More than 5,000 planets are confirmed to exist beyond our solar system. Over half were discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, a resilient observatory that far outlasted its original planned mission. Over nine and a half years, the spacecraft trailed the Earth, scanning the skies for periodic dips in starlight that could signal the presence of a planet crossing in front of its star.  In its last days, the telescope kept recording the brightness of stars