127 articles from FRIDAY 2.9.2022
Fur traps fingered as source of grizzly injuries
In 2016, wildlife biologist Clayton Lamb was securing a GPS collar to a tranquilized grizzly bear in southeastern British Columbia when he noticed one of its paws was missing three toes. Weird, he remembers thinking, but not surprising for the rough-and-tumble animals. Then, three more grizzlies popped up sporting similarly mangled paws. Anxious to solve the mystery behind this grisly...
Exoplanets Have Been Impossible to Photograph Directly—Until Now
There’s nothing terribly special about the exoplanet known as HIP 65426 b. It’s a gas giant nine times the mass of Jupiter, orbiting its host star 385 light years from Earth. Just one of at least 5,000 exoplanets astronomers have detected, it could easily go overlooked. But, as NASA announced yesterday, HIP 65426 b is all at once very big news—becoming the first exoplanet...
Scientists find cold spells in the tropics increase heart attack risk
- ScienceDaily
- 22/9/2 21:49
Even a small temperature drop in the tropical climate of Singapore increases the risk of heart attack among people aged 65 and above.
COVID-19: U.S. life expectancy continued to decrease in 2021, study finds
- ScienceDaily
- 22/9/2 21:49
An updated analysis of American COVID-19 deaths throughout 2021 highlights a continued drop in overall life expectancy as well as persistent disparities by race and ethnicity.
Making nanodiamonds out of bottle plastic
- ScienceDaily
- 22/9/2 21:49
What goes on inside planets like Neptune and Uranus? To find out, an international team conducted a novel experiment. They fired a laser at a thin film of simple PET plastic and investigated what happened using intensive laser flashes. One result was that the researchers were able to confirm their earlier thesis that it really does rain diamonds inside the ice giants at the periphery of our solar...
Artificial intelligence can be used to better monitor Maine's forests
- ScienceDaily
- 22/9/2 21:49
Researchers have developed a novel method of using artificial intelligence and machine learning to make monitoring soil moisture more energy and cost efficient. The software learns over time how to make the best use of available network resources, which helps produce power efficient systems at a lower cost for large scale monitoring compared to the existing industry standards.
Conflictive home-host country relations have a strong, negative effect on policy risk
Policy risk negatively affects acquisition completion, but the strength of the effect is dependent on home-host country relations, according to new research published in Global Strategy Journal. The relationship between policy risk and cross-border acquisition completion is negative and strong under conflictive relations, weaker under cooperative relations, and weakest under ambivalent relations,...
Dead fish are piling up on San Francisco Bay Area shores: A toxic algae bloom is the likely cause
Thousands of dead fish and other marine life carcasses are washing ashore in the San Francisco Bay Area, creating a foul smell. Experts point to an unprecedented "red tide" algae bloom as the mostly likely cause.
Investigating magnetic excitation-induced spin current in chromium trihalides
An ingenious approach toward developing low-power, high-speed, and high-density memory devices is based on spintronics, an emerging frontier in technology that harnesses a degree of freedom of electrons known as spin. Put simply, electrons, along with their negative charge, possess a spin whose orientation can be controlled using magnetic fields. This is particularly relevant for magnetic...
'Diamond rain' on giant icy planets could be more common than previously thought
A new study has found that "diamond rain," a long-hypothesized exotic type of precipitation on ice giant planets, could be more common than previously thought.
New report on impact of pandemic on learning experiences of young people with disabilities
The first report to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the learning experiences of young people with disabilities has been published. Researchers at University College Cork (UCC) examined how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected young people with disabilities' experience of learning and vocational training, and what we can learn from this about future education and employment practices...
African countries to stand by 1.5C target at climate talkstalks
African countries on Friday agreed on a common push to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius—a goal that scientists fear is increasingly elusive—at upcoming UN climate talks.
What's the future of work from home?
With rapidly evolving technology, the COVID-19 pandemic and shifting priorities, there have been major changes in recent years in how employers and employees think about work.
Improving the detection of African swine fever virus antibodies in serum
African swine fever (ASF) is a highly infectious and fatal disease of pigs. Due to the complexity of the ASF virus (ASFV) and various clinical forms of the disease, a wide range of highly effective and robust sero-diagnostic assays are required.
Researcher says job licensing doesn't keep people from moving—community plays a bigger role
Families hosting weddings near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have 156 florists from which to choose, according to online registry The Knot.
The scent that could save California's avocados
UC Riverside scientists are on the hunt for a chemical that disrupts "evil" weevils' mating and could prevent them from destroying California's supply of avocados.
