206 articles from WEDNESDAY 13.10.2021

Smoke from nuclear war would devastate ozone layer, alter climate

The massive columns of smoke generated by a nuclear war would alter the world's climate for years and devastate the ozone layer, endangering both human health and food supplies, new research shows. The international study draws on newly developed computer climate modeling techniques to paint an even grimmer picture of a global nuclear war's aftermath than previous analyses.

Study asserts that assessments of parolees' risk should consider recidivism-free time

As efforts to reverse mass incarceration rise, so does the need to supervise more individuals in the community. Faced with heightened demand, corrections agencies increasingly use risk assessment to allocate supervision and treatment resources efficiently and improve public safety. A new study examined the time individuals have spent without being arrested or returning to prison, looking at the...

Surface chemistry reveals corrosive secrets

One can easily see with the naked eye that leaving an old nail out in the rain causes rust. What does require the keen eyes and sensitive nose of microscopy and spectroscopy is observing how iron corrodes and forms new minerals, especially in water with a pinch of sodium and calcium.

President of Brazil says it ‘makes no sense’ for him to be vaccinated

Jair Bolsonaro’s comments called ‘stupid and selfish’ in country where 600,000 people have died of CovidCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageMore than 600,000 of his citizens have lost their lives to a Covid-19 outbreak he once pooh-poohed as a “little flu”, but Brazil’s science-denying president, Jair Bolsonaro, has announced he will decline to be vaccinated,...

Holey metalens! New metalens focuses light with ultra-deep holes

Metasurfaces are nanoscale structures that interact with light. Today, most metasurfaces use monolith-like nanopillars to focus, shape and control light. The taller the nanopillar, the more time it takes for light to pass through the nanostructure, giving the metasurface more versatile control of each color of light. But very tall pillars tend to fall or cling together. What if, instead of...

Why skyrmions could have a lot in common with glass and high-temperature superconductors

Scientists have known for a long time that magnetism is created by the spins of electrons lining up in certain ways. But about a decade ago, they discovered another astonishing layer of complexity in magnetic materials: Under the right conditions, these spins can form little vortexes or whirlpools that act like particles and move around independently of the atoms that spawned them.

Quarks and antiquarks at high momentum shake the foundations of visible matter

Two independent studies have illuminated unexpected substructures in the fundamental components of all matter. Preliminary results using a novel tagging method could explain the origin of the longstanding nuclear paradox known as the EMC effect. Meanwhile, authors will share next steps after the recent observation of asymmetrical antimatter in the proton.

Solving mystery of rare cancers directly caused by HIV

For nearly a decade, scientists have known that HIV integrates itself into genes in cells that have the potential to cause cancer. And when this happens in animals with other retroviruses, those animals often develop cancer. But, perplexingly and fortunately, that isn't regularly happening in people living with HIV. A new study reveals why doctors aren't seeing high rates of T cell lymphomas -- or...

In neurodegenerative diseases, brain immune cells have a 'ravenous appetite' for sugar

At the beginning of neurodegenerative disease, the immune cells of the brain -- the 'microglia' -- take up glucose, a sugar molecule, to a much greater extent than hitherto assumed. These results are of great significance for the interpretation of brain scans depicting the distribution of glucose in the brain. Furthermore, such image-based data could potentially serve as a biomarker to...