113 articles from FRIDAY 15.10.2021

Study: Adolescents' experiences with police have harmful repercussions for later life outcomes

The criminal justice system has changed dramatically in the past half century and with these changes has come a greater potential for adolescents to encounter police. A new study examined how adolescents' experiences with police—either directly or vicariously (e.g., via witnessing an encounter)—affected their future orientation during the transition to adulthood. The study concluded that...

‘Sensational’: skeleton buried in Vesuvius eruption found at Herculaneum

Archaeologists find remains of fugitive during first dig at site near Pompeii in almost three decadesThe partially mutilated remains of a man buried by the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius at Herculaneum, the ancient Roman town close to Pompeii, have been discovered in what Italy’s culture minister described as a “sensational” find.Archaeologists said the man, believed to have been aged...

COVID curriculum brings science home for high school students

When the pandemic sent many students home, University of Arizona researchers and Tucson teachers quickly adapted to the challenges of teaching science without a lab or classroom. A new paper, published in the journal The American Biology Teacher, outlines an at-home science lesson developed at UArizona to teach high schoolers about bioinformatics and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19....

Study on motivational narratives of meth users in alabama is first photo-ethnography in criminology

A new study examining the narratives and motivations of men and women in rural Alabama who used methamphetamine (meth) is forthcoming in Criminology, a publication of the American Society of Criminology. It is the first photo-ethnography to be published in the journal. The study was led by researchers Heith Copes (University of Alabama at Birmingham [UAB]), Fiona Brookman (University of South...

Cooling radio waves to their quantum ground state

Researchers at Delft University of Technology have found a new way to cool radio waves all the way down to their quantum ground state. To do so, they used circuits that employ an analog of the so-called laser cooling technique that is frequently used to cool atomic samples. The device used a recently developed technique the researchers call photon pressure coupling, which is predicted to be of use...

Only one in four Western Roman emperors died of natural causes

The Roman Empire was ruled by 175 men, from Augustus (63 BCE-19 CE) to Constantine XI (1405-53), including the Eastern or Byzantine Empire after the split in 395 CE, but excluding those who did not rule in their own right because they were minors during regencies or co-emperors.

Key protein linked to appetite and obesity in mice

Researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have identified a protein that plays a key role in how the brain regulates appetite and metabolism. Loss of the protein, XRN1, from the forebrain, resulted in obese mice with an insatiable appetite, according to a new study published in the journal, iScience.

How bacteria create a piggy bank for the lean times: Basic science discovery could lead to improved biomaterial production

Bacteria can store extra resources for the lean times. It's a bit like keeping a piggy bank or carrying a backup battery pack. One important reserve is known as cyanophycin granules, which were first noticed by an Italian scientist about 150 years ago. He saw big, dark splotches in the cells of the blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) he was studying without understanding either what they were or...

Machine learning in the cloud is helping businesses innovate

In the past decade, machine learning has become a familiar technology for improving the efficiency and accuracy of processes like recommendations, supply chain forecasting, developing chatbots, image and text search, and automated customer service functions, to name a few. Machine learning today is becoming even more pervasive, impacting every market segment and industry, including...

Shutting Down Old Oil Rigs Is Harder—and More Expensive—Than it Sounds

As workers continue to comb beaches for tar balls in California’s Orange County after an underwater pipeline ruptured on Oct. 2, another massive fossil fuel cleanup operation is just getting underway on a 55-year-old rig anchored 120 miles up the coast. It’s a taxpayer-funded, $60 million debacle that reveals just how difficult and costly it may be to shut down aging oil rigs in the...

Study finds forest cover and runoff influenced by freezing temperatures during late Paleozoic ice age

New research led by Baylor University biology doctoral candidate William J. Matthaeus and professor of biology Joseph White, Ph.D., considers how plant freeze-intolerance affected forest cover and hydrology during the Pennsylvanian period, roughly 340 million to 285 million years ago during the Paleozoic Era, proposing improvements to climate projections for the past and future with plant function...

80 percent of people in Switzerland feel fully integrated into society

Social exclusion is currently a topic that's being broadly discussed in the public sphere. It generally refers to a multidimensional process that is shaped by changes in the economic structure over the past few decades and is pushing an increasing share of the population to the economic margins, be it through unemployment, poverty or uncertain living conditions. It is commonly assumed that this...