169 articles from WEDNESDAY 1.6.2022

The scientist helping to develop the axolotl as a model

With its amazing capacity to regenerate tissues and organs, its ability to reproduce in a laboratory environment and the ease with which its genes can be manipulated, the Mexican salamander, or axolotl, holds enormous promise as a model for the study of regenerative medicine.

Young adults turn crushes into love, study suggests

The image of young adults living in a hookup culture with emotionally meaningless relationships might be a common theme in movies and daytime talk shows. But it does not seem to be the norm in real college life, suggests a new study from University of California, Davis, researchers.

Metal mayhem: New research finds toxic metals absorbed by Great Salt Lake plants and insects

Plants in Great Salt Lake wetland ecosystems are able to pull hazardous metal pollution from the lake and sometimes pass it up the food chain, according to work by a team of researchers from the Department of Watershed Sciences led by Edd Hammill. The study, coauthored by former master's student Maya Pendleton and current faculty Janice Brahney, Karin Kettenring, and Trisha Atwood, sampled three...

What's Up: June 2022 Skywatching Tips from NASA

What's Up for June? A planetary breakup, prime viewing for a well-known star cluster, and the constellation Lyra. The gathering of four naked-eye planets we've been enjoying in the morning sky for the past few months – including several close conjunctions, is beginning to break up. Over the next few months, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus will appear increasingly spread out across the...

Scientists developing the axolotl as a model for regeneration

Scientists are working toward establishing the Mexican salamander, or axolotl, as a laboratory model for the study of regeneration. With the ability to regenerate almost any body part, the axolotl is nature's champion of regeneration. The development of new tools to work with the axolotl is elevating it to the level of established research models and positioning the community of scientists who...

Discovery of mosquito survival tactics leaves room for new disease vector control tactics

The appendages that protrude from a mosquito's head hold the sensory systems that account for nearly all of its ability to detect and respond to a wide range of chemical signals that are critical for its reproduction and its survival. At the molecular level, these systems rely on genes that make up three families of chemosensory receptors. These genes include gustatory (taste) receptors,...

Better than CRISPR? Another way to fix gene problems may be safer and more versatile

Some content has been removed for formatting reasons. Please view the original article for the best reading experience. Tools such as CRISPR that snip DNA to alter its sequence are moving tantalizingly close to the clinic as treatment for some genetic diseases. But away from the limelight, researchers are increasingly excited about an alternative that leaves a DNA sequence unchanged....

Monkeypox is a new global threat. African scientists know what the world is up against

Some content has been removed for formatting reasons. Please view the original article for the best reading experience. As monkeypox stokes here-we-go-again fears in a pandemic-weary world, some researchers in Africa are having their own sense of déjà vu. Another neglected tropical disease of the poor gets attention only after it starts to infect people in wealthy countries. “It’s as...

Study finds elk hoof disease may affect antlers

A disease in elk that causes deformed hooves and eventually leads to lameness and death is also associated with abnormal, asymmetrical antlers, a Washington State University-led study of hunter reports has found.

Disbanding police departments doesn't affect crime levels, says new report

Disbanding city police departments and shifting law enforcement responsibilities to county governments appears to have no effect on overall crime rates and leads to fewer police-related deaths, according to new Rice University research. But the same study indicates those communities may be less likely to report their crime statistics to the FBI.

Consumers embrace milk carton QR codes, may cut food waste

The "use-by" and "best-by" dates printed on milk cartons and gallon jugs may soon become a thing of the past, giving way to more accurate and informative QR codes. A new Cornell University study finds that consumers will use the QR codes to better depict how long the milk is drinkable and create substantially less agricultural and food waste.

Physicists demonstrate novel mechanism that can prevent light waves from spreading freely

In collaboration with the group of Professor Mordechai Segev (Technion, Israel Institute of Technology), physicists from the group of Professor Alexander Szameit (University of Rostock) have demonstrated a novel type of mechanism that can prevent light waves from spreading freely. So far, the underlying physical effect had been considered far too weak to fully arrest wave expansion. In their...