118 articles from FRIDAY 10.9.2021

When predators matter! Study of voles on Arctic island advances knowledge of small-mammal population dynamics

A decades-long study of introduced voles on the Norwegian islands of Svalbard is helping to answer a longstanding puzzle of Arctic ecology -- what drives the well-established population cycles of small Arctic mammals, such as voles and lemmings. These plant-eating rodents are among the most populous Arctic mammals. The results suggest the importance of predators as a primary factor driving the...

Who’s in cognitive control?

A new study into cognitive control promises to be the first of many aimed at understanding its origins in the brain and its variations between people and among groups.

Memory killer T cells are primed in the spleen during influenza infection

CD8+ T cells -- known as "killer" T cells -- are the assassins of the immune system. Once they are primed, they seek out and destroy other cells that are infected with virus or cells that are cancerous. Priming involves dendritic cells -- sentinels of the immune system. In an influenza infection in the lungs, for example, lung-migratory dendritic cells capture a piece of the viral antigen, and...

Engineered E. coli could make carbohydrates, renewable fuel, from CO2

Researchers from Newcastle University, UK have engineered Escherichia coli bacteria to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) using hydrogen gas (H2) to convert it into formic acid. The research, published today in Applied and Environmental Microbiology raises the possibility of converting atmospheric CO2 to commodity chemicals.

Researchers reconstruct major branches in the tree of language

The diversity of human languages can be likened to branches on a tree. If you're reading this in English, you're on a branch that traces back to a common ancestor with Scots, which traces back to a more distant ancestor that split off into German and Dutch. Moving further in, there's the European branch that gave rise to Germanic; Celtic; Albanian; the Slavic languages; the Romance languages like...

NASA Selects Three Space Biology Proposals to Prepare for Future Research on the Surface of the Moon

The measurement of the effects of space-relevant stresses on organisms, and fundamental research into the underlying mechanisms of those effects, are core components of NASA's Space Biology Program. These stresses include galactic cosmic radiation (GCR), solar particle events (SPEs), and reduced gravity. Notably, to date, biological experiments in space have mainly been conducted within Low...

Making (and breaking) eye contact makes conversation more engaging

Making eye contact repeatedly when you're talking to someone is common, but why do we do it? When two people are having a conversation, eye contact occurs during moments of "shared attention" when both people are engaged, with their pupils dilating in synchrony as a result, according to a Dartmouth study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Boys more at risk from Pfizer jab side-effect than Covid, suggests study

US researchers say teenagers are more likely to get vaccine-related myocarditis than end up in hospital with CovidCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageHealthy boys may be more likely to be admitted to hospital with a rare side-effect of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine that causes inflammation of the heart than with Covid itself, US researchers claim.Their analysis of...

The Guardian view on unorthodox thinking: science would not get far without it | Editorial

The Ig Nobels are a reminder that Jonathan Swift was wrong about reason. Without research driven by curiosity, there would be far fewer breakthroughsIn Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift mocked the assumption that the scientific revolution had transformed European culture for the better. The satirical novel, published in 1726, has its eponymous hero stumbling upon “the Academy” in the...

Engineering various sources of loss provides new features for perfect light absorption

Natural and manmade physical structures all lose energy, and scientists work hard to eliminate that loss or compensate for it. Optical and photonic devices lose energy through light scattering, radiation or material absorption. In some situations, however, intentionally yet carefully designing loss in open optical devices and systems can lead to unconventional physical phenomena which inspires...