303 articles from MONDAY 22.2.2021
Potential regional declines in species richness of tomato pollinators under climate
About 70% of the world's main crops depend on insect pollination. Climate change is already affecting the abundance and distribution of insects, which could cause geographical mismatches between crops and their pollinators. Crops that rely primarily on wild pollinators (e.g., crops that cannot be effectively pollinated by commercial colonies of honey bees) could be particularly in jeopardy.
NASA releases first video of Perseverance rover landing on Mars
The US space agency NASA on Monday released the first video of the landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars.
Icy landing: runway opens on frozen US lake
Pilots comfortable with an icy landing can now use a runway on a frozen lake in the northeastern US state of New Hampshire.
NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover Provides Front-Row Seat to Landing, First Audio Recording of Red Planet
Portal origin URL: NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover Provides Front-Row Seat to Landing, First Audio Recording of Red PlanetPortal origin nid: 468529Published: Monday, February 22, 2021 - 13:25Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: New video from NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover chronicles major milestones during the final minutes of its entry, descent,...
Social media users more likely to believe misinformation: study
Americans who rely on social media as their main source of news are more likely believe false or unproven stories about important topics such as politics and COVID-19, a survey showed Monday.
Electrophotocatalytic diamination of vicinal C–H bonds
In organic chemistry, the conversion of inactivated carbon-hydrogen (C-H) bonds to carbon-nitrogen (C-N) bonds is a highly valued transformation. Scientists can accomplish such reactions at only a single C-H site since the first derivatization can diminish the reactivity of the surrounding C-H bonds. In a new report now published in Science, Tao Shen and Tristan H. Lambert at the department of...
Scientists image a bright meteoroid explosion in Jupiter's atmosphere
From aboard the Juno spacecraft, a Southwest Research Institute-led instrument observing auroras serendipitously spotted a bright flash above Jupiter's clouds last spring. The Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) team studied the data and determined that they had captured a bolide, an extremely bright meteoroid explosion in the gas giant's upper atmosphere.
How two radically different communities coexist beneath the canopies of California's iconic kelp forests
Walk along the beach after a winter storm and you'll see a shore littered with wracks of giant kelp, some 30 to 40 feet long—evidence of the storm's impact on coastal kelp forests.
Researcher sheds new light on the psychology of radicalization
Learning more about what motivates people to join violent ideological groups and engage in acts of cruelty against others is of great social and societal importance. New research from Assistant Professor of Psychology at NYUAD Jocelyn Bélanger explores the idea of ideological obsession as a form of addictive behavior that is central to understanding why people ultimately engage in ideological...
NASA's Swift helps tie neutrino to star-shredding black hole
For only the second time, astronomers have linked an elusive particle called a high-energy neutrino to an object outside our galaxy. Using ground- and space-based facilities, including NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, they traced the neutrino to a black hole tearing apart a star, a rare cataclysmic occurrence called a tidal disruption event.
Binary stars are all around us, new map of solar neighborhood shows
The latest star data from the Gaia space observatory has for the first time allowed astronomers to generate a massive 3-D atlas of widely separated binary stars within about 3,000 light years of Earth—1.3 million of them.
Focus on the positive to improve classroom behavior
When teachers encounter disruptive or noncompliant students in the classroom, they typically respond by focusing on the negative behavior. However, new research from the University of Missouri found that offering students more positive encouragement not only reduces disruptive classroom behavior, but can improve students' academic and social outcomes.
Researchers 'cautiously optimistic' about desert bighorn sheep recovery in Mojave Desert
Desert bighorn sheep in the Mojave National Preserve in California and surrounding areas appear to be more resilient than previously thought to a respiratory disease that killed dozens of them and sickened many more in 2013, a new study has found.
A novel gene discovery associated with a development disorder of pituitary origin
The pituitary gland is a pea-sized endocrine gland composed of two structurally and functionally separate parts known as anterior and posterior lobes. The pituitary gland's anterior lobe secretes six hormones essential to growth, reproduction, and other basic physiological functions. Abnormal development of the pituitary gland, or hypopituitarism, can cause mild or complete deficiency of one or...
'Jumping genes' repeatedly form new genes over evolution
In the same way that Lego pieces can be arranged in new ways to build a variety of structures, genetic elements can be mixed and matched to create new genes, according to new research.
Tricking the novel coronavirus with a fake 'handshake'
Fool the novel coronavirus once and it can't cause infection of cells, new research suggests.
Study could explain tuberculosis bacteria paradox
Tuberculosis bacteria have evolved to remember stressful encounters and react quickly to future stress, according to a study by computational bioengineers at Rice University and infectious disease experts at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS).
Researchers develop high throughput paper-based arrays of 3-D tumor models
By engineering common filter papers, similar to coffee filters, a team of NYU Abu Dhabi researchers have created high throughput arrays of miniaturized 3-D tumor models to replicate key aspects of tumor physiology, which are absent in traditional drug testing platforms. With the new paper-based technology, the formed tumor models can be safely cryopreserved and stored for prolonged periods for...
Silver and gold nanowires open the way to better electrochromic devices
The team of Professor Dongling Ma of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) developed a new approach for foldable and solid devices.
Genomic insights into the origin of pre-historic populations in East Asia
East Asia today harbors more than a fifth of the world's population and some of the most deeply branching modern human lineages outside of Africa. The archaeological record attests that this region was also one of the earliest centers of animal and plant domestication. However, its genetic diversity and deep population history remain poorly understood relative to many other parts of the world. In...
Screening for macrocyclic peptides
Macrocyclic peptides are promising candidates for pharmaceuticals, but their screening is difficult. Scientists have now developed an easy-to-use, high-throughput screening assay for cyclic peptides with affinity to ubiquitin, a protein that helps to degrade proteins and induce cell death. The results could lead to novel drug candidates against cancer, according to the study published in the...
Evidence of predation by octopuses pushed back by 25 million years
New research unveiled the earliest evidence of octopus predation in the fossil record. The evidence consists of tiny holes drilled in the clams they preyed upon during the Cretaceous period about 75 million years ago.
Altruism in bacteria—Gut microbes help family first
A recent discovery that, in real-world conditions bacteria, similar to animals, cooperate and selflessly act for the greater good of the group, could help scientists to predict how helpful and harmful strains behave. The study is the first to reveal that in the human gut, complex bacterial communities, made up of hundreds of species, contain 'helpers' whose behaviors benefit their closest...