359 articles from THURSDAY 24.9.2020

Scientists discover a natural food pigment that can distinguish between living and dead cells in cell cultures

Conducting studies in vitro—a Latin term that literally means "in the glass"—is essential in the fields of medicine and biology. Working with in vitro cultures is a relatively cost-effective and easily repeatable way of gaining insight into the interactions between cells or microorganisms and specific chemical compounds, such as drugs, nutrients, and toxins. However, to properly assess the...

Tracking shape changes in Amazon fish after major river is dammed

A team of biologists led by Craig Albertson and Ph.D. student Chaise Gilbert at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report this week on their comparison between museum collections of cichlid fishes collected before a dam was closed in 1984 on the Tocantins River in the Amazon and contemporary specimens taken from the Tucuruí Reservoir by fishermen 34 years later.

How earthquake swarms arise

Earthquakes can be abrupt bursts of home-crumbling, ground-buckling energy when slices of the planet's crust long held in place by friction suddenly slip and lurch.

New nemertean species found in Panama represents the first of its genus from the Caribbean

As Natsumi Hookabe snorkeled around Panama's Bocas del Toro archipelago, during the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Training in Tropical Taxonomy program, she encountered an unusual ribbon worm or nemertean: large and dark colored, with numerous pale spots. It was her first field trip outside of Japan, so she wondered if it was a rare species or just one that she had never seen before.

Secondary variant of Photorhabdus luminescens interacts with plant roots

One of the basic approaches in organic farming is to use organisms beneficial to the system to combat pests. The bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens is one such beneficial organism. In the case of insect larvae infestation, the bacterium produces a variety of different toxins which quickly kill the larvae. Yet, it seems this is not the only ability of Photorhabdus that can be exploited for organic...

New app helps students self-monitor behavior, stay on task

Many students face challenges staying focused and on task in the classroom. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed many homes into classrooms, those struggles have become even more challenging for parents, students and teachers. University of Kansas researchers have developed a web-based, self-monitoring system that has proven to help students stay on task, reduce disruptive behavior,...

NASA estimating Beta's rains moving into the Tennessee valley

Using a NASA satellite rainfall product that incorporates data from satellites and observations, NASA estimated Post-tropical Cyclone Beta's rainfall rates as it moved over Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. Beta continues a steady northeast track into Mississippi, bringing heavy rainfall across Mississippi into the Tennessee Valley.

New system detects faint communications signals using the principles of quantum physics

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have devised and demonstrated a system that could dramatically increase the performance of communications networks while enabling record-low error rates in detecting even the faintest of signals, potentially decreasing the total amount of energy required for state-of-the-art networks by a factor of 10 to 100.

Finding the Achilles' heel of a killer parasite

Two studies led by UT Southwestern researchers shed light on the biology and potential vulnerabilities of schistosomes—parasitic flatworms that cause the little-known tropical disease schistosomiasis. The findings, published online today in Science, could change the course of this disease that kills up to 250,000 people a year.

Neandertals have adopted male sex chromosome from modern humans

In 1997, the very first Neandertal DNA sequence—just a small part of the mitochondrial genome—was determined from an individual discovered in the Neander Valley, Germany, in 1856. Since then, improvements in molecular techniques have enabled scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology to determine high quality sequences of the autosomal genomes of several Neandertals,...

Mystery of giant proton pump solved

Mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells, generating energy that supports life. A giant molecular proton pump, called complex I, is crucial: It sets in motion a chain of reactions, creating a proton gradient that powers the generation of ATP, the cell's fuel. Despite complex I's central role, the mechanism by which it transports protons across the membrane has so far been unknown. Now, Leonid...