Science news

• Now you see it: Invisibility material created

  29-03-2018 23:02
  Materials inspired by disappearing Hollywood dinosaurs and real-life shy squid can quickly change how they reflect heat. That makes them invisible to infrared night vision tools.
  
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• Now you see it: Invisibility material

  29-03-2018 23:02
  Materials inspired by disappearing Hollywood dinosaurs and real-life shy squid can quickly change how they reflect heat. That makes them invisible to infrared night vision tools.
  
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• Ancient B.C. footprints confirmed as earliest known in North America

  29-03-2018 22:56 via cbc.ca
  The footprints appear to have been left by the bare feet of people gathered around a focal point, likely a fire pit or hearth.
  
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• Some frogs may be bouncing back after killer chytrid fungus

  29-03-2018 22:15
  
  Frogs in Panama may be developing defenses against a fatal skin disease, a new study suggests.
  
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• Canada 150 program results in 'brain gain' for Canadian universities: Duncan

  29-03-2018 21:04 via cbc.ca
  Twenty-four scientists have been selected as Canada 150 Research Chairs. Grants of up to $1 million are provided to each for seven years to conduct research in Canada.
  
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• What stops mass extinctions? Lessons from amphibian die-off in Panama

  29-03-2018 20:10
  What slows or stops a disease epidemic if the pathogen is still present? It appears that wild frogs are becoming increasingly resistant to the chytrid fungal disease that has decimated amphibian populations around the world.
  
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• Virus found to adapt through newly discovered path of evolution

  29-03-2018 20:10
  Biologists have discovered evidence for a new path of evolution, and with it a deeper understanding of how quickly organisms such as viruses can adapt to their environment. The researchers say their findings, which address longstanding mysteries of how genes acquire new functions and how mutations arise to ease transmission from one host to another, could be applied to investigations of viral diseases such as Zika, Ebola and bird flu.
  
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• The Sahara Desert is expanding

  29-03-2018 20:10
  The Sahara Desert has expanded by about 10 percent since 1920, according to a new study. The research is the first to assess century-scale changes to the boundaries of the world's largest desert and suggests that other deserts could be expanding as well.
  
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• Target and mechanism of antibacterial drug fidaxomicin (Dificid) discovered

  29-03-2018 20:10
  Scientists have determined the molecular target and mechanism of the antibacterial drug fidaxomicin (trade name Dificid). Fidaxomicin was approved in 2011 for treatment of the CDC 'urgent threat' bacterial pathogen Clostridium difficile (C. diff) and currently is one of two front-line drugs for treatment of C. diff.
  
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• Sugar-coated nanosheets developed to selectively target pathogens

  29-03-2018 20:10
  Scientists have developed a process for creating ultrathin, self-assembling sheets of synthetic materials that can function like designer flypaper in selectively binding with viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens. The new platform could potentially be used to inactivate or detect pathogens.
  
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• Study may help explain why iron can worsen malaria infection

  29-03-2018 20:10
  Researchers have a possible explanation for why iron can sometimes worsen malaria infection. By studying mice and samples from malaria patients, the researchers found that extra iron interferes with ferroportin, a protein that prevents a toxic buildup of iron in red blood cells and helps protect these cells against malaria infection. They also found that a mutant form of ferroportin that occurs in African populations appears to protect against malaria.
  
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• Slow, steady waves keep brain humming

  29-03-2018 20:10
  Very slow brain waves, long considered an artifact of brain scanning techniques, may be more important than anyone had realized. Researchers have found that very slow waves are directly linked to state of consciousness and may be involved in coordinating activity across distant brain regions.
  
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• Scientists mix the unmixable to create 'shocking' nanoparticles

  29-03-2018 20:10
  Making a giant leap in the 'tiny' field of nanoscience, a multi-institutional team of researchers is the first to create nanoscale particles composed of up to eight distinct elements generally known to be immiscible, or incapable of being mixed or blended together. The blending of multiple, unmixable elements into a unified, homogenous nanostructure, called a high entropy alloy nanoparticle, greatly expands the landscape of nanomaterials -- and what we can do with them.
  
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• Pig model of Huntington's offers advantages for testing treatments

  29-03-2018 20:10
  A team of scientists has established a 'knock in' pig model of Huntington's disease (HD), an inherited neurodegenerative disease, anticipated to be useful for testing treatments.
  
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• Novel RNA-based therapy to target West Nile virus developed

  29-03-2018 20:10
  Researchers have developed a new RNA therapy, delivered through the nose, to treat mice infected with West Nile Virus. The innovative approach reduced the virus in the brain, allowing the immune system to destroy the virus and develop long-term protection against West Nile Virus disease, the researchers said.
  
