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Like your olives bitter? Molecular breeding can make them even better!

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Olives are in high demand among plant breeders, owing to their characteristic flavor and the high-end oil derived from them. However, molecular techniques to enhance olive breeding is challenging, owing to a lack of high-quality genomic resources. To overcome this, a new study by Chinese researchers looked into a high-quality genome of a European olive variety and identified genes that can be used to enhance its taste, quality, and health benefits.
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How a bath sponge becomes a bio-based industrial filter

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Researchers at TU Bergakademie Freiberg developed an innovative material from a cultured marine sponge. When the fibers of the sponge react with a copper-containing ammonia solution, such as that found in the electronics industry, the mineral atacamite is formed. This mineral, which occurs only very rarely in nature, attaches itself so strongly to the sponge fibers that a robust material is created that has catalytic and antibacterial properties and could therefore potentially be used as a bio-based industrial filter.
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Preformed gel particles tested for enhanced oil recovery

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Petroleum, being a liquid compound, has very good migratory properties, and recovery methods take account of that - using various methods, oilers displace petroleum through cavities and vugs and extract it. However, sometimes oil is "locked" in low-permeability reservoirs, and water displacement used in such cases poses a high risk of reservoir flooding and workplace emergencies.
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How do we know where things are?

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Our eyes move three times per second. Every time we move our eyes, the world in front of us flies across the retina at the back of our eyes, dramatically shifting the image the eyes send to the brain; yet, as far as we can tell, nothing appears to move. A new study provides new insight into this process known as "visual stabilization". The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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New Cleveland Clinic research identifies link between gut microbes and stroke

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
CLEVELAND: New findings from Cleveland Clinic researchers show for the first time that the gut microbiome impacts stroke severity and functional impairment following stroke. The results, published in Cell Host & Microbe, lay the groundwork for potential new interventions to help treat or prevent stroke. The research was led by Weifei Zhu, Ph.D., and Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D., of Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute.
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Early lung cancer coopts immune cell into helping tumors invade the lungs

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Immune cells that normally repair tissues in the body can be fooled by tumors when cancer starts forming in the lungs and instead help the tumor become invasive, according to a surprising discovery reported by Mount Sinai scientists in Nature in June.
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New material could remove respiratory droplets from air

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
While air-borne droplets bounce off commonly used plexiglass dividers, they stick to surfaces coated with the new material, then get absorbed and dry up.
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The vision: Tailored optical stimulation for the blind

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
European scientists propose a personalized protocol for optimizing stimulation of optic nerve fibers, for the blind, which takes into account feedback from the viewer's brain. The protocol has been tested on artificial neural networks known to simulate the physiology of the entire visual system, from the eye to the visual cortex. The stimulation protocol will be tested in clinical trials with partners in Rome.
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Ten years of ancient genome analysis has taught scientists 'what it means to be human'

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
A ball of 4,000-year-old hair frozen in time tangled around a whalebone comb led to the first ever reconstruction of an ancient human genome a decade ago. The hair, which was preserved in arctic permafrost in Greenland, was collected in the 1980s. It wasn't until 2010 that evolutionary biologist Professor Eske Willerslev was able to use pioneering shotgun DNA sequencing to reconstruct the genetic history of the hair. It sparked a 'decade of discovery.'
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Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Health Care Workers After 1st Dose of Moderna Vaccine

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
What The Study Did:Â This study demonstrated an association between receiving the mRNA-1273 (Moderna) vaccine and a reduction in SARS-CoV-2 infection in health care workers beginning eight days after the first dose.
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Survival among adults with early-onset colorectal cancer

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Survival among people with early-onset (diagnosed before age 50) colorectal cancer compared with later-onset colorectal cancer (diagnosed at ages 51 through 55) was compared using data from the National Cancer Database.
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Association of cannabis use during adolescence with neurodevelopment

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Researchers examined to what extent cannabis use is associated with thickness in brain areas measured by magnetic resonance imaging in a study of adolescents.
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Most rivers run dry -- now and then

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
A new study led by researchers from McGill University and INRAE found that between 51-60% of the 64 million kilometres of rivers and streams on Earth that they investigated stop flowing periodically, or run dry for part of the year. It is the first-ever empirically grounded effort to quantify the global distribution of non-perennial rivers and streams. The research, which was published today in Nature, calls for a paradigm shift in river science and management.
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Mystery of Betelgeuse's dip in brightness solved

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
When Betelgeuse, a bright orange star in the constellation of Orion, became visibly darker in late 2019 and early 2020, the astronomy community was puzzled. A team of astronomers have now published new images of the star's surface, taken using the European Southern Observatory's VLT, that clearly show how its brightness changed. The new research reveals that the star was partially concealed by a cloud of dust, a discovery that solves the mystery of the "Great Dimming" of Betelgeuse.
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Researchers translate a bird's brain activity into song

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
It is possible to re-create a bird's song by reading only its brain activity, shows a first proof-of-concept study from the University of California San Diego. The researchers were able to reproduce the songbird's complex vocalizations down to the pitch, volume and timbre of the original. The study is a first step towards developing vocal prostheses for humans who have lost the ability to speak.
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Correlated errors in quantum computers emphasize need for design changes

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Quantum computers could outperform classical computers at many tasks, but only if the errors that are an inevitable part of computational tasks are isolated rather than widespread events. Now, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found evidence that errors are correlated across an entire superconducting quantum computing chip -- highlighting a problem that must be acknowledged and addressed in the quest for fault-tolerant quantum computers.
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Mystery solved: Dust cloud led to Betelgeuse's 'Great Dimming'

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
When Betelgeuse, a bright orange star in the constellation of Orion, lost more than two-thirds of its brightness in late 2019 and early 2020, astronomers were puzzled.
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Researchers find human infant brains, bodies are active during new sleep stage

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
A University of Iowa team has found that babies twitch during a sleep stage called quiet sleep, not just during REM sleep. The results may show there's more communication between snoozing infants' brains and motor systems than previously known. Results appear in the journal Current Biology.
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When testing Einstein's theory of general relativity, small modeling errors add up fast

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Small modeling errors may accumulate faster than previously expected when physicists combine multiple gravitational wave events (such as colliding black holes) to test Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, suggest researchers at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. The findings appear June 16 in the journal iScience.
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Sticky transparent wall coating can capture aerosols and droplets from the air

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
By repurposing common ingredients in hair conditioner, scientists have designed an inexpensive, transparent coating that can turn surfaces like windows and ceilings into glue pads to trap airborne aerosol droplets. This new strategy is described June 16 in the journal Chem.
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