283 articles from MONDAY 15.3.2021

Tweens and TV: 50-year survey reveals the values kids learn from popular shows

A new report assesses the values emphasized by television programs popular with tweens over each decade from 1967 to 2017, charting how 16 values have waxed and waned during those 50 years. How important is fame? Self-acceptance? Among the findings: Fame, after nearly 40 years of ranking near the bottom (it was 15th in 1967, 1987 and 1997), rose to the No. 1 value in 2007, then dropped to sixth in...

Blight may increase public health risk from mosquito-borne diseases

Researchers published findings that blight leads to an increased abundance of disease-carrying mosquitoes. The researchers investigated the presence of several mosquito species in two adjacent but socio-economically contrasting neighborhoods in Baton Rouge: the historic Garden District, a high-income neighborhood, and the Old South neighborhood, a low-income area.

An ancient Maya ambassador's bones show a life of privilege and hardship

An important Maya man buried nearly 1,300 years ago led a privileged yet difficult life. The man, a diplomat named Ajpach' Waal, suffered malnutrition or illness as a child, but as an adult he helped negotiate an alliance between two powerful dynasties that ultimately failed. The ensuing political instability left him in reduced economic circumstances, and he probably died in relative obscurity,...

Scientists stunned to discover plants beneath mile-deep Greenland ice

Scientists found frozen plant fossils, preserved under a mile of ice on Greenland. The discovery helps confirm a new and troubling understanding that the Greenland Ice Sheet has melted entirely during recent warm periods in Earth's history -- like the one we are now creating with human-caused climate change. The new study provides strong evidence that Greenland is more sensitive to climate change...

Denver's airport closed for second day after winter storm

Denver's airport was closed for a second day Monday after a powerful late winter snowstorm dumped over 3 feet of heavy, wet snow on parts of Colorado and Wyoming, shutting down roads, closing state legislatures in both states and interfering with COVID-19 vaccinations.

Why European vaccine suspensions could have unintended consequences

Europe’s difficult rollout of covid-19 shots took another blow over the weekend, as several countries halted deployment of the AstraZeneca vaccine amid worries it could cause blood clots. On Monday Germany, Spain, Italy, and France were among those to suspend deployment of the vaccine, following similar moves made last week by Denmark, Norway, Ireland, and others. Germany’s health minister,...

Scientists plumb the depths of the world's tallest geyser

When Steamboat Geyser, the world's tallest, started erupting again in 2018 in Yellowstone National Park after decades of relative silence, it raised a few tantalizing scientific questions. Why is it so tall? Why is it erupting again now? And what can we learn about it before it goes quiet again?

Of mice and men and their different tolerance to pathogens

Scientists have harnessed microfluidic organs-on-chip technology to model the different anatomical sections of the mouse intestine and their symbiosis with a complex living microbiome in vitro. In a comparative analysis of mouse and human microbiomes, the researchers were able to confirm the commensal bacterium Enterococcus faecium contributes to host tolerance to Salmonella typhimurium infection....

Scientists plumb the depths of the world's tallest geyser

Scientists were ready to jump at the opportunity to get an unprecedented look at the workings of Steamboat Geyser. Their findings provide a picture of the depth of the geyser as well as a redefinition of a long-assumed relationship between the geyser and a nearby spring.

Discovery of 'knock-on chemistry' opens new frontier in reaction dynamics

Research by a team of chemists at the University of Toronto, led by Nobel Prize-winning researcher John Polanyi, is shedding new light on the behavior of molecules as they collide and exchange atoms during chemical reaction. The discovery casts doubt on a 90-year old theoretical model of the behavior of the "transition state", intermediate between reagents and products in chemical reactions,...