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• New math bridges holography and twistor theory

  29-03-2018 20:10
  A new perspective bridges two approaches to understanding quantum gravity.
  
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• Mice 'eavesdrop' on rats' tear signal

  29-03-2018 20:10
  Tears might not seem to have an odor. But studies have shown that proteins in tears act as pheromonal cues. For example, the tear glands of male mice produce a protein that makes females more receptive to sex. New research finds that rat tears contain proteins with similar functions. Mice can pick up on the rats' tear proteins, too, apparently tipping them off that predators are around.
  
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• Lesson learned? Massive study finds lectures still dominate STEM education

  29-03-2018 20:10
  An analysis of more than 2,000 college classes in science, technology, engineering and math has found that 55 percent of STEM classroom interactions consisted mostly of conventional lecturing -- a style that prior research has identified as among the least effective at teaching and engaging students.
  
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• Flipping lipids for cell transport-tubules

  29-03-2018 20:10
  An enzyme that flips lipids from the outer to the inner layer of the cell membrane launches the process that permits cells to engulf external substances.
  
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• Detailed structure illuminates brain-enhancing drug's action

  29-03-2018 20:10
  A drug that reverses the effects of a cellular stress response restores learning and memory in mice with concussions. Now researchers can see the atomic-scale details of how the drug interacts with its protein target.
  
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• Biophysics: Bacterial adhesion in vitro and in silico

  29-03-2018 20:10
  Researchers have characterized the physical mechanism that enables a widespread bacterial pathogen to adhere to the tissues of its human host.
  
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• Kesterite solar cells: Germanium promises better opto-electronic properties than tin

  29-03-2018 20:09
  Specific changes in the composition of kesterite-type semiconductors make it possible to improve their suitability as absorber layers in solar cells. As a team has shown, this is particularly true for kesterites in which tin was replaced by germanium. The scientists examined the samples using neutron diffraction at BER II and other methods.
  
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• How personality affects gamified diabetes self-management

  29-03-2018 20:09
  Researchers have designed and tested an app for self-managing diabetes for insight into how personality differences might explain why mobile health apps help some patients more than others.
  
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• From Apple to Playboy, tech giants and celebrities turn on Facebook

  29-03-2018 19:47 via cbc.ca
  Winning back the trust of users could be difficult for Facebook in the wake of its data scandal as more influential business leaders and celebrities speak out against the world's most popular social network.
  
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• World's top cocoa producers fight to protect forests

  29-03-2018 19:42 via cbc.ca
  Park rangers in the world's top cocoa producer, Ivory Coast, are waging a campaign to protect national forests from the illegal farming of the raw ingredient in chocolate.
  
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• Structure of the nucleotide exchange factor eIF2B reveals mechanism of memory-enhancing molecule

  29-03-2018 19:38
  Regulation by the integrated stress response (ISR) converges on the phosphorylation of translation initiation factor eIF2 in response to a variety of stresses. Phosphorylation converts eIF2 from a substrate to a competitive inhibitor of its dedicated guanine nucleotide exchange factor, eIF2B, thereby inhibiting translation. ISRIB, a drug-like eIF2B activator, reverses the effects of eIF2 phosphorylation, and in rodents it enhances cognition and corrects cognitive deficits after brain injury. To
  
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• Shifts in disease dynamics in a tropical amphibian assemblage are not due to pathogen attenuation

  29-03-2018 19:38
  Infectious diseases rarely end in extinction. Yet the mechanisms that explain how epidemics subside are difficult to pinpoint. We investigated host-pathogen interactions after the emergence of a lethal fungal pathogen in a tropical amphibian assemblage. Some amphibian host species are recovering, but the pathogen is still present and is as pathogenic today as it was almost a decade ago. In addition, some species have defenses that are more effective now than they were before the epidemic. These
  
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• Self-heating-induced healing of lithium dendrites

  29-03-2018 19:38
  Lithium (Li) metal electrodes are not deployable in rechargeable batteries because electrochemical plating and stripping invariably leads to growth of dendrites that reduce coulombic efficiency and eventually short the battery. It is generally accepted that the dendrite problem is exacerbated at high current densities. Here, we report a regime for dendrite evolution in which the reverse is true. In our experiments, we found that when the plating and stripping current density is raised above ~9 m
  
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• Response to Comment on "Enhanced water permeability and tunable ion selectivity in subnanometer carbon nanotube porins"

  29-03-2018 19:38
  Horner and Pohl argue that high water transport rates reported for carbon nanotube porins (CNTPs) originate from leakage at the nanotube-bilayer interface. Our results and new experimental evidence are consistent with transport through the nanotube pores and rule out a defect-mediated transport mechanism. Mechanistic origins of the high Arrhenius factor that we reported for narrow CNTPs at pH 8 require further investigation.
  
