Science news

• Potent anti-cancer drug effect in rare ovarian cancer

  01-03-2018 22:48
  An anti-cancer drug used to fight leukemia shows promise against a rare and aggressive type of ovarian cancer -- small cell carcinoma of the ovary hypercalcemic type (SCCOHT) -- which strikes young women and girls, according to a new study. Ponatinib was found in TGen-led drug screens and preclinical studies to significantly delay tumor growth and reduce tumor volume in SCCOHT.
  
  Read more

• Eating fish may be tied to a reduced risk of MS

  01-03-2018 22:48
  Eating fish at least once a week or eating fish one to three times per month in addition to taking daily fish oil supplements may be associated with a reduced risk of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a preliminary study.
  
  Read more

• Early land plants led to the rise of mud

  01-03-2018 22:19
  
  New research suggests early land plants called bryophytes, which include modern mosses, helped shape Earth’s surface by creating clay-rich river deposits.
  
  Read more

• Trudeau says taxing foreign online businesses would cost Canadians

  01-03-2018 22:18 via cbc.ca
  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is rejecting suggestions his government should have moved to tax foreign web giants in his recent budget, saying he doesn't want to hurt Canadian taxpayers.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 3 Yukon bison died after slipping down icy hill, officials say

  01-03-2018 21:58 via cbc.ca
  Conservation officers say three bison discovered dead last month slipped on thick ice, which sent them tumbling down a hillside.
  
  Read more

• Apple hauled before parliamentary committee to explain battery scandal

  01-03-2018 21:21 via cbc.ca
  Apple Canada is being forced to testify in front of a parliamentary committee today about its role in the iPhone battery scandal.
  
  Read more

• Apple Canada says it didn't intentionally mislead Canadians on iPhone slowdown

  01-03-2018 21:21 via cbc.ca
  A Liberal MP asked Apple Canada to hand over its internal correspondence discussing whether the slow performance some iPhone users experienced last year should have been made public — a request the company quickly turned down.
  
  Read more

• Apple Canada maintains it never misled Canadians on iPhone slowdown

  01-03-2018 21:21 via cbc.ca
  A Liberal MP asked Apple Canada today to hand over its internal correspondence discussing whether the slow performance some iPhone users experienced last year should have been made public — a request the company quickly turned down.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Omega fish oils don’t improve school children’s reading skills or memory, study finds

  01-03-2018 20:45
  New research has found no evidence Omega-3 fish oil supplements help aid or improve the reading ability or memory function of underperforming schoolchildren.
  
  Read more

• Voice problems: Updates to treatment and care of patients with hoarseness

  01-03-2018 20:42
  Updated guideline provides some substantially revised, evidence-based recommendations for healthcare providers when treating patients with hoarseness, a very common complaint that affects nearly one-third of the population at some point in their life.
  
  Read more

• Smartphones and data centers harm the environment, study shows

  01-03-2018 20:42
  Data centres and smartphones will be the most damaging information and communications technologies to the environment by 2040, according to new research.
  
  Read more

• New insights into how a virus-blocking bacterium operates in mosquitoes

  01-03-2018 20:42
  New research reveals details of the mechanism by which the bacterium Wolbachia blocks viruses in mosquito cells, suggesting that it reduces viral replication inside cells and that rapid degradation of viral RNA is involved.
  
  Read more

• Networks of brain activity predict vulnerability to depression

  01-03-2018 20:42
  Tapping into the electrical chatter between different regions of the brain may provide a new way to prevent and treat depression. Scientists showed that mice that were more susceptible to developing depression-like symptoms displayed different networks of electrical brain activity than more resilient mice. These results could be the first step toward a test to predict a person's vulnerability to developing mental illness.
  
  Read more

• Leishmaniasis strain in Iraq outbreak identified

  01-03-2018 20:42
  In the hot, dry border region between northern and central Iraq, Leishmania parasite infections are so common that they've been dubbed 'Baghdad sores.' Now, for the first time, researchers have studied the prevalence of different Leishmania species and strains in the region. Most cases of leishmaniasis in Iraq match an Iranian strain.
  
  Read more

• In pursuit of pleasure, brain learns to hit the repeat button

  01-03-2018 20:42
  In a scientific first, researchers have observed in mice how the brain learns to repeat patterns of neural activity that elicit the all-important feel-good sensation. This research offers key insights into how brain activity is shaped and refined as animals learn to repeat behaviors that evoke a feeling of pleasure. The findings also point to new strategies for targeting disorders characterized by abnormal repetitive behaviors, such as addiction and OCD.
  
