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Marine ice cliff collapse limited by ice sheet thickness
2021-06-17
(Press-News.org) Marine-terminating glaciers may be less vulnerable to rapid and irreversible collapse than previously suggested, according to a new study, which finds that ice cliff collapse is limited by upstream thinning of the ice sheet and how quickly calved icebergs and sea-ice float away. The glaciers of Greenland and Antarctica slowly flow to the sea, terminating in massive vertical ice cliffs. Occasionally, these partially submerged margins can collapse under their own weight and trigger rapid disintegration of ice sheets. It's thought that this process, called marine ice cliff instability (MICI), could lead to the catastrophic retreat of some of the planet's largest ice sheets, substantially contributing to global sea level rise. However, current models of MICI remain controversial. While there is evidence supporting MICI in the paleo-record, it has yet to be observed in modern-day glaciers. Understanding the processes that govern the stability of marine-terminating glaciers is crucial to forecasting potential future sea level rise. Jeremy Bassis and colleagues developed an improved dynamic ice model that captures the complex behavior of marine-terminating ice cliffs. Unlike previous rheologic models, Bassis et al.'s is capable of simulating glacier flow and ice fracture simultaneously. According to the study, upstream ice thickness plays a key role in determining ice cliff collapse - dynamic thinning of the glacier can slow or stabilize cliff retreat. What's more, the resistive forces at the ice front - the packed sea-ice and icebergs that choke narrow fjords - can further slow, even halt, the retreat of an ice cliff. However, when there is significant upstream ice thickening, a transition to catastrophic ice sheet collapse can occur. Nicholas Golledge and Daniel Lowry discuss the study and its implications further in a related Perspective.
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Physicists bring human-scale object to near standstill, reaching a quantum state
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CAMBRIDGE, MA -- To the human eye, most stationary objects appear to be just that -- still, and completely at rest. Yet if we were handed a quantum lens, allowing us to see objects at the scale of individual atoms, what was an apple sitting idly on our desk would appear as a teeming collection of vibrating particles, very much in motion.
In the last few decades, physicists have found ways to super-cool objects so that their atoms are at a near standstill, or in their "motional ground state." To date, physicists have wrestled small objects such as clouds of millions of atoms, or nanogram-scale objects, into such pure quantum states.
Now for the first time, scientists at MIT and elsewhere have cooled a large, human-scale object to close to its motional ground state. The object ...
Anti-aging protein in red blood cells helps stave off cognitive decline
2021-06-17
Research conducted by Qiang et al has discovered a link between a protein in red blood cells and age-related decline in cognitive performance. Published in the open access journal PLOS Biology on 17th June 2021, the study shows that depleting mouse blood of the protein ADORA2B leads to faster declines in memory, delays in auditory processing, and increased inflammation in the brain.
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Unraveling the origin of Alzheimer's disease
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CLEVELAND--Case Western Reserve University researchers studying prions--misfolded proteins that cause lethal incurable diseases--have identified for the first time surface features of human prions responsible for their replication in the brain.
The ultimate goal of the research is to help design a strategy to stop prion disease in humans--and, ultimately, to translate new approaches to work on Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Scientists have yet to discover the exact cause of Alzheimer's disease, but largely agree that protein issues play a role in its emergence and progression. Alzheimer's disease afflicts more than 6 million people in the U.S., and the Alzheimer's Association ...
Masonic Medical Research Institute researchers develop new imaging agent to detect activated platelets
2021-06-17
UTICA, NY -- More than 2 million coronary artery stents are implanted each year to help protect or restore normal blood flow to the heart, to treat patients suffering from angina or a heart attack due to coronary artery disease (CAD). While stents are highly effective and safe devices, scarring or clotting of unhealed stents can occur in a small percentage of subjects, leading to complications such as stent restenosis or thrombosis, which can be life-threatening. At present, approaches to understand stent healing based on their biological clotting status is unavailable in patients.
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Passive rewilding can rapidly expand UK woodland at no cost
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A long-term passive rewilding study has shown that natural woodland regeneration could make a significant contribution to meeting the UK's ambitious tree planting targets - potentially at no cost and within relatively short timescales.
The research, led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), found natural growth due to seed dispersal by birds, mammals and wind can produce biodiverse and resilient woodland.
Woodland development can be rapid, while avoiding the cost, management and plastic tubing involved in planting schemes.
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Probing the dynamics of photoemission
2021-06-17
Physicists at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich (LMU) and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ) have used ultrashort laser pulses to probe the dynamics of photoelectron emission in tungsten crystals.
Almost a century ago, Albert Einstein received the Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. Published in 1905, Einstein's theory incorporated the idea that light is made up of particles called photons. When light impinges on matter, the electrons in the sample respond to the input of energy, and the interaction gives rise to what is known as the photoelectric effect. Light quanta (photons) are absorbed by the ...
Adding checkpoint inhibition to anti-HER2 breast cancer therapy brings no benefit
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Researchers identify gene responsible for increased risk of infantile fragility
2021-06-17
(Boston)--An intrauterine fracture is a rare finding during routine prenatal imaging. This condition can be due to maternal trauma, genetic disorders of the skeleton, as well as other predisposing maternal metabolic and vascular disorders. Genetic disorders that have previously been reported to cause intrauterine fracture include brittle bone disease (osteogenesis imperfecta or OI), osteopetrosis, hypophosphatasia and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS).
Now for the first time, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) report a new genetic cause, unrelated to OI, for the 23 fractures that occurred in-utero to a mother with EDS hypermobility type.
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Asymptomatic pertussis more common in infants than previously thought
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New study challenges long-standing assumptions about disease severity in infants, and suggests that standard qPCR interpretations underestimate the true burden of other highly contagious diseases, such as COVID-19 and influenza.
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A new study by Boston University School of Public Health and the University of Georgia's Odum School of Ecology presents evidence that could help explain this ...
Red meat consumption may promote DNA damage-assoc. mutation in colorectal cancer patients
2021-06-17
Bottom Line: Genetic mutations indicative of DNA damage were associated with high red meat consumption and increased cancer-related mortality in patients with colorectal cancer.
Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research
Author: Marios Giannakis, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Background: "We have known for some time that consumption of processed meat and red meat is a risk factor for colorectal cancer," said Giannakis. The International Agency for Research on Cancer declared that processed meat was carcinogenic and that red meat was probably carcinogenic to humans in 2015.
Experiments ...