153 articles from TUESDAY 25.1.2022

Finding the tipping point for coastal wetlands

The Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula covers more than 2,000 square miles on the North Carolina coastal plain, a vast expanse of forested swamps and tea-colored creeks. Many people would probably avoid this place, whose dense thickets of cane and shrubs and waterlogged soils can slow a hike to a crawl.

Scientists discover new avian immunological pathway

Biomedical scientists have discovered a new immune pathway in chickens that viruses may be targeting. The discovery, which has implications also for diseases affecting other birds, sheds greater light on birds' immune responses to zoonotic viruses -- specifically, how those may differ from responses seen in humans.

Hungry yeast are tiny, living thermometers

Membranes are crucial to our cells. Every cell in your body is enclosed by one. And each of those cells contains specialized compartments, or organelles, which are also enclosed by membranes.

'Atomic Armor' for accelerators enables discoveries

Protective coatings are common for many things in daily life that see a lot of use. We coat wood floors with finish; apply Teflon to the paint on cars; even use diamond coatings on medical devices. Protective coatings are also essential in many demanding research and industrial applications.

Hungry yeast are tiny, living thermometers

Researchers report that a yeast cells can actively regulate a process called phase separation in one of their membranes. During phase separation, the membrane remains intact but partitions into multiple, distinct zones or domains that segregate lipids and proteins. The new findings show for the first time that, in response to environmental conditions, yeast cells precisely regulate the temperature...

Atomic Armor for accelerators enables discoveries

Protective coatings are common for many things in daily life that see a lot of use: we coat wood floors with finish; apply Teflon to the paint on cars; even use diamond coatings on medical devices. Protective coatings are also essential in many demanding research and industrial applications.

Are There Oceans on Other Worlds? We Asked a NASA Expert

Are there oceans on other worlds? Yes! Earth is not alone. When you look deeper into our solar system, there are worlds we suspect have oceans hidden beneath their icy surfaces. NASA scientist Lucas Paganini is here to tell you more. Learn more about ocean worlds: https://go.nasa.gov/3rD0zlO Producers: Jessica Wilde & Scott Bednar Editor: Matthew Schara Video...

Study probes the planet's turbulent past to explain where oceans came from

The origin of water on our planet is a hot question: Water has immense implications for plate tectonics, climate, the origin of life on Earth, and potential habitability of other Earth-like planets. In a recent study in Physical Review Letters, a Skoltech professor and his Chinese colleagues suggest a chemical compound that—although now extinct—could have preserved water deep underground in...

Confirming liquid water beneath Martian south polar cap

A Southwest Research Institute scientist measured the properties of ice-brine mixtures as cold as -145 degrees Fahrenheit to help confirm that salty water likely exists between grains of ice or sediment under the ice cap at Mars' south pole. Laboratory measurements conducted by SwRI geophysicist Dr. David Stillman support oddly bright reflections detected by the MARSIS subsurface sounding radar...

Where legal, voting by those in prison is rare, study shows

The voting rights of people with felony convictions is a controversial issue across many U.S. states—not least because many people assume expanding those rights could significantly affect election outcomes. A study by MIT scholars of voting patterns among the imprisoned now suggests that is unlikely to be the case.

A molecular framework to bridge experimental and computer sciences for peptide-based materials engineering

Researchers in the Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering, Gallogly College of Engineering, at the University of Oklahoma have developed a framework published in Science Advances that solves the challenge of bridging experimental and computer sciences to better predict peptide structures. Peptide-based materials have been used in energy, security and health fields for the past two decades.

Southern Ocean storms cause outgassing of carbon dioxide

Storms over the waters around Antarctica drive an outgassing of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to a new international study with researchers from the University of Gothenburg. The research group used advanced ocean robots for the study, which provides a better understanding of climate change and can lead to better global climate models.

Forward-thinking gym lifts weights, shifts attitudes

A gym in Boston, Massachusetts, with an inventive vocational path that prepares students to work as personal trainers serves as a telling example for how community-based programs can develop anti-racism practices within organizations that contribute to the cultivation of racial unity, according to a paper published by a University at Buffalo Social Work researcher.

How the timing of dinner and genetics affect individuals’ blood sugar control

Eating dinner close to bedtime, when melatonin levels are high, disturbs blood sugar control, especially in individuals with a genetic variant in the melatonin receptor MTNR1B, which has been linked to an elevated risk of type 2 diabetes. The high melatonin levels and food intake associated with late eating impairs blood sugar control in carriers of the MTNR1B genetic risk variant through a defect...

Liquid water beneath Martian south polar cap?

Scientists measured the properties of ice-brine mixtures as cold as -145 degrees Fahrenheit to help confirm that salty water likely exists between grains of ice or sediment under the ice cap at Mars' south pole. Laboratory measurements support oddly bright reflections detected by the MARSIS subsurface sounding radar aboard ESA's Mars Express orbiter.

Vision loss and retinal changes in Stargardt disease

Researchers developed and validated an artificial-intelligence-based method to evaluate patients with Stargardt, an eye disease that can lead to childhood vision loss. The method quantifies disease-related loss of light-sensing retina cells, yielding information for monitoring patients, understanding genetic causes of the disease, and developing therapies to treat it.

Physicist solves century old problem of radiation reaction

A physicist has proposed a radical solution to the question of how a charged particle, such as an electron, responded to its own electromagnetic field. This question has challenged physicists for over 100 years but a mathematical physicist has suggested an alternative approach, with controversial implications.

Five risks of moving your database to the cloud

Moving to the cloud is all the rage. According to an IDC Survey Spotlight, Experience in Migrating Databases to the Cloud, 63% of enterprises are actively migrating their databases to the cloud, and another 29% are considering doing so within the next three years. This article discusses some of the risks customers may unwittingly encounter when moving their database to a database as a service...