Eurekalert

The old cousins of the common woodlice were crawling on Irish land as long as 360 million years ago, according to new analysis of a fossil found in Kilkenny, Ireland.

Philosophers, artists and scientists - and probably all the rest of us - have long obsessed over the key to human immortality. We all, no matter our income, culture or religion are bound to die. Even if we escape mortal diseases or accidents, we all face a deadly biological deterioration. While the debate of human longevity has divided the scientific community for centuries, a new study finds fresh evidence for our inevitable death.

Thirty state of the art IPCC-climate models predict dramatically different climates for the Northern Hemisphere, especially Europe. An analysis of the range of responses now reveals that the differences are mostly down to the individual model's simulations of changes to the North Atlantic ocean currents and not only -- as normally assumed -- atmospheric changes.

Examining an iron chalcogenide high-temperature superconductor, an international team of researchers has found that just before the material fully enters the nematic state, electronic nematicity first appears in nanoscale patches on its surface. In addition, minute stretching of the material, or strain, can induce local nematicity, which in turn suppresses superconductivity, according to a report in Nature Physics.

Despite rapid development of EVs, the safety of the Li-ion batteries remains a concern as they are as a fire and explosion risk. Among the various approaches to tackle this issue, Korean researchers have used semiconductor technology to improve the safety of Li-ion batteries. A research team has succeeded in inhibiting the growth of dendrites, crystals with multiple branches that cause EV battery fires by forming protective semiconducting passivation layers on the surface of Li electrodes.

Glyphosate is an herbicide commonly used in forestry operations throughout British Columbia, Canada. Researchers investigated how the chemical may affect the reproductive health of prickly wild rose, a perennial plant found beneath the forest canopy. The new study, by the open access publisher Frontiers, found that pollen viability decreased by an average of 66 percent compared to untreated plants a year after the herbicide was initially applied, with traces of glyphosate persisting for at least two years.

A new study examined both direct and indirect pathways by which preschool teachers' depressive symptoms could influence preschool children's early mathematical skills. The study showed that teachers' depressive symptoms were significantly associated with children's math achievement in Head Start programs. In addition, the linkage was through the quality of the teachers' relationships with the families, which in turn affected young children's motivation, engagement, and persistence in learning (called their approaches to learning).

Magnetic-spin interactions that allow spin-manipulation by electrical control allow potential applications in energy-efficient spintronic devices. A Chinese-Australia collaboration published today describes for the first time the induction of such interactions in a layered material tantalum-sulfide by addition of iron atoms, and tuning by insertion of protons.

Chatbots hold promise for dementia patient or caregiver support, but are still in their infancy, finds a new paper. None of the interactive digital apps tested performed well on all testing criteria, and all the apps contained linguistic biases and usability challenges. The authors conclude that until developers produce evidence-based chatbots that have undergone end user evaluation it will be hard to evaluate their potential to adequately educate and support dementia patients and their caregivers.

A new study showing that computers can predict what paintings people will like offers insight into how our brains make aesthetic judgments.

The human fetal immune system begins to develop early during gestation, however, factors responsible for fetal immune-priming remain elusive. Dr Florent Ginhoux from A*STAR's Singapore Immunology Network, Professor Jerry Chan from KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Professor Salvatore Albani from SingHealth Duke-NUS Translational Immunology Institute, and Cambridge University explored potential exposure to microbial agents in-utero. They identified live microbes across fetal organs that stimulate activation of fetal T-cells during the second trimester of gestation.

Research led by King's College London has, for the first time, shown that when omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are given to patients with depression they are metabolised into molecules called lipid mediators and the levels of these in the blood are linked to an improvement in symptoms. The research is published today in Molecular Psychiatry.

In 2019, on a small island in coastal South Carolina, biologists discovered an animal migration phenomenon that was difficult to believe. Nearly 20,000 whimbrel were stopping at Deveaux Bank along their migration north -- half the estimated eastern population of the declining shorebird.

New research -- the evolution of complementary cognition -- proposes that in adapting to enormous environmental upheavals over hundreds of thousands of years, humans evolved to specialize in different but complementary forms of cognition, styles of 'thinking,' that work together as a complex adaptive system -- a kind of collective brain.

Killer whales have complex social structures including close "friendships", according to a new study that used drones to film the animals.

A junk food diet may increase the risk of dangerous driving among truck/lorry drivers by boosting fatigue, which is often a key factor in vehicle collisions, suggests research published online in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

Strict rest after a sports related concussion slows recovery and may prolong symptoms, says a consensus statement drawn up by a US expert panel on how best to treat and manage the condition, and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

A new positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracer can detect abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) and potentially predict when they will rupture, according to research presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2021 Annual Meeting. Targeting a novel biomarker associated with AAA, the radiotracer is effective both in diagnosis and in providing information to assist in the development of AAA treatments, of which there currently are none.

In a new study, North Carolina State University researchers demonstrated they could print layers of electrically conductive ink on polyester fabric to make an e-textile that could be used in the design of future wearable devices.

A new study shows political partisans may engage in greater victim blaming for sexual assault crimes, especially when the members of their political party are accused. The more Republicans and Democrats identified with belonging to their political party and reported feeling defensive when members from their political party are criticized, the more accepting they were of common sexual assault myths and the less likely to perceive sexual assault as a serious issue.