279 articles from WEDNESDAY 27.1.2021

A mild way to upcycle plastics used in bottles into fuel and other high-value products

Plastic is ubiquitous in people's lives. Yet, when plastic-containing items have fulfilled their missions, only a small amount is recycled into new products, which are often of lower quality compared to the original material. And, transforming this waste into high-value chemicals requires substantial energy. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' JACS Au have combined a ruthenium-carbon catalyst and...

Purported phosphine on Venus more likely to be ordinary sulfur dioxide, new study shows

In September, a team led by astronomers in the United Kingdom announced that they had detected the chemical phosphine in the thick clouds of Venus. The team's reported detection, based on observations by two Earth-based radio telescopes, surprised many Venus experts. Earth's atmosphere contains small amounts of phosphine, which may be produced by life. Phosphine on Venus generated buzz that the...

Precision measurements of intracluster light suggest possible link to dark matter

A combination of observational data and sophisticated computer simulations have yielded advances in a field of astrophysics that has languished for half a century. The Dark Energy Survey, which is hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, has published a burst of new results on what's called intracluster light, or ICL, a faint type of light found inside...

Juicing technique could influence healthfulness of fresh-squeezed juice

With the New Year, many people are making resolutions to eat healthier, by eating more vegetables, for example. But those who don't like the taste or texture of some vegetables might prefer to drink them in a home-squeezed juice. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Food Science & Technology have found that the choice of household juicing technique can influence the phytochemical content and...

Biden directs billions in federal spending power to climate change

President Joe Biden continues to make good on his campaign pledge to accelerate progress on climate change, rapidly working down the list of what he can accomplish on his own in his early days in office. On Wednesday, January 27, he will sign a second set of executive orders and memorandums on climate change that direct federal agencies to purchase US-made, zero-emissions vehicles and...

The Guardian view on Britain's pandemic record: a monument to failure | Editorial

The terrible scale of the tragedy cannot be attributed to misfortune. It is a product of negligent governmentIn Soho, central London, stands a replica of a 19th-century public water pump without a handle. The missing part is not a result of vandalism but a tribute to John Snow, the physician who correctly surmised that the pump, supplying contaminated water, was a super-spreading device for...

Cough and sore throat more common with UK Covid variant – study

ONS survey finds people more likely to have cough compared with old variants, though loss of taste or smell less likelyCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageCoughs, sore throats and fatigue are more common in people who test positive for the new variant of coronavirus, but a loss of taste or smell is less likely, a study has found.The highly transmissible variant of...

Purported phosphine on Venus more likely to be ordinary sulfur dioxide

Astronomers revisited and comprehensively reinterpreted the radio telescope observations underlying a widely reported 2019 claim that phosphine gas was present in the atmosphere of Venus. In a paper accepted to the Astrophysical Journal, they report that sulfur dioxide, a common gas in the atmosphere of Venus, is likely what was detected instead of phosphine.

How breast cancer cells hide from immune attack

Researchers at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified how breast cancer cells hide from immune cells to stay alive. The discovery could lead to better immunotherapy treatment for patients.

Pain patients who take opioids can't get in the door at over half of primary care clinics

People who take opioid medications for chronic pain may have a hard time finding a new primary care clinic that will take them as a patient if they need one, according to a new 'secret shopper' study of hundreds of clinics across the country. Stigma against long-term users of prescription opioids, likely related to the prospect of taking on a patient who might have an opioid use disorder or...

A NEAT reduction of complex neuronal models accelerates brain research

Unlike their simple counterparts in artificial intelligence (AI) applications, neurons in the brain use dendrites - their intricate tree-like branches - to find relevant chunks of information. Now, neuroscientists have discovered a new computational method to make complex dendrite models much simpler. These faithful reductions may lead AI applications to process information much like the brain...