128 articles from MONDAY 26.9.2022
Space station flies over Hurricane Ian – video
Footage released by Nasa shows a view of Hurricane Ian that can be seen from the International Space Station as it flies over the storm. Hurricane Ian moved near the Cayman Islands and closer to western Cuba early on Monday on course to hit Florida as a major hurricane this week. A surge of up to 2.4 metres (8ft) of ocean water and 25cm (10in) of rain, with as much as 38cm (15in) in...
Not just for the gods: New insight on the use of cacao among the ancient Maya
It was the money that grew on trees.
Vulnerable Tampa Bay braces for storm not seen in a century
It's been more than a century since a major storm like Hurricane Ian has struck the Tampa Bay area, which blossomed from a few hundred thousand people in 1921 to more than 3 million today.
Female fruit flies enter the ring of sexual competition
When it comes to sexual competition, males have the star role. Clashing bodies, locking horns, biting and kicking are all considered fair play. Since these behaviors are so salient and robust, most studies focus on male behavior, leaving females aside.
Team of physicists finds signs of pentaquark states and new matter
Theorists at the University of Pittsburgh and Swansea University have shown that recent experimental results from the CERN collider give strong evidence for a new form of matter.
New study allows scientists to test therapeutics for rare neurodegenerative disease affecting young children
For the first time, scientists will be able to test therapeutics for a group of rare neurodegenerative diseases that affect infants and young children, thanks to a new research model created by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Physicists shed light on a different kind of chaos
Physicists at UC Santa Barbara, the University of Maryland, and the University of Washington have found an answer to the longstanding physics question: How do interparticle interactions affect dynamical localization?
New theory upends what we know about how charged macromolecules self-assemble
In a discovery with wide-ranging implications, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that uniformly charged macromolecules—or molecules, such as proteins or DNA, that contain a large number of atoms all with the same electrical charge—can self-assemble into very large structures. This finding upends our...
Climate change makes living at the coast riskier, but more people keep coming
Among the counties that trace the coastline of the contiguous United States, two very different pictures emerged from the latest census.
In a 'return to nature,' California legalizes human composting for environmental benefits
Californians will soon have a new end-of-life burial option: human composting.
Humanity healed the ozone hole. Can we do the same for climate change?
The year was 1987, and Earth's shield against the giant thermonuclear reaction in the sky was failing.
Often overlooked, molecules called glycans regulate COVID-19 spike protein function
If you're an avid reader of science news, you've probably heard of viral proteins such as the COVID-19 spike protein.
NASA spacecraft closes in on asteroid for head-on collision
A NASA spacecraft closed in on an asteroid at blistering speed Monday in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a killer rock menaces Earth.
Meet the women hunting giant pythons 'eating everything' in the Everglades
Donna Kalil loves snakes. She's been fascinated by them since she was a kid living in the mountains of Venezuela's capital in the 1960s, where her father was stationed as an Air Force pilot.
Federal fraud charges crumble in cases against scientists with China ties
The U.S. government overplayed its hand in prosecuting U.S. academics under the controversial China Initiative, three federal courts ruled last week.
In separate cases, attorneys for the Department of Justice (DOJ) had maintained that chemist Franklin Tao, materials scientist Zhengdong Cheng, and mathematician Mingqing Xiao jeopardized the nation’s security and defrauded the...
Study shows smartphones promise satisfaction and meaning, but deliver only more searching
Smartphone users will be disappointed if they expect their devices and social media to fill their need for purpose and meaning. In fact, it will probably do the opposite, researchers at Baylor and Campbell Universities have found in a recently published study.
The asteroid that formed Vredefort crater was bigger than previously believed
About 2 billion years ago, an impactor hurtled toward Earth, crashing into the planet in an area near present-day Johannesburg, South Africa. The impactor—most likely an asteroid—formed what is today the biggest crater on our planet. Scientists have widely accepted, based on previous research, that the impact structure, known as the Vredefort crater, was formed by an object about 15 kilometers...
Cuba issues cyclone alert as Hurricane Ian nears
Cuba on Monday declared a cyclone alert in its six most western provinces as fast-approaching Hurricane Ian strengthened rapidly, with Florida also ramping up preparations ahead of a possible hit.
The neighbors of the caliph: Archaeologists uncover ancient mosaics on the shore of the Sea of Galilee
With the help of geomagnetic surface surveys and subsequent hands-on digging, an excavation team from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has revealed new insights into the area in which the caliph's palace of Khirbat al-Minya was built on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. According to these findings, there had already been a settlement occupied by Christian or Jewish inhabitants in the...
Researchers design treatment to protect bones during cancer therapy
University of Central Florida material sciences engineers Melanie Coathup and Sudipta Seal have designed a cerium oxide nanoparticle—an artificial enzyme—that protects bones against damage from radiation. The nanoparticle has also shown abilities to improve bone regeneration, reduce loss of blood cells and help kill cancer cells.
Ian could become 'catastrophic' Category 4 hurricane. NASA considers stashing rocket
Tropical Storm Ian was forecast to rapidly gain strength Sunday while racing across the Caribbean toward Cuba and threatening a big hit to Florida's west coast later in the week.
Report: More than 1,000 wild horses sent to slaughter
The American Wild Horse Campaign released a report Friday documenting that 1,020 federally-protected wild horses and burros have been sold at slaughter auctions in the last 22 months.
States take on PFAS 'forever chemicals' with bans, lawsuits
"Forever chemicals" are everywhere. The thousands of chemicals in the group known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are found in cookware, packaging, cosmetics, clothing, carpet, electronics, firefighting foam and many other products.
Study finds all African carnivores at risk for range loss
A new Yale School of the Environment-led analysis identifying gaps in maps that help forecast range contractions for African species found that all species studied have a portion of their range at risk and small carnivores warrant more concern.
What keeps plant roots growing toward gravity? Study identifies four genes
What happens belowground in a corn field is easy to overlook, but corn root architecture can play an important role in water and nutrient acquisition, affecting drought tolerance, water use efficiency, and sustainability. If breeders could encourage corn roots to grow down at a steeper angle, the crop could potentially access important resources deeper in the soil.
New study shows transmission of epigenetic memory across multiple generations
Without altering the genetic code in the DNA, epigenetic modifications can change how genes are expressed, affecting an organism's health and development. The once radical idea that such changes in gene expression can be inherited now has a growing body of evidence behind it, but the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood.
Bank closures across the UK drive people to the Post Office to handle cash
The rise in local banking branches closing across the UK has increased the demand for access to cash deposit services at Post Offices, new research has found.
Discovery of the largest natural carbon onions on Earth
Recently, a study led by Dr. Yilin Chen, Prof. Yong Qin, Dr. Jiuqing Li, Associate Prof. Zhuangfu Li, Tianyu Yang (China University of Mining and Technology) and Dr. Ergang Lian (Tongji University) was published in Science China Earth Sciences. The research team identified natural carbon onions (onion-like fullerenes) in intrusion-affected coal samples collected from Permian coal-bearing strata in...