  Read more

• In nature, an imperfect immune system drives the evolution of deadly pathogens

  01-03-2018 20:42
  New research shows that, in the case of a common backyard bird, imperfect immunity to a dangerous pathogen that causes 'bird pink eye' actually makes the pathogen stronger and more dangerous for its next victim.
  
  Read more

• Yellow fever virus is detected in urine and semen almost a month after infection

  01-03-2018 20:41
  The confirmation involved one single patient; Brazilian investigators say it suggests the virus may be contagious for a period which stretches longer than previously thought. Scientists especulate whether the use of urine samples could allow for positive diagnosis in asymptomatic patients, who comprise half of the cases of yellow fever's infection.
  
  Read more

• Successful synthesis of gamma-lactam rings from hydrocarbons

  01-03-2018 20:41
  Scientists have designed a novel strategy to synthesize ring-shaped cyclic molecules, highly sought-after by pharmaceutical and chemical industries, and known as gamma-lactams. This study describes how these five-membered rings can be prepared from inexpensive and readily available feedstock hydrocarbons, as well as from complex organic molecules, such as amino acids and steroids.
  
  Read more

• Scientists design new skin cell culture technique to study human papillomavirus

  01-03-2018 20:41
  A new cell culture strategy promises to illuminate the mysterious early stages of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, according to researchers.
  
  Read more

• Permian carbo-loading: How starchy treats helped build an ancient world

  01-03-2018 20:41
  Everyone loves a nice plate of pasta. After all, starch is the ultimate energy food. Now, we have proof that carbo-loading has been a thing for at least 280 million years.
  
  Read more

• New speed record for trapped-ion 'building blocks' of quantum computers

  01-03-2018 20:41
  Researchers have set a new speed record for the 'logic gates' that form the building blocks of quantum computing -- a technology that could transform the way we process information.
  
  Read more

• Mitochondria-to-nucleus messenger protein discovered

  01-03-2018 20:41
  Researchers have identified a protein, G-Protein Pathway Suppressor 2 (GPS2), that moves from a cell's mitochondria to its nucleus in response to stress and during the differentiation of fat cells. While proteins with similar functions had previously been found in yeast and worms, this is first direct messenger discovered in the cells of mammals.
  
  Read more

• DNA scissors can cut RNA, too

  01-03-2018 20:41
  The bacterial immune system 'CRISPR-Cas9' is known to eliminate invading DNA. Scientists now discovered that it can also readily target RNA -- a result with potentially far-reaching ramifications.
  
  Read more

• Crowdsourced family tree yields new insights about humanity

  01-03-2018 20:41
  Researchers have amassed a family tree of 13 million people to trace the last 500 years of Western marriage and migration patterns. They also show that the genetic basis of longevity is lower than many have suggested.
  
  Read more

• Gove lambasts water company chiefs

  01-03-2018 20:28 via bbc.co.uk
  The Environment Secretary attacks water industry bosses' salaries and lack of investment.
  
  Read more

• Winter color polymorphisms identify global hot spots for evolutionary rescue from climate change

  01-03-2018 19:38
  Maintenance of biodiversity in a rapidly changing climate will depend on the efficacy of evolutionary rescue, whereby population declines due to abrupt environmental change are reversed by shifts in genetically driven adaptive traits. However, a lack of traits known to be under direct selection by anthropogenic climate change has limited the incorporation of evolutionary processes into global conservation efforts. In 21 vertebrate species, some individuals undergo a seasonal color molt from summ
  
  Read more

• Transcription-coupled changes in nuclear mobility of mammalian cis-regulatory elements

  01-03-2018 19:38
  To achieve guide RNA (gRNA) multiplexing and an efficient delivery of tens of distinct gRNAs into single cells, we developed a molecular assembly strategy termed chimeric array of gRNA oligonucleotides (CARGO). We coupled CARGO with dCas9 (catalytically dead Cas9) imaging to quantitatively measure the movement of enhancers and promoters that undergo differentiation-associated activity changes in live embryonic stem cells. Whereas all examined functional elements exhibited subdiffusive behavior,
  
  Read more

• Systematic discovery of antiphage defense systems in the microbial pangenome

  01-03-2018 19:38
  The arms race between bacteria and phages led to the development of sophisticated antiphage defense systems, including CRISPR-Cas and restriction-modification systems. Evidence suggests that known and unknown defense systems are located in "defense islands" in microbial genomes. Here, we comprehensively characterized the bacterial defensive arsenal by examining gene families that are clustered next to known defense genes in prokaryotic genomes. Candidate defense systems were systematically engin
  
