309 articles from WEDNESDAY 13.1.2021
Limits of atomic nuclei predicted: Scientists simulate large region of the chart of nuclides
Novel calculations have enabled the study of nearly 700 isotopes between helium and iron, showing which nuclei can exist and which cannot. In an article published in Physical Review Letters, scientists from TU Darmstadt, the University of Washington, the Canadian laboratory TRIUMF, and the University of Mainz report how they simulated for the first time using innovative theoretical methods a large...
Compound from medicinal herb kills brain-eating amoebae in lab studies
Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a deadly disease caused by the "brain-eating amoeba" Naegleria fowleri, is becoming more common in some areas of the world, and it has no effective treatment. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Chemical Neuroscience have found that a compound isolated from the leaves of a traditional medicinal plant, Inula viscosa or "false yellowhead," kills the amoebae...
Astronomers find signature of magnetar outbursts in nearby galaxies
Apart from black holes, magnetars may be the most extreme stars in the universe. With a diameter less than the length of Manhattan, they pack more mass than that of our sun, wield the largest magnetic field of any known object—more than 10 trillion times stronger than a refrigerator magnet—and spin on their axes every few seconds.
Study looks at how land acquisitions affect climate change
In 2007, an increase in world food prices led to a global rush for land in the form of land grabs or large-scale land acquisitions. Over the last two decades, such acquisitions have resulted in millions of hectares of land changing hands in developing nations. Although such changeover can increase the cultivation of crops needed to feed the world's growing population and spark new agricultural...
Superheroes, foods and apps bring a modern twist to the periodic table
Many students, especially non-science majors, dread chemistry. The first lesson in an introductory chemistry course typically deals with how to interpret the periodic table of elements, but its complexity can be overwhelming to students with little or no previous exposure. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Journal of Chemical Education introduce an innovative way to make learning about the...
Saver or spender? People are not as financially responsible as they may think, study shows
Financial responsibility means managing money in a relatively sensible way by minimizing superfluous or unnecessary spending. But according to new research from the University of Notre Dame, people think they are more financially responsible than they actually are.
Mathematics explains how giant whirlpools form in developing egg cells
Egg cells are among the largest cells in the animal kingdom. If moved only by the random jostlings of water molecules, a protein could take hours or even days to drift from one side of a forming egg cell to the other. Luckily, nature has developed a faster way: cell-spanning whirlpools in the immature egg cells of animals such as mice, zebrafish and fruit flies. These vortices enable cross-cell...
Rare star's giant gamma-ray burst GRB 200415A captured close to our home galaxy
Earth gets blasted by mild short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) most days. But sometimes, a giant flare like GRB 200415A arrives at our galaxy, sweeping along energy that dwarfs our sun. In fact, the most powerful explosions in the universe are gamma-ray bursts.
Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover to Capture Sounds From the Red Planet
Portal origin URL: Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover to Capture Sounds From the Red PlanetPortal origin nid: 467565Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2021 - 12:22Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: Audio gathered by the mission may not sound quite the same on Mars as it would to our ears on Earth. A new interactive online experience lets you sample the...
Rethinking urban planning for sub-Saharan African cities
For his thesis project at EPFL, Armel Kemajou studied the peri-urban areas of Lomé, Togo, and Yaoundé, Cameroon, where populations are expected to double in 20 years. He observed construction strategies that reflected coherent individual and collective approaches to planning, although they lay outside existing legal frameworks. Kemajou gives proposals for incorporating such an approach to...
Bacteria carried by mosquitoes may protect them against pesticides
A common bacterial species naturally infecting mosquitoes may actually be protecting them against specific mosquito pesticides, a study has found.
Anisotropy of surface oxide formation influences the transient activity of a surface reaction
Metal surfaces play a role as catalysts for many important applications—from fuel cells to the purification of car exhaust gases. However, their behavior is decisively affected by oxygen atoms incorporated into the surface.