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• Nanofluidic rocking Brownian motors

  29-03-2018 19:38
  Control and transport of nanoscale objects in fluids is challenging because of the unfavorable scaling of most interaction mechanisms to small length scales. We designed energy landscapes for nanoparticles by accurately shaping the geometry of a nanofluidic slit and exploiting the electrostatic interaction between like-charged particles and walls. Directed transport was performed by combining asymmetric potentials with an oscillating electric field to achieve a rocking Brownian motor. Using gold
  
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• Molecular mechanism of extreme mechanostability in a pathogen adhesin

  29-03-2018 19:38
  High resilience to mechanical stress is key when pathogens adhere to their target and initiate infection. Using atomic force microscopy–based single-molecule force spectroscopy, we explored the mechanical stability of the prototypical staphylococcal adhesin SdrG, which targets a short peptide from human fibrinogen β. Steered molecular dynamics simulations revealed, and single-molecule force spectroscopy experiments confirmed, the mechanism by which this complex withstands forces of ov
  
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• Hippocampal ripples down-regulate synapses

  29-03-2018 19:38
  The specific effects of sleep on synaptic plasticity remain unclear. We report that mouse hippocampal sharp-wave ripple oscillations serve as intrinsic events that trigger long-lasting synaptic depression. Silencing of sharp-wave ripples during slow-wave states prevented the spontaneous down-regulation of net synaptic weights and impaired the learning of new memories. The synaptic down-regulation was dependent on the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor and selective for a specific input pathway. Thus,
  
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• Erythrocytic ferroportin reduces intracellular iron accumulation, hemolysis, and malaria risk

  29-03-2018 19:38
  Malaria parasites invade red blood cells (RBCs), consume copious amounts of hemoglobin, and severely disrupt iron regulation in humans. Anemia often accompanies malaria disease; however, iron supplementation therapy inexplicably exacerbates malarial infections. Here we found that the iron exporter ferroportin (FPN) was highly abundant in RBCs, and iron supplementation suppressed its activity. Conditional deletion of the Fpn gene in erythroid cells resulted in accumulation of excess intracellular
  
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• Destabilizing mutations encode nongenetic variation that drives evolutionary innovation

  29-03-2018 19:38
  Evolutionary innovations are often achieved by repurposing existing genes to perform new functions; however, the mechanisms enabling the transition from old to new remain controversial. We identified mutations in bacteriophage ’s host-recognition gene J that confer enhanced adsorption to ’s native receptor, LamB, and the ability to access a new receptor, OmpF. The mutations destabilizeparticles and cause conformational bistability of J, which yields progeny of multiple phenotypic for
  
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• Comment on "Enhanced water permeability and tunable ion selectivity in subnanometer carbon nanotube porins"

  29-03-2018 19:38
  Tunuguntla et al. (Reports, 25 August 2017, p. 792) report that permeation of single-file water occurs faster through carbon nanotubes than through aquaporins. We show that this conclusion violates fundamental thermodynamic laws: Because of its much lower activation energy, aquaporin-mediated water transport must be orders of magnitude faster. Leakage at the nanotube-membrane interface may explain the discrepancy.
  
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• Chameleon-like elastomers with molecularly encoded strain-adaptive stiffening and coloration

  29-03-2018 19:38
  Active camouflage is widely recognized as a soft-tissue feature, and yet the ability to integrate adaptive coloration and tissuelike mechanical properties into synthetic materials remains elusive. We provide a solution to this problem by uniting these functions in moldable elastomers through the self-assembly of linear-bottlebrush-linear triblock copolymers. Microphase separation of the architecturally distinct blocks results in physically cross-linked networks that display vibrant color, extrem
  
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• Carbothermal shock synthesis of high-entropy-alloy nanoparticles

  29-03-2018 19:38
  The controllable incorporation of multiple immiscible elements into a single nanoparticle merits untold scientific and technological potential, yet remains a challenge using conventional synthetic techniques. We present a general route for alloying up to eight dissimilar elements into single-phase solid-solution nanoparticles, referred to as high-entropy-alloy nanoparticles (HEA-NPs), by thermally shocking precursor metal salt mixtures loaded onto carbon supports [temperature ~2000 kelvin (K), 5
  
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• Binding of ISRIB reveals a regulatory site in the nucleotide exchange factor eIF2B

