Science news

• Scientist describes life on the ice in Greenland

  24-07-2017 23:43 via bbc.co.uk
  Glacial microbiologist Dr Joe Cook is in Greenland to examine the effect of algae on melting ice.
  
  Read more

• Stinging 'floating terror' spotted in Nova Scotia waters

  24-07-2017 23:39 via cbc.ca
  The colourful Portuguese man-of-war is more commonly seen in warmer waters. Their painful stings can be fatal to some.
  
  Read more

• Advancing knowledge toward more efficient electronics

  24-07-2017 23:28
  A recent discovery of a new magnetic semimetal could eventually lead to more energy-efficient computers, televisions, radios and other electronics.
  
  Read more

• Benefits of continued statin use after adverse reactions

  24-07-2017 23:27
  A new study explores outcomes for patients who continue receiving statins after experiencing an adverse reaction, finding that they had a lower risk of death and cardiovascular events.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Genome editing with CRISPR-Cas9 prevents angiogenesis of the retina

  24-07-2017 23:25
  A research team has successfully prevented mice from developing angiogenesis of the retina -- the sensory tissue at the back of the eye -- using gene-editing techniques with CRISPR-Cas9.
  
  Read more

• ‘Making Contact’ chronicles an astronomer’s struggle to find E.T.

  24-07-2017 22:33
  
  For decades, astronomer Jill Tarter led the hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence, as detailed in the a new biography.
  
  Read more

• Construction of massive neutrino experiment kicks off a mile underground

  24-07-2017 22:21
  A new era in international particle physics research officially began July 21 with a unique groundbreaking held a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. Dignitaries, scientists and engineers from around the world marked the start of construction of a massive international experiment that could change our understanding of the universe. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) will house the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), which
  
  Read more

• New vaccine production could improve flu shot accuracy

  24-07-2017 21:56
  For decades, vaccine manufacturers have used chicken eggs to grow the flu virus strains included in the seasonal vaccine. But because these human strains frequently mutate to adapt to their new environment, the resulting vaccine is often an imperfect match to the virus that it is supposed to protect against. Researchers have now devised a way to keep the human influenza virus from mutating during egg-based production, generating a perfect match to the target vaccine.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Biological pest management: Infected insects cause a stink

  24-07-2017 20:20
  Researchers have shown how nematodes use smell to seek out uninfected insects, which they then enter and kill. The findings support the group's long-term goal of improving how gardeners and the agricultural industry use nematodes in biological pest management.
  
  Read more

• Monitoring fluid intake may help improve outcomes for bariatric surgery patients

  24-07-2017 19:32
  A well-structured water distribution and documentation process led to increased water intake at one hospital.
  
  Read more

• Swaziland survey shows impressive progress in confronting the HIV epidemic

  24-07-2017 19:31
  Key findings from the second Swaziland HIV Incidence Measurement Survey, SHIMS2, reveal impressive progress in confronting the HIV epidemic in the country. Results show a doubling in population viral load suppression since 2011 and a decrease by nearly half in the rate of new HIV infections.
  
  Read more

• Summer sea ice melt in the Arctic

  24-07-2017 19:31
  Earlier this year Arctic sea ice sank to a record low wintertime extent for the third straight year. Now NASA is flying a set of instruments north of Greenland to observe the impact of the melt season on the Arctic's oldest and thickest sea ice.
  
  Read more

• Seawalls: Ecological effects of coastal armoring in soft sediment environments

  24-07-2017 19:31
  For nearly a century, the O'Shaughnessy seawall has held back the sand and seas of San Francisco's Ocean Beach. At work even longer: the Galveston seawall, built after America's deadliest hurricane in 1900 killed thousands in Texas.
  
  Read more

• Scientists enlist baker's yeast in a hunt for new medicines

  24-07-2017 19:31
  Scientists have come up with a new way to predict potentially useful drugs from a pool of undefined chemicals. They were able to more quickly identify leads that could be used to treat a range of diseases, from infections, to cancer to Alzheimer's. The finding will also help better match drugs to a disease to maximize the benefit and reduce side-effects.
  
  Read more

• Long-term brain deficits in cardiac arrest survivors: Treatment?

  24-07-2017 19:31
  Research may lead to a treatment to prevent long-term sensory problems by restoring normal brain function in survivors of cardiac arrest.
  
  Read more

• Evolutionary biologists solve puzzle of evolutionary relationships among vertebrates

  24-07-2017 19:31
  Using the largest and most informative molecular phylogenetic dataset ever analysed, evolutionary biologists were able to construct a new phylogenetic tree of jawed vertebrates. This new tree resolves several key relationships that have remained controversial, including the identification of lungfishes as the closest living relatives of land vertebrates. The evolution of jawed vertebrates is part of our own history since humans belong to the tetrapods more specifically we are mammals, or, even m
  
  Read more

• Engineers invent the first bio-compatible, ion current battery

  24-07-2017 19:31
  Engineers have invented a new kind of battery: one that is bio-compatible because it produces the same kind of ion-based electrical energy used by humans and other living things.
  
