Earth
SARS-CoV-2 arrived in Washington State somewhere between late January and early February 2020, sparking rapid community transmission of the virus that went undetected for several weeks before this community spread became evident, prompting a change in testing criteria to emphasize individuals with no travel history. That's the scenario proposed by Trevor Bedford and colleagues after their analysis of the genetic sequences of 455 SARS-CoV-2 viruses from the Washington State outbreak collected between January 19 and March 15, 2020.
NASA's Terra satellite obtained visible imagery of Tropical Storm Rene is it continued moving north though the central North Atlantic Ocean. Rene appeared more organized on satellite imagery as wind shear eased.
NASA Satellite View: Rene's Organization
Vehicles powered by polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are energy-efficient and eco-friendly, but despite increasing public interest in PEMFC-powered transportation, current performance of materials that are used in fuel cells limits their widespread commercialization.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory led a team to investigate reactions in PEMFCs, and their discoveries informed the creation of technology that could bring fuel cells one step closer to realizing their full market potential.
A novel process to fabricate special optical fiber that is far simpler, faster and cheaper than the conventional method has been developed by Cristiano Cordeiro, a researcher and professor at the University of Campinas's Physics Institute (IFGW-Unicamp) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.
Conservation action has prevented the global extinction of at least 28 bird and mammal species since 1993, a study led by Newcastle University, UK and BirdLife International has shown. The species include Puerto Rican Amazon Amazona vittata, Przewalski's Horse Equus ferus, Alagoas Antwren Myrmotherula snowi, Iberian Lynx Lynx pardinus, and Black Stilt Himantopus novaezelandiae, among others.
Cancer is a disease in which cells multiply uncontrollably, which could lead to tumor growth. In addition to radiation therapy, cancer is often combated with chemotherapy: The chemicals administered affect various biochemical processes of the body, especially of the cancer cells ensuring that a tumor can no longer grow and slowly dies.
Sunspots are darker regions which often appear on the Sun's surface. They are caused by strong concentrations of magnetic field, and can be as big as the Earth, or even much bigger.
In a collaboration between experimental physicists and theoretical physicists in the framework of the Dynamics and Topology (TopDyn) excellence project, a system of many small magnetic whirls could be engineered to form a regularly ordered state. Such a transition from a disordered to an ordered phase is analogous to the well-known crystallization, which, however, occurs here in two dimensions. For the research work at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), experimental physicists around Professor Mathias Kläui cooperated with a group of theoretical physicists around Dr. Peter Virnau.
Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and Stanford University have pinpointed the circuit in the brain that is responsible for sleepless nights in times of stress--and it turns out that circuit does more than make you toss and turn. Their study, done in mice, ties the same neuronal connections that trigger insomnia to stress-induced changes in the immune system, which weaken the body's defenses against a host of threats.
HOUSTON - (Sept. 9, 2020) - National parks are safe havens for endangered and threatened species, but an analysis by Rice University data scientists finds parks and protected areas can preserve more than species.
In a study published online this week in the journal Biotropica, Rice ecologists and data scientists Daniel Gorczynski and Lydia Beaudrot used thousands of camera trap photos to assess the large mammal diversity in the protected rainforest of Costa Rica's Braulio Carrillo National Park.
There they were, in all their weird quantum glory: ultracold lithium atoms in the optical trap operated by UC Santa Barbara undergraduate student Alec Cao and his colleagues in David Weld's atomic physics group. Held by lasers in a regular, lattice formation and "driven" by pulses of energy, these atoms were doing crazy things.
"It was a bit bizarre," Weld said. "Atoms would get pumped in one direction. Sometimes they would get pumped in another direction. Sometimes they would tear apart and make these structures that looked like DNA."
WASHINGTON -- Researchers have developed a new compact and ultrafast, high-power yellow laser. The tunable laser exhibits excellent beam quality and helps fill the need for a practical yellow light source emitting ultrafast pulses of light.
A new low-temperature multi-phase process for upgrading lignin bio-oil to hydrocarbons could help expand use of the lignin, which is now largely a waste product left over from the productions of cellulose and bioethanol from trees and other woody plants.
Water and its movements within or between atmosphere, land, and ocean defines the global water cycle and is central to the climate system. Almost all weather and climate phenomena are in some way tied to the water cycle. Examples include extreme rainfall during thunderstorms, hurricanes and tropical cyclones, flooding, droughts, and sea level rise.
Syracuse, N.Y. - A recent study by researchers from Syracuse University shows that the average daily increase in rural COVID-19 mortality rates has been significantly higher in counties with the largest percentages of Black and Hispanic residents.