Dong and colleagues studied well-preserved plant fossils from the Middle-Late Jurassic Daohugou Bed in eastern Inner Mongolia, northeastern China. These fossils closely resemble the extant catkin-yews Amentotaxus. They provide unequivocal evidence that the catkin-yews have undergone little morphological change over at least ~160 million years. Like ginkgo, the catkin-yews are living fossils that...

Changes in the immune system can promote healthy ageing

Researchers from the Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine together with colleagues from Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, University of Munich and Sechenov University used computed tomography to analyze the individual anatomy of the nasolabial triangle. They identified possible options for the distribution of blood vessels on three-dimensional course.

The cold, famine and unrest in ancient Rome and Egypt after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE has long been shrouded in mystery. Now, an international team, including researchers from the University of Copenhagen, has found evidence suggesting that the megaeruption of an Alaskan volcano may be to blame.

Consuming protein at night increases blood sugar level in the morning for healthy people, according to new research presented this week at The Physiological Society's virtual early career conference called Future Physiology 2020.

New research explores how lower-latitude oceans drive complex changes in the Arctic Ocean, pushing the region into a new reality distinct from the 20th-century norm.

Lopinavir is a drug against HIV, hydroxychloroquine is used to treat malaria and rheumatism. Until recently, both drugs were regarded as potential agents in the fight against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. A research group from the University of Basel and the University Hospital has now discovered that the concentration of the two drugs in the lungs of Covid-19 patients is not sufficient to fight the...

Optically- and electrically- driven mid-infrared (MIR) light-emitting devices are realized in a simple but novel van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure, constructed from thin-film black phosphorus (BP) and transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDC). This work suggests that vdW heterostructure is a promising platform for mid-infrared research and applications.

A new Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) study published in the Nature journal Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, shows that gun ownership means very different things in different parts of the United States.

Collective behaviour researchers have applied a new tool for analysing the movement of football players that goes beyond looking at individual athletes to capturing how the team operates as a whole. The tool, which comes from statistical physics but has never been used for sports analysis, finds clear differences in collective dynamics between winning and losing teams and can even predict the...

Based on their experience treating COVID-19, Columbia physicians have assembled critical information about the coronavirus's effects on organs outside the lungs.

Based on one new and three recent studies, the authors of this commentary in Pediatrics conclude that children rarely transmit Covid-19, either among themselves or to adults. Based on the evidence, the authors recommend that schools reopen in the fall, since staying home can adversely affect children's development.

A team of researchers from Aarhus University have, for the first time ever, linked 40 years of productivity data from the construction industry with the actual work done. The results show that productivity in the construction industry has been declining since the 1970s. The results also explain the decline and how to achieve far more efficient construction in North America and Europe. The study...

Whether you decided to engage in social distancing in the early stages of COVID-19 depended on how much information your working memory could hold. Researchers found individuals with higher working memory capacity have an increased awareness of benefits over costs of social distancing and show more compliance with recommended social distancing guidelines during the early stage of the COVID-19...

A baby girl in Texas -- born prematurely to a mother with COVID-19 -- is the strongest evidence to date that intrauterine (in the womb) transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can occur, reports The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, the official journal of The European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases. The journal is published in the Lippincott...

Many processes of photosynthesis, including the intake of magnesium, follow a pattern of variation over 24 hours. In a new study, scientists from Okayama University, Japan and Fujian A & F University, China, tested the effect of this variation on the efficiency of photosynthesis in rice plants. Their findings suggest potential candidates for modification for increasing the yield of rice crops,...

Researchers at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia discovered a novel chemical compound, which has the potential to became a new drug for the treatment of core symptoms of brain disorders like Down syndrome and autism. Results are obtained in preclinical models where the new compound ameliorated difficulties in cognitive tasks, social interactions and repetitive behaviors. Researchers aim to...