  Read more

• New brain death pathway in Alzheimer's disease

  24-07-2017 19:30
  Neuroscientists have identified a new way for brain cells to become fated to die during Alzheimer's diseases. The research team has found the first evidence that the activation of a biological pathway called necroptosis, which causes neuronal loss, is closely linked with Alzheimer's severity, cognitive decline and extreme loss of tissue and brain weight that are all advanced hallmarks of the disease.
  
  Read more

• Challenging prevailing theory about how deep-sea vents are colonized

  24-07-2017 19:30
  Despite being relatively close together, two recently discovered hydrothermal vent fields in the Gulf of California host very different animal communities. This finding contradicts a common scientific assumption that neighboring vents will share similar animal communities, and suggests that local geology and vent-fluid chemistry are important factors affecting vent communities.
  
  Read more

• Moon has a water-rich interior

  24-07-2017 17:41
  Using satellite data, researchers have for the first time detected widespread water within ancient explosive volcanic deposits on the moon, suggesting that its interior contains substantial amounts of indigenous water.
  
  Read more

• Allowable 'carbon budget' most likely overestimated

  24-07-2017 17:41
  While most climate scientists, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, implicitly define 'pre-industrial' to be in the late 1800s, a true non-industrially influenced baseline is probably further in the past, according to an international team of researchers who are concerned because it affects the available carbon budget for meeting the 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warming limit agreed to in the Paris Conference of 2015.
  
  Read more

• Scientists capture first image of major brain receptor in action

  24-07-2017 17:36
  Researchers have captured the first three-dimensional snapshots of the AMPA-subtype glutamate receptor in action. The receptor, which regulates most electrical signaling in the brain, is involved in several important brain activities, including memory and learning.
  
  Read more

• Corn gene conferring resistance to multiple plant leaf diseases

  24-07-2017 17:36
  Researchers have found a specific gene in corn that appears to be associated with resistance to two and possibly three different plant leaf diseases.
  
  Read more

• Microsoft says 'MS Paint is here to stay'

  24-07-2017 17:12 via cbc.ca
  As It Happens spoke to an artist who works exclusively in MS Paint about Microsoft's decision to kill the 32-year-old program.
  
  Read more

• Wandering in the Void, Billions of Rogue Planets without a Home

  24-07-2017 17:00 via rss.sciam.com
  New results suggest free-floating giant planets are less common than previously believed, but hint at vast numbers of smaller castaway worlds
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
  Read more

• Fewer big rogue planets roam the galaxy, recount shows

  24-07-2017 17:00
  
  Jupiter-mass planets without parent solar systems are less common than astronomers thought, a new study suggests.
  
  Read more

• 3D-printed 'Third Thumb' a handy extra digit with Bluetooth connection

  24-07-2017 17:00 via cbc.ca
  A product design student in the U.K. has come up with a 3D-printed thumb, worn next to the pinkie finger and controlled by sensors in the shoe, to extend the user's natural abilities.
  
  Read more

• Radioactive substances leave electron ‘fingerprints’ behind

  24-07-2017 13:00
  
  A new method of nuclear forensics could make it harder to handle radioactive material in secret.
  
  Read more

• Make America Wait Again: Trump Tries to Delay Regulations out of Existence

  24-07-2017 12:45 via rss.sciam.com
  The White House has been postponing environmental rules as it tries to undercut them, a Scientific American analysis shows. But a new court decision weakens that strategy
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
  Read more

• High risk of 'unprecedented' winter downpours - Met Office

  24-07-2017 11:05 via bbc.co.uk
  A new analysis suggests there's a greater chance of the heavy rain that led to extensive flooding in 2014.
  
  Read more

• South African child 'virtually cured' of HIV

  24-07-2017 10:32 via bbc.co.uk
  The nine-year-old has no active HIV in the body after catching the infection at birth.
  
  Read more

• Electricity shake-up could save consumers 'up to £40bn'

  24-07-2017 08:13 via bbc.co.uk
  New rules will encourage UK consumers to generate and store their own power, ministers say.
  
  Read more

• Writing with the electron beam: Now in silver

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie) For the first time an international team realized direct writing ofsilver nanostructures using an electron beam applied to a substrate. Silver nanostructures have the potential to concentrate visible light at the nanoscale. Potential applications include sensor design to detect extremely small traces of specific molecules, as well as devices for optical information processing.
  
  Read more

• Using money to buy time linked to increased happiness

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (University of British Columbia) New research is challenging the age-old adage that money can't buy happiness. The study, led by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School, suggests that using money to buy free time -- such as paying to delegate household chores like cleaning and cooking -- is linked to greater life satisfaction.
  
  Read more

• US study of dapivirine ring in lactating women finds little drug gets into breast milk

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (Microbicide Trials Network) The antiretroviral drug dapivirine contained in a vaginal ring for HIV prevention, is absorbed in very low concentrations into breastmilk, according to a US study of the dapivirine ring in women who were no longer nursing their babies but still producing milk. Researchers are now planning studies of the ring in African women who are breastfeeding as well as during pregnancy, when there may be a greater risk of acquiring HIV.
  
