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86 articles from PhysOrg

Novel technology for the selection of single photosynthetic cells

You might need a microscope to witness the next agricultural revolution. New research, published in the journal Science Advances, demonstrates how microfluidic technologies can be used to identify, isolate and propagate specific single photosynthetically active cells for fundamental industry applications and improved ecosystem understanding.

Political ads have little persuasive power: study

Every four years, U.S. presidential campaigns collectively spend billions of dollars flooding TV screens across the country with political ads. But a new study co-authored by Yale political scientist Alexander Coppock shows that, regardless of content, context, or audience, those pricey commercials do little to persuade voters.

Has Earth's oxygen rusted the Moon for billions of years?

To the surprise of many planetary scientists, the oxidized iron mineral hematite has been discovered at high latitudes on the Moon, according to a study published today in Science Advances led by Shuai Li, assistant researcher at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST).

An unprecedented discovery of cell fusion

Like humans, bacteria live together in communities, sometimes lending a hand—or in the case of bacteria, a metabolite or two—to help their neighbors thrive. Understanding how bacteria interact is critical to solving growing problems such as antibiotic resistance, in which infectious bacteria form defenses to thwart the medicines used to fight them.

New study shows birds can learn from others to be more daring

House sparrows can be found on nearly every continent including North America, South America, Africa and Australia, where they are not native but an invasive species. New research into these highly social songbirds reveals that they can learn from each other and adapt their behavior.

Biological control agents can protect soybeans from sudden death syndrome

Sudden death syndrome (SDS) is one of the most destructive diseases of soybean, with losses of nearly 1.7 million metric tons in 2014. The disease is especially severe in the Midwest and North-Central regions, where conditions of high soil humidity and cold weather help the disease grow. SDS is difficult to control as current management practices, which include using fungicide seed treatments and...

Globalization is reweaving the web of life

As introduced species spread around the world, the complex networks of interactions between plants and animals within ecosystems are becoming increasingly similar, a process likely to reinforce globalization's imprint on nature and increase risks of sweeping ecological disruption.

Researcher proposes universal mechanism for ejection of matter by black holes

Black holes can expel a thousand times more matter than they capture. The mechanism that governs both ejection and capture is the accretion disk, a vast mass of gas and dust spiraling around the black hole at extremely high speeds. The disk is hot and emits light as well as other forms of electromagnetic radiation. Part of the orbiting matter is pulled toward the center and disappears behind the...

NASA catches formation of Atlantic's record-breaking 15th tropical storm

Tropical Depression 15 strengthened into a tropical storm late on Sept. 1 and was renamed Omar. Visible imagery from NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite was compiled into an animation that showed the system's formation and strengthening. NASA's Terra satellite also provided temperature data on Omar that revealed wind shear was affecting the storm.

Gut microbiome composition is associated with age and memory performance in pet dogs

Our gut microbiota can crucially influence our behavior and neurodevelopment. New research from the Ethology Department at the Faculty of Science at Eötvös Loránd University indicates that dogs' aging mechanism and memory performance are also linked to their gut microbiome composition. According to the study, dogs and humans may have similar mechanisms in cognitive aging.

Oldest radiocarbon dated temperate hardwood tree in the world discovered in southern Italy

Radiocarbon dating of five large and potentially old sessile oaks from Aspromonte National Parks has revealed a long lifespan ranging from 934 ± 65 to 570 ± 45 years. For a long time, majestic oaks have been considered a symbol of longevity, and this study proves that a millennium age horizon is attainable longevity in angiosperms growing at high-elevation belt in Mediterranean mountains of...

Regional variations in freshwater overconsumption

Freshwater—which falls to the earth as precipitation or exists beneath the surface as groundwater—is desperately needed to sustain people, plants and animals. With an ever-increasing human population, water shortages are already occurring in many areas are only expected to get worse. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology have estimated the freshwater supply and...

