179 articles from WEDNESDAY 26.1.2022

Spotify removes Neil Young music in feud over Joe Rogan’s false Covid claims

Musician condemned spread of misinformation on platform’s top podcast: ‘They can have Rogan or Young’The music streaming platform Spotify is in the process of removing Neil Young’s music after the company refused to take down Joe Rogan’s podcast amid the musician’s objections that it spread vaccine misinformation.Rogan has been described by the New York Times as “one of the most...

Fossil snail shells offer new tool for analyzing ancient ocean chemistry

A collection of fossil shells from marine snails and clams is challenging a theory that says the world's deadliest mass extinction was accompanied by severe ocean acidification. The study is the first to use shells from fossilized mollusks to investigate ocean chemistry, demonstrating a new tool that scientists can use to study the conditions of the planet's deep past.

Getting in gear: Researchers create a slow light device with high optical quality

Researchers have created a gear-shaped photonic crystal microring that increases the strength of light-matter interactions without sacrificing optical quality. The result is an on-chip microresonator with an optical quality factor 50 times better than the previous record in slow light devices that could improve microresonators used in a range of photonics applications, including sensing and...

Culture plays role in children's acceptance of gender-diverse peers

Shown four images of hypothetical peers—a boy playing with cars and trucks, a girl playing with cars and trucks, a boy playing with a Barbie and dollhouse, and a girl playing with a Barbie and dollhouse—children from Thailand and China were then asked a simple question: Would you want to be their friend?

X-rays will make plant diets of the future more tasty

Imagine taking your favorite treat—a Mars bar or cream puff—and beaming it with X-rays to map out what makes it so delicious. Then, picture being able to transfer some of those magnificent qualities and tastes to healthier, more sustainable products.

Getting in gear: Researchers create a slow light device with high optical quality

Researchers including a postdoc at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have created a gear-shaped photonic crystal microring that increases the strength of light-matter interactions without sacrificing optical quality. The result is an on-chip microresonator with an optical quality factor 50 times better than the previous record in slow light devices that could improve microresonators used in...

Will the COVID-19 pandemic make waste management more uncontrollable?

The outbreak of COVID-19 has changed our lifestyle, and even the environment around us, such as the reduction of carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions and the alleviation of water pollution. A more obvious change is that the production of waste related to pandemic prevention has increased significantly. For example, the main component of disposable masks we use every day is plastic fiber....

When light loses symmetry, it can hold particles

Optical tweezers use light to immobilize microscopic particles as small as a single atom in 3D space. The basic principle behind optical tweezers is the momentum transfer between light and the object being held. Analogous to the water pushing on a dam that blocks the stream, light pushes onto and attracts objects that make the light bend. This so-called optical force can be designed to point to a...

The James Webb Space Telescope Is in Position—And Now We Wait

The James Webb Space Telescope traveled nearly 1.6 million km (1 million mi.) to reach a destination that, in some ways, is nowhere at all. On Jan. 24, just shy of one month after its Christmas Day launch, the $10 billion observatory arrived at a spot in space known as L2—where the gravity of the sun and the Earth effectively cancel each other out, allowing the spacecraft to circle an...

Learning loss must be recovered to avoid long-term damage to children's wellbeing and productivity, new report says

School closures have caused large and persistent damage to children's learning and well-being, the cost of which will be felt for decades to come, according to a new report launched today by the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP), co-hosted by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti, and the World Bank.

Universal sex differences appear in adolescents' career aspirations, study finds

A new analysis by David Geary at the University of Missouri and Gijsbert Stoet at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom finds career aspirations from nearly 500,000 adolescents shows consistent sex differences across 80 nations, suggesting biologically-influenced preferences can play a role in gender segregation in the workplace later in life. The researchers also found a tendency for...

Scientific hardware, experiments return to Earth on SpaceX CRS-24 Dragon

A retired microscope and samples from studies on colloids and cellular signaling are among the cargo returning from the International Space Stationaboard the 24th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission. The Dragon craft, which arrived at the station Dec. 22, 2021, was scheduled to undock Jan. 22 with splashdown the next afternoon off the coast of Florida.

Farther or faster? Both improve distance running performance

A study compared two-week blocks of low-intensity training and high-intensity interval training in terms of performance and recovery. Both methods can improve endurance performance in recreational athletes after already two weeks when the training load is increased significantly from what the individual is accustomed to.

Physical activity protects against type 2 diabetes by modifying metabolism

Regular physical activity significantly changes the body's metabolite profile, and many of these changes are associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, a new study shows. The study population included more than 7,000 men who were followed up for eight years. Men in the highest physical activity category had a 39% lower risk of type 2 diabetes than men who were physically inactive.

Using nanodiamonds as sensors just got easier

Researchers adapt excited state lifetime thermometry to extract temperatures of nanoscale materials from light emitted by nitrogen vacancy centers in individual nanodiamonds. The approach is less complicated, more accurate and safer for sensitive materials or biological tissues than OMDR.

Ancient ice reveals mysterious solar storm

Through analysis of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, a research team has found evidence of an extreme solar storm that occurred about 9,200 years ago. What puzzles the researchers is that the storm took place during one of the sun's more quiet phases -- during which it is generally believed our planet is less exposed to such events.

Scientists regrow frog’s lost leg

Scientists have triggered long-term growth of legs in adult frogs, which are naturally unable to regenerate limbs. The frogs regrew a lost leg over months, triggered by just 24 hour exposure to a five-drug cocktail held under a bioreactor. The new legs were functional enough to enable sensation and locomotion.

Frog regrows amputated leg after drug treatment

Nearly complete limb develops over 18 months, raising exciting possibilities for human patientsA frog has regrown a lost leg after being treated with a cocktail of drugs in a significant advance for regenerative medicine.The African clawed frog, which is naturally unable to regenerate its limbs, was treated with the drugs for just 24 hours and this prompted an 18-month period of regrowth of a...