225 articles from FRIDAY 16.10.2020

A controllable membrane to pull carbon dioxide out of exhaust streams

A new system developed by chemical engineers at MIT could provide a way of continuously removing carbon dioxide from a stream of waste gases, or even from the air. The key component is an electrochemically assisted membrane whose permeability to gas can be switched on and off at will, using no moving parts and relatively little energy.

Arctic Ocean sediments reveal permafrost thawing during past climate warming

Sea floor sediments of the Arctic Ocean can help scientists understand how permafrost responds to climate warming. A multidisciplinary team from Stockholm University has found evidence of past permafrost thawing during climate warming events at the end of the last ice age. Their findings, published in Science Advances, caution about what could happen in the near future: That Arctic warming by only...

In specially coated tubes, the more viscous a liquid is, the faster it flows

It's widely known that thick, viscous liquids—like honey—flow more slowly than low-viscosity liquids, like water. Researchers were surprised to find this behavior flipped on its head when the liquids flow through chemically coated capillaries. In fact, through these specially coated tubes, liquids a thousand times more viscous flow ten times faster.

Calcium bursts kill drug-resistant tumor cells

Multidrug resistance (MDR)—a process in which tumors become resistant to multiple medicines—is the main cause of failure of cancer chemotherapy. Tumor cells often acquire MDR by boosting their production of proteins that pump drugs out of the cell, rendering the chemotherapies ineffective. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Nano Letters have developed nanoparticles that release bursts of...

NASA supercomputing study breaks ground for tree mapping, carbon research

Scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and international collaborators demonstrated a new method for mapping the location and size of trees growing outside of forests, discovering billions of trees in arid and semi-arid regions and laying the groundwork for more accurate global measurement of carbon storage on land.

New species of the listeria genus discovered and baptised

It is estimated that only 1% of bacteria are pathogenic for humans or animals. Among them, the bacterial genus Listeria has been widely studied as it contains two species, Listeria monocytogenes and Listeria ivanovii, which are pathogenic, causing the disease known as listeriosis. Until now, the genus Listeria consisted of a total of 20 species. Researchers from the CEU Cardenal Herrera University...

Overzealous profanity filter bans paleontologists from talking about bones

A virtual conference was thrown into confusion when the platform hosting the event came with a pre-packaged ‘naughty word’ censor Participants in a virtual paleontology session found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place last week, when a profanity filter prevented them from using certain words – such as bone, pubic, stream and, er, beaver – during an online conference.The...

Calcium bursts kill drug-resistant tumor cells

Multidrug resistance (MDR) -- a process in which tumors become resistant to multiple medicines -- is the main cause of failure of cancer chemotherapy. Tumor cells often acquire MDR by boosting their production of proteins that pump drugs out of the cell, rendering the chemotherapies ineffective. Now, researchers have developed nanoparticles that release bursts of calcium inside tumor cells,...

Why scooping an asteroid sample is harder than it looks

When NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft descends toward the surface of Bennu on Oct. 20, it will be the first time that a U.S.-led mission attempts to pick up a sample of pristine material from an asteroid. Bennu is likely an extraterrestrial accumulation of the original leftovers from the formation of our solar system.

Natural nanodiamonds in oceanic rocks

Natural diamonds can form through low pressure and temperature geological processes on Earth, as stated in an article published in the journal Geochemical Perspectives Letters. The newfound mechanism, far from the classic view on the formation of diamonds under ultra-high pressure, is confirmed in the study, which draws on the participation of experts from the Mineral Resources Research Group of...

More than 200 million Americans could have toxic PFAS in their drinking water

A peer-reviewed study by scientists at the Environmental Working Group estimates that more than 200 million Americans could have the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS in their drinking water at a concentration of 1 part per trillion, or ppt, or higher. Independent scientific studies have recommended a safe level for PFAS in drinking water of 1 ppt, a standard that is endorsed by EWG.