Earth
In time for the International Day for Biological Diversity 2020, the date (22 May) set by the United Nations to recognise biodiversity as "the pillars upon which we build civilizations", a new study, published in the peer-reviewed open-access journal ZooKeys, describes two new to science species and one subspecies of croc
A long-term assessment of the sensitivity of hundreds of tropical forest plots to increasing temperatures brings encouraging news: in the long run, Earth's tropical forests may be more resilient to a moderately warming world than short-term predictions have suggested. According to the new biome-wide study, tropical forests worldwide and their carbon storage capacities are likely to remain intact in moderate climate warming scenarios - so long as they're not further impacted by other human disturbances such as clearance, logging or fires.
CHICAGO --- Scientists from Northwestern Medicine and the University of Belgrade have pinpointed the electrophysiological mechanism behind upper motor neuron (UMN) disease, unlocking the door to potential treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia and Primary Lateral Sclerosis.
The study, published in Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience on May 19, 2020, reveals the molecular underpinnings of electrical signals from potassium and sodium ion channels within the neuron's cell membrane.
The most common chemical bond in the living world -- that between carbon and hydrogen -- has long resisted attempts by chemists to crack it open, thwarting efforts to add new bells and whistles to old carbon-based molecules.
Now, after nearly 25 years of work by chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, those hydrocarbon bonds -- two-thirds of all the chemical bonds in petroleum and plastics -- have fully yielded, opening the door to the synthesis of a large range of novel organic molecules, including drugs based on natural compounds.
As California and the American West head into fire season amid the coronavirus pandemic, scientists are harnessing artificial intelligence and new satellite data to help predict blazes across the region.
Anticipating where a fire is likely to ignite and how it might spread requires information about how much burnable plant material exists on the landscape and its dryness. Yet this information is surprisingly difficult to gather at the scale and speed necessary to aid wildfire management.
While others may be dieting and hitting the gym hard to stay in shape, some people stay slim effortlessly no matter what they eat. In a study publishing May 21 in the journal Cell, researchers use a genetic database of more than 47,000 people in Estonia to identify a gene linked to thinness that may play a role in resisting weight gain in these metabolically healthy thin people. They show that deleting this gene results in thinner flies and mice and find that expression of it in the brain may be involved in regulating energy expenditure.
A new study by the University of Southampton has revealed why some corals exhibit a dazzling colourful display, instead of turning white, when they suffer 'coral bleaching' - a condition which can devastate reefs and is caused by ocean warming. The scientists behind the research think this phenomenon is a sign that corals are fighting to survive.
The capture and storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) underground is one of the key components of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) reports on how to keep global warming to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) would be used alongside other interventions such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, and electrification of the transportation sector.
Throughout the southeastern U.S., forage production is a critical pillar of agriculture and livestock production, particularly for the cattle industry. Annual ryegrass serves as the primary forage for many late winter and early spring production systems, but grazing time is often limited due to late fall planting to avoid high soil temperatures that cause secondary seed dormancy.
CQ is an old drug that was commonly used to treat fungal/protozoal infections of the gastrointestinal tract. Patients in Japan taking it developed subacute myelo-optic neuropathy which resulted in CQ being discontinued for oral use. Recently, extensive research has been done in regards to CQ's use for cancer treatment.
Larval nutrition plays a role in determining the sexual characteristics of Japanese rice fish, also called medaka (Oryzias latipes), report a team of researchers led by Nagoya University. The findings, published in the journal Biology Open, could further understanding of a rare condition in humans and other vertebrates, where they genetically belong to one sex but also have characteristics of the other.
'First-generation learners' - a substantial number of pupils around the world who represent the first generation in their families to receive an education - are also significantly more likely to leave school without basic literacy or numeracy skills, a study suggests.
Research by academics at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Addis Ababa University and the Ethiopian Policy Studies Institute, examined the progress of thousands of students in Ethiopia, including a large number of 'first-generation learners': children whose parents never went to school.
Scientists have found that adding cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to standardised medical care gives patients with dissociative seizures longer periods of seizure freedom, less bothersome seizures and a greater quality of life, in a study published in Lancet Psychiatry today and by the Cognitive behavioural therapy for adults with dissociative seizures (CODES) study group funded by National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Before there were animals, bacteria or even DNA on Earth, self-replicating molecules were slowly evolving their way from simple matter to life beneath a constant shower of energetic particles from space.
In a new paper, a Stanford professor and a former post-doctoral scholar speculate that this interaction between ancient proto-organisms and cosmic rays may be responsible for a crucial structural preference, called chirality, in biological molecules. If their idea is correct, it suggests that all life throughout the universe could share the same chiral preference.
Photosystem II is a protein complex in plants, algae and cyanobacteria that is responsible for splitting water and producing the oxygen we breathe. Over the past few years, an international collaboration between scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and several other institutions have been able to observe various steps of this water-splitting cycle at the temperature at which it occurs in nature.