Earth
Heavy use of class A drugs, such as heroin, methamphetamine, or cocaine is linked to a heightened risk of partial or total blindness among US military personnel, finds research published online in the journal BMJ Military Health.
The condition, which affects the ability to read, drive, and recognise faces, is more common among military personnel than it is among civilians, possibly because of certain risk factors that are unique to active service in the US Armed Forces, say the researchers.
Viruses multiply by injecting their DNA into a host cell. Once it enters the intracellular fluid, this foreign material triggers a defense mechanism known as the cGAS-STING pathway. The protein cyclic GMP-AMP Synthase (cGAS), which is also found inside the fluid, binds to the invading DNA to create a new molecule. This, in turn, binds to another protein called Stimulator of Interferon Genes (STING), which induces an inflammatory immune response.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Nearly 40 years of satellite data from Greenland shows that glaciers on the island have shrunk so much that even if global warming were to stop today, the ice sheet would continue shrinking.
The finding, published today, Aug. 13, in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment, means that Greenland's glaciers have passed a tipping point of sorts, where the snowfall that replenishes the ice sheet each year cannot keep up with the ice that is flowing into the ocean from glaciers.
Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) scientists have developed implantable hydrogels based on plant polysaccharides (pectins). They can play the role of an artificial extracellular matrix, a special network of molecules that fills the space between body cells. The development to be used as a medium for growing tissues and organs, as well as for drug delivery and brain recovery after removal of malignant tumors glioblastomas. A related article appears in the International Review of Neurobiology.
A key component when forecasting what the Earth's climate might look like in the future is the ability to draw on accurate temperature records of the past. By reconstructing past latitudinal temperature gradients (the difference in average temperature between the equator and the poles) researchers can predict where, for example, the jet stream, which controls storms and temperatures in the mid-latitudes (temperate zones between the tropics and the polar circles), will be positioned.
Researchers at the University of Delaware, using supercomputing resources and collaborating with scientists at Indiana University, have gained new understanding of the virus that causes hepatitis B and the "spiky ball" that encloses the virus's genetic blueprint.
The research, which has been published online, ahead of print, by the American Chemical Association journal ACS Chemical Biology, provides insights into how the capsid -- a protein shell that protects the blueprint and also drives the delivery of it to infect a host cell -- assembles itself.
Researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have uncovered four new subtypes of cells within triple negative breast cancer, which contain promising new therapeutic targets for the aggressive disease.
Using cellular genomics, the team revealed one of the new cell types produces molecules that suppress immune cells, which may help cancer cells evade the body's immune system. The discovery, published in EMBO Journal, could lead to a new class of therapies for triple negative breast cancer.
Tropical Depression 06W has been around for days, and continues to hold together as it moves in a westerly direction toward Taiwan in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured a visible image of the storm.
NASA's Aqua satellite obtained visible imagery of Hurricane Elida in the Eastern Pacific as it continued to weaken. Imagery revealed that Elida's eye had become covered as the storm embarks on a weakening trend over cooler waters.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Young children will pass up rewards they know they can collect to explore other options, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that when adults and 4- to 5-year-old children played a game where certain choices earned them rewards, both adults and children quickly learned what choices would give them the biggest returns.
But while adults then used that knowledge to maximize their prizes, children continued exploring the other options, just to see if their value may have changed.
ORLANDO, Aug. 12, 2020 -- Many people have experienced a few nights of bad sleep that resulted in shifting attention spans, impulsive tendencies and hyperactivity the next day--all behaviors resembling ADHD. A new study found that this dynamic may also be linked to increased entrepreneurial behavior.
Archaeologists at The Australian National University (ANU) have found the earliest evidence of Indigenous communities cultivating bananas in Australia.
The evidence of cultivation and plant management dates back 2,145 years and was found at Wagadagam on the tiny island of Mabuyag in the western Torres Strait.
The site comprised a series of retaining walls associated with gardening activities along with a network of stone arrangements, shell arrangements, rock art and a mound of dugong bones.
Montreal, August 12, 2020 - A new mechanism of blood redistribution that is essential for the proper functioning of the adult retina has just been discovered in vivo by researchers at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM).
Their study was published today in Nature.
Picture an airplane that can only climb to one or two altitudes after taking off. That limitation would be similar to the plight facing scientists who seek to avoid instabilities that restrict the path to clean, safe and abundant fusion energy in doughnut-shaped tokamak facilities. Researchers at the U.S.
When Adelaide glass blower Karen Cunningham made art using diamond and glass she had no idea it would inspire a new kind of hybrid material. Now a consortium of scientists, including from RMIT University and University of Adelaide, is using the technology to make a new class of quantum sensors.
The study published in APL Materials reveals how high-performance diamond sensors can be made using conventional glass fibres.