  Read more

• Selective targeting of engineered T cells using orthogonal IL-2 cytokine-receptor complexes

  01-03-2018 19:38
  Interleukin-2 (IL-2) is a cytokine required for effector T cell expansion, survival, and function, especially for engineered T cells in adoptive cell immunotherapy, but its pleiotropy leads to simultaneous stimulation and suppression of immune responses as well as systemic toxicity, limiting its therapeutic use. We engineered IL-2 cytokine-receptor orthogonal (ortho) pairs that interact with one another, transmitting native IL-2 signals, but do not interact with their natural cytokine and recept
  
  Read more

• Selective formation of {gamma}-lactams via C-H amidation enabled by tailored iridium catalysts

  01-03-2018 19:38
  Intramolecular insertion of metal nitrenes into carbon-hydrogen bonds to form -lactam rings has traditionally been hindered by competing isocyanate formation. We report the application of theory and mechanism studies to optimize a class of pentamethylcyclopentadienyl iridium(III) catalysts for suppression of this competing pathway. Modulation of the stereoelectronic properties of the auxiliary bidentate ligands to be more electron-donating was suggested by density functional theory calculations
  
  Read more

• Science of science

  01-03-2018 19:38
  Identifying fundamental drivers of science and developing predictive models to capture its evolution are instrumental for the design of policies that can improve the scientific enterprise—for example, through enhanced career paths for scientists, better performance evaluation for organizations hosting research, discovery of novel effective funding vehicles, and even identification of promising regions along the scientific frontier. The science of science uses large-scale data on the produc
  
  Read more

• Observation of bulk Fermi arc and polarization half charge from paired exceptional points

  01-03-2018 19:38
  The ideas of topology have found tremendous success in closed physical systems, but even richer properties exist in the more general open or dissipative framework. We theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate a bulk Fermi arc that develops from non-Hermitian radiative losses in an open system of photonic crystal slabs. Moreover, we discover half-integer topological charges in the polarization of far-field radiation around the bulk Fermi arc. Both phenomena are shown to be direct conse
  
  Read more

• Incomplete host immunity favors the evolution of virulence in an emergent pathogen

  01-03-2018 19:38
  Immune memory evolved to protect hosts from reinfection, but incomplete responses that allow future reinfection may inadvertently select for more-harmful pathogens. We present empirical and modeling evidence that incomplete immunity promotes the evolution of higher virulence in a natural host-pathogen system. We performed sequential infections of house finches with Mycoplasma gallisepticum strains of various levels of virulence. Virulent bacterial strains generated stronger host protection again
  
  Read more

• Ideal Weyl points and helicoid surface states in artificial photonic crystal structures

  01-03-2018 19:38
  Weyl points are the crossings of linearly dispersing energy bands of three-dimensional crystals, providing the opportunity to explore a variety of intriguing phenomena such as topologically protected surface states and chiral anomalies. However, the lack of an ideal Weyl system in which the Weyl points all exist at the same energy and are separated from any other bands poses a serious limitation to the further development of Weyl physics and potential applications. By experimentally characterizi
  
  Read more

• Evolution of alluvial mudrock forced by early land plants

  01-03-2018 19:38
  Mudrocks are a primary archive of Earth’s history from the Archean eon to recent times, and their source-to-sink production and deposition play a central role in long-term ocean chemistry and climate regulation. Using original and published stratigraphic data from all 704 of Earth’s known alluvial formations from the Archean eon (3.5 billion years ago) to the Carboniferous period (0.3 billion years ago), we prove contentions of an upsurge in the proportion of mud retained on land coe
  
  Read more

• Evidence for a neural law of effect

  01-03-2018 19:38
  Thorndike’s law of effect states that actions that lead to reinforcements tend to be repeated more often. Accordingly, neural activity patterns leading to reinforcement are also reentered more frequently. Reinforcement relies on dopaminergic activity in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and animals shape their behavior to receive dopaminergic stimulation. Seeking evidence for a neural law of effect, we found that mice learn to reenter more frequently motor cortical activity patterns that t
  
  Read more

• {beta}2-adrenergic receptor-mediated negative regulation of group 2 innate lymphoid cell responses

