To develop effective therapeutics against pathogens, scientists need to first uncover how they attack host cells. An efficient way to conduct these investigations on an extensive scale is through high-speed screening tests called assays.

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...

A study has solved the mystery of how and why columns of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, can stream out of solid sea-floor formations known as methane hydrates.

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.

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...

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...

Researchers report that low-income Black households experienced greater job loss, more food and medicine insecurity, and higher indebtedness in the early months of COVID-19 compared to white or Latinx low-income households.

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.

Scientists, lawyers, investors and economists explore how privately financed conservation projects can generate both financial returns and positive conservation outcomes.

A new survey of 1400 participants from 65 countries has found esports players are up to 21 per cent healthier weight than the general population, hardly smoke and also drink less.

Researchers have made reported some exciting findings relating to metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a class of porous materials, which could benefit a wide range of important gas separation processes.

Plastics in the ocean can release chemicals that cause deformities in sea urchin larvae, new research shows.

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...

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.

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,...

Researchers have discovered a molecular mechanism that plays a central role in intact long-term memory. This mechanism is also involved in physiological memory loss in old age.

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.

There is no weather in space - but there is weathering: Celestial bodies are bombarded by high energy particles. On the Mars moon Phobos, the situation is complicated: It is hit by particles from the sun, but it is partly shielded by Mars. New experiments explain what is going on, in 2024 a space mission will reach Phobos and check the results.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) have the potential to convert into a wide variety of cell types and tissues. However, the 'recipes' for this conversion are often complicated and difficult to implement. Researchers have now found a way to systematically extract hundreds of different cells quickly and easily from iPS using transcription factors.

Researchers have use natural language processing techniques to overcome one of the major difficulties associated with smart homes, namely that the systems developed to infer activities in one environment do not work when they are applied to a different one, because both the sensors and the activities are different. The group has come up with the innovative idea of using words to represent the...

A new study looking at seven centuries of water flow in south Asia's mighty Brahmaputra River suggests that scientists are underestimating the river's potential for catastrophic flooding as climate warms.

A study shows that pyroclasts may be putting the conservation of the paintings of Pompeii at risk. Specifically, the ions leached from these materials and the underground ion-rich waters from the volcanic rocks may be causing the salts in the paintings to crystallize. In addition, the use of fluorine as a marker is proposed to monitor in situ the extent of the damage sustained by the murals.

Adding exercise to a genetic treatment for myotonic dystrophy type 1 was more effective at reversing fatigue than administering the treatment alone in a study using a mouse model of the disease. In fact, exercise alone provided some benefit whereas the genetic treatment alone did not. This study has implications for patients with fatigue due to genetics-related musculoskeletal diseases and other...

A combination cancer therapy that is effective against treatment-resistant hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by inhibiting tumor growth and increasing survival has been identified. The dual therapy -- which combines the multikinase inhibitor drug regorafenib to 'reprogram' the tumor immune microenvironment, and programmed cell death 1 antibodies to stimulate anti-tumor immunity -- improved survival...