135 articles from THURSDAY 7.10.2021

Planned home birth presents little risk where midwifery is well-integrated

In the state of Washington, a planned home birth with a licensed midwife is just as safe as a birth at a licensed birth center. Researchers arrived at this conclusion after analyzing outcomes of more than 10,000 community births in Washington state between 2015 and 2020. Birth setting had no association with increased risk for either parent or baby, despite the American Association of...

Vermont bald eagle restoration follows years of trying

Thirteen years after Vermont lost the ignominious distinction of being the only state in the continental United States without any breeding pairs of bald eagles, the state is moving to remove the iconic national symbol from its list of threatened and endangered species.

Elastic polymer that is both stiff and tough, resolves long-standing quandary

Polymer science has made possible rubber tires, Teflon and Kevlar, plastic water bottles, nylon jackets among many other ubiquitous features of daily life. Elastic polymers, known as elastomers, can be stretched and released repeatedly and are used in applications such as gloves and heart valves, where they need to last a long time without tearing. But a conundrum has long stumped polymer...

Sweet corn yield gain over 80 years leaves room for improvement

New research shows sweet corn, when planted at high densities, has steadily increased in yield since the 1930s. The historical view underscores the importance of planting modern density-tolerant hybrids at their optimal densities, and suggests an opportunity to improve density tolerance even more.

Elastic polymer that is both stiff and tough, resolves long-standing quandary

A conundrum has long stumped polymer scientists: Elastic polymers can be stiff, or they can be tough, but they can't be both. This stiffness-toughness conflict is a challenge for scientists developing polymers that could be used in applications including tissue regeneration, bioadhesives, bioprinting, wearable electronics, and soft robots. Researchers have resolved that long-standing conflict and...

New images from Mars will guide search for evidence of ancient life, says study

Pictures taken by Perseverance rover show how water helped shape planet’s landscape billions of years agoImages from Mars reveal how water helped shape the red planet’s landscape billions of years ago, and provide clues that will guide the search for evidence of ancient life, according to a new study.In February, Nasa’s Perseverance rover landed in Jezero crater, where scientists suspected a...

Team develops sensitive new way of detecting transistor defects

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and collaborators have devised and tested a new, highly sensitive method of detecting and counting defects in transistors—a matter of urgent concern to the semiconductor industry as it develops new materials for next-generation devices. These defects limit transistor and circuit performance and can affect product...

Environmentally friendly ways to cool homes

The summer of 2021 in Western Canada was one of the hottest on record. In the Canadian province of British Columbia alone, 59 weather stations registered their hottest temperatures ever on June 27. For those lucky enough to have air conditioners, keeping their homes cool during the heat dome was relatively easy. However, the comfort lasted only until the utility bills arrived. As a result of...

Refuting a 70-year approach to predicting material microstructure

A 70-year-old model used to predict the microstructure of materials doesn't work for today's materials, say Carnegie Mellon University researchers in Science. A microscopy technique developed by Carnegie Mellon and Argonne National Laboratory yields evidence that contradicts the conventional model and points the way towards the use of new types of characterizations to predict properties—and...

Climate change literacy lessons from Africa: Knowledge is key

Addressing the climate crisis will require cooperation on a massive scale, but to accomplish this, people need to know what specific challenges lie ahead and how to best move forward. Across the globe, people are facing the effects of the climate crisis, yet many are still unsure how and even if they can address it.

‘Gut bugs’ can drive prostate cancer growth and treatment resistance

Common gut bacteria can become 'hormone factories' - fuelling prostate cancer and making it resistant to treatment, a new study shows. Scientists revealed how gut bacteria contribute to the progression of advanced prostate cancers and their resistance to hormone therapy -- by providing an alternative source of growth-promoting androgens, or male hormones. The findings, once further validated in...

Climate change literacy lessons from Africa

Addressing the climate crisis will require cooperation on a massive scale, but to accomplish this, people need to know what specific challenges lie ahead and how to best move forward. Across the globe, people are facing the effects of the climate crisis, yet many are still unsure how, and even if, they can address it.

The climate-driven mass extinction no one had seen

Two thirds of all mammals vanished from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula around 30 million years ago, when the climate on Earth changed from swampy to icy. But we are only finding out about this mass extinction now. Researchers examined hundreds of fossils from multiple sites in Africa, built evolutionary trees, and pinpointed each species' first and last known appearances. The climate shift 'was...

Non-English-language science could help save biodiversity

It is commonly assumed that any important scientific knowledge would be available in English, and so scientific knowledge used in international studies is predominantly sourced from English-language documents. But is this assumption correct? According to new research, the answer is no, and science written in languages other than English may hold untapped information crucial to the conservation of...

Climate change tipping points: back to the drawing board

We regularly hear warnings that climate change may lead to 'tipping points': irreversible situations where savanna can quickly change into desert, or the warm gulf stream current can simply stop flowing. But the earth is much more resilient than previously thought. Researchers now show that the concept of tipping points is too simple.

Scientists assemble a biological clock in a test tube to study how it works

Daily cycles in virtually every aspect of our physiology are driven by biological clocks (also called circadian clocks) in our cells. The cyclical interactions of clock proteins keep the biological rhythms of life in tune with the daily cycle of night and day, and this happens not only in humans and other complex animals but even in simple, single-celled organisms such as cyanobacteria. A team of...

Chang'e-5 samples reveal key age of moon rocks

A lunar probe launched by the Chinese space agency recently brought back the first fresh samples of rock and debris from the moon in more than 40 years. Now an international team of scientists has determined the age of these moon rocks at close to 1.97 billion years old.

How mussels make a powerful underwater glue

Blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) spend their days being buffeted by crashing waves. They manage to stay tethered to the rocks or their fellow mussels thanks to a highly effective underwater glue they produce. Because achieving adhesion in the presence of water is so challenging, scientists who are interested in producing effective adhesives for use in wet environments (e.g., for surgical or dental...

Less restrictive 'bioburden' rules would make some Mars missions simpler

A new report that could make it simpler to send spacecraft to some areas of Mars while still protecting the planet from Earth-based contamination was presented today at a press conference at the 53rd annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Amanda Hendrix.

The moon was volcanically active for longer than we thought, analysis of lunar rocks suggests

Material retrieved by China’s Chang’e-5 spacecraft sheds new light on the moon at a time when it was thought to be cooling downGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingAnalysis of the youngest lunar material ever retrieved suggests that the moon was volcanically active for longer than previously expected.China’s Chang’e-5 spacecraft retrieved 1.7kg of lunar material when it...

Non-English-language science could help save biodiversity

It is commonly assumed that any important scientific knowledge would be available in English, and so scientific knowledge used in international studies is predominantly sourced from English-language documents. But is this assumption correct? According to research publishing October 7th in the open access journal PLOS Biology, led by Dr. Tatsuya Amano at the University of Queensland, Australia, the...