  Read more

• UMD engineers invent the first bio-compatible, ion current battery

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (University of Maryland) Engineers at the University of Maryland have invented a new kind of battery; one that is bio-compatible because it produces the same kind of ion-based electrical energy used by humans and other living things.
  
  Read more

• Two undergrads improve plant carbon-cycle models

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) In the summer of 2012, two undergraduate students tackled a problem that plant ecology experts had overlooked for 30 years. The students demonstrated that different plant species vary in how they take in carbon dioxide and emit water through the pores in their leaves. The data boosted the accuracy of mathematical models of carbon and water fluxes through plant leaves by 30 to 60 percent.
  
  Read more

• Tropical Storm Kulap forms a fist on satellite image

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm Kulap moving through the open waters of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean and the spiral of thunderstorms into the center made it appear like a clenched fist.
  
  Read more

• TPU scientists equip chemical sensors with 'traps' to detect toxic substances

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (Tomsk Polytechnic University) Scientists from Tomsk Polytechnic University and the University of Chemistry and Technology (Prague, Czech Republic) have created novel chemical sensors for Raman spectrometers. Having combined physical and chemical methods scientists obtained highly sensitive sensors for determining dyes prohibited in Europe and heavy metals in water at ultralow concentrations. The process of analysis lasts a couple of minutes, so the sensors are appropriate for using in mobile la
  
  Read more

• Tai chi may help prevent falls in older and at-risk adults

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (Wiley) An analysis of published studies indicates that tai chi may help reduce the number of falls in both the older adult population and at-risk adults.
  
  Read more

• Study identifies new brain death pathway in Alzheimer's disease

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (Arizona State University) In a new study published today, Arizona State University-Banner Health neuroscientist Salvatore Oddo led a study that identified a new way for brain cells to become fated to die during Alzheimer's diseases. The research team has found the first evidence that the activation of a biological pathway called necroptosis, which causes neuronal loss, is closely linked with Alzheimer's severity, cognitive decline and extreme loss of tissue and brain weight that are all advance
  
  Read more

• Study finds 90 percent of American men overfat

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (Frontiers) Researchers reported earlier this year in the journal Frontiers of Public Health that up to 76 percent of the world's population may be overfat. Now these same researchers have focused their efforts on data from 30 of the top developed countries, with even more alarming findings that up to 90 percent of adult males and 50 percent of children may be overfat.
  
  Read more

• 'Strong for surgery' shows promise in reducing smoking rates for patients facing surgery

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (American College of Surgeons) New ACS quality improvement program is linked to a two-thirds decrease in the rate of smoking in patients undergoing cervical and lumbar spine procedures.
  
  Read more

• Stress hormone linked to mood and hippocampus volume

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (Society for Neuroscience) Individual differences in the pattern of release of the hormone cortisol in response to a stressful experience reveal how stressed a person actually feels, suggests a study of healthy women published in The Journal of Neuroscience.
  
  Read more

• Special policy forum with Rep. Bonamici at the 2017 Ecological Society Annual Meeting

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (Ecological Society of America) The political landscape has become more challenging to navigate for scientists seeking to inform policy. In response to ecologists' increased motivation to effectively engage in the political scene, this year's Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America will feature a new event to examine the current national political landscape from the ecological science perspective. This Special Policy Forum will take place on Monday, August 7 at the Society's 102nd An
  
  Read more

• Shining rings: A new material emits white light when exposed to electricity

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM), Nagoya University) Scientists at Nagoya University have developed a new way to make stimuli-responsive materials in a predictable manner. They used this method to design a new material, a mixture of carbon nanorings and iodine, which conducts electricity and emits white light when exposed to electricity. The team's new approach could help generate a range of reliable stimuli-responsive materials, which can be used in memory devices, artificial m
  
  Read more

• Scientists spy new evidence of water in the moon's interior

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (Brown University) Using satellite data, Brown University researchers have for the first time detected widespread water within ancient explosive volcanic deposits on the moon, suggesting that its interior contains substantial amounts of indigenous water.
  
  Read more

• Scientists gain clearer picture of how genes affect lean body mass

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (Hebrew SeniorLife Institute for Aging Research) Scientists from the Institute for Aging Research (IFAR) at Hebrew SeniorLife (HSL), along with several other research institutions are making great strides in understanding the genetics behind lean body mass, which is largely made up of muscle mass). A new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, outlines their findings in what is the largest, most comprehensive genetic study of lean mass to date.
  
  Read more

• Satellite view of a compact Hurricane Hilary

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite shows a more organized and compact Hurricane Hilary on July 24.
  
  Read more

• Satellite shows Tropical Storm Greg losing shape

  24-07-2017 06:00
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Tropical Storm Greg appears to be less-rounded and more elongated on satellite imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite. Greg is still over 1,500 miles east of Hawaii.
  
  Read more

Follow @ScienceUKnews on Twitter!