244 articles from MONDAY 3.8.2020

Climate change-fueled heatwaves could kill millions

Blistering heatwaves are breaking temperature records around the globe this year, from Iraq to the American Southwest. And it’s only going to get worse, as climate change accelerates. By the end of this century, extreme heat spells could kill roughly as many people as all infectious diseases combined, including HIV, malaria and yellow fever, according to a new study. The findings:...

An averted glance gives a glimpse of the mind behind the eyes

Shakespeare once wrote that the 'eyes are the window to your soul.' But scientists have found it challenging to peer into the brain to see how it derives meaning from a look into another's eyes. Psychologists have now found a new way to study this mystery by examining the universal and embarrassing tendency to avert one's gaze when caught looking at someone else.

Monkeying around: Study finds older primates father far fewer babies

Older male rhesus monkeys sire fewer offspring, even though they appear to be mating as much as younger monkeys with similarly high social status. Sperm quality or quantity, or the survival of infants, may decline with the age of the would-be father, the new study suggests. A new study has implications for understanding some age-related aspects of male reproductive health in primates, including...

Hydrogel paves way for biomedical breakthrough

Published in Advanced Functional Materials, a University of Sydney team of biomedical engineers has developed a plasma technology to robustly attach hydrogels—a jelly-like substance which is structurally similar to soft tissue in the human body—to polymeric materials, allowing manufactured devices to better interact with surrounding tissue.

New research sheds light on bargaining and the 'daily deal market'

If you've ever taken advantage of a nice discount thanks to a promotion from Groupon or LivingSocial, you've tapped the power of the daily deal market yourself. You, the consumer, benefited from the prior bargaining that took place between that big online platform and the merchant, resulting in a lower price for you.

NASA satellites show two views of California's Apple Fire

NASA's satellites were working overtime as they snapped pictures of the large Apple Fire in Banning Canyon near San Bernardino, California on Aug. 02, 2020. This fire began on July 31, 2020 and the cause of the fire is still under investigation. To date the fire has consumed 20,516 acres and is 5% contained.

Researchers discover how chlamydiae multiply in human cells

Chlamydia are bacteria that cause venereal diseases. In humans, they can only survive if they enter the cells. This is the only place where they find the necessary metabolites for their reproduction. And this happens in a relatively simple way: The bacteria create a small bubble in the cell and divide in it over several generations.

AI and single-cell genomics: New software predicts cell fate

Traditional single-cell sequencing methods help to reveal insights about cellular differences and functions—but they do this with static snapshots only rather than time-lapse films. This limitation makes it difficult to draw conclusions about the dynamics of cell development and gene activity. The recently introduced method 'RNA velocity' aims to reconstruct the developmental trajectory of a...

Children who suffer violence or trauma age faster, study finds

Researchers discover links with earlier puberty and signs of more rapid cellular ageingChildren who experience violence or trauma seem to age faster, going through puberty earlier and showing greater signs of ageing in their cells, researchers have found.They say the findings add to a growing body of work that suggests early adversity can become “biologically embedded” with the potential for...

'Worst-case' CO2 emissions scenario is best for assessing climate risk and impacts to 2050

The RCP 8.5 CO2 emissions pathway, long considered a "worst case scenario" by the international science community, is the most appropriate for conducting assessments of climate change impacts by 2050, according to a new article published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The work was authored by Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) Risk Program Director Dr. Christopher...

Your hair knows what you eat and how much your haircut costs

Millimeter by millimeter, your hair is building a record of your diet. As hair strands are built from amino acids that come from your food, they preserve the chemical traces of the protein in that food. It's a strong enough record to show whether you prefer veggie burgers or double bacon cheeseburgers.

Social bonds in adulthood don't mediate early life trauma

When baboons experience trauma in early life, they have higher levels of stress hormones in adulthood—a potential marker of poor health—than their peers who don't experience trauma, even if they have strong social relationships as adults, according to a study led by a University of Michigan researcher.

Anatomy of an acne treatment

Sarecycline, a drug approved for use in the United States in 2018, is the first new antibiotic approved to treat acne in more than 40 years. Now, researchers at Yale and the University of Illinois-Chicago have discovered how its unique chemical structure makes it effective.

Analyzing pros and cons of two composite manufacturing methods

Airplane wings and wind turbine blades are typically created using bulk polymerization in composite manufacturing facilities. They are heated and cured in enormous autoclaves and heated molds as big as the finished part. Frontal polymerization is a new out-of-autoclave method that doesn't require a large facility investment. Researchers have conducted a study pitting one process against the other...

ALMA captures stirred-up planet factory

Planet-forming environments can be much more complex and chaotic than previously expected. This is evidenced by a new image of the star RU Lup, made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

AI and single-cell genomics

The study of cellular dynamics is crucial to understand how cells develop and how diseases progress. Scientist have now created 'scVelo' - a machine learning method and open source software to estimate the dynamics of gene activity in single cells. This allows biologists to robustly predict the future state of individual cells.

Chlamydia: Greedy for glutamine

If chlamydiae want to multiply in a human cell, the first thing they need is a lot of glutamine. Researchers have clarified how the pathogenic bacteria obtain this substance.

For solar boom, scrap silicon for this promising mineral

Engineers have found that photovoltaic wafers in solar panels with all-perovskite structures outperform photovoltaic cells made from state-of-the-art crystalline silicon, as well as perovskite-silicon tandem cells, which are stacked pancake-style cells that absorb light better.

Black hole fails to do its job

Astronomers have discovered what can happen when a giant black hole does not intervene in the life of a galaxy cluster. Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes they have shown that passive black hole behavior may explain a remarkable torrent of star formation occurring in a distant cluster of galaxies.

Victoria's contact-tracing effort buckles under the weight of Covid-19 cases

ANU’s Peter Collignon says what’s important now is making sure people who test positive stay at homeStage 4 lockdown rules explainedDownload the free Guardian app to get the most important news notificationsCoronavirus Australia maps and cases: live numbers and statisticsVictoria’s rise in Covid-19 case numbers is occurring so rapidly that contact tracing can no longer be relied upon to...

Will a vaccine or recovery from the virus give us long-term immunity to Covid-19?

New evidence on how our bodies combat the virus has huge implications for the development of a coronavirus vaccineHow to listen to podcasts: everything you need to knowThis episode first aired on Today in Focus, the Guardian’s global daily news podcast.It’s a familiar refrain of the past six months: “When will we get back to normal?” The premise is that once a vaccine arrives or enough...

Eli Lilly is testing a way to prevent covid-19 that’s not a vaccine

Nurses and patients in some US assisted living facilities will receive an antibody drug to prevent covid-19 infection, according to drug company Eli Lilly. The drug: Early in the coronavirus pandemic, companies searched the blood of covid-19 survivors for potent antibodies against the novel virus. Eli Lilly’s drug is one of these Y shaped proteins—it’s a natural antibody manufactured at...

ALMA captures stirred-up planet factory

Planet-forming environments can be much more complex and chaotic than previously expected. This is evidenced by a new image of the star RU Lup, made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).