Biochar -- a charcoal-like substance made primarily from agricultural waste products -- holds promise for removing emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals from treated wastewater. That's the conclusion of a team of researchers that conducted a novel study that evaluated and compared the ability of biochar derived from two common leftover agricultural materials -- cotton gin waste and guayule...

First introduced into wide use in the middle of the 20th century, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has since become an indispensable technique for examining materials down to their atoms, revealing molecular structure and other details without interfering with the material itself.

Researchers investigated the binding properties of several hepatitis C drugs to determine how well they inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, a crucial protein enzyme that enables the novel coronavirus to reproduce. Inhibiting, or blocking, the protease from functioning is vital to stopping the virus from spreading in patients with COVID-19.

A researcher found that networks that consisted of both impulsive and deliberate individuals made, on average, quicker and better decisions than a group with homogenous thinkers.

Meadows in the Sierra Nevada mountains are critical components of watersheds. In addition to supplying water to over 25 million people in California and Nevada, meadows contain large quantities of carbon belowground. While it has been known for some time that meadows have large quantities of soil carbon, whether meadow soils are gaining or losing carbon has remained unclear.

The sinking carcasses of fish from near-surface waters deliver toxic mercury pollution to the most remote and inaccessible parts of the world's oceans, including the deepest spot of them all: the 36,000-foot-deep Mariana Trench in the northwest Pacific.

A drug that acts via the natural 'kisspeptin' hormone system in the body has the potential to treat reproductive health problems in women, according to a new study.

Psychologists are hoping a new Face Test will help unearth more of Australia's top performers in facial recognition, known as super-recognizers.

Deep within the brain, a small almond-shaped region called the amygdala plays a vital role in how we exhibit emotion, behavior and motivation; it's also strongly implicated in alcohol abuse. Now, for the first time, a team has identified important changes to anti-inflammatory mechanisms and cellular activity in the amygdala that drive alcohol addiction.

Dairy cows, exposed for a few years to drinking water contaminated with heavy metals, carry more pathogens loaded with antimicrobial-resistance genes able to tolerate and survive various antibiotics. That's the finding of a team of researchers that conducted a study of two dairy herds in Brazil four years after a dam holding mining waste ruptured, and it spotlights a threat to human health, the...

A new study reveals that 'show rates' for children with asthma -- how often parents brought their kids to an appointment rather than being a 'no show' -- increased with the use of telemedicine during four months of the pandemic.

Computer scientists have devised a new weapon against video game players who cheat. The researchers developed their approach for detecting cheaters using the popular first-person shooter game Counter-Strike. But the mechanism can work for any massively multiplayer online (MMO) game that sends data traffic to a central server.

Fiber optic sensors - used in critical applications like detecting fires in tunnels, pinpointing leaks in pipelines and predicting landslides - are about to get even faster and more accurate.

Millions of years ago, in the warm Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California, walrus species without tusks lived abundantly. But in a new study, paleontologists have identified three new walrus species discovered in Orange County and one of the new species has ''semi-tusks'' -- or longer teeth.

Scientists have reported a new optical imaging technology, using a glass side covered with gold nanodiscs that allows them to monitor changes in the transmission of light and determine the characteristics of nanoparticles as small as 25 nanometers in diameter.

Ecologists have been using recordings of animal noises to assess biodiversity in sub-tropical Japan. The team assessed how effective these acoustic surveys were for pinpointing Okinawa's wild and wonderful fauna in different sonic conditions --and discovered that the incessant choruses of the local cicadas disguise the true diversity of the region.

By studying the site of a spectacular stellar explosion seen in April 2020, scientists have used four European radio telescopes to confirm that astronomy's most exciting puzzle is about to be solved. Fast radio bursts, unpredictable millisecond-long radio signals seen at huge distances across the universe, are generated by extreme stars called magnetars - and are astonishingly diverse in...

As economies 'build back better,' it may be an opportune time to introduce carbon pricing to tackle climate change, according to new research.

Health care workers -- particularly nurses -- have a higher prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection than non-health care workers, according to a new study.

Short bursts of physical exercise induce changes in the body's levels of metabolites that correlate to, and may help gauge, an individual's cardiometabolic, cardiovascular and long-term health, a study has found. Approximately 12 minutes of acute cardiopulmonary exercise impacted more than 80% of circulating metabolites, including pathways linked to a range of favorable health outcomes, thus...

Even before the pandemic and the presidential election, Americans reported some of the highest perceived levels of stress in the world, according to the American Psychological Association. Not only does stress have negative effects on work and personal relationships, it also increases the risk of many chronic conditions, such as heart disease and Alzheimer's disease, and is associated with higher...

A remote monitoring tool can help authorities manage public safety and environmental issues in recently abandoned coal mines. The tool uses satellite radar imagery to capture millimeter-scale measurements of changes in terrain height. Such measurements can be used to monitor and forecast groundwater levels and changes in geological conditions deep below the earth's surface in former mining areas.

Researchers have succeeded in creating a new class of hybrid glass materials that combine organic and inorganic components. To do this, the scientists use special material combinations in which chemical bonds between organometallic and inorganic glasses can be generated. They included materials composed of organometallic networks. This is primarily because their framework structures can be created...

Recent cave exploration has turned up a tiny, top-heavy snail that glistens under the light of the microscope lens. Only 1.80 mm tall, this transparent snail bulges at the middle, giving a natural appearance to the ''muffin-top'' waistline. The article reveals new biodiversity from the seldom explored caves of central Laos.