Earth
Researchers from Skoltech and their colleagues spent more than two years studying a 20-meter wide and 20-meter deep crater in the Yamal Peninsula in northern Russia that formed after an explosive release of gas, mostly methane, from the permafrost. They were able to deduce potential formation models for the discovered crater that has implications for geocryology and climate change studies.
A collaboration between researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Colorado State University resulted in a new 3D imaging technique called harmonic optical tomography that facilitates the visualization of tissues and other biological samples on a microscopic scale.
Smart phones, tablets and laptop displays, camera lenses, biosensing devices, integrated chips and solar photovoltaic cells are among the applications that could stand to benefit from an innovative method of nanocrystal assembly pioneered by Australian scientists.
Nanocrystals have a wide range of existing and potential uses, but they are often made with wet chemical methods that present challenges when seeking to incorporate them effectively into devices.
Researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) found that the rainy season of northern Central Asia, which occurs in May-July in present-day, will shift to March-May at the end of the 21st century. The study was published in Environmental Research Letters.
Central Asia is characterized by scarce precipitation and high evaporation. People's livelihoods and the fragile ecosystem are highly sensitive to changes in local precipitation.
Though corals worldwide are threatened due to climate change and local stressors, the front lines of the battle are microscopic in scale. Under stress, many reefs that were formerly dominated by coral are shifting to systems dominated by turf and fleshy algae. A new study, published in PNAS on June 1 and led by researchers at the University of Hawai'i (UH) at Mānoa and San Diego State University (SDSU), found that the outcome of the competition between coral and turf algae is determined by the assemblage of microbes at the interface where the contenders meet.
Poison is lethal all on its own -- as are arrows -- but their combination is greater than the sum of their parts. A weapon that simultaneously attacks from within and without can take down even the strongest opponents, from E. coli to MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus).
A team of Princeton researchers reported today in the journal Cell that they have found a compound, SCH-79797, that can simultaneously puncture bacterial walls and destroy folate within their cells -- while being immune to antibiotic resistance.
The extent to which rivers transport burned carbon to oceans - where it can be stored for tens of millennia - is revealed in new research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA).
The study, published today in Nature Communications, calculates how much burned carbon is being flushed out by rivers and locked up in the oceans.
Oceans store a surprising amount of carbon from burned vegetation, for example as a result of wildfires and managed burning. The research team describe it as a natural - if unexpected - quirk of the Earth system.
A new American Cancer Society study puts a price tag on racial disparities in cancer mortality, finding that $3.2 billion in lost earnings would have been avoided in 2015 if non-Hispanic (NH) blacks had equal years of life lost from cancer deaths and earning rates as NH whites. The study appears in JNCI Cancer Spectrum.
The World's Forests Are Growing Younger
Study finds climate change is altering forest structure, making forests less of a carbon sink
--By Christina Procopiou
Researchers from Berkeley Lab and 20 other institutions have found that land use and atmospheric changes are altering forest structure around the world, resulting in fewer of the mature trees that are better at storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Pour yourself a glass of water and take a look at it. This water contains an abundant source of fuel, hydrogen. Hydrogen burns clean unlike petrol-based energy products. Sound too good to be true? Scientists in Japan successfully split water into hydrogen and oxygen using light and meticulously designed catalysts, and they did so at the maximum efficiency meaning there was almost no loss and undesired side reactions.
A study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, contributes new evidence about the negative impact of air pollution on cardiovascular health. The results of the study, which analysed the relationship between several cardiovascular markers and personal exposure to two air pollutants--fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and black carbon--in over 3,000 people living around the Indian city of Hyderabad, showed that exposure to polluted air increases the risk of vascular damage.
A new ultra-bright source of X-rays has awakened in between our galactic neighbours the Magellanic Clouds, after a 26-year slumber. This is the second-closest such object known to date, with a brightness greater than a million Suns. The discovery is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
With the help of a mandibular advancement device (MAD), daytime sleepiness of patients with obstructive sleep apnoea can be relieved. Treatment with an MAD is not inferior to positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy with a sleep mask. This is the conclusion reached by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) in its final report on the benefit of MAD.
Breathing pauses disturb sleep and lead to daytime sleepiness
An international team of researchers led by researchers from ITMO University announced the development of the world's most compact semiconductor laser that works in the visible range at room temperature. According to the authors of the research, the laser is a nanoparticle of only 310 nanometers in size (which is 3,000 times less than a millimeter) that can produce green coherent light at room temperature. The research article was published in ACS Nano.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. and most who are diagnosed with lung cancer do not survive five years. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type where tumor cells shed from the main tumor circulate in the blood and settle in other organs and metastasize.