Changing practices in the HIV/co-infections research community so that women, providers, and policy makers can make evidence-informed decisions around the use of medications during pregnancy is the goal of the new report, Ending the Evidence Gap for Pregnant Women around HIV and Co-infections: A Call to Action, issued today by the Pregnancy and HIV/AIDS: Seeking Equitable Study (PHASES) Working...

Biologists from the University of Bayreuth have discovered a uniquely rapid form of regeneration in injured neurons and their function in the central nervous system of zebrafish. They studies the Mauthner cells, which are solely responsible for the escape behaviour of the fish, and previously regarded as incapable of regeneration. However, their ability to regenerate crucially depends on the...

Climate change will leave some farmers with a difficult conundrum, according to a new study by researchers from Cornell University and Washington State University: Either risk more revenue volatility, or live with a more predictable decrease in crop yields.

Strains of a common subtype of influenza virus, H3N2, have almost universally acquired a mutation that effectively blocks antibodies from binding to a key viral protein.

Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy has shown promising results in the treatment of conditions ranging from liver cirrhosis to retinal damage, but results can be variable. Using a mouse heart failure model, researchers led by Osaka University found that levels of a fat cell-derived hormone called adiponectin in the host significantly affect the efficacy of MSC therapy. Administration of a drug...

In the male-dominated field of surgery, female faculty of training programs tend to receive lower scores than male faculty on their teaching evaluations, which are important for career advancement, past research has found. A new study suggests progress in this apparent gender bias: Among 21 U.S. general surgery residency programs, female faculty scored slightly better overall than male faculty did...

Patients with COVID-19 who have an acute ischemic stroke (AIS) experience more severe strokes, have worse functional outcomes and are more likely to die of stroke than AIS patients who do not have COVID-19. The wide range of complications associated with COVID-19 likely explain the worse outcomes.

Leading health disparities experts hope health institutions will take advantage of a new cancer health equity research volume recently released that curates the latest developments in how researchers can best address health disparities so all patients receive good quality care.

Venus flytraps catch spiders and insects by snapping their trap leaves. This mechanism is activated when unsuspecting prey touch highly sensitive trigger hairs twice within 30 seconds. A study led by researchers at the University of Zurich has now shown that a single slow touch also triggers trap closure - probably to catch slow-moving larvae and snails.

A team of scientists at the University of Vermont have invented a new tool--they call it a "nanocage"--that can catch and straighten out molecule-sized tangles of polymers --whether made of protein or plastic. This tool--that works a bit like pulling a wad of thread through a needle hole--opens a new way to create custom materials that have never been made before.

Distribution of rights and obligations in the family, opportunities and responsibilities in performing the main family functions is one of the most controversial, but at the same time one of the most important issues in the modern context.Scientists from the Department of General Sociology and Social Work of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Lobachevsky University have been engaged in research...

In Current Biology, Medical University of South Carolina researchers report the results of a study using artificial intelligence and human brain studies to compare brain areas involved in mental imagery and vision. Their findings suggest that mental imagery and vision are similar, but that low-level visual areas are activated in a less precise manner with mental imagery. This suggests that the...

Black men in the United States are known to suffer disproportionately from prostate cancer, but few studies have investigated whether genetic differences in prostate tumors could have anything to do with these health disparities. Now, in the largest study of its kind to date, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), UC San Francisco (UCSF), and Northwestern University have...

A groundbreaking study is the first to analyze the relationship between group behaviors, group type, group dynamics, and kinship of beluga whales in 10 locations across the Arctic. Results show that not only do beluga whales regularly interact with close kin, including close maternal kin, they also frequently associate with more distantly related and unrelated individuals. Findings will improve...

Scientists at Pritzker Molecular Engineering have developed a way to stretch and strain liquid crystals to generate different colors.

An RMIT-UNSW collaboration applies liquid-metal synthesis to piezoelectrics, advancing future flexible, wearable electronics, and biosensors drawing their power from the body's movements.Piezoelectric materials such as atomically-thin tin-monosulfide (SnS) convert mechanical forces or movement into electrical energy. Along with their inherent flexibility, this makes them candidates for flexible...

