266 articles from WEDNESDAY 7.7.2021

Protein's 'silent code' affects how cells move

The protein actin is ubiquitous and essential for life. In mammals, every cell expresses two of its forms, beta-actin and gamma-nonmuscle-actin. Despite having distinct roles, the two forms are nearly identical, sharing 99% of their amino acid sequence.

Scientists use artificial intelligence to detect gravitational waves

When gravitational waves were first detected in 2015 by the advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), they sent a ripple through the scientific community, as they confirmed another of Einstein's theories and marked the birth of gravitational wave astronomy. Five years later, numerous gravitational wave sources have been detected, including the first observation of two...

Reducing the melting of the Greenland ice cap using solar geoengineering?

Injecting sulfur into the stratosphere to reduce solar radiation and stop the Greenland ice cap from melting. It's an interesting scenario, but not without risks. Climatologists from the University of Liège have looked into the matter and have tested one of the scenarios put forward using the MAR climate model developed at the University of Liège. The results are mixed and have been published in...

Human-driven habitat change leads to physical and behavioral change in mosquitofish

Bahamian mosquitofish in habitats fragmented by human activity are more willing to explore their environment, more stressed by change and have smaller brain regions associated with fear response than mosquitofish from unaffected habitats. The new study from North Carolina State University shows that these fish have adapted quickly in specific ways to human-driven change, and cautions that...

Quantum particles: Pulled and compressed

Very recently, researchers led by Markus Aspelmeyer at the University of Vienna and Lukas Novotny at ETH Zurich cooled a glass nanoparticle into the quantum regime for the first time. To do this, the particle is deprived of its kinetic energy with the help of lasers. What remains are movements, so-called quantum fluctuations, which no longer follow the laws of classical physics but those of...

What to do with food waste? Well, that depends

The expected decline in the number of landfills across the United States coupled with bans on disposing large amounts of organic waste in landfills that have been enacted in multiple states has prompted researchers to examine other ways to grapple with the issue of food waste disposal.

Could ketogenic diet be helpful with brain cancer?

A modified ketogenic diet may be worth exploring for people with brain tumors, according to a new study. The small study found that the diet was safe and feasible for people with brain tumors called astrocytomas. The study was not designed to determine whether the diet could slow down tumor growth or improve survival.

How plants compensate symbiotic microbes

Combining economics, psychology and studies of fertilizer application, researchers find that plants nearly follow an 'equal pay for equal work' rule when giving resources to partner microbes - except when those microbes under-perform.

Quantum particles: Pulled and compressed

Only recently researchers have levitated and cooled nanoparticles into the quantum regime. A research team now proposes a way to harness the quantum properties of such particles before they lose them due to decoherence. To this end, the wave function of the particle is repeatedly expanded and compressed.

When taste and healthfulness compete, taste has a hidden advantage

You dash into a convenience store for a quick snack, spot an apple and reach for a candy bar instead. Poor self-control may not be the only factor behind your choice, new research suggests. That's because our brains process taste information first, before factoring in health information, according to new research.

How plants compensate symbiotic microbes

"Equal pay for equal work," a motto touted by many people, turns out to be relevant to the plant world as well. According to new research by Stanford University ecologists, plants allocate resources to their microbial partners in proportion to how much they benefit from that partnership.

NASA space lasers map meltwater lakes in Antarctica with striking precision

From above, the Antarctic Ice Sheet might look like a calm, perpetual ice blanket that has covered Antarctica for millions of years. But the ice sheet can be thousands of meters deep at its thickest, and it hides hundreds of meltwater lakes where its base meets the continent's bedrock. Deep below the surface, some of these lakes fill and drain continuously through a system of waterways that...

Tiny tools: Controlling individual water droplets as biochemical reactors

Miniaturization is rapidly reshaping the field of biochemistry, with emerging technologies such as microfluidics and "lab-on-a-chip" devices taking the world by storm. Chemical reactions that were normally conducted in flasks and tubes can now be carried out within tiny water droplets not larger than a few millionths of a liter. Particularly, in droplet-array sandwiching techniques, such tiny...

Energycane produces more biodiesel than soybean at a lower cost

Bioenergy from crops is a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. New crops such as energycane can produce several times more fuel per acre than soybeans. Yet, challenges remain in processing the crops to extract fuel efficiently. Four new studies explore chemical-free pretreatment methods, development of high-throughput phenotyping methods, and commercial-scale techno-economic feasibility of...

Microscopy technique makes finer images of deeper tissue, more quickly

To create high-resolution, 3D images of tissues such as the brain, researchers often use two-photon microscopy, which involves aiming a high-intensity laser at the specimen to induce fluorescence excitation. However, scanning deep within the brain can be difficult because light scatters off of tissues as it goes deeper, making images blurry.

Statistical methods designed for cosmology reveal tomb distribution in Sudan

Sudanese Islamic burial sites are distributed according to large-scale environmental factors and small-scale social factors, creating a galaxy-like distribution pattern, according to a study published July 7, 2021 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Stefano Costanzo of the University of Naples "L'Orientale" in Italy and colleagues.

The solar wind bubble that protects Earth has been mapped for the first time

In 2009, using NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer, also known as IBEX, astronomers spied a strange ribbon-like structure dancing between our solar system and the rest of interstellar space. The discovery of the IBEX Ribbon, which is invisible to both telescopes and the human eye, was one of scientists’ first forays into understanding more about our heliosphere—a bubble-like shield made...

Extra-long spiny male genitalia shows benefit for female seed beetles

A team of researchers from Uppsala University, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Toronto has found that there are benefits for female seed beetles mating with males with extra-long spiny genitalia. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes their study of the mating habits of the beetles and what they learned about them.

Freshwater methamphetamine pollution turns brown trout into addicts

Human pollution is often evident from oil slicks and plastic drifting on shore, but many of the drugs humans consume also end up washing out into the water, and current effluent treatment isn't equipped to deal with them. Drugs such as fluoxetine—also known as Prozac—creeping into waterways can embolden fish and alter their behavior, but pharmaceutical pollution doesn't end with prescribed...

Igniting plasmas in liquids

Physicists of Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have taken spectacular pictures that allow the ignition process of plasma under water to be viewed and tracked in real time. Dr. Katharina Grosse has provided the first data sets with ultra-high temporal resolution, supporting a new hypothesis on the ignition of these plasmas: In the nanosecond range, there is not enough time to form a gas environment....

Like a molten pancake: A new model for shield volcano eruption

There are some large shield volcanoes in the world's oceans where the lava is usually not ejected from the crater in violent explosions, but flows slowly out of the ground from long fissures. In the recent eruption of the Sierra Negra volcano in the Galapagos Islands, which lie just under a thousand kilometers off South America in the Pacific Ocean, one of these fissures was fed through a curved...