Researchers have been working to track and study floating sargassum, a prolific seaweed swamping Caribbean and West African shorelines, and causing environmental and economic harm.   The stranded seaweed blocks fishing boats; threatens tourism; disrupts turtle nesting sites, reefs and mangroves, and releases toxic gas, which impacts human health and damages electrical equipment.   First reported by Christopher Columbus in the 15th century, floating mats of sargassum have long been present in the North Atlantic. However, since 2011, a floating population has established ...

Of the many perils facing members of the military, injuries incurred in training or on deployment repeatedly sideline elite operators. “It’s a pervasive problem,” says Dhruv Seshadri, an assistant professor of bioengineering in Lehigh University’s P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science. “We’re looking at how we can integrate physiological data, biomechanical data, and subjective assessments to help reduce the risk of these injuries happening in the first place, and when they do happen, how we can use those data to accelerate the soldier’s return to operation.”  Seshadri ...

No two volcanic eruptions are exactly alike, but scientists think a series of explosive eruptions at Kīlauea volcano fit into a whole new category. By analyzing the dynamics of 12 back-to-back explosions that happened in 2018, researchers describe a new type of volcanic eruption mechanism. The explosions were driven by sudden pressure increases as the ground collapsed, which blasted plumes of rock fragments and hot gas into the air, much like a classic stomp-rocket toy. Researchers from the University of Oregon, United States Geological Survey and China’s Sichuan University report their findings in a paper published May 27 in Nature Geoscience. The ...

While recent reports have stated that more than half the world’s largest lakes, including lakes in the Tibetan plateau, are drying up, a paper in Nature Geoscience today (27/5/24 DOI  10.1038/s41561-024-01446-w ) suggests that, by the end of this century, land-locked lakes on the Tibetan Plateau are set to increase exponentially, resulting in major land loss and related economic, environmental and climatic impacts. Climate and weather predictions suggest that increased rainfall due to climate change will enlarge these lakes, and see water levels rise by up to 10 metres. The volume of water caught in these land-locked lakes is estimated to ...

Feeding children peanuts regularly from infancy to age five reduced the rate of peanut allergy in adolescence by 71%, even after many years when the children ate or avoided peanut as desired. The new findings provide conclusive evidence that introducing peanuts into babies’ diets early will achieve long-term prevention of peanut allergy. Lead investigator Professor Gideon Lack from King’s College London said: “Decades of advice to avoid peanuts has made parents fearful of introducing peanuts at an early age. The evidence is clear that early introduction of peanut in infancy ...

Why do people in Paris like seaweed and tofu salad? Will Italians be tempted to try a beetle skewer? How many young Polish consumers are "food innovators", eager to eat chickpea pâté? In an international project, researchers from SWPS University analysed European consumers' attitudes towards alternative protein food products. In the face of the fight against climate change, more and more people are modifying their diets, giving up or limiting conventional sources of protein (e.g., beef, pork, poultry, and animal dairy) in favour of those with a lower environmental impact. These are the so-called alternative protein food (APF) products, which may be based on ...

ETRI research team has won a main prize at the German International Design Competition, one of the top three design award competitions in the world. This signifies global recognition of our research team’s technology. Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced that its Teach Pendant software for the autonomous mobile collaborative robot (MOBY1)) won the main prize in the User Experience (UX2)) category at the ‘iF Design Award 20243)’, an international design competition in Germany. 1) MOBY: Equipped with the AI-based vision solution ‘IndyEye’ and the ...

Reducing carbon emissions from small-scale combustion systems, such as boilers and other industrial equipment, is a key step towards building a more sustainable, carbon-neutral future. Boilers are widely used across various industries for essential processes like heating, steam generation, and power production, making them significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Boilers are generally quite efficient. As a result, it is difficult to reduce CO2 emissions simply by improving the combustion efficiency. Therefore, researchers are exploring alternative approaches to mitigating the environmental ...

Organisms, including humans, follow a schedule that coordinates important bodily functions such as sleep-wake cycles, metabolism, hormone production, cognitive function, and feeding habits to environmental cycles. While most organisms possess circadian rhythms synchronized with the 24-hour day-night cycle, they have also developed other internal clocks to suit their local environments. Marine animals have evolved circatidal rhythms, aligning activities with the 12.4-hour tidal cycle, complementing circadian rhythms. Researchers from Chiba University have discovered that snails living in downstream tidal areas have biological ...

New York City, [May 27, 2024] – Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have made a significant breakthrough in Alzheimer’s disease research by identifying a novel way to potentially slow down or even halt disease progression. The study, which focuses on the role of reactive astrocytes and the plexin-B1 protein in Alzheimer's pathophysiology, provides crucial insights into brain cell communication and opens the door to innovative treatment strategies. It was published in Nature Neuroscience (DOI 10.1038/s41593-024-01664-w) on May 27.    This groundbreaking work is centered ...

Our willingness to help others is governed by a specific brain region pinpointed by researchers in a study of patients with brain damage to that region.  Learning about where in the brain ‘helping’ decisions are made is important for understanding how people might be motivated to tackle large global challenges, such as climate change, infectious disease and international conflict. It is also essential for finding new approaches to treating disorders of social interactions.   The study, ...

Blood, lymph fluid and other biological liquids can have surprising and sometimes troubling properties. Many of these biological solutions are non-Newtonian fluids, a type of liquid that is characterized by a non-linear relationship between stress and strain. Consequently, non-Newtonian fluids don’t necessarily behave as one would expect from a liquid. For example, some of these peculiar fluids deform when touched lightly but will act almost as a solid when a strong force is applied.  And biological ...

