Feed aggregator

It stands to reason that the more one is compensated for performing a task, the greater the incentive to do a good job and the better one feels about doing it.But what if the task is writing an objective review of a company or service? Does the compensation blur the lines of objectivity?

A University of Houston research team is developing an LED bulb that emits less of that troublesome blue light often associated with health issues. The new bulb will rely on the safer violet segment of the visible light spectrum.

"Our results clearly demonstrated that prism adaptation treatment enhances rehabilitation outcome," said Dr. Chen, senior research scientist at Kessler Foundation. "The treated group showed reliably higher scores than the untreated group in total functional independence and cognitive functional independence." She adds, "This is extremely encouraging evidence that integrating prism adaptation into standard of care for people with spatial neglect is beneficial."

Skoltech scientists and their colleagues have published an article describing organic material for a new generation of energy storage systems. The resulted material showed attractive properties: the ability to quickly charge (in less than 1 minute), had high specific capacities (up to ~140 mAh/g), relatively high redox potentials, as well as decent cycling stability (up to 1000 cycles).

Fly ash from coal burning contributes between 37 and 72 percent of the organic carbon particles in the Yangtze River basin

Researchers created an algorithm to identify similar cell types from species -- including fish, mice, flatworms and sponges -- that have diverged for hundreds of millions of years, which could help fill in gaps in our understanding of evolution.

After a wildfire, soils in burned areas often become water repellent, leading to increased erosion and flooding after rainfall events - a phenomenon that many scientists have attributed to smoke and heat-induced changes in soil chemistry. But this post-fire water repellency may also be caused by wildfire smoke in the absence of heat, according to a new paper from the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Nevada.

Researchers at the University of Arizona recently developed an innovative technique to capture the unused solar energy that illuminates a solar panel. As reported in the Journal of Photonics for Energy (JPE), they created special holograms that can be easily inserted into the solar panel package. This method can increase the amount of solar energy converted by the solar panel over the course of a year by about five percent.

Patterns and drivers of alien plant species invasiveness in Europe identified by an international research team led by Konstanz biologists.

A novel compound similar in structure to the psychedelic drug ibogaine, but lacking its toxic and hallucinogenic effects, has been found to rapidly reverse the effects of stress in mice. Researchers found that a single dose of tabernanthalog (TBG) can correct stress-induced behavioral deficits, including anxiety and cognitive inflexibility, and also promotes the regrowth of neuronal connections and restores neural circuits in the brain that are disrupted by stress.

Researchers have determined that viral particles remaining in the gut long after an initial COVID-19 infection can travel into the bloodstream, instigating the condition called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C).

New research from the Clemson University Center for Human Genetics has identified specific cell clusters in the brain of the common fruit fly affected by acute cocaine exposure, potentially laying the groundwork for the development of drugs to treat or prevent addiction in humans.

Lack of oxygen, which is harmful to the brain, causes hydrogen sulfide "sewer gas" to accumulate in the brain. The brains of lab animals repeatedly exposed to hydrogen sulfide became tolerant to the gas and lack of oxygen. Researchers identified the mechanism that induces this tolerance, which could lead to new treatments for brain injuries caused by oxygen deprivation.

Underground coal seams engulfed in a fire are not a very pleasant place to live. Nevertheless, Russian scientists, while examining the quarries of the Kemerovo region, showed that microorganisms also live there. They are similar to those that inhabit hot springs and other harsh habitats and are capable of metabolizing carbon monoxide, hydrogen, nitrates, and other compounds that are often hazardous to humans.

A research group at São Paulo State University (UNESP) analyzed how Candida albicans fungi and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria influence gene expression and tumor cell survival.

In a new paper, scientists from La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) bring together research findings from COVID-19 researchers around the world. The results are striking: human T cells can target more than 1,400 sites on the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Researchers from Osaka University have demonstrated that two signaling pathways, the PI3K and the Hippo pathways earlier implicated in the development of pancreatic cancer, are responsible for the development and progression of chronic pancreatitis. Experiments in animal models, corroboration by laboratory evidence, and studies of human diseased tissue suggest that targeting pathologically upregulated Connective Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF) may be a useful therapeutic strategy against this disease.

Despite concerns that remote learning would drive at-risk college students away, some students' motivation and interest in their studies increased during the pandemic, according to a study of underrepresented students in a biology course by researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

For the first time, biologists have fully characterized the light-sensitive proteins of the phytochrome family from the common model plant Arabidopsis thaliana on a biochemical level. The scientists also extended that characterization into the phytochromes of two important food crops: corn and potatoes. Instead of finding that all phytochrome isoforms are identical, they found surprising differences.

A team of scientists from Germany developed the cameras for an astronomical instrument built to perform all-sky surveys in the x-ray wavelength regime. In their recently published paper, they highlight the features of the cameras, a key part of a telescope called eROSITA, describing the hardware development and ground testing, and report the performance aboard the satellite, opening doors to a deeper understanding of our cosmos.