349 articles from THURSDAY 5.11.2020

Scientists work to shed light on Standard Model of particle physics

As scientists await the highly anticipated initial results of the Muon g-2 experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, collaborating scientists from DOE's Argonne National Laboratory continue to employ and maintain the unique system that maps the magnetic field in the experiment with unprecedented precision.

Hubble launches large ultraviolet-light survey of nearby stars

Stars are not created equal. They span a broad range of sizes, ages, and temperatures from diminutive red, cool, low-mass stars to opulent blue, hot, massive stars. Our Sun is roughly midway between these populations. Because stars are the universe's LEGO blocks for building immense galaxies, astronomers are always seeking a much better understanding of their birth and death. Stars' behavior over...

SARS-CoV-2 uses 'genome origami' to infect and replicate inside host cells

Scientists at the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with Justus-Liebig University, Germany, have uncovered how the genome of SARS-CoV-2—the coronavirus that causes COVID-19—uses genome origami to infect and replicate successfully inside host cells. This could inform the development of effective drugs that target specific parts of the virus genome, in the fight against COVID-19.

Looking for Another Earth? Here Are 300 Million, Maybe

A decade ago, a band of astronomers set out to investigate one of the oldest questions taunting philosophers, scientists, priests, astronomers, mystics and the rest of the human race: How many more Earths are out there, if any? How many far-flung planets exist that could harbor life as we know it?Their tool was the Kepler spacecraft, which was launched in March 2009 on a 3-1/2-year mission to...

Applying particle physics methods to quantum computing

Borrowing a page from high-energy physics and astronomy textbooks, a team of physicists and computer scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has successfully adapted and applied a common error-reduction technique to the field of quantum computing.

Eco-engineered tiles enhance marine biodiversity on seawalls in Hong Kong and beyond

A joint-study led by a team of marine ecologists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has found that the eco-engineered tiles can increase habitat complexity on seawalls in Hong Kong, thereby effectively enhancing the marine biodiversity. The Hong Kong study is part of a global research project on the relationship between habitat complexity and marine biodiversity on human-built marine...

Chengjian fauna: Evolution of animals and birth of basic human organs

Much of what we know regarding how life—as we know it—came into existence is through the recovery of fossils from various sites in the word. The Chengjiang lagerstatte in Yunnan Province, China, is one such unique site containing very well-preserved fossils (also called the "Chengjiang fauna"), which include soft-bodied animals that normally do not get fossilized. Most of these fossils are 520...

Study: Fix to food climate problem doesn't require veganism

The world likely can’t keep global warming to a relatively safe minimum unless we change how we grow, eat and throw away our food, but we don’t need to all go vegan, a new study says. Researchers looked at five types of broad fixes to the food system and calculated how much they fight warming. If the world food system keeps on current trajectories, it will produce near 1.5 trillion tons of...

Fossilised amphibian hints at earliest evidence of 'slingshot' tongue

Albanerpetontids, originating possibly 250m years ago, snatched prey with ballistic tongue, say scientistsScientists have uncovered the oldest evidence of a “slingshot” tongue, in fossils of 99m-year-old amphibians.The prehistoric armoured creatures, known as albanerpetontids, were sit-and-wait predators who snatched prey with a projectile firing of their “ballistic tongues”. Continue...

Past is key to predicting future climate, scientists say

In a review paper published in the journal Science, a group of climate experts make the case for including paleoclimate data in the development of climate models. Such models are used globally to assess the impacts of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, predict scenarios for future climate and propose strategies for mitigation.

Global-scale animal ecology reveals behavioral changes in response to climate change

Using a new large-scale data archive of animal movement studies, an international team including University of Maryland biologists found that animals are responding in unexpected ways to climate change. The archive contains data from studies across the global Arctic and sub-Arctic, an enormous region that is experiencing some of the most dramatic effects of global warming, including animal...

After election: making the endangered species act more effective

Following the presidential election, a leading group of scientists are making the case that a 'rule reversal' will not be sufficient to allow the Endangered Species Act to do its job. Instead, they're calling for deeper improvements to the rules federal wildlife agencies use to apply the law—aiming to make the Act more effective and to gain bipartisan and industry support in an era of...

Will Operation Moonshot pass its first test fighting Covid in Liverpool?

With low take-up likely and accuracy an issue, mass testing is not going to be the easy fix everyone is hoping forRapid Covid test missed over 50% of cases in pilotSee all our coronavirus coverageOperation Moonshot, the government’s ambitious plan to deploy exciting new technologies to test the entire population for coronavirus infection, launches in Liverpool on Friday. Yet, even as the army...