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University of Groningen scientists design superfast molecular motor
Light-driven molecular motors have been around for over twenty years. These motors typically take microseconds to nanoseconds for one revolution. Thomas Jansen, associate professor of physics at the University of Groningen, and Master's student Atreya Majumdar have now designed an even faster molecular motor. The new design is driven by light only and can make a full turn in picoseconds, using the power of a single photon.
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People with back pain miss far fewer workdays when they receive recommended treatments
Medical guidelines help doctors understand the best way to treat health conditions. Surprisingly, many doctors do not adhere to them, and this is a problem, according to a new study. People with lower back pain injury miss 11 more days of work in a year when they only receive treatments for lower back pain that are not recommended by medical guidelines compared to people treated according to guidelines.
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Health and socializing: Why people use mixed-reality sports platforms
New technologies allow users to do things like race their real bikes against other real people in a virtual world, and a new study outlines what motivates people to use these online platforms. The findings offer insights for future iterations of these technologies -- and how to market them.
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Beyond mere blueprints: Variable gene expression patterns and type 1 diabetes
Genetics plays a major role in determining a person's risk of developing type 1 diabetes, but environmental and lifestyle factors are also important. In an article recently published in Chinese Medical Journal, a team of researchers explore the interplay of genetic and environmental factors by summarizing the literature on type 1 diabetes and epigenetics -- the study of how gene expression patterns can be modified. These findings have important implications in treating type 1 diabetes.
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Probing the dynamics of photoemission
Physicists at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich (LMU) and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ) have used ultrashort laser pulses to probe the dynamics of photoelectron emission in tungsten crystals.
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Passive rewilding can rapidly expand UK woodland at no cost
A long-term passive rewilding study has shown that natural woodland regeneration could make a significant contribution to meeting the UK's ambitious tree planting targets - potentially at no cost and within relatively short timescales. The research, led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), found natural growth due to seed dispersal by birds, mammals and wind can produce biodiverse and resilient woodland.
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Masonic Medical Research Institute researchers develop new imaging agent to detect activated platelets
While stents are highly effective, scarring or clotting of unhealed stents can occur and lead to complications. Approaches to understand stent healing based on their biological clotting status is unavailable in patients. To devise a potential solution, Dr. Jason McCarthy, an Associate Professor at MMRI, and his team developed a fluorescent probe that binds to activated platelets, allowing the potential for clinicians to proactively treat patients before the development of occlusive stent clotting or scarring.
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Unraveling the origin of Alzheimer's disease
Case Western Reserve University researchers studying prions--misfolded proteins that cause lethal incurable diseases--have identified for the first time surface features of human prions responsible for their replication in the brain.
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Anti-aging protein in red blood cells helps stave off cognitive decline
Research conducted by Qiang et al has discovered a link between a protein in red blood cells and age-related decline in cognitive performance. Published in the open access journal PLOS Biology on June 17, 2021, the study shows that depleting mouse blood of the protein ADORA2B leads to faster declines in memory, delays in auditory processing, and increased inflammation in the brain.
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Physicists bring human-scale object to near standstill, reaching a quantum state
MIT physicists have brought a human-scale object to a near-standstill, close to a quantum state.
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Marine ice cliff collapse limited by ice sheet thickness
Marine-terminating glaciers may be less vulnerable to rapid and irreversible collapse than previously suggested, according to a new study, which finds that ice cliff collapse is limited by upstream thinning of the ice sheet and how quickly calved icebergs and sea-ice float away.
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Cooling LIGO's mirrors to near quantum ground state
Using LIGO's suspended mirrors, researchers have demonstrated the ability to cool a large-scale object - the 10-kilogram optomechanical oscillator the suspended mirrors form - to nearly the motional quantum ground state.
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Fallback strategies: Planning for climate-induced relocation
Daunting and uncertain is the future for people who must decide whether, where, when, and how to vacate their homes as the climate changes.
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While women inventors focus more on women's health, few women get to invent
Patents with all-female inventor teams are more likely than all-male teams to address problems that specifically or disproportionately affect women, according to a new study.
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Targeting cellular response to SARS-CoV-2 holds promise as new way to fight infection
A new treatment approach focused on fixing cell damage, rather than fighting the virus directly, is effective against SARS-CoV-2 in lab models. Combination of two drugs reduces spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection in cells by up to 99.5%.If found safe for human use, this anti-viral treatment would make COVID-19 symptoms milder and speed up recovery times.
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Yellow fever mosquitoes evolve different strategies to resist pesticides
The yellow fever mosquito (scientific name, Aedes aegypti) spreads multiple untreatable viruses in humans and is primarily controlled using a pesticide called permethrin. However, many mosquitoes are evolving resistance to the pesticide. A new study by Karla Saavedra-Rodriguez of Colorado State University and colleagues, published in the journal PLOS Genetics, identifies mutations linked to different permethrin resistance strategies, which threaten our ability to control disease outbreaks.
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New tools needed to effectively and fairly plan relocation of those displaced by climate
Current approaches for planning relocation for potentially millions of people affected by climate change are 'woefully inadequate' and risk worsening societal inequities, experts wrote in a policy perspective on June 17 in Science. Policymakers and scientists need to rethink how they work together to develop, communicate and carry out relocation plans so that relocating communities can thrive, though it relies on a transformation in how science is used, tools are deployed, and stakeholders are engaged.
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Asymptomatic pertussis more common in infants than previously thought
Pertussis, also known as "whooping cough," remains a significant cause of death in infants and young children around the world and, despite global vaccination programs, many countries are experiencing a resurgence of this highly contagious disease. A new study by Boston University School of Public Health and the University of Georgia's Odum School of Ecology presents evidence that could help explain this resurgence: asymptomatic individuals. Lots of them.
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Researchers identify gene responsible for increased risk of infantile fragility
An intrauterine fracture is a rare finding during routine prenatal imaging. This condition can be due to maternal trauma, genetic disorders of the skeleton, as well as other predisposing maternal metabolic and vascular disorders. Genetic disorders that have previously been reported to cause intrauterine fracture include brittle bone disease (osteogenesis imperfecta or OI), osteopetrosis, hypophosphatasia and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS).
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Adding checkpoint inhibition to anti-HER2 breast cancer therapy brings no benefit
Adding an immune checkpoint inhibitor to anti-HER2 treatment in breast cancer does not improve pathological complete response (pCR), according to the primary analysis of the IMpassion050 trial presented today during the ESMO Virtual Plenary. The phase III trial is the first to report data comparing a neoadjuvant anti-HER2 based regimen with or without the anti-PD-L1 antibody atezolizumab in patients with high-risk, HER2-positive early breast cancer.
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