on Mount Elbrus, Caucasus

Researchers of the Institute of Polar Sciences of the Italian National Research Council and of the Ca' Foscari University of Venice analyzed fragrances deriving from personal care products and consumer goods in an ice core from Mt. Elbrus, Caucasus. The concentration profile of such fragrances from the 1930s to 2005 follows the trend of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that originate from...

Researchers develop new materials for energy and sensing

A team of researchers from MIT and Northwestern University has demonstrated the ability to fine-tune the electronic properties of hybrid perovskite materials, which have drawn enormous interest as potential next-generation optoelectronic materials for devices such as solar cells and light sources.

Baleen whales have changed their distribution in the Western North Atlantic

Researchers have been using passive acoustic recordings of whale calls to track their movements. They have found that four of the six baleen whale species found in the western North Atlantic Ocean—humpback, sei, fin and blue whales—have changed their distribution patterns in the past decade. The recordings were made over 10 years by devices moored to the seafloor at nearly 300 locations from...

A concept in psychology is helping AI to better navigate our world

The concept: When we look at a chair, regardless of its shape and color, we know that we can sit on it. When a fish is in water, regardless of its location, it knows that it can swim. This is known as the theory of affordance, a term coined by psychologist James J. Gibson. It states that when intelligent beings look at the world they perceive not simply objects and their relationships but also...

Turmeric could have antiviral properties

Curcumin, a natural compound found in the spice turmeric, could help eliminate certain viruses, research has found. A study showed that curcumin can prevent Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) - an alpha-group coronavirus that infects pigs - from infecting cells. At higher doses, the compound was also found to kill virus particles.

Clear strategies needed to reduce bushmeat hunting

Extensive wildlife trade not only threatens species worldwide but can also lead to the transmission of zoonotic diseases. Research sheds new light on the motivations why people hunt, trade or consume different species. The research shows that more differentiated solutions are needed to prevent uncontrolled disease emergence and species decline.

A chemical tailor-made suit for Alzheimer's drugs

Over 50 million people worldwide are affected by Alzheimer's disease and it is one of the greatest medical and social challenges of our time. Due to pathological changes in the brain, patients become increasingly forgetful and disoriented as the disease progresses. Alzheimer's is still considered incurable today. Researchers now describe a promising approach to treating Alzheimer's disease.

Where is the water during a drought?

In low precipitation periods - where and how is the limited available water distributed and what possibilities are there for improving retention in the soil and the landscape? Researchers discovered that vegetation has a major influence on this. Using the example of the drought-sensitive Demnitzer Muehlenfliess in Brandenburg, they quantified visible and invisible water flows during and shortly...

Separating gamma-ray bursts: Students make critical breakthrough

By applying a machine-learning algorithm, scientists have developed a method to classify all gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), rapid highly energetic explosions in distant galaxies, without needing to find an afterglow - by which GRBs are presently categorized. This breakthrough, initiated by first-year B.Sc. students, may prove key in finally discovering the origins of these mysterious bursts.

Baleen whales have changed their distribution in the Western North Atlantic

Researchers using passive acoustic recordings of whale calls to track their movements have found that four of the six baleen whale species found in the western North Atlantic Ocean -- humpback, sei, fin and blue whales -- have changed their distribution patterns in the past decade. The recordings were made over 10 years by devices moored to the seafloor at nearly 300 locations from the Caribbean...

Vaccine research shouldn’t be secret | Letter

Martin Clavane on what reports about Russian hacking reveal about how the world responds to threats such as Covid-19Reports about Russian hacking into Covid-19 research are very revealing (Russian state-sponsored hackers target Covid-19 vaccine researchers, 16 July). They raise fundamental questions about how the world should collectively respond to such existential threats to humankind.Why is it...

Covid-19 data is a public good. The US government must start treating it like one.

Earlier this week as a pandemic raged across the United States, residents were cut off from the only publicly available source of aggregated data on the nation’s intensive care and hospital bed capacity. When the Trump administration stripped the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of control over coronavirus data, it also took that information away from the public. I run a...

Improved waste separation using super-stable magnetic fluid

Magnetically separating waste particles makes it possible to reclaim a variety of raw materials from waste. Using a magnetic fluid, a waste flow can be separated into multiple segments in a single step. Researchers from Utrecht and Nijmegen have now succeeded in creating a magnetic fluid that remains stable in extremely strong magnetic fields, which makes it possible to separate materials with a...