Tech
WASHINGTON (Sept. 11, 2020)--A team of Israeli and American researchers funded by grants from the National Geographic Society and the Israel Science Foundation has uncovered new evidence that an earthquake may have caused the destruction and abandonment of a flourishing Canaanite palatial site about 3,700 years ago.
The health of democracy in the United States has reached its lowest point since an academic watchdog group of political scientists began tracking its performance in 2017.
One of the largest ever studies of patients with untreatable bipolar disorder has shown that ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) was able to reduce suicide risk by 84% in high-risk patients, as well as giving effective treatment to around 72% of sufferers.
Grafting is a horticultural technique that joins plants together by means of tissue regeneration, combining desirable characteristics of both plants. Generally, grafts have been thought to be compatible only between the same or closely related species. However, scientists at Nagoya University and colleagues in Japan recently found that the tobacco plant Nicotiana benthamiana promotes adhesion of tissue and can maintain grafts between a broad range of species.
Australian wine scientists are shedding scientific light on the processes underlying traditional practices of Australian Aboriginal people to produce fermented beverages.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown how important it is to have tools that can rapidly diagnose viral infectious diseases. Aside from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has currently taken the spotlight, the zika, dengue, and chikungunya viruses have also become major threats to human health in many parts of the world, particularly in tropical countries. All three viruses are transmitted by mosquitoes and cause diseases that have similar symptoms, making early diagnosis particularly difficult without complex molecular diagnostic equipment.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the world needs technology that can quickly and accurately identify invisible dangers, including harmful substances or airborne environmental pollutants. Colorimetric sensors--devices that intuitively reveal information about their environment through color changes--are an attractive option in this regard. But, for more people to benefit from these sensors, they must be easy to produce at a large scale.
CABI scientists have led the first assessment of naturalised, invasive and potentially invasive plant species present in Laikipia County, Kenya, which hosts the highest populations of endangered large mammals in the country.
The research led by Dr Arne Witt suggests that a range of invasive alien plants pose a series risk to the County - home to the second-highest number of endangered wildlife in East Africa including elephant, rhino, Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe and wild dogs.
Dipanjan Pan, professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering at UMBC, and collaborators published a seminal study in Nature Communications that demonstrates for the first time a method of biosynthesizing plasmonic gold nanoparticles within cancer cells, without the need for conventional bench-top lab methods. It has the potential to notably expand biomedical applications.
ITHACA, N.Y. - High-grade serious ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) is the fifth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women in the United States, yet little is known about the origins of this disease.
Now, scientists at the College of Veterinary Medicine have collaborated on a study that pinpoints which specific genes drive - or delay - this deadly cancer.
Infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite showed an elongated Tropical Storm Rene being battered by wind shear in the Central Atlantic Ocean. Tropical cyclones that appear less than round are likely being affected by wind shear or outside winds transitioning into an extra-tropical cyclone or taking on the elongated appearance of a weather front. Infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite showed an elongated Tropical Storm Rene being battered by wind shear in the Central Atlantic Ocean.
Ling Li has a lesson in one of his mechanical engineering courses on how brittle materials like calcium carbonate behave under stress. In it, he takes a piece of chalk composed of the compound and snaps it in half to show his students the edge of one of the broken pieces. The break is blunt and straight.
CHICAGO --- The locus of male sexual desire has been uncovered in specific regions of brain tissue where a key gene named aromatase is present, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study in mice.
The gene regulates sexual behavior in men, and thus can be targeted by drugs to either increase its function for low sexual desire or decrease its function for compulsive sexual desire, scientists said. Aromatase converts testosterone to estrogen in the brain, which drives male sexual activity.
The study was published Sept. 10 in the journal Endocrinology.
A soil scientist from RUDN University found out that the resources of organic phosphorus in the soils of the Tibetan Plateau could be depleted because of global warming. To do so, he compared phosphorus content in the soils from the Tibetan Plateau that has a cold climate and from the warmer Loess Plateau. The results of the study were published in the Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment journal.
Phosphorus is essential for agriculture, yet this important plant nutrient is increasingly being lost from soils around the world. The primary cause is soil erosion, reports an international research team led by the University of Basel. The study in the journal Nature Communications shows which continents and regions are most strongly affected.