It’s important to ensure that care provided at US hospitals that predominantly serve Black and Hispanic populations is as high-quality as the care provided at other US hospitals. New research reveals significant disparities in the delivery of cancer-related care at minority serving hospitals (MSHs) compared with non-MSHs, however. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. For the study, investigators analyzed information from the National Cancer Database (which accrues approximately 70% of US cancer diagnoses) to identify patients eligible for definitive ...

Osaka, Japan - A research team at Osaka University will start an investigator-initiated clinical trial for refractory prostate cancer patients after successful development of a new alpha-ray therapeutic agent ([At-211] PSMA-5) and confirmation of its efficacy in animal models. This will be a world-first in-human clinical trial with [At-211] PSMA-5. Prostate cancer is on the rise worldwide and is the most commonly diagnosed new cancer in men in Japan. Various treatments are offered for prostate cancer, but the prognosis is very poor when the disease is resistant to standard treatment and associated with multiple metastases. In ...

Since the launch of ChatGPT 3 in November 2022, we've been abuzz with talk of artificial intelligence: is it an unprecedented opportunity, or will it rob everyone of jobs and creativity? As we debate on social media (and perhaps use ChatGPT almost daily), generative AIs have also entered the arena of university communication. These tools—based on “Large Language Models” that were optimized for interactive communication—can indeed support, expand, and innovate university communication ...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology could offer companionship to lonely people amid an international epidemic of loneliness, says a robotics expert. Tony Prescott, a professor of cognitive robotics at the University of Sheffield, argues in his new book The Psychology of Artificial Intelligence that ‘relationships with AIs could support people’ with forms of social interaction.. Loneliness has been found to seriously impair human health, and Professor Prescott makes a case that advances in AI technology could ...

Published today in the Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology, evidence of an ‘Age of Monotremes’ has been unearthed by a team of Australian scientists at the Australian Museum (AM), Museums Victoria and Australian Opal Centre. The findings were led by two renowned mammalogists, Honorary Associate of the Australian Museum, Professor Tim Flannery; and Professor Kris Helgen, Chief Scientist and Director of the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI). Found in the Lightning Ridge opal fields, NSW, the opalised jaws ...

The SELECT Trial has revealed the potential of semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, in combating kidney function decline among individuals with overweight or obesity and established cardiovascular disease but without diabetes.1 Unveiling the results today at the 61st ERA Congress, researchers presented the impressive secondary analysis from the SELECT (Semaglutide Effects on Heart Disease and Stroke in Patients with Overweight or Obesity) trial, a randomised trial comprising a participant pool of 17,604 individuals. Experts believe the study’s results offer hope for those affected by obesity, a condition known ...

A groundbreaking study, presented today at the 61st ERA Congress, has uncovered a significant breakthrough in the diagnosis and monitoring of kidney diseases associated with nephrotic syndrome.1 Using a hybrid technique, researchers identified anti-nephrin autoantibodies as a reliable biomarker for tracking disease progression, opening new avenues for personalised treatment approaches. Nephrotic syndrome, characterised by elevated protein levels in the urine, is linked to kidney diseases such as minimal change disease (MCD), primary focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), and membranous nephropathy (MN). The primary cause behind nephrotic syndrome is damage to podocytes, the ...

Protest movements that reject political parties have an unintended consequence, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame: They empower savvy politicians who channel them to shake up the status quo. The findings provide a framework for understanding recent global political realignments and offer lessons for activists who want to make a meaningful impact. They are particularly relevant in an era when mass protests have become an increasingly common tool to voice dissent with powerful institutions and draw attention to overlooked issues ranging from climate and conflict ...

UC Santa Cruz researchers have discovered a peptide in human RNA that regulates inflammation and may provide a new path for treating diseases such as arthritis and lupus. The team used a screening process based on the powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR to shed light on one of the biggest mysteries about our RNA–the molecule responsible for carrying out genetic information contained in our DNA. This peptide originates from within a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) called LOUP. According to the researchers, ...

Imagine if your dead laptop or phone could charge in a minute or if an electric car could be fully powered in 10 minutes. While not possible yet, new research by a team of CU Boulder scientists could potentially lead to such advances.  Published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers in Ankur Gupta’s lab discovered how tiny charged particles, called ions, move within a complex network of minuscule pores. The breakthrough could lead to the development of more efficient energy storage devices, such as supercapacitors, said Gupta, an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering.  “Given the critical role ...

ORLANDO, May 24, 2024 – For the first time, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide ices have been observed in the far reaches of our solar system on trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). A research team, led by planetary scientists Mário Nascimento De Prá and Noemí Pinilla-Alonso from the University of Central Florida’s Florida Space Institute (FSI), made the findings by using the infrared spectral capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to analyze the chemical composition of 59 trans-Neptunian objects and Centaurs. The pioneering study, published ...

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Nuclear physicists have long been working to reveal how the proton gets its spin. Now, a new method that combines experimental data with state-of-the-art calculations has revealed a more detailed picture of spin contributions from the very glue that holds protons together. It also paves the way toward imaging the proton’s 3D structure. The work was led by Joseph Karpie, a postdoctoral associate in the Center for Theoretical and Computational Physics (Theory Center) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. He said that this decades-old mystery began with measurements of the sources of the proton’s spin in ...

Up to 80% of breast cancer deaths occur in patients with tumors that express estrogen receptor-alpha. Although these estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancers often initially respond to standard treatment that combines endocrine therapies with CDK4/6 inhibitors, drug resistance often develops leading to lethal metastatic disease that spreads from the breast and does not respond to available treatments. Looking to identify new vulnerabilities in this type of cancer that could lead to improved therapies, ...