119 articles from MONDAY 6.9.2021

New filtering method promises safer drinking water, improved industrial production

A team of scientists at the Tufts University School of Engineering has developed a new filtering technology. Inspired by biology, it could help curb a drinking water-related disease that affects tens of millions of people worldwide and potentially improve environmental remediation, industrial and chemical production, and mining, among other processes.

Ninth-grade ethnic studies helped students for years, researchers find

A ninth-grade ethnic studies class has a remarkably prolonged and strong positive impact on students, increasing their overall engagement in school, probability of graduating and likelihood of enrolling in college, according to a new study of a curriculum offered at the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD).

UK vaccine advisers ‘acted like medical regulators’, over Covid jabs for children

Prof Neil Ferguson says JCVI was conservative in rejecting use of vaccines already approved by MHRACoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe UK’s vaccine advisory group behaved like a medical regulator in rejecting calls for all children aged 12-15 to be offered Covid jabs despite that not being its role, Prof Neil Ferguson has said.Last week the Joint Committee on...

Israel: one-year-old conjoined twin girls see each other for the first time after surgery – video

One-year-old twin girls have looked at each other for the first time after a complex surgery to separate them at Soroka medical centre in Beersheba, Israel. Dozens of experts from Israel and abroad were involved in the preparation and 12-hour procedure. The team used 3D- and virtual-reality models to map the complex operation. This enabled simulations and practice to be undertaken...

Conservation meet mulls moratorium on deep sea mining

The world's top conservation forum will vote this week on whether to recommend a moratorium on deep sea mining, with scientists warning that ecosystems degraded while dredging the ocean floor 5,000 metres below the waves could take decades or longer to heal.

Did you solve it? The magic of the Borromean rings

The solution to today’s puzzleEarlier today I set the following puzzle, inspired by the Borromean rings (left), which are three interlocking loops with the property that when you remove any one of them, the other two are no longer linked. In the puzzle everything falls apart when one element is removed. Continue...

Scientists discover the molecular mechanism of black-streaked dwarf virus in rice

Rice viruses are prevalent in many rice-growing countries and often cause serious damages to rice production. Among them, the rice black-streaked dwarf virus (RBSDV), transmitted by the small brown planthopper Laodelphax striatellus, causes tremendous losses in China's grain yields every year. Therefore, discovering the transmission mechanism of RBSDV is of immense significance for its effective...

Study illuminates origins of lung cancer in never smokers

A genomic analysis of lung cancer in people with no history of smoking has found that a majority of these tumors arise from the accumulation of mutations caused by natural processes in the body. This study describes three molecular subtypes of lung cancer in people who have never smoked. These insights will help unlock the mystery of how lung cancer arises in people who have no history of smoking...

Hydrogen-burning white dwarfs enjoy slow aging

Could dying stars hold the secret to looking younger? New evidence suggests that white dwarfs could continue to burn hydrogen in the final stages of their lives, causing them to appear more youthful than they actually are. This discovery could have consequences for how astronomers measure the ages of star clusters.