219 articles from THURSDAY 12.5.2022

Fish and humans: A new approach to Bloom syndrome research

Researchers at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) have created a new disease model that has contributed to a better understanding of Bloom syndrome and the sex determination processes of zebrafish. The study, linking two seemingly unrelated topics, was carried out by the research teams of Mihály Kovács (Department of Biochemistry) and Máté Varga (Department of Genetics) and published in the...

NASA's ECOSTRESS detects 'heat islands' in extreme Indian heat wave

A relentless heat wave has blanketed India and Pakistan since mid-March, causing dozens of deaths, fires, increased air pollution, and reduced crop yields. Weather forecasts show no prospect of relief any time soon. NASA's Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station instrument (ECOSTRESS) has been measuring these temperatures from space, at the highest spatial resolution of...

Image: A small sombrero for Hubble

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has allowed astronomers to view galaxies of all shapes and sizes from nearly every angle. When a galaxy is seen edge-on, the mesmerizing perspective reveals a dazzling slice of the universe. The "Little Sombrero," also known as NGC 7814 or Caldwell 43, is one such galaxy.

Study finds disparities in natural gas leak prevalence in US urban areas

A Colorado State University-led study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology reveals that in U.S. cities over a several-year period, natural gas pipeline leaks were more prevalent in neighborhoods with low-income or majority non-white populations than those with high income or predominately white populations.

New nanomechanical oscillators with record-low loss

The vibrational modes of nanomechanical resonators are analogous to different notes of a guitar string and have similar properties such as frequency (pitch) and lifetime. The lifetime is characterized by the quality factor, which is the number of times that the resonator oscillates until its energy is reduced by 70%. The quality factor is crucial for the modern applications of mechanical...

Hunga volcano eruption provides an explosion of data

The massive Jan. 15, 2022, eruption of the Hunga submarine volcano in the South Pacific Ocean created a variety of atmospheric wave types, including booms heard 6,200 miles away in Alaska. It also created an atmospheric pulse that caused an unusual tsunami-like disturbance that arrived at Pacific shores sooner than the actual tsunami.

Small microring array enables large complex-valued matrix multiplication

Optical computing uses photons instead of electrons to perform computations, which can significantly increase the speed and energy efficiency of computations by overcoming the inherent limitations of electrons. The basic principle of optical computing is the light-matter interaction. Matrix computing has become one of the most widely used and indispensable information processing tools in science...

Study sheds light on what influences water supplied by snowmelt

Water often falls from the sky and is stored in mountains across the U.S. as snow before it melts and flows down to urban and rural communities. Knowing what factors influence when and how much of that snowmelt ultimately makes it to streams, rivers and reservoirs is crucial for water managers trying to make the most of limited water resources. A new study led by researchers at University of...

Inside the mind of a spider

For a creature that—legs and all—might be no larger than a pencil eraser, spiders continue to surprise researchers with their cognitive abilities.

Jellyfish's stinging cells hold clues to biodiversity

The cnidocytes -- or stinging cells -- that are characteristic of sea anemones, hydrae, corals and jellyfish, and make us careful of our feet while wading in the ocean, are also an excellent model for understanding the emergence of new cell types, according to new research.

What we're still learning about how trees grow

A new study finds that tree growth does not seem to be generally limited by photosynthesis but rather by cell growth. This suggests that we need to rethink the way we forecast forest growth in a changing climate, and that forests in the future may not be able to absorb as much carbon from the atmosphere as we thought.

When quan­tum par­ti­cles fly like bees

A quantum system with only 51 charged atoms can take on more than two quadrillion different states. Calculating the system's behavior is child's play for a quantum simulator. But verifying the result is almost impossible, even with today's supercomputers. A research team has now shown how these systems can be verified using equations formulated in the 18th century.

Mind the gap: Space inside eggs steers first few steps of life

Imagine sitting at a meeting where the shape of the table and your place at it might impact how you get along with the other members. Cells also communicate with their nearest neighbors, and in embryos, nothing is left to chance in the 'seating plan' for the first few cells. However, questions remain about the how this process is controlled and how it can influence the overall growth of an...

Massive single-cell atlas across human tissues highlights cell types where disease genes are active

Genetic studies have revealed many genes linked to both common and rare disease, but to understand how those genes bring about disease and use those insights to help develop therapies, scientists need to know where they are active in the body. Research on single cells can help achieve this goal, by surveying gene activity in specific cell types. Scientists need to profile all cell types and...

The Higgs boson and the rise of the standard model of particle physics in the 1970s

At the dawn of the 1970s, the idea of a massive scalar boson as the keystone of a unified theoretical model of the weak and electromagnetic interactions had yet to become anchored in a field that was still learning to live with what we now know as the standard model of particle physics. As the various breakthroughs of the decade gradually consolidated this theoretical framework, the...

'Tabula sapiens' multi-organ cell atlas already yielding surprises for biologists

With rare exceptions, each of the trillions of cells in our bodies carries an exact duplicate of the human genome, which contains between 20,000 and 25,000 protein-coding genes. But to carry out the specialized functions that make life possible, organs like the kidney, lung, heart, and brain rely on tissues built from distinctive cell types, which come about when individual cells develop to...

Mind the gap: Space inside eggs steers first few steps of life

Imagine sitting at a meeting where the shape of the table and your place at it might impact how you get along with the other members. Cells also communicate with their nearest neighbors, and in embryos, nothing is left to chance in the "seating plan" for the first few cells. However, questions remain about the how this process is controlled and how it can influence the overall growth of an...

Bacteria with recording function capture gut health status

Researchers from ETH Zurich, University Hospital of Bern and the University of Bern have equipped gut bacteria with data logger functionality as a way of monitoring which genes are active in the bacteria. These microorganisms could one day offer a noninvasive means of diagnosing disease or assessing the impact of a diet on health.