107 articles from MONDAY 24.10.2022
Lights, hurricane, action: Preparing for and enduring big storms
Hurricane damages cost an average of $20.5 billion per event in the United States. Their effects are widespread and often chronic, with loss of infrastructure, communities, and lives. The aftershocks ripple out farther still—pressure is mounting on the nation's electricity grid as the frequency and intensity of hurricanes climb ever higher.
Diplomacy, military power combined to settle superpower dispute over missiles in Cuba
As concerns grow that the war in Ukraine could expand into a nuclear conflict, U.S. President Joe Biden compared the current situation to the Cuban missile crisis, a Cold War confrontation between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. over Soviet missiles placed in Cuba in 1962.
Q&A with a chromosome cartographer
La Jolla Institute for Immunology Associate Professor Ferhat Ay, Ph.D., is building some of the world's smallest maps. Dr. Ay harnesses computers to transform DNA genomic sequences into 3D maps. These maps can reveal how genes interact and how the body fights disease.
Balancing risk and reward in planetary exploration
NASA's Mars rovers strive for groundbreaking scientific discoveries as they traverse the Martian landscape. At the same time, the crews operating the rovers do all they can to protect them and the billions of dollars behind the mission. This balance between risk and reward drives the decisions surrounding where the rovers go, the paths they take to get there and the science they uncover.
With scanning ultrafast electron microscopy, researchers unveil hot photocarrier transport properties of cubic boron
In a study that confirms its promise as the next-generation semiconductor material, UC Santa Barbara researchers have directly visualized the photocarrier transport properties of cubic boron arsenide single crystals.
A small peptide peps up almond defense against devastating bacteria
Over the last decade, the lush olive groves one associates with the Italian countryside have become desiccated, as if stuck in a perpetual winter. The culprit is Xylella fastidiosa, a species of aggressive bacteria that have caused devastating epidemics in several important crops. X. fastidiosa now threatens almonds, olives, and grapevines—staples of Europe's economy and cuisine.
Fossil bird's skull reconstruction reveals a brain made for smelling and eyes made for daylight
Jeholornis was a raven-sized bird that lived 120 million years ago, among the earliest examples of dinosaurs evolving into birds, in what's now China. The fossils that have been found are finely preserved but smashed flat, the result of layers of sediment being deposited over the years. That means that no one's been able to get a good look at Jeholornis's head. But in a new study, researchers...
Biblical military campaigns reconstructed using geomagnetic field data
- ScienceDaily
- 22/10/24 21:36
Researchers reconstructed the geomagnetic fields recorded in 21 archaeological destruction layers throughout Israel and used the data to develop a reliable new scientific tool for archaeological dating. The new tool enables the verification of Old Testament accounts of the Egyptian, Aramean, Assyrian, and Babylonian military campaigns against the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
Study uncovers mechanisms necessary for SARS-CoV-2 infection in macrophages
- ScienceDaily
- 22/10/24 21:36
Researchers have identified a receptor, CD169 (also called Siglec1), that is exclusively expressed on macrophages and contributes to the hyper-inflammatory response of macrophages upon infection with SARS-CoV-2. These findings, they believe, may provide an explanation of how SARS-CoV-2 infection of macrophages in lungs of COVID-19 patients promote inflammatory responses.
Fossil bird's skull reconstruction reveals a brain made for smelling and eyes made for daylight
- ScienceDaily
- 22/10/24 21:36
Piecing together the crushed skull of a fossil bird that lived alongside the dinosaurs helped researchers extrapolate what its brain would have looked like: big olfactory bulbs would have meant that this bird, the earliest known animal to eat fruit, had a better sense of smell than most modern birds. And the bones around its eye sockets revealed that it would have been better at seeing by day than...
Study looks inside the brain during sleep to show how memory is stored
- ScienceDaily
- 22/10/24 21:36
A new study looks deep inside the brain, where previous learning was reactivated during sleep, resulting in improved memory. Neuroscientists teamed up with clinicians to study the brain electrical activity in five of the center's patients in response to sounds administered by the research team as part of a learning exercise. While prior studies have used EEG recordings captured by electrodes on...
A new approach, not currently described by the Clean Air Act, could eliminate air pollution disparities
- ScienceDaily
- 22/10/24 21:36
Researchers wanted to know if the Clean Air Act is capable of reducing air pollution disparities or if a new approach would be needed. The team compared two approaches that mirror main aspects of the Clean Air Act and a third approach that is not commonly used to see if it would be better at addressing disparities across the contiguous U.S.
Young child's brain, not age, determines nap transitions, research suggests
- ScienceDaily
- 22/10/24 21:36
Why do some 4- and 5-year-olds still nap like clockwork every afternoon, while other preschoolers start giving up habitual napping at age 3? It's a question many parents no doubt ponder and one that a sleep scientist has been considering for years. Now, sleep scientists describe a new theory about why and when young children transition out of naps. It's not about age as much as the brain.
Real-time air quality data 'life saving'
- ScienceDaily
- 22/10/24 21:36
Research has found sharing real-time air quality readings in developing countries can reduce air pollution and lead to lower mortality rates.
During sleep, one brain region teaches another, converting novel data into enduring memories
- ScienceDaily
- 22/10/24 21:36
Using a neural network model, neuroscientists have found that, as the brain moves between REM and slow-wave sleep cycles, the hippocampus teaches the neocortex what it learned. This process seems to convert novel, fleeting data into enduring memories.
Laying geological groundwork for life on Earth
- ScienceDaily
- 22/10/24 21:33
New research analyzing pieces of the most ancient rocks on the planet adds some of the sharpest evidence yet that Earth's crust was pushing and pulling in a manner similar to modern plate tectonics at least 3.25 billion years ago. The study also provides the earliest proof of when the planet's magnetic north and south poles swapped places.
The latest US winter outlook spells trouble for dry California
A warm, dry winter is in store for much of California as La Niña conditions are slated to persist through at least January, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Offshore mussel farms could have wider environmental benefits
Aquaculture is fast becoming integral to global food security, and to feed the world's growing population, it is expected to continue expanding rapidly in the coming years.
Global climate summit is heading for a geopolitical hurricane
The last time world leaders got together for a climate summit, the backdrop was thoroughly menacing. A pandemic had decimated national budgets. Poor countries were up in arms over the hoarding of COVID-19 vaccines by the same wealthy nations whose fossil fuel consumption did most to warm the planet. Relations between the two largest emitters, the U.S. and China, had devolved into zero sum...
Geomagnetic fields reveal the truth behind Biblical narratives
A joint study by TAU and the Hebrew University, involving 20 researchers from different countries and disciplines, has accurately dated 21 destruction layers at 17 archaeological sites in Israel by reconstructing the direction and/or intensity of the earth's magnetic field recorded in burnt remnants. The new data verify the Biblical accounts of the Egyptian, Aramean, Assyrian, and Babylonian...
Real-time air quality data can be 'life saving'
Research co-led by The University of Queensland has found sharing real-time air quality readings in developing countries can reduce air pollution and lead to lower mortality rates.