6,373 articles from NOVEMBER 2020

The solar system follows the galactic standard—but it is a rare breed

Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, have investigated more than 1000 planetary systems orbiting stars in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and have discovered a series of connections between planetary orbits, number of planets, occurrence and the distance to their stars. It turns out that our own solar system in some ways is very rare, and in others very ordinary.

New study shows how methan breaks through icy barriers on the sea floor

Methane, the main component of natural gas, is the cleanest-burning of all the fossil fuels, but when emitted into the atmosphere it is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. By some estimates, seafloor methane contained in frozen formations along the continental margins may equal or exceed the total amount of coal, oil, and gas in all other reservoirs worldwide. Yet, the way...

Magnetic vortices come full circle

Magnets often harbor hidden beauty. Take a simple fridge magnet: Somewhat counterintuitively, it is 'sticky' on one side but not the other. The secret lies in the way the magnetisation is arranged in a well-defined pattern within the material. More intricate magnetization textures are at the heart of many modern technologies, such as hard disk drives. Now, an international team of scientists at...

Simulations open a new way to reverse cell aging

Research findings by a KAIST team provide insight into the complex mechanism of cellular senescence and present a potential therapeutic strategy for reducing age-related diseases associated with the accumulation of senescent cells.

Astronomical instrument hunts for ancient metal

Researchers created a new astronomical instrument that has successfully aided in estimating the abundance of metals in the early universe. The WINERED instrument allows for better observations of astronomical bodies like quasars in the early universe, billions of years ago. Researchers hope this deeper level of exploration could help answer questions about the origins not only of metals in the...

Researching on-chip erbium-doped lithium niobate microcavity lasers

As a complement to silicon-based photonic chips, lithium niobate thin film (LNOI) has become a research hotspot in the field of optoelectronic integration due to its outstanding nonlinear, electro-optic, acousto-optic, piezoelectric and other physical properties. On-chip integrated frequency multipliers, modulators, and filters based on lithium niobate thin films have been developed, but the...

While mainland America struggles with covid apps, tiny Guam has made them work

As covid-19 cases spiral out of control in the US, states are scrambling to fight the virus with an increasingly stretched arsenal. Many of them have the same weapons at their disposal: restrictions on public gatherings and enforcement of mask wearing, plus testing, tracing, and exposure notifications. But while many states struggle to get their systems to work together, Guam—a tiny US...

The wily octopus: King of flexibility

Octopuses have the most flexible appendages known in nature, according to a new study in Scientific Reports. In addition to being soft and strong, each of the animal's eight arms can bend, twist, elongate and shorten in many combinations to produce diverse movements. But to what extent can they do so, and is each arm equally capable? Researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) filmed 10...

Australian telescope maps new atlas of the universe in record speed

Scientists use powerful new instrument in outback WA to map three million galaxies in 300 hours, unlocking deepest secrets of the universe A powerful new telescope developed by Australian scientists has mapped three million galaxies in record speed, unlocking the universe’s deepest secrets.The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (Askap) broke records as it conducted its first survey of...

Researchers explore population size, density in rise of centralized power in antiquity

A group of researchers developed Power Theory, a model emphasizing the role of demography in political centralization, and applied it to the shift in power dynamics in prehistoric northern coastal societies in Peru. To test the theory, the team created a summed probability distribution (SPD) from 755 radiocarbon dates from 10,000-1,000 B.P. Researchers found a correlation between the tenets of...

Solar Superstorms of the Past Help NASA Scientists Understand Risks for Satellites

Portal origin URL: Solar Superstorms of the Past Help NASA Scientists Understand Risks for SatellitesPortal origin nid: 466575Published: Monday, November 30, 2020 - 15:49Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: NASA scientists investigated how extreme solar superstorms could endanger low-Earth orbit satellites.Portal image: A image colored in red shows a...

Experimental vaccine for deadly tickborne virus effective in cynomolgus macaques

An experimental vaccine developed in Europe to prevent infection by Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) has protected cynomolgus macaques in a new collaborative study from National Institutes of Health scientists. The animals received the DNA-based candidate vaccine through intramuscular injection immediately followed by electroporation—a process in development for human vaccines that...

Could private investment finance conservation?

Most of the money for protecting and conserving wildlife and habitat comes from government programs, philanthropic organizations, or the public. But conserving Earth's ecosystems and species requires hundreds of billions dollars more than what is currently spent. Fortunately, there might be another way. A new report called Innovative Finance for Conservation: Roles for Ecologists and...

