Culture
Researchers at the Nanoscience Center and at the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland have demonstrated that new distance-based machine learning methods, developed in the University of Jyväskylä, are capable of predicting structures and atomic dynamics of nanoparticles reliably. The new methods are significantly faster than traditional simulation methods used for nanoparticle research and will facilitate more efficient explorations of particle-particle reactions and particles' functionality in their environment.
Studies by Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI), have provided a new understanding into the roles two essential amino acids play in metabolic health, which may help scientists in the fight against obesity.
Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) have found that people who hold negative opinions of genetically-modified (GM) food are likely to feel the same about nano-enabled food - food with nano-additives to enhance flavour, nutrition or prolong shelf life.
For the first time, researchers at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR) have identified and described a new and unique subset of human cells that are involved in the immune response against hepatitis B (HBV) infection. The discovery could help develop new treatments for HBV and inform future vaccine design.
Currently, HBV vaccination protects against subsequent infection through immunological memory - the vaccine 'trains' the immune system to eliminate pathogens when the body is exposed to the virus.
Some of the world's largest, most spectacular and unheralded mammals are silently slipping away, species like Tibetan wild yaks and Patagonia's huemul, Bhutan's takin and Vietnam's saola. Even Africa's three species of zebras and wildebeest have suffered massive reductions over the last several decades.
Long-term research is important to understand how land management impacts runoff and erosion, which pose serious threats to soil and water quality worldwide. To better understand these processes in agricultural landscapes of the southern Great Plains of the United States, eight 1.6 -ha watersheds were established and instrumented in 1976 at the USDA-ARS Grazinglands Research Laboratory in El Reno, Oklahoma.
The world's waterfront cities should not be deluged with apparently green developments because they still carry the potential to cause damage to the marine and coastal environment, scientists have warned.
Coastal urban areas all over the world have expanded at an increasingly fast pace in recent years, with developers innovating a variety of ways to try and minimise their impact on natural habitats.
In contrast to the prehistoric remains of the Near East, the megalithic monuments of Arabia remain largely unknown. These monumental structures, made of dry stone walls, still hold many secrets in terms of their construction, function and chronology. An international collaboration (1) of scientists from France, Saudi Arabia and Italy (2), led by Olivia Munoz, a researcher at the CNRS, have discovered a 35-metre long triangular platform in the oasis of Dûmat al-Jandal (northern Saudi Arabia).
Our lungs, bones, blood vessels and other major organs are made up of cells, and one way our bodies keep us healthy is by using protein messengers known as ligands that bind to receptors on the surfaces of cells to regulate our biological processes. When those messages get garbled, it can make us ill with a host of different diseases.
Tanycytes are cells in the brain that tell the brain about the food we have eaten
When they are stimulated by light researchers from the University of Warwick found that appetite increases
Researchers have concluded that tanycytes are glial cells, and deliver signals to neurons in the brain to activate appetite
Replacing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with a new "ecosystem" measure reveals the enormous value of the natural world, new research shows.
GDP - widely used by decision-makers around the world - summarises the value of all goods and services bought and sold in a country during a specific period as a single figure.
But it takes no account of how nature contributes to economic activity and human wellbeing.
To have a more sustainable world, people need to put a dollar value on nature's contributions.
In this week's interdisciplinary journal - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international group of scholars show that gross domestic product (GDP) fails to fully capture nature's contributions to economic activity and human well-being. In addition to the D - domestic, there needs to be an E for ecosystem. Gross ecosystem product (GEP) summarizes the economic value of nature's contributions to humans.
Color awareness has long been a puzzle for researchers in neuroscience and psychology, who debate over how much color observers really perceive. A study from Dartmouth in collaboration with Amherst College finds that people are aware of surprisingly limited color in their peripheral vision; much of our sense of a colorful visual world is likely constructed by our brain. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
Hollings Cancer Center researcher Chanita Hughes-Halbert, Ph.D., said this is illustrated in two recent health disparity studies, both reported online in April in the medical journal Ethnicity and Disease.
RICHLAND, Wash. - Marine scientists from around the world spent the last four years reviewing numerous studies and other data on the possible environmental effects of marine renewable energy (MRE) devices and found that the potential impact to marine life is likely small or undetectable.
However, scientists say there is still uncertainty around some issues, as there have been relatively few sizable deployments of MRE devices around the world where data can be collected.