Culture
If Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity holds true, then a black hole, born from the cosmically quaking collisions of two massive black holes, should itself "ring" in the aftermath, producing gravitational waves much like a struck bell reverbates sound waves. Einstein predicted that the particular pitch and decay of these gravitational waves should be a direct signature of the newly formed black hole's mass and spin.
University of Colorado Boulder engineers and faculty from the Consortium for Fibrosis Research & Translation (CFReT) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have teamed up to develop biomaterial-based "mimics" of heart tissues to measure patients' responses to an aortic valve replacement procedure, offering new insight into the ways that cardiac tissue re-shapes itself post-surgery.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Papillomavirus has traditionally been considered strictly a sexually transmitted disease, but a recent study found that rabbit and mouse papillomaviruses could be transferred by blood to their respective hosts.
Penn State researchers on the study said this raises the possibility that human papillomavirus (HPV) may also be transferable by blood in humans.
The Acheulian culture endured in the Levant for over a million years during the Lower Paleolithic period (1.4 million to 400,000 years ago). Its use of bifaces or large cutting tools like hand axes and cleavers is considered a hallmark of its sophistication -- or, some researchers would argue, the lack thereof.
A newly developed type of architected metamaterial has the ability to change shape in a tunable fashion.
While most reconfigurable materials can toggle between two distinct states, the way a switch toggles on or off, the new material's shape can be finely tuned, adjusting its physical properties as desired. The material, which has potential applications in next-generation energy storage and bio-implantable micro-devices, was developed by a joint Caltech-Georgia Tech-ETH Zurich team in the lab of Julia R. Greer.
One would expect that entrepreneurs who pitch their startup ideas with passion are more apt to entice investors. Now there's scientific proof the two are connected: enthusiasm and financial backing.
According to new research from Case Western Reserve University, the brains of potential investors are wired to pay closer attention to entrepreneurs who pitch with passion.
CHAPEL HILL, NC - A new study published today in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research shows how bones in mammals are negatively impacted by calorie restriction, and particularly by the combination of exercise and calorie restriction. Maya Styner, MD, associate professor of medicine at the UNC School of Medicine, is the senior author on the study.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have identified a molecule that plays a pivotal role in determining the fate of cells under stress, much like a Roman emperor deciding the fate of gladiators in the coliseum. The findings appear today in the journal Nature and suggest a possible new approach for treatment of autoinflammatory and other diseases.
In The Little Prince, the classic novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the titular prince lives on a house-sized asteroid so small that he can watch the sunset any time of day by moving his chair a few steps.
Of course, in real life, celestial objects that small can't support life because they don't have enough gravity to maintain an atmosphere. But how small is too small for habitability?
INDIANAPOLIS, September 11, 2019--According to a new study by Indiana University School of Medicine doctors, providing adolescents seeking birth control the ability to obtain a long-acting reversible contraceptive on the same day as their clinic visit could lead to significant cost savings for insurance providers.
Published today in the journal JAMA Network Open, the study was the work of three IU School of Medicine faculty--Tracey A. Wilkinson, MD, MPH, Stephen M. Downs, MD, MS, and Brownsyne Tucker Edmonds, MD, MPH, MS.
BEND, Ore. - The hoary bat, the species of bat most frequently found dead at wind power facilities, is declining at a rate that threatens its long-term future in the Pacific Northwest, according to a novel and comprehensive research collaboration based at Oregon State University - Cascades.
The findings, published today in Ecology and Evolution, result from modeling based on field surveys across Oregon and Washington that began in 2003.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- A new study finds that the muscles in bats' wings
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- A new study finds that the muscles in bats' wings operate at a significantly lower temperature than their bodies, especially during flight.
An in-depth analysis of the skull biomechanics of a giant extinct kangaroo indicates that the animal had a capacity for high-performance crushing of foods, suggesting feeding behaviors more similar to a giant panda than modern-day kangaroo.
The new findings, published in PLOS ONE, support the hypothesis that some short-faced kangaroos were capable of persisting on tough, poor-quality vegetation, when more desirable foods were scarce because of droughts or glacial periods.
As plants expand into new open habitats, geographical and climatic factors may matter more than species-specific traits, according to a study published September 11, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Miki Nomura of the University of Otago in New Zealand, and colleagues.
The enormous black hole at the center of our galaxy is having an unusually large meal of interstellar gas and dust, and researchers don't yet understand why.
"We have never seen anything like this in the 24 years we have studied the supermassive black hole," said Andrea Ghez, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy and a co-senior author of the research. "It's usually a pretty quiet, wimpy black hole on a diet. We don't know what is driving this big feast."