420 articles from THURSDAY 18.2.2021

New crystalline ice form

Three years ago, chemists at the University of Innsbruck found evidence for the existence of a new variety of ice. Until then, 18 types of crystalline ice were known. The team led by Thomas Loerting now reports in Nature Communications on the elucidation of the crystal structure of ice XIX using neutron diffraction.

New revelations of tiger genomes

A new study reveals differences in the genomic history of tiger subspecies, pointing to the importance of understanding evolutionary history for future conservation

New UCF study examines leeches for role in major disease of sea turtles in Florida

University of Central Florida researchers are homing in on the cause of a major disease of sea turtles, with some of their latest findings implicating saltwater leeches as a possible factor. The results, published recently in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, present the first evidence of a significant association between leeches and the disease in sea turtles, according to the...

Pandemic got you down? A little nature could help

Researchers have long been aware of the positive impact of a connection with nature on psychological health and, according to a new study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the pandemic hasn't decreased the power of nature to improve mental well-being.

Paper: STEM skills gap modest among IT help desk workers

The incidence of prolonged hiring difficulties for workers with science and technology backgrounds is consistent with persistent hiring frictions and not a 'skills gap' in the labor market for information technology help desk workers, one of the largest computer occupations in the US, says new research by U. of I. labor professor Andrew Weaver.

Physics of tumours: Cancer cells become fluidised and squeeze through tissue

Working with colleagues from Germany and the US, researchers at Leipzig University have achieved a breakthrough in research into how cancer cells spread. The team of biophysicists led by Professor Josef Alfons Käs, Steffen Grosser and Jürgen Lippoldt demonstrated for the first time how cells deform in order to move in dense tumour tissues and squeeze past neighbouring cells. They have now...

Promoting and protecting human milk and breastfeeding during COVID-19

With stressors mounting daily on the health care system due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a de-prioritization of the childbearing family has been noted. Their care has changed, resulting in mothers forced to go through labor and birth without their partners, parents barred from NICU visitation, and discharge of mothers and newborns early without enough expert lactation care.

Quantum computing: when ignorance is wanted

Quantum technologies for computers open up new concepts of preserving the privacy of input and output data of a computation. Scientists from the University of Vienna, the Singapore University of Technology and Design and the Polytechnic University of Milan have shown that optical quantum systems are not only particularly suitable for some quantum computations, but can also effectively encrypt the...

Real world data on hospital readmissions of patients with heart failure

In an analysis of information on 448 patients with heart failure who were discharged from a hospital in Sweden, 20.3% of patients were readmitted to the hospital within 30 days, and 60.9% were readmitted within 1 year. The ESC Heart Failure analysis found that most of the patients who needed to be rehospitalized were readmitted for heart failure.

Scientists identify over 140,000 virus species in the human gut

Viruses are the most numerous biological entities on the planet. Now researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have identified over 140,000 viral species living in the human gut, more than half of which have never been seen before.

Setting hospital prices would save more than increasing competition or price transparency

Spending on hospital services is the largest health spending category in the U.S., accounting for one-third of national health expenses. A new study finds that among strategies to curb hospital prices among the commercially insured population in the U.S., direct price regulations such as setting rates are likely to achieve greater savings than other approaches like increasing competition or...