88 articles from MONDAY 10.10.2022

Ancient Mars could have been teeming with microbial life, researchers find

If the hydrogen-gobbling, methane-producing microorganisms existed, they would have caused their own demiseAncient Mars may have had an environment capable of harboring an underground world teeming with microscopic organisms, French scientists reported on Monday. But if they existed, these simple life forms would have altered the atmosphere so profoundly that they triggered a Martian Ice Age and...

Team develops biocompatible adhesive applicable to hair transplants

Medical adhesives are materials that can be applied to various uses such as wound healing, hemostasis, vascular anastomosis, and tissue engineering, and they are expected to contribute greatly to the development of minimally invasive surgery and organ transplants. However, adhesives that have high adhesion and low toxicity while also being capable of decomposing in the body are rare.

Researchers reveal molecular mechanism behind pigment production in skin cells

The pigments that create skin, hair, and eye color are produced in organelles called melanosomes, which are located within skin cells called melanocytes and several types of eye pigment cells. Albinism, a condition characterized by an absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes, occurs when mutations within genes responsible for melanosome function or supporting cellular machinery prevent...

AI predicts physics of future fault slip in laboratory earthquakes

An artificial intelligence approach borrowed from natural language processing—much like language translation and autofill for text on your smart phone—can predict future fault friction and the next failure time with high resolution in laboratory earthquakes. The technique, applying AI to the fault's acoustic signals, advances previous work and goes beyond by predicting aspects of the future...

Evidence suggests pandemic came from nature, not a lab, panel says

The acrimonious debate over the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic flared up again this week with a report from an expert panel concluding that SARS-CoV-2 likely spread naturally in a zoonotic jump from an animal to humans—without help from a lab. “Our paper recognizes that there are different possible origins, but the evidence towards zoonosis is overwhelming,” says...

Why the Salton Sea is turning into toxic dust

The Salton Sea, California's most polluted inland lake, has lost a third of its water in the last 25 years. New research has determined a decline in Colorado River flow is the reason for that shrinking.

Wildlife trade threatening unprotected animals

International trade in animals not regulated by multilateral agreements is putting them under increasing threat. More than three times the number of unregulated animal species are being imported into the United States compared to the number of regulated species.

Nanomaterial from the Middle Ages

To gild sculptures in the late Middle Ages, artists often applied ultra-thin gold foil supported by a silver base layer. For the first time, scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have managed to produce nanoscale 3D images of this material, known as Zwischgold. The pictures show this was a highly sophisticated medieval production technique and demonstrate why restoring such precious gilded...