Science news

• Paris agreement targets leave 'alarming gap' to slow climate change: UN report

  31-10-2017 23:26 via cbc.ca
  Canada has no immediate plans to raise its targets for cutting emissions, despite pressure from the United Nations to step it up or risk the failure of the Paris climate change agreement.
  
  Read more

• Which has cleaner air: Eastbourne or London?

  31-10-2017 22:40 via bbc.co.uk
  The UK cities with atmospheres considered harmful to health by the WHO are revealed in a new report.
  
  Read more

• Asteroid impact plunged dinosaurs into catastrophic 'winter'

  31-10-2017 21:34 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists are now clearer on the freezing climate conditions that forced dinosaurs from the Earth.
  
  Read more

• Hot, rocky exoplanets are the scorched cores of former gas giants

  31-10-2017 18:58
  
  Hot, rocky exoplanets are probably the scorched cores of former gas giants, so astronomers shouldn’t trust them for information about true Earth twins.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Quantitative single-molecule imaging of TLR4 reveals ligand-specific receptor dimerization

  31-10-2017 18:50 via stke.sciencemag.org
  In humans, invading pathogens are recognized by Toll-like receptors (TLRs). Upon recognition of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) derived from the cell wall of Gram-negative bacteria, TLR4 dimerizes and can stimulate two different signaling pathways, the proinflammatory, MyD88-dependent pathway and the antiviral, MyD88-independent pathway. The balance between these two pathways is ligand-dependent, and ligand composition determines whether the invading pathogen activates or evades the host immune respons
  
  Read more

• Papers of note in Science Translational Medicine 9 (413)

  31-10-2017 18:50 via stke.sciencemag.org
  This week’s articles describe new therapeutic targets for pulmonary arterial hypertension, acute myeloid leukemia, and Friedreich’s ataxia.
  
  Read more

• Papers of note in Science Immunology 2 (16)

  31-10-2017 18:50 via stke.sciencemag.org
  This month’s articles show how type III interferons mediate antifungal immunity; examine the mechanism of lipid autoreactivity of T cell receptors; and implicate lysosomal signaling in controlling dendritic cell migration.
  
  Read more

• Papers of note in Science 358 (6362)

  31-10-2017 18:50 via stke.sciencemag.org
  This week’s articles describe how bacteria sense surfaces; the lysine acylation of host proteins mediated by a Vibrio cholerae toxin; and druggable proteases of malaria parasites.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Papers of note in Nature 550 (7677)

  31-10-2017 18:50 via stke.sciencemag.org
  This week’s articles highlight inflammatory memory in epithelial stem cells; ubiquitin-specific protease inhibitors that target cancer cells; the identification of a sphingosine 1-phosphate exporter; and G protein signaling hotspots on the plasma membrane.
  
  Read more

• MARK3-mediated phosphorylation of ARHGEF2 couples microtubules to the actin cytoskeleton to establish cell polarity

  31-10-2017 18:50 via stke.sciencemag.org
  The PAR-1–MARK pathway controls cell polarity through the phosphorylation of microtubule-associated proteins. Rho-Rac guanine nucleotide exchange factor 2 (ARHGEF2), which activates Ras homolog family member A (RHOA), is anchored to the microtubule network and sequestered in an inhibited state through binding to dynein light chain Tctex-1 type 1 (DYNLT1). We showed in mammalian cells that liver kinase B1 (LKB1) activated the microtubule affinity-regulating kinase 3 (MARK3), which in turn p
  
  Read more

• Endogenous retinoid X receptor ligands in mouse hematopoietic cells

  31-10-2017 18:50 via stke.sciencemag.org
  The retinoid X receptor α (RXRA) has been implicated in diverse hematological processes. To identify natural ligands of RXRA that are present in hematopoietic cells, we adapted an upstream activation sequence–green fluorescent protein (UAS-GFP) reporter mouse to detect natural RXRA ligands in vivo. We observed reporter activity in diverse types of hematopoietic cells in vivo. Reporter activity increased during granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)–induced granulopoiesis
  
  Read more

• Endogenous defense against helminths

  31-10-2017 18:50 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Secreted phospholipase A2 protects against helminth infection by damaging parasite larvae.
  
  Read more

• Facebook, Twitter, Google defend their security measures

  31-10-2017 17:28 via cbc.ca
  As revelations emerged that Russian-linked accounts reached many more American voters than previously thought, tech giants Facebook, Twitter and Google on Tuesday defended their security measures and promised a Senate subcommittee they would do more to stop the misuse of their platforms by foreign nations.
  