Study shows strong links between music and math, reading achievement

A music educator thought that if he could just control his study for the myriad factors that might have influenced previous ones - race, income, education, etc. -- he could disprove the notion of a link between students' musical and mathematical achievement. Nope. His new study showed statistically significant associations between the two at both the individual and the school-district levels.

The 'smell' of coral as an indicator of reef health

A study conducted in the southern Great Barrier Reef reveals the chemical diversity of emissions from healthy corals. The researchers found that across the reef-building coral species studied on Heron Island, the abundance and chemical diversity of their gas emissions fell significantly during heat stress experiments. With the increasing frequency of heat stress events, understanding coral...

Recycled concrete could be a sustainable way to keep rubble out of landfill

Results of a new five-year study of recycled concrete show that it performs as well, and in several cases even better, than conventional concrete. Researchers conducted side-by-side comparisons of recycled and conventional concrete within two common applications -- a building foundation and a municipal sidewalk. They found that the recycled concrete had comparable strength and durability after...

The wily octopus: King of flexibility

Octopuses have the most flexible appendages known in nature, according to a new study. In addition to being soft and strong, each of the animal's eight arms can bend, twist, elongate and shorten in many combinations to produce diverse movements. Researchers filmed 10 octopuses over many months while presenting them with a variety of challenges, and recorded 16,563 examples of these arm movements.

Unexpected similarity between honey bee and human social life

Bees and humans are about as different organisms as one can imagine. Yet despite their many differences, surprising similarities in the ways that they interact socially have begun to be recognized in the last few years. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, building on their earlier studies, have experimentally measured the social networks of honey bees and how...

Deep-sea volcanoes: Windows into the subsurface

Hydrothermally-active submarine volcanoes account for much of Earth's volcanism and are mineral-rich biological hotspots, yet very little is known about the dynamics of microbial diversity in these systems. This week in PNAS, Reysenbach and colleagues, show that at one such volcano, Brothers submarine arc volcano, NE of New Zealand, the geological history and subsurface hydrothermal fluid paths...

China Is Poised to Bring Home Moon Samples in Its Most Ambitious Lunar Mission Yet

The moon’s Ocean of Storms was once a busy place. Back in 1967, the U.S. successfully landed its Surveyor 3 spacecraft in the vast plain in the northern lunar hemisphere; little more than two years later, the Apollo 12 crew returned, touching down within 200 meters (656 ft.) of the Surveyor and collecting more than 34 kg (75 lbs.) of lunar rock and soil to bring back to Earth. But things...

Developing an AI solution to 50-year-old protein challenge

In a major scientific advance, the latest version of DeepMind's AI system AlphaFold has been recognized as a solution to the 50-year-old grand challenge of protein structure prediction, often referred to as the 'protein folding problem', according to a rigorous independent assessment. This breakthrough could significantly accelerate biological research over the long term, unlocking new...

The 'smell' of coral as an indicator of reef health

You might not normally think about what corals smell like—or how the smell changes during heat stress. However, that is what researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the University of Sydney and Southern Cross University set out to investigate on the Great Barrier Reef.

Disappearance of Utah monolith won't prompt major probe

Police won't be opening a major investigation into the disappearance of a mysterious silver-colored monolith that generated international attention and a mess when curious visitors made their way to the site of the discovery in the Utah desert.

How 'smell training' could help overcome post-viral smell distortions

Smell loss is a prominent symptom of Covid-19 and the pandemic is leaving many people with long-term smell loss or smell distortions such as parosmia. Parosmia happens when people experience strange and often unpleasant smell distortions. Instead of smelling lemon you may smell petrol. New research shows that parosmia is associated with a recovery of smell performance among patients who undergo...

How SARS-CoV-2 reaches the brain

Researchers have studied the mechanisms by which the novel coronavirus can reach the brains of patients with COVID-19. The results show that SARS-CoV-2 enters the brain via nerve cells in the olfactory mucosa.

Wuhan mass screening identifies hundreds of asymptomatic cases

A mass screening program of 10 million Wuhan residents identified 300 asymptomatic cases in May, but none were infectious, according to a new study. Researchers found no 'viable' virus in the asymptomatic cases and the close contacts of these positive asymptomatic cases did not test positive. But these findings do not show that the virus can't be passed on by asymptomatic carriers. Rather,...

Unintended impact of conversation policies revealed

New research shows how conservation polices can avoid having unintended consequences for local ecosystems and people. The research shows that the PNMS policies which restrict industrial offshore fishing could drive up offshore fish prices and, in turn, increase tourists' consumption of reef fish.