191 articles from FRIDAY 15.1.2021

UK to face delay in delivery of Pfizer Covid vaccine

In a letter to the EU commission health and social affairs ministers of six states called the situation ‘unacceptable’ Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverageThe UK is among several countries facing delays in delivery of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine due to upgrades in its production capacity, the company has said.The US pharmaceutical firm is increasing...

Coronavirus live news: global death toll passes milestone as Emirates cancels Australian flights

Global coronavirus death toll reaches 2 million people; UK shuts travel corridors and requires negative Covid tests to enter; German vaccine officials forced to guess who is eligible from namesBrazil rushes to save premature babies as Covid swamps hospitalsVaccine passports: what are they and do they pose a danger to privacy?US suffers bleak January as Covid rages and vaccination campaign...

Six-wavelength spectroscopy can offer new details of surface of Venus

A trio of papers provide new insight into the composition and evolution of the surface of Venus, hidden beneath its caustic, high temperature atmosphere. Utilizing imaging from orbit using multiple wavelengths—six-band spectroscopy proposed as part of the VERITAS and EnVision missions—scientists can map the iron content of the Venusian surface and construct the first-ever geologic map.

The U.S. Postal Service to Issue NASA Sun Science Forever Stamps

Portal origin URL: The U.S. Postal Service to Issue NASA Sun Science Forever StampsPortal origin nid: 467614Published: Friday, January 15, 2021 - 14:30Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: In 2021, the US Postal Service is showcasing the Sun’s many faces with a series of Sun Science forever stamps that show images of solar activity captured by NASA’s...

Nanodiamond sensors can act as both heat sources and thermometers

A team of scientists from Osaka University, the University of Queensland and the National University of Singapore's Faculty of Engineering used tiny nanodiamonds coated with a heat-releasing polymer to probe the thermal properties of cells. When irradiated with light from a laser, the sensors acted both as heaters and thermometers, allowing the thermal conductivity of the interior of a cell to be...

Controlling chemical catalysts with sculpted light

Using state-of-the-art fabrication and imaging, researchers watched the consequences of adding sculpted light to a catalyst during a chemical transformation. This work could inform more efficient -- and potentially new -- forms of catalysis.

Scientists identify nutrient that helps prevent bacterial infection

Scientists studying the body's natural defenses against bacterial infection have identified a nutrient—taurine—that helps the gut recall prior infections and kill invading bacteria, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kpn). The finding, published in the journal Cell by scientists from five institutes of the National Institutes of Health, could aid efforts seeking alternatives to antibiotics.

Towards applications: ultra-low-loss on-chip zero-index materials

A refractive index of zero induces a wave vector with zero amplitude and undefined direction. Therefore, light propagating inside a zero-index medium does not accumulate any spatial phase advance, resulting in perfect spatial coherence. Such coherence brings several potential applications, including arbitrarily shaped waveguides, phase-mismatch-free nonlinear propagation, large-area single-mode...

Engineers find a way to control chemical catalysts with sculpted light

Like a person breaking up a cat fight, the role of catalysts in a chemical reaction is to hurry up the process—and come out of it intact. And, just as not every house in a neighborhood has someone willing to intervene in such a battle, not every part of a catalyst participates in the reaction. But what if one could convince the unengaged parts of a catalyst to get involved? Chemical reactions...

NASA to Host Virtual Briefing on February Perseverance Mars Rover Landing

Portal origin URL: NASA to Host Virtual Briefing on February Perseverance Mars Rover LandingPortal origin nid: 467626Published: Friday, January 15, 2021 - 13:03Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: NASA is hosting a media briefing on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 4:30 p.m. EST to discuss the upcoming landing of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.Portal...

Cities can help migrating birds on their way by planting more trees and turning lights off at night

Millions of birds travel between their breeding and wintering grounds during spring and autumn migration, creating one of the greatest spectacles of the natural world. These journeys often span incredible distances. For example, the Blackpoll Warbler, which weighs less than half an ounce, may travel up to 1,500 miles between its nesting grounds in Canada and its wintering grounds in the Caribbean...

How hitchhiking worms choose their vehicles

Tiny worms that live inside fig trees use the fig wasp as a 'vehicle' to hitch rides from one tree to another by crawling into the wasp's gut without harming it. This relationship has existed for millions of years. But how do these worms‒called nematodes‒choose their wasp vehicles? What cues do they use to check for co-passengers? A new study from the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) at...

Physicists propose a new theory to explain one dimensional quantum liquids formation

Liquids are ubiquitous in Nature: from the water that we consume daily to superfluid helium which is a quantum liquid appearing at temperatures as low as only a few degrees above the absolute zero. A common feature of these vastly different liquids is being self-bound in free space in the form of droplets. Understanding from a microscopic perspective how a liquid is formed by adding particles one...

Large mammals make soil more fertile in tropical forests

The White-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) is a boar-like hoofed mammal found throughout Central and South America. These animals roam the forest in bands of 50 to 100 individuals, eating a wide variety of foods. In Brazil's Atlantic Rainforest, they prefer the fruit of the jussara palm Euterpe edulis.

RNA's mysterious folding process

Using data from RNA-folding experiments, the researchers generated the first-ever data-driven movies of how RNA folds as it is made by cellular machinery. By watching their videos of this folding occur, the researchers discovered that RNA often folds in surprising, perhaps unintuitive ways, such as tying itself into knots.

Researchers trace geologic origins of Gulf of Mexico 'super basin' success

The Gulf of Mexico holds huge untapped offshore oil deposits that could help power the U.S. for decades. According to researchers, the basin's vast oil and gas reserves are the result of a remarkable geologic past. Only a fraction of the oil has been extracted and much remains buried beneath ancient salt layers, just recently illuminated by modern seismic imaging.

Breathing easier with a better tracheal stent

New research is poised to drastically improve the use of tracheal stents for children with airway obstruction. Researchers demonstrate for the first time the successful use of a completely biodegradable magnesium-alloy tracheal stent that safely degrades and does not require removal.