  Read more

• Cod and haddock 'may vanish' from Scotland's west coast

  31-10-2017 17:25 via bbc.co.uk
  Herring and haddock could also disappear by the turn of the century due to global warming, warn scientists.
  
  Read more

• Woodland caribou continue to decline as provinces fail to meet protection deadline

  31-10-2017 17:01 via cbc.ca
  Five years after they were forced to come up with strategies to protect habitat for the boreal caribou, not a single province has met that deadline, according to a federal government progress report released today.
  
  Read more

• Trauma surgeon studies gun violence stats — and was one

  31-10-2017 17:00
  
  Joseph Sakran is trying to help counter the U.S. epidemic of gun violence with data.
  
  Read more

• Google, Amazon, Netflix mount lobby crusade on Trudeau Liberals

  31-10-2017 15:26 via cbc.ca
  U.S. tech giants including Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook have held more than 100 separate meetings with influential members of Canada's Liberal government over the past 12 months, Radio-Canada has learned.
  
  Read more

• Hybrids reveal the barriers to successful mating between species

  31-10-2017 15:00
  
  Scientists don’t understand the process of speciation, but hybrids can reveal the genes that keep species apart.
  
  Read more

• Elon Musk tweets photo of tunnel for new solution to gridlock

  31-10-2017 14:20 via cbc.ca
  ​Billionaire Elon Musk has released a photograph of a tunnel he's building under a Los Angeles suburb to test a concept for a 'zero emission subterranean transportation' system to move people and cars.
  
  Read more

• Why Google ditched the 'autopilot' feature on its Waymo cars

  31-10-2017 13:28 via cbc.ca
  Alphabet Inc's self-driving car unit has stopped developing features that required drivers to take control in dangerous situations, its chief executive said Monday.
  
  Read more

• UK's Halley Antarctic base set for second closure

  31-10-2017 13:13 via bbc.co.uk
  The UK's Halley station will be mothballed again this year because of uncertainty over ice cracks.
  
  Read more

• Emissions gap remains 'alarmingly high' says UN

  31-10-2017 11:51 via bbc.co.uk
  Carbon cuts planned under the Paris accord still fall well short of what's needed, says the UN.
  
  Read more

• Astronomers Spy Planet-Spawning Vortex around Young Star

  31-10-2017 11:45 via rss.sciam.com
  Deeper glimpses into protoplanetary disks shed light on how planets are born
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
  Read more

• Google Maps error sends hikers through Herring Cove man's backyard

  31-10-2017 11:00 via cbc.ca
  Paul Susnis lives beside a provincial park in Nova Scotia's Herring Cove. On sunny weekends, dozens of hikers have been making their way through his property, raising safety and privacy concerns.
  
  Read more

• Researchers blame 'seismic shift' in sleep loss among teens on increased smartphone use

  31-10-2017 10:00 via cbc.ca
  Researchers say the amount of sleep teens reported getting fell between 2009 and 2015 "when the mobile technology really saturated the market among adolescents."
  
  Read more

• Young bats learn bat 'dialects' from their nestmates

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (American Friends of Tel Aviv University) A new Tel Aviv University study finds that young bats adopt a specific 'dialect' spoken by their own colonies, even when this dialect differs from the bat 'mother tongue.' This calls into question the uniqueness of this skill in humans, say the researchers.
  
  Read more

• Why do some head knocks cause more damage than others?

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (University of North Carolina Health Care) Veteran sailors know that rogue waves can rise suddenly in mid-ocean to capsize even the largest vessels. Now it appears that a similar phenomenon called shear shock wave occurs in the concussed brain. It may help explain why some head knocks cause so much more harm than others.
  
  Read more

• US cancer drug costs increasing despite competition, new research shows

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) After a follow-up period of 12 years, the mean cumulative cost increase was 37 percent, including all the injectable anticancer drugs. Annual changes in pricing did not appear to be affected by new supplemental FDA approvals, new off-label indications or new competition.
  
  Read more

• Understudied racial minority groups show alarmingly high rates of obesity and diabetes

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (University of California - Riverside) Some of the smallest and historically neglected racial groups in the United States experience far more obesity, diabetes, and other health conditions than non-Hispanic white adults, a study by researchers at the University of California, Riverside has found.
  