Thin film coatings do more than add color to walls. For example, they can be used as pharmaceutical devices. How these coatings dry can change their properties, which is especially important for films used in drug delivery. Lehigh University engineering researchers studying the in situ drying behavior of thin film coatings are visualizing particle interactions with groundbreaking precision. Their...

A new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Manitoba has found that bacteria are shared and possibly transferred from a mother's milk to her infant's gut, and that breastfeeding directly at the breast best supports this process.

Jack Brookshire's work examines the climate and ecological causes of increased plant productivity in the Northern Great Plains.

New findings reframe the traditional view of face blindness as a disorder arising strictly from deficits in visual perception of facial features. Findings suggest prosopagnosia may be a more complex disorder rooted in multiple deficits. Findings can help inform the design of tools to improve face recognition in those with the condition.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital have developed a novel noninvasive approach called nano-radiomics that analyzes imaging data to assess changes in the tumor microenvironment that are not detected with conventional imaging methods.

NASA's Aqua satellite revealed better organization and colder cloud top temperatures in Tropical Storm Cristina, indications that the storm was strengthening.

NASA used satellite data to create an animation of Fay's development and progression over the past few days, showing how the storm organized into a tropical storm. Additionally, NASA's Aqua satellite used infrared light to find the location of the strongest storms in Tropical Storm Fay occurring in the northeastern quadrant of the storm, mostly over the Atlantic Ocean.

Medical researchers in the UK and Australia have identified a new marker which could support the search for novel preventative and therapeutic treatments for dementia. In an innovative new study, coordinated by Flinders University and University of Aberdeen, the researchers investigated the role of asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), a blood marker associated with atherosclerosis and...

New ground-breaking research from the University of Surrey could change the way scientists understand and describe lasers - establishing a new relationship between classical and quantum physics.

A new study has warned of the power of a type of behaviour dubbed the 'lone wolf' effect which could result in people 'opting out' of supporting organ donation.

Coupled-quantum-dot (CQD) structures are considered to be an important building block in the development of scalable quantum devices. We found that emission of a laterally-coupled QD structure is strongly polarized along the coupled direction and its polarization anisotropy can be shaped by changing the orientation of the excitation polarization. Surprisingly, both excitons and local biexcitons...

Recently, professor Kang's group focus on the limitation of quantum confine band offset model, the hole states delocalization in high-Al-content AlGaN quantum well are understood in terms of orbital intercoupling. The potential barriers of different orbitals were investigated by first principle simulation, and a new mechanism of quantum confinement was presented. Based on the orbital...

As of May 2020, nursing home residents account for a staggering one-third of the more than 80,000 deaths due to COVID-19 in the U.S. This pandemic has resulted in unprecedented threats--like reduced access to resources needed to contain and eliminate the spread of the virus--to achieving and sustaining care quality even in the best nursing homes. Active engagement of nursing home leaders in...

A hemispherical vanadium oxide cluster has a cavity that can accommodate a bromine molecule. It was found that a bromine molecule trapped in the cavity was polarized and that an alkane molecule like pentane, butane and propane could be brominated with the bromine molecule in the cavity with a selectivity differing from ordinary bromination. The present findings are expected to be useful for...

A technologically relevant material for HAMR data memories are thin films of iron-platinum nanograins. An international team led by the joint research group of Prof. Dr. Matias Bargheer at HZB and the University of Potsdam has now observed experimentally for the first time how a special spin-lattice interaction in these iron-platinum thin films cancels out the thermal expansion of the crystal...

Measurements by the GRACE-FO satellite mission show a decline in water storage in Central Europe by up to 94 percent compared with seasonal fluctuations. The changes are so serious that a recovery within one year is not to be expected. The water shortage in the years 2018 and 2019 is thus the largest in the entire GRACE and GRACE-FO measurement campaign of almost 20 years. The results were...