183 articles from THURSDAY 19.1.2023

How pancreatic cancer defies treatment

Researchers describe how pancreatic cancer stem cells leverage a protein in a family of proteins that normally suppress tumors to instead do the opposite, boosting their resistance to conventional treatments and spurring growth.

How to push, wiggle, or drill an object through sand

Researchers developed a faster and simpler way to model the forces needed to push, wiggle, and drill an object through soft, granular material in real-time. The methods could help engineers drive a rover over Martian soil, anchor a ship in rough seas, and walk a robot through sand and mud.

Ionic liquids' good vibrations change laser colors with ease

Not every laser color is available with the right properties for a specific job. To fix that, scientists have found a variety of ways to convert one color of laser light into another. In a new study scientists demonstrate a new color-shifting strategy that's simple, efficient, and highly customizable.

Electronic nose: Sensing the odor molecules on graphene surface layered with self-assembled peptides

Graphene-based olfactory sensors that can detect odor molecules based on the design of peptide sequences were recently demonstrated. The findings indicated that graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) functionalized with designable peptides can be used to develop electronic devices that mimic olfactory receptors and emulate the sense of smell by selectively detecting odor molecules.

Product images could boost food pantry use

Even though one in 10 U.S. households is food insecure, only 28% of those 13.5 million households took advantage of food pantries in 2021—partly because of the perception that food pantry offerings are lower quality than what's available in grocery stores, according to new Cornell research.

Tracing the flow of water with eDNA

Where does the water come from that provides drinking water to people in a particular region? What feeds these sources and how long does it take for groundwater to make its way back up to the surface? This hydrological cycle is a complex interplay of various factors. A better grasp of the system allows us to understand, for example, why pollution is worse in some spots than others, and it can help...

Study links viral infections to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s—with many caveats

A massive data mining study has found numerous associations between common viruses like the flu and devastating neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease). The findings expand on previous research linking individual viruses to neurological diseases. But experts caution that...

The genes that made whales gigantic

New research published in Scientific Reports reveals the genes that likely allowed whales to grow to giant sizes compared to their ancestors. The findings highlight the role of four genes (called GHSR, IGFBP7, NCAPG, and PLAG1), and suggest that they promote large body sizes while mitigating potentially negative effects, such as increased cancer risk.

Black-legged tick genome deciphered

Scientists have deciphered a comprehensive, continuous genome for a parasite responsible for transmitting Lyme disease and other serious infections to hundreds of thousands of Americans yearly. With their newly described genome for the black-legged tick, or deer tick, the researchers identified thousands of novel genes and new protein functions, including proteins associated with tick immunity,...

Approaching the terahertz regime

A class of nonvolatile memory devices, called MRAM, based on quantum magnetic materials, can offer a thousandfold performance beyond current state-of-the-art memory devices. The materials known as antiferromagnets were previously demonstrated to store stable memory states, but were difficult to read from. This new study paves an efficient way for reading the memory states, with the potential to do...

Specific immune response to Epstein-Barr virus discovered

Medical science has not yet been able to explain why the Epstein-Barr virus triggers infectious mononucleosis (IM) in some people with initial infections and not in others. But now, a research team has identified a specific immune response to the virus as the cause, and as a potential target for the development of vaccines.

Violence was widespread in early farming society

Violence and warfare were widespread in many Neolithic communities across Northwest Europe, a period associated with the adoption of farming, new research suggests. Of the skeletal remains of more than 2300 early farmers from 180 sites dating from around 8000 -- 4000 years ago to, more than one in ten displayed weapon injuries, bioarchaeologists found.

Bacterial electricity: Membrane potential influences antibiotic tolerance

The electrical potential across the bacterial cell envelope indicates when bacteria no longer operate as individual cells but as a collective. Researchers have discovered this connection between the electrical properties and the lifestyle of bacteria. Although bacteria are single cellular organisms, they form spatially structured communities, so-called biofilms. Within biofilms, bacteria behave as...