131 articles from TUESDAY 10.8.2021
Australia Covid live update: NSW on edge as cases spread in regions; Melbourne waits for news on lockdown
Melbourne faces the possibility of a lockdown extension as shopping centre workers ordered into quarantine; new cases emerge across regional NSW. Follow all the day’s newsRestrictions: NSW; Vic; Qld; bordersHotspots: NSW; Vic; QldVaccine rollout tracker; get our free news app; get our morning email briefing 10.44pm BST Queensland LNP MP George Christensen has spoken to Sydney radio 2GB about...
'Hope is not a plan': Northerners call for action after harrowing UN climate report
After a summer of record-breaking temperatures and floods in the North, findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are unsurprising for some northerners. Now they're renewing calls for drastic climate...
‘Frameshifting’ therapy for mast cell cancers reduces size, spread
- ScienceDaily
- 21/8/10 22:13
A potential new treatment for mast cell cancers reduces the number of mast cells by 'mutating' the messenger RNA (mRNA) before it can deliver instructions for manufacturing the gene responsible for cell proliferation. The method, known as frameshifting, changes the pre-mRNA so that the mature mRNA is degraded and any protein produced from its instructions is altered and inert. In a mouse model,...
Scientists detect characteristics of the birth of a major challenge to harvesting fusion energy on Earth
- ScienceDaily
- 21/8/10 22:13
Novel camera detects the birth of high-energy runaway electrons, which may lead to determining how to prevent damage caused by the highly energetic particles.
How to wipe personal data from discarded devices a mystery for some, researcher says
Used or recycled phones, tablets and computers can create privacy risks simply because many people don't know how to properly wipe sensitive personal data before disposing of the gadget, researchers at the University of Guelph...
Through the looking glass: Unravelling how ions move in phosphate glass
Phosphate glass is a versatile compound that has generated interest for its use in fuel cells and as biomaterials for supplying therapeutic ions. P2O5—the compound that forms the structural network of phosphate glass—is made up of phosphorus, an element that can adopt many different bonding configurations in combination with oxygen.
Blobs in space: Slime mold to blast off for ISS experiment
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are set to welcome a most unusual guest, as "the Blob" blasts off into orbit on Tuesday.
Nearly 900 buildings destroyed by massive California fire
California's largest single wildfire in recorded history kept pushing through forestlands on Tuesday as fire crews tried to protect rural communities from flames that have destroyed hundreds of homes.
Greeks battle to protect town from ferocious blaze
Volunteers and firefighters were working relentlessly Tuesday, often without masks or helmets, in a desperate bid to stop a violent blaze from reaching a key town on Greece's Evia island, one of hundreds of fires that have raged through the country.
'Frameshifting' therapy for mast cell cancers reduces size, spread
A potential new treatment for mast cell cancers reduces the number of mast cells by "mutating" the messenger RNA (mRNA) before it can deliver instructions for manufacturing the gene responsible for cell proliferation. The method, known as frameshifting, changes the pre-mRNA so that the mature mRNA is degraded and any protein produced from its instructions is altered and inert. In a mouse model,...
Deviant actions of others can spur individuals to opt out of offending, study finds
Researchers who study crime are increasingly recognizing that context matters—that is, that actions, including crime, are shaped by the people and settings in which individuals offend. A new study examined whether others' deviant actions prompted individuals to opt out of offending or reverse their intentions to offend based on the size of the offending group. The study identified opt-out...
How does a flood become a disaster?
What are the causes, patterns and effects of disastrous river flood? An international group of researchers led by GFZ hydrologist Bruno Merz has investigated this question in a review article published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth and Environment. The short answer: It's complicated. What is certain, however, is that there is an opposing trend of property damage and personal injury. Since...
System trains drones to fly around obstacles at high speeds
- ScienceDaily
- 21/8/10 21:34
A new algorithm helps drones find the fastest route around obstacles without crashing. The system could enable fast, nimble drones for time-critical operations such as search and rescue.
Insidious coral killer invading Palmyra Atoll reef
The reefs at Palmyra Atoll, a small outlying atoll in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, have been undergoing a shift from stony corals to systems dominated by corallimorphs, marine invertebrates that share traits with both anemones and hard corals. A published study in Coral Reefs led by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa marine biology researchers has discovered that although the invading corallimorph...
The surprising red light vision of rodents
It is commonly thought that rodents are functionally blind when their surroundings are illuminated with light of longer wavelengths, which humans perceive as red. A new study, published in eLife by Nader Nikbakht of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Mathew Diamond of SISSA—Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati—challenges this assumption and shows that rats can...
Neutralizing the SARS-CoV-2 sugar coat
Researchers have identified two sugar-binding proteins that impede the viral entry of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants. The team, spearheaded by researchers at IMBA—Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences—may have found the "Achilles' heel" of the virus, with potential for pan-variant therapeutic interventions. The findings are now published in the EMBO Journal.
The movement of small water droplets is controlled by means of a magnet
- ScienceDaily
- 21/8/10 20:31
A new study has presented and characterized the formation and properties of a superparamagnetic ring, which fits snugly around a drop of water due to liquid-liquid interaction, and allows the drops to be physically manipulated.
Shared antibodies may push COVID-19 variants, study finds
- ScienceDaily
- 21/8/10 20:31
Researchers have found that people recovering from COVID-19 and those vaccinated against the causative virus, SARS-CoV-2, produce identical clones, or groups, of antibody-producing white blood cells.
Researchers use artificial intelligence to unlock extreme weather mysteries
- ScienceDaily
- 21/8/10 20:31
A new machine learning approach helps scientists understand why extreme precipitation days in the Midwest are becoming more frequent. It could also help scientists better predict how these and other extreme weather events will change in the future.
Neutralizing the SARS-CoV-2 sugar coat
- ScienceDaily
- 21/8/10 20:31
Researchers have identified two sugar-binding proteins that impede the viral entry of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants. The team may have found the 'Achilles' heel' of the virus, with potential for pan-variant therapeutic interventions.
Insidious coral killer invading Palmyra Atoll reef
- ScienceDaily
- 21/8/10 20:31
The reefs at Palmyra Atoll, a small outlying atoll in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, have been undergoing a shift from stony corals to systems dominated by corallimorphs, marine invertebrates that share traits with both anemones and hard corals. Marine biology researchers discovered that although the invading corallimorph is the same species that has been there for decades, its appearance recently...
Shark diversity unaffected when the dinosaurs were wiped out, study finds
- ScienceDaily
- 21/8/10 20:31
A global catastrophe 66 million years ago led to the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs, and large marine reptiles like mosasaurs and plesiosaurs. But what happened to the sharks? According to a new study, shark-tooth diversity remained relatively constant across the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous.
Dragonfly mission to Titan announces big science goals
- ScienceDaily
- 21/8/10 20:30
The NASA Dragonfly mission will send a rotorcraft relocatable lander to the surface of Saturn's moon Titan in the mid-2030s; it will be the first mission to explore the surface of Titan.
Atomic nuclei and leptons: Milestone in the calculation of cross sections
- ScienceDaily
- 21/8/10 20:30
A team has succeeded in computing how atomic nuclei of the Calcium element behave in collisions with electrons. Results agree very well with available experimental data. For the first time, a calculation based on a fundamental theory is capable of correctly describing experiments for a nucleus as heavy as Calcium. Of particular relevance is the potential that such calculations could have in the...