  29-03-2018 19:38
  The integrated stress response (ISR) is a conserved translational and transcriptional program affecting metabolism, memory, and immunity. The ISR is mediated by stress-induced phosphorylation of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) that attenuates the guanine nucleotide exchange factor eIF2B. A chemical inhibitor of the ISR, ISRIB, reverses the attenuation of eIF2B by phosphorylated eIF2α, protecting mice from neurodegeneration and traumatic brain injury. We desc
  
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• Antibody-mediated inhibition of MICA and MICB shedding promotes NK cell-driven tumor immunity

  29-03-2018 19:38
  MICA and MICB are expressed by many human cancers as a result of cellular stress, and can tag cells for elimination by cytotoxic lymphocytes through natural killer group 2D (NKG2D) receptor activation. However, tumors evade this immune recognition pathway through proteolytic shedding of MICA and MICB proteins. We rationally designed antibodies targeting the MICA α3 domain, the site of proteolytic shedding, and found that these antibodies prevented loss of cell surface MICA and MICB by huma
  
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• Adaptive infrared-reflecting systems inspired by cephalopods

  29-03-2018 19:38
  Materials and systems that statically reflect radiation in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum underpin the performance of many entrenched technologies, including building insulation, energy-conserving windows, spacecraft components, electronics shielding, container packaging, protective clothing, and camouflage platforms. The development of their adaptive variants, in which the infrared-reflecting properties dynamically change in response to external stimuli, has emerged as an i
  
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• Activation of olefins via asymmetric Bronsted acid catalysis

  29-03-2018 19:38
  The activation of olefins for asymmetric chemical synthesis traditionally relies on transition metal catalysts. In contrast, biological enzymes with Brønsted acidic sites of appropriate strength can protonate olefins and thereby generate carbocations that ultimately react to form natural products. Although chemists have recently designed chiral Brønsted acid catalysts to activate imines and carbonyl compounds, mimicking these enzymes to protonate simple olefins that then engage in
  
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• A bound reaction intermediate sheds light on the mechanism of nitrogenase

  29-03-2018 19:38
  Reduction of N2 by nitrogenases occurs at an organometallic iron cofactor that commonly also contains either molybdenum or vanadium. The well-characterized resting state of the cofactor does not bind substrate, so its mode of action remains enigmatic. Carbon monoxide was recently found to replace a bridging sulfide, but the mechanistic relevance was unclear. Here we report the structural analysis of vanadium nitrogenase with a bound intermediate, interpreted as a μ2-bridging, protonated nitro
  
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• Scientists develop novel chip for fast and accurate disease detection at low cost

  29-03-2018 19:31
  A novel invention holds promise for a faster and cheaper way to diagnose diseases with high accuracy. They have developed a tiny microfluidic chip that could effectively detect minute amounts of biomolecules without the need for complex lab equipment.
  
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• Once we can capture CO2 emissions, here's what we could do with it

  29-03-2018 19:31
  The carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from power plants each year doesn't have to go into the atmosphere. Researchers are optimistic that within the next decade we will be able to affordably capture CO2 waste and convert it into useful molecules for feedstock, biofuels, pharmaceuticals, or renewable fuels.
  
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• NASA visualizes the dance of a melting snowflake

  29-03-2018 19:31
  NASA has produced the first three-dimensional numerical model of melting snowflakes in the atmosphere. The model provides a better understanding of how snow melts can help scientists recognize the signature in radar signals of heavier, wetter snow -- the kind that breaks power lines and tree limbs -- and could be a step toward improving predictions of this hazard.
  
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• Fat-sensing hormone helps control tadpole metamorphosis

  29-03-2018 19:31
  When tadpoles are but tadpoles, they're voracious eaters, chomping down all of the plant matter in their paths.
  
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• Expert panel reliable and accurate in identifying injuries in young children

  29-03-2018 19:31
  The reliability and accuracy of a nine-member expert panel was measured in determining the likelihood of abuse in more than 2,000 cases. The results of the study found nearly perfect reliability and accuracy of the panel both individually and as a composite.
  
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• France to spend $1.8 billion on AI to compete with U.S., China

  29-03-2018 19:11
  PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron promised 1.5 billion euros ($1.85 billion) of public funding into artificial intelligence by 2022 in a bid to reverse a brain drain and catch up with the dominant U.S. and Chinese tech giants.
  
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• NASA astronauts go spacewalking just days after reaching orbit

  29-03-2018 17:57 via cbc.ca
  Two new arrivals at the International Space Station went spacewalking Thursday less than a week after moving in.
  
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• New exoplanet hunter to search for worlds beyond our own

  29-03-2018 17:35 via cbc.ca
  The search for worlds circling stars far beyond our solar system will resume in the coming weeks with NASA's launch of a spacecraft scientists hope will enlarge the known catalog of so-called exoplanets believed capable of supporting life.
  
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