Spilling the beans on coffee's true identity
People worldwide want their coffee to be both satisfying and reasonably priced. To meet these standards, roasters typically use a blend of two types of beans, arabica and robusta. But, some use more of the cheaper robusta than they acknowledge, as the bean composition is difficult to determine after roasting. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry have...
NASA Missions Unmask Magnetar Eruptions in Nearby Galaxies
Portal origin URL: NASA Missions Unmask Magnetar Eruptions in Nearby GalaxiesPortal origin nid: 467546Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2021 - 12:15Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: On April 15, 2020, a brief burst of high-energy light swept through the solar system, triggering instruments on many NASA spacecraft. Scientists think the blast came from a...
Error-protected quantum bits entangled for the first time
For the first time, physicists from the University of Innsbruck have entangled two quantum bits distributed over several quantum objects and successfully transmitted their quantum properties. This marks an important milestone in the development of fault-tolerant quantum computers. The researchers published their report in Nature.
Evolution: Speciation in the presence of gene flow
- ScienceDaily
- 21/1/13 18:07
Spatial isolation is known to promote speciation -- but researchers have now shown that, at least in yeast, the opposite is also true. New ecological variants can also evolve within thoroughly mixed populations.
How to keep drones flying when a motor fails
- ScienceDaily
- 21/1/13 18:07
Robotics researchers show how onboard cameras can be used to keep damaged quadcopters in the air and flying stably -- even without GPS.
Scientists study salmonella swimming behavior as clues to infection
- ScienceDaily
- 21/1/13 18:07
Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium bacteria (S. Typhimurium) commonly cause human gastroenteritis, inflammation of the lining of the intestines. The bacteria live inside the gut and can infect the epithelial cells that line its surface. Many studies have shown that Salmonella use a 'run-and-tumble' method of short swimming periods (runs) punctuated by tumbles when they randomly change...
Flashing plastic ash completes recycling
- ScienceDaily
- 21/1/13 18:07
A new flash graphene process, adapted to convert worthless pyrolyzed plastic ash, could be used to strengthen concrete and toughen plastics used in medicine, energy and packaging applications.
Wetland methane cycling increased during ancient global warming event
- ScienceDaily
- 21/1/13 18:07
Wetland methane cycling increased during a rapid global warming event 56 million years ago and could foreshadow changes the methane cycle will experience in the future, according to new research.
The cancer microbiome reveals which bacteria live in tumors
- ScienceDaily
- 21/1/13 18:07
Biomedical engineers have devised an algorithm to remove contaminated microbial genetic information from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). With a clearer picture of the microbiota living in various organs in both healthy and cancerous states, researchers will now be able to find new biomarkers of disease and better understand how numerous cancers affect the human body.
Northern lakes at risk of losing ice cover permanently, impacting drinking water
- ScienceDaily
- 21/1/13 18:07
Close to 5,700 lakes in the Northern Hemisphere may permanently lose ice cover this century, 179 of them in the next decade, at current greenhouse gas emissions, despite a possible polar vortex this year, researchers have found. Those lakes include large bays in some of the deepest of the Great Lakes, such as Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, which could permanently become ice free by 2055.
Scientists find antibody that blocks dengue virus
- ScienceDaily
- 21/1/13 18:07
A research team confirm an effective antibody that prevents the dengue virus from infecting cells in mice, and may lead to treatments for this and similar diseases.
A fly's eye view of evolution
- ScienceDaily
- 21/1/13 18:07
The fascinating compound eyes of insects consist of hundreds of individual eyes known as 'facets'. In the course of evolution, an enormous variety of sizes and shapes has emerged, often adaptations to different environmental conditions. Scientists have now shown that these differences can be caused by very different changes in the genome of fruit flies.
Pollinators not getting the 'buzz' they need in news coverage
- ScienceDaily
- 21/1/13 18:07
A dramatic decline in pollinating insects threatens the global food supply, yet it's getting 'vanishingly low levels of attention' in mainstream news, even compared to coverage of climate change. Researchers analyzed nearly 25 million news items from six prominent U.S. and global news sources using the university's massive Global News Index.