EP-WXT pathfinder catches first wide-field snapshots of X-ray universe
EP-WXT Pathfinder, the experimental version of a module that will eventually be part of the wide-field X-ray telescope (WXT) aboard the astronomical satellite Einstein Probe (EP), released its first results Aug. 27 from an earlier test flight. These include an 800-second X-ray time-lapse photograph of a region of the Galactic center, a dense area at the core of our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
Development of a new end-functionalization technique in polymer synthesis
Vinyl polymerization (polymerization of vinyl compounds) is a useful method for preparing sp3-carbon-based main-chain polymers including commodity plastics, where the polymer backbone is constructed from a two-carbon unit derived from vinyl groups of monomers.
Climate anxiety an important driver for climate action, according to new study
The first-ever detailed study of climate anxiety among the UK adult population suggests that whilst rates are currently low, people's fears about the future of the planet might be an important trigger for action when it comes to adapting our high-carbon lifestyles to become more environmentally friendly.
Sexual harassment plagues Antarctic research
The U.S. Antarctic research program is
rife with sexual harassment and assault, according to a report released last week
. Commissioned by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which manages the program, and written by an external firm, the report also found that those working in Antarctica largely don’t trust their employers to take harassment complaints seriously, to...
New study confirms 'rippled sheet' protein structure predicted in 1953
An unusual protein structure known as a "rippled beta sheet," first predicted in 1953, has now been created in the laboratory and characterized in detail using X-ray crystallography.
Did primitive cetaceans feed like marine reptiles?
Did the first ancestors of whales pick up where the mosasaurs left off 66 million years ago, after the extinction of all the large predatory marine reptiles?
Dual-polarization two-dimensional valley photonic crystals
The introduction of topology in photonic systems has attracted considerable attention not only for the elaborate molding of light but also for its practical applications in novel photonic devices. Originally, the quantum Hall effect of light was realized in photonic crystals (PCs) by introducing external electric or magnetic fields to break the time-reversal symmetry (TRS).
Boy's discovery reveals highly complex plant-insect interaction
When eight-year-old Hugo Deans discovered a handful of BB-sized objects lying near an ant nest beneath a log in his backyard, he thought they were a type of seed. His father, Andrew Deans, professor of entomology at Penn State, however, knew immediately what they were—oak galls, or plant growths triggered by insects. What he didn't realize right away was that the galls were part of an elaborate...
EU guidelines for procurement during the COVID-19 crisis may lead to increased corruption
Shouldn't common provisions for procurement within the EU lead to increased central control and better coordination? Yes, but the guidelines introduced during the COVID-19 crisis were at the same time so flexible that they can also result in increased corruption and reduced legitimacy. This is shown by Brigitte Pircher, associate professor of political science, in a new research article.
Largest database on mammals in Portugal now available
The research team of the Red List of Mammals in Portugal, which is working on reviewing the threat and conservation status of these species in this country, carried out an "unprecedented compilation" of data on georeferenced occurrences of mammals in mainland Portugal and the Azores and Madeira.
Uptick in East Coast shark sightings has lifeguards on alert and experts searching for answers
Cary Epstein has always known sharks lurk in the ocean off the Long Island shore. But it wasn't until recently that the New York lifeguard started to see them for himself.
Researchers study how urban trees affect environment
Everyone knows that trees provide shade. What may be less obvious are their contributions to evaporative cooling. Think of tree roots drawing water from the ground and pumping it to their leaves, which effectively sweat H2O, cooling the air around them in the process.
Biochemists reveal how complex molecule moves iron through body
New research provides fresh insight into how an important class of molecules are created and moved in human cells.
Motion of DNA linked to its damage response, ability to repair itself
A multidisciplinary team of Indiana University researchers have discovered that the motion of chromatin, the material that DNA is made of, can help facilitate effective repair of DNA damage in the human nucleus—a finding that could lead to improved cancer diagnosis and treatment. Their findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Putting the food system in context
Innovations that make the food supply chain more "responsible"—eco-friendly, good for public health, fairer to farmers—will come faster if the contexts that set the stage for them are better understood, according to a new Université de Montréal study.
New study confirms 'rippled sheet' protein structure predicted in 1953
- ScienceDaily
- 22/9/2 18:27
An unusual protein structure known as a 'rippled beta sheet,' first predicted in 1953, has now been created in the laboratory and characterized in detail using x-ray crystallography. The new findings may enable the rational design of unique materials based on the rippled sheet architecture.