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How do predators know to avoid brightly-coloured toxic prey? A collaboration of researchers has put social information theory to the test in a reliable real-world system to find the answer - by copying what others do, or do not, eat.

Scientists show for the first time with a VR simulation and neurophysiology measurements that playback of slow music inside road tunnels keeps drivers alert, relaxed, and focused on safety. For maximal vigilance, alarm sounds like sirens should be played at the tunnel's entry and exit, where the risk of accidents is greatest. This study by the open access publisher Frontiers shows that background music has a role to play in preventing road accidents.

The Hikurangi Margin, located off the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand, is partly responsible for the more than 15,000 earthquakes the region experiences each year. Most are too small to be noticed, but between 150 and 200 are large enough to be felt. Scientists have been working to understand why this plate boundary produces both imperceptible silent earthquakes, but also potentially major ones. A study published today in the journal Nature offers new perspective and possible answers.

Researchers have developed a patch that plants can "wear" to monitor continuously for plant diseases or other stresses, such as crop damage or extreme heat.

Scientists from Trinity College Dublin are homing in on a recipe that would enable the future production of entirely renewable, clean energy from which water would be the only waste product. Using their expertise in chemistry, theoretical physics and artificial intelligence, the team is now fine-tuning the recipe with the genuine belief that the seemingly impossible will one day be reality.

EMBL´s Typas group and colleagues have analysed how the intracellular pathogen Salmonella enterica secretes proteins to survive and thrive in infected cells. Using a novel approach, which for the first time allows scientists to study which host cell proteins are targeted by the pathogen, the scientists revealed new insights into how Salmonella hijacks the cell´s cholesterol supplies, and how it rewires cellular transport processes to promote its own survival.

Astronomers led by David Yong, Gary Da Costa and Chiaki Kobayashi from Australia's ARC Centre of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) based at the Australian National University (ANU) have potentially discovered the first evidence of the destruction of a collapsed rapidly spinning star - a phenomenon they describe as a "magneto-rotational hypernova".

Diversification in the sourcing of food into cities can go a long way to tempering "food shock" -- a sudden drop in food supply due to unforeseen events, according to a team of researchers from Penn State and Northern Arizona University, who developed a statistical risk model linking supply chain diversity to the probability of a city experiencing food shocks.

What The Study Did: The characteristics and factors associated with deaths among individuals detained in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities from 2011 to 2018 were examined in this study.

What The Study Did: Wearable sensor data were used to examine the duration and variation of recovery among COVID-19-positive and COVID-19-negative participants.

Why magma flowed along a curved pathway during the 2018 eruption of a Galapagos volcano is explained by a GFZ model

In mosquitofish, of the genus Gambusia, male fish are smaller than females - sometimes only half the size. Biologists had previously assumed that smaller male mosquitofish had at least some reproductive advantages. Researchers from the transregional collaborative research centre NC³ at Bielefeld University have shown in a systematic review and meta-analysis that larger mosquitofish are actually more successful at reproduction. The re-searchers are presenting their findings today (07.07.2021) in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

Environmental education provision needs greater investment and innovation if future generations are to be able to respond fully to the climate emergency, experts have said.

Female vampire bats establish an egalitarian community within a roost rather than a society based on a clear hierarchy of dominance that is often seen in animal groups, a new study suggests.

Physicists of Ruhr-Universität Bochum have taken spectacular pictures that allow the ignition process of plasma under water to be viewed and tracked in real time. They have provided the first data sets with ultra-high temporal resolution, supporting a new hypothesis on the ignition of these plasmas: In the nanosecond range, there is not enough time to form a gas environment. Electrons generated by field effects lead to the propagation of the plasma.

The body is filled with mucus that keeps track of the bacteria. Now, researchers from the University of Copenhagen present the first method for producing artificial mucus. They hope that the artificial mucus, which consists of sugary molecules, may help to develop completely new, medical treatments.

A team led by researchers from Queen Mary University of London has developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that is able to automatically measure the amount of fat around the heart from MRI scan images.

Every organism is a universe that lives thanks to the activities of tens of thousands of nanomachines, whose functions depend on their forms. Now, a group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) has helped determine the structure of a nanomachine essential for the functioning of another, mTOR, which plays fundamental roles in cancer and nutrition, ageing and other vital processes in the body.

Dehydrated plant seeds can lay dormant for long periods--over 1,000 years in some species--before the availability of water can trigger germination. This protects the embryonic plant inside from a variety of environmental stresses until conditions are favorable for growth and survival. However, the mechanism by which the baby plant senses water and reactivates cellular activity has remained a mystery until now.

Researchers analyzed responses to an open-ended question about employment in the 2015 Kessler Foundation National Employment and Disability Survey, focusing on 1,254 respondents with disabilities who self-identified as unemployed. The most common reasons related to their perceptions about their medical conditions, functional limitations, or disability, which contributed to concerns about being able to work. Countering negative perceptions, which are often associated with diverse demographic and sociodemographic characteristics, is essential to developing successful return-to-work interventions.