Earth
Common noctules - one of the largest bat species native to Germany - are searching for their fellows during their hunt for insects above farmland. Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) show in a paper published in the journal Oikos that bats forage on their own in insect-rich forests, but hunt collectively in groups over insect-poor farmland. They seem to zoom in on places where conspecifics emit echolocations during the capture of insects, an inadvertent clue that reveals high-yielding areas to others.
A pair of new studies led by University of Alberta pediatricians indicate that parents are more reluctant to have opioids prescribed for their children than doctors are to prescribe them.
In a newly published study, the researchers asked 136 pediatric emergency room doctors across Canada whether concerns about potential addiction or the opioid crisis hold them back from prescribing opioids such as fentanyl and morphine to children with moderate to severe pain.
Hot days increase the probability that an average adult in the U.S. will report bad mental health, according to a study published March 25, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Mengyao Li of the University of Georgia, and colleagues. Moreover, people are willing to pay several dollars to avoid each additional hot day in terms of its impact on self-reported mental health.
Chemicals that deplete Earth's protective ozone layer have also been triggering changes in Southern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation. Now, new research in Nature finds that those changes have paused and might even be reversing because of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that successfully phased out use of ozone-depleting chemicals.
When people take medications, these drugs and their metabolites can be excreted and make their way to wastewater treatment plants. From there, the compounds can end up in waterways. Wastewater from pharmaceutical companies could start off with even larger amounts of these substances. In ACS' Environmental Science & Technology, researchers report that a single pharmaceutical manufacturing facility could be influencing the water quality of one of Europe's most important rivers.
Since its discovery in 2014, phosphorene - a sheet of phosphorus atoms only a single atom thick - has intrigued scientists, due to its unique optoelectronic anisotropy. In other words, electrons interact with light and move in one direction only. This anisotropy means that despite being two dimensional (2D), phosphorene shows a mix of properties found in both one-dimensional (1D) and 2D materials. Scientists believe that the distinct quasi-1D nature of phosphorene could be exploited to develop new, innovative optoelectronic devices, from LEDs to solar cells.
Three new species of toothed pterosaurs -- flying reptiles of the Cretaceous period, some 100 million years ago -- have been identified in Africa by an international team of scientists led by Baylor University.
The pterosaurs, which soared above a world dominated by predators, formed part of an ancient river ecosystem in Africa that teemed with life including fish, crocodiles, turtles and several predatory dinosaurs.
Novel, fully digital, high-resolution positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging of small brain stem nuclei can provide clinicians with valuable information concerning the auditory pathway in patients with hearing impairment, according to a new study published in the March issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Using 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging, researchers found that patients with asymmetrical hearing loss have reduced glucose metabolism in parts of the brain stem and primary auditory cortex.
Tohoku University researchers in Japan have uncovered a molecular link between some trans fats and a variety of disorders, including cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. Their findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, implicate their role in enhancing a mitochondrial signalling pathway that leads to programmed cell death.
Regular tub bathing is linked to a lower risk of death from heart disease and stroke, indicates a long term study, published online in the journal Heart.
And the higher the 'dose,' the better it seems to be for cardiovascular health, with a daily hot bath seemingly more protective than a once or twice weekly one, the findings indicate.
A linked editorial sounds a note of caution, however, because sudden death associated with hot baths is relatively common in Japan, where the study was conducted.
Despite fundamental differences in their biology, plants and animals are surprisingly similar in how they have evolved in response to climate around the world, according to a new study published this week in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
Plants and animals are fundamentally different in many ways, but one of the most obvious is in how they deal with temperature.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Scientists have devised a simple new model that explains how the undesirable effects of urban heat islands vary across seasons. Their results could help cities in different climatic regions design heat mitigation strategies.
Rats with regular access to cannabis seek more of the substance and tend to show increased drug-seeking behavior when cannabis is absent.
That's according to a new study conducted by neuroscientists in Washington State University's Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience unit.
The research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, is the next step to better understand the cognitive and neural effects of cannabis use in humans.
Changes in a specific type of sugarlike molecule, or glycan, on the surface of cancer cells help them to spread into other tissues, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis. Published March 23 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the work could lead to diagnostic tests and new therapies to slow or stop the spread of cancers.
WASHINGTON, March 24, 2020 -- Biohydrogels -- biomaterials composed of polymer chains dispersed in water -- have been studied closely by researchers for their potential use in biomedical applications, such as in tissue repair, as surgical sealants, and in 3D biofabrication.