Paper ballots, risk-limiting audits can help defend elections and democracy, study finds

With just over two months before the 2020 election, three professors at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business offer a comprehensive review of how other nations are seeking to protect their democratic institutions and presents how a multifaceted, targeted approach is needed to achieve that goal in the U.S., where intelligence officials have warned that Russia and other rivals are again...

A new way of modulating color emissions from transparent films

Scientists are looking at luminescent transparent films for use in energy-efficient displays (such as LED screens) and other applications, and the possibilities it opens up for advancing methodologies in several fields of biological and electronics research. However, although multicolor-emitting transparent solid films have been developed, finding efficient ways to tune the color and intensity of...

Study details how general anesthetics and 'benzos' act on receptors in the brain

As you drift into unconsciousness before a surgery, general anesthetic drugs flowing through your blood are putting you to sleep by binding mainly to a protein in the brain called the γ-aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA) receptor. Now UT Southwestern scientists have shown exactly how anesthetics attach to the GABAA receptor and alter its three-dimensional structure, and how the brain can tell the...

Engineers reprogram yeast cells to become microscopic drug factories

Since antiquity, cultures on nearly every continent have discovered that certain plant leaves, when chewed or brewed or rubbed on the body, could relieve diverse ailments, inspire hallucinations or, in higher dosages, even cause death. Today, pharmaceutical companies import these once-rare plants from specialized farms and extract their active chemical compounds to make drugs like scopolamine for...

Origin of a complex life form revealed

Researchers from McGill University have revealed the steps by which two very distinct organisms—bacteria and carpenter ants—have come to depend on one another for survival to become a single complex life form. The study, published today in Nature, shows that the two species have collaborated to radically alter the development of the ant embryo to allow this integration to happen. Understanding...

Zooming in on dark matter

Cosmologists have zoomed in on the smallest clumps of dark matter in a virtual universe—which could help us to find the real thing in space.

Parasitic plants attack crops when defending themselves from microbes

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan have discovered a link between defensive responses in plants and the beautiful but devastating crop parasite witchweed. Published in Nature, the new study shows that both parasitic and non-parasitic plants can detect and react to a class of organic compounds called quinones. While parasitic plants sense quinones in...

Microbial genetics: A protean pathogen

The bacterium Helicobacter pylori is linked to increased risk of stomach cancer, and is genetically highly variable. A new study by researchers of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich explores the role played by this diversity in the early phase of infection in adult humans.

Spin-galvanic effect in graphene with topological topping demonstrated

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have demonstrated the spin-galvanic effect, which allows for the conversion of non-equilibrium spin density into a charge current. Here, by combining graphene with a topological insulator, the authors realize a gate-tunable spin-galvanic effect at room temperature. The findings were published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

Pharma aims to make a better CBD

Cannabidiol (CBD) is an increasingly popular wellness trend. The compound, which occurs naturally in cannabis plants, is added to many products that claim to reduce anxiety, alleviate pain and more, without the intoxication of its cousin tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). While CBD products are largely unregulated and unproven, companies are working to create CBD-like molecules to develop pharmaceutical...

Nanoparticle-based computing architecture for nanoparticle neural networks

Scalable nanoparticle-based computing architectures have several limitations that can severely compromise the use of nanoparticles to manipulate and process information through molecular computing schemes. The von Neumann architecture (VNA) underlies the operations of multiple arbitrary molecular logic operations in a single chip without rewiring the device. In a new report, Sungi Kim and a team...

Viruses on glaciers highlight evolutionary mechanism to overcome host defenses

Viruses are often thought of as a human problem, however they are the most abundant biological entities on the planet. There are millions of viruses in every teaspoon of river, lake or seawater, they are found everywhere there is life and probably infect all living organisms. Most are completely harmless to humans and infect microscopic animals, plants and bacteria, which they hijack and reprogram...

A molecular approach to quantum computing

The technology behind the quantum computers of the future is fast developing, with several different approaches in progress. Many of the strategies, or "blueprints," for quantum computers rely on atoms or artificial atom-like electrical circuits. In a new theoretical study in the journal Physical Review X, a group of physicists at Caltech demonstrates the benefits of a lesser-studied approach that...