  Read more

• Trends in kids' fitness not as bad as assumed

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (Frontiers) A 10-year study of more than 5,000 young children shows that first graders around Baden-Baden, Germany, have remained reasonably fit over the last decade. While aerobic fitness declined in boys, speed and balance increased in both sexes. The researchers attribute the surprisingly positive results to increased participation in organized sports throughout Germany over the past several years.
  
  Read more

• Traffic signal countdown timers lead to improved driver responses

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (Oregon State University) Countdown timers that let motorists know when a traffic light will go from green to yellow lead to safer responses from drivers, research suggests.
  
  Read more

• Tracking mosquitoes with your cellphone

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (Stanford University) A simple recording of a mosquito's buzz on a cellphone could contribute to a global-scale mosquito tracking map of unprecedented detail.
  
  Read more

• To save Florida's oranges, Colorado State University team will study deadly citrus disease

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (Colorado State University) Over the last decade, Florida's famous citrus industry has been battered by a disease called citrus greening, which has destroyed acres of crops and cost untold billions in revenue.Combining expertise in soil, plant pathology, entomology and chemistry, a Colorado State University team will research how the disease propagates, and how it can be stopped. Their efforts are supported by a $1.2 million gift from Cutrale, one of the largest suppliers of orange juice in the
  
  Read more

• The University Medical Center Groningen and Novogene announce the start of the 10K Metagenome Project

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (Novogene Corporation) A research group led by Professor Cisca Wijmenga from the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) and Novogene, a leading global provider of genomic services and solutions, today announced a partnership to start the 10K Metagenome Project to further study population-based metagenomics.
  
  Read more

• 'Tensor algebra' software speeds big-data analysis 100-fold

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) At the Association for Computing Machinery's Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity (SPLASH), researchers from MIT, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, and Adobe Research recently presented a new system that automatically produces code optimized for sparse data.
  
  Read more

• System could let thousands of researchers contribute to data analysis projects

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) MIT researchers have developed a new collaboration tool, dubbed FeatureHub, intended to make feature identification more efficient and effective. With FeatureHub, data scientists and experts on particular topics could log on to a central site and spend an hour or two reviewing a problem and proposing features. Software then tests myriad combinations of features against target data, to determine which are most useful for a given predictive task.
  
  Read more

• Study to examine the impact of stress on the health of sexual minority adolescents

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (Children's Hospital Los Angeles) Investigators willstudy a large national sample of youth who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexualto discover how different stress triggers, over time, can set the stage for poor health outcomes such as depression, self-harm, and substance use . The findings will be used to enable the development of targeted and effective behavioral health interventions to improve health outcomes for this vulnerable population.
  
  Read more

• Study shows voting does not reduce crime

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (Yale University) A randomized controlled experiment of 550,000 potential voters in the United States shows that voting does not make people less likely to subsequently commit a crime.
  
  Read more

• Strength exercise as vital as aerobic new research finds

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (University of Sydney) Push ups and sit ups could add years to your life according to a new study of over 80,000 adults led by the University of Sydney.
  
  Read more

• Stay focused, if you can

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (University of Miami) What makes some people better able to resist temptation than others? Lucina Uddin and Jason Nomi, cognitive neuroscientists at the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences collaborated with Rosa Steimke, a visiting postdoctoral researcher in the Brain Connectivity and Cognition Laboratory at UM, to explore this question.
  
  Read more

• Stable, affordable homes don't just help patients, they save taxpayer dollars

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (Boston Medical Center) By investing in housing, hospitals can help build healthier communities and save money by stemming the tide of emergency room visits and costly health interventions.
  
  Read more

• Smoking may cause inflammatory bowel disease

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (Frontiers) A new study shows for the first time a direct effect of cigarette smoke on bowel inflammation. The researchers find that mice exposed to cigarette smoke develop a type of colitis resembling Crohn's disease. The researchers also identified a specific immune cell responsible for the effect. These findings could help scientists develop new treatments for inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn's disease, and increase awareness among smokers of their risk for colitis.
  
  Read more

• Scientists of SibFU got the first batch of eco-friendly pitch

  31-10-2017 05:00
  (Siberian Federal University) The team of scientists obtained the first batch of alternative binder for self-baking anodes in the production of aluminum -- ecological pitch.
  
  Read more

Follow @ScienceUKnews on Twitter!