  01-03-2018 19:38
  The type 2 inflammatory response is induced by various environmental and infectious stimuli. Although recent studies identified group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) as potent sources of type 2 cytokines, the molecular pathways controlling ILC2 responses are incompletely defined. Here we demonstrate that murine ILC2s express the β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR) and colocalize with adrenergic neurons in the intestine. β2AR deficiency resulted in exaggerated ILC2 responses and type 2 i
  
  Read more

• An evolutionarily conserved gene family encodes proton-selective ion channels

  01-03-2018 19:38
  Ion channels form the basis for cellular electrical signaling. Despite the scores of genetically identified ion channels selective for other monatomic ions, only one type of proton-selective ion channel has been found in eukaryotic cells. By comparative transcriptome analysis of mouse taste receptor cells, we identified Otopetrin1 (OTOP1), a protein required for development of gravity-sensing otoconia in the vestibular system, as forming a proton-selective ion channel. We found that murine OTOP1
  
  Read more

• Accurate computational design of multipass transmembrane proteins

  01-03-2018 19:38
  The computational design of transmembrane proteins with more than one membrane-spanning region remains a major challenge. We report the design of transmembrane monomers, homodimers, trimers, and tetramers with 76 to 215 residue subunits containing two to four membrane-spanning regions and up to 860 total residues that adopt the target oligomerization state in detergent solution. The designed proteins localize to the plasma membrane in bacteria and in mammalian cells, and magnetic tweezer unfoldi
  
  Read more

• Tattoos discovered on mummies after millennia under wraps

  01-03-2018 19:25
  LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers have discovered the oldest figurative tattoos in the world on the upper arms of two ancient Egyptian mummies, the British Museum said on Thursday.
  
  Read more

• Virus that lives in Yellowstone hot springs described

  01-03-2018 19:07
  A new study explains how a lemon-shaped virus assembles itself and how the virus ejects the DNA it carries into host cells.
  
  Read more

• Cigarette smoking behavior helps identify genes that regulate blood pressure

  01-03-2018 18:51
  Using a technique that is opening the door to more complex analyses of the human genome, researchers have identified dozens of new genetic variations that affect blood pressure. Scientists discovered the new genetic regions -- and confirmed the role of many previously known ones -- by looking specifically at cigarette smoking behavior, one of many lifestyle factors that impact blood pressure.
  
  Read more

• Rhino that Tinder called 'the most eligible bachelor in the world,' is seriously ill

  01-03-2018 16:44 via cbc.ca
  The health of the world's last male northern white rhino has deteriorated, bringing the rhino subspecies a step closer to extinction caused by poaching.
  
  Read more

• Women, wages and housework: How closing the gender pay gap splits chores more evenly

  01-03-2018 16:38
  Eliminating the gender gap in wages would lead to married women doing much less housework.
  
  Read more

• New approach uses single PET scan to personalize cancer treatment

  01-03-2018 16:37
  Researchers have developed a same-day, noninvasive PET-based imaging approach to assess PD-L1 positive tumors, which could help guide cancer treatment decisions and assess treatment response.
  
  Read more

• Nature can reduce pesticide use, environment impact

  01-03-2018 16:37
  Farmers around the world are turning to nature to help them reduce pesticide use, environmental impact and, subsequently, and in some cases, increasing yields.
  
  Read more

• In-depth mineral review provides foundational resource for dairy scientists

  01-03-2018 16:37
  Life is dependent on minerals. Accordingly, the diets of animals must contain certain minerals in both large amounts, via marcrominerals, and small amounts, via microminerals. In a thorough and wide-ranging review, researchers examined necessary minerals as well as the mechanisms for their absorption in cows, providing insight into these vital elements.
  
  Read more

• Beneficial skin bacteria protect against skin cancer

  01-03-2018 16:37
  Science continues to peel away layers of the skin microbiome to reveal its protective properties. Researchers now report on a potential new role for some bacteria on the skin: protecting against cancer.
  
  Read more

• Social media does not decrease face-to-face interactions

  01-03-2018 16:36
  Now, researchers have found that social media use has no significant negative effect on social interactions or social well-being.
  
  Read more

• Secret of magmas that produce global treasures

  01-03-2018 16:36
  South Africa's history and economy has been built on its rich natural treasures of a number of precious metals, stones and minerals. The country's mineral deposits have been created over hundreds of millions of years through processes that are still not completely understood. One of these processes is the origin of chromitite layers hosted by layered intrusions - a major source of chromium on our planet. The study reveals the formation of these layers.
  
  Read more

Follow @ScienceUKnews on Twitter!