213 articles from FRIDAY 26.2.2021

Considering disorder and cooperative effects in photon escape rates from atomic gases

Whilst a great deal of research has studied the rates of photons escaping from cold atomic gases, these studies have used a scalar description of light leaving some of its properties untested. In a new paper published in EPJ B Louis Bellando, a post-doctoral researcher at LOMA, University of Bordeaux, France, and his coauthors—Aharon Gero and Eric Akkermans, Technion-Israel Institute of...

Using neutron scattering to better understand milk composition

Neutron scattering is a technique commonly used in physics and biology to understand the composition of complex multicomponent mixtures and is increasingly being used to study applied materials such as food. A new paper published in EPJ E by Gregory N Smith, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, shows an example of neutron scattering in the area of food science. Smith uses...

Nanomedicine activation profile determines efficacy depending on tumor c-Myc expression

The Innovation Center of NanoMedicine reported in ACS Nano together with the group of Prof. Yu Matsumoto of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery and the group of Prof. Horacio Cabral of the Department of Bioengineering in the University of Tokyo that the efficacy of polymeric nano-micelles with different drug activation profile depends on the expression level of c-Myc, one of the major...

Under climate stress, human innovation set stage for population surge

Climate alone is not a driver for human behavior. The choices that people make in the face of changing conditions take place in a larger human context. And studies that combine insights from archeologists and environmental scientists can offer more nuanced lessons about how people have responded—sometimes successfully—to long-term environmental changes.

Light-emitting tattoo engineered

The technology, which uses organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), is applied in the same way as water transfer tattoos. That is, the OLEDs are fabricated on to temporary tattoo paper and transferred to a new surface by being pressed on to it and dabbed with water.

A weak heart makes a suffering brain

Heart problems cause disturbed gene activity in the brain's memory center, from which cognitive deficits arise. Researchers at the DZNE come to this conclusion based on laboratory studies. They consider that they have found a possible cause for the increased risk of dementia in people with heart problems.

Under climate stress, human innovation set stage for population surge

Aridification in the central plains of China during the early Bronze Age did not cause population collapse, a result that highlights the importance of social resilience to climate change. Instead of a collapse amid dry conditions, development of agriculture and increasingly complex human social structures set the stage for a dramatic increase in human population around 3,900 to 3,500 years ago.

Maternal instincts lead to social life of bees

The maternal care of offspring is one of the behavioral drivers that has led some bee species to have an ever-expanding social life over the history of evolution, new research has found. By virtue of being in a social group the genome itself may respond by selecting more social, rather than non-social genes. The behavior and social environment come first setting the stage for future molecular...

Light-emitting tattoo engineered for the first time

Scientists at UCL and the IIT—Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) have created a temporary tattoo with light-emitting technology used in TV and smartphone screens, paving the way for a new type of 'smart tattoo' with a range of potential uses.

Maternal instincts lead to social life of bees

The maternal care of offspring is one of the behavioral drivers that has led some bee species to have an ever-expanding social life over the history of evolution, new research out of York University has found.

Retroviruses are re-writing the koala genome and causing cancer

The koala retrovirus (KoRV) is a virus which, like other retroviruses such as HIV, inserts itself into the DNA of an infected cell. At some point in the past 50,000 years, KoRV has infected the egg or sperm cells of koalas, leading to offspring that carry the retrovirus in every cell in their body. The entire koala population of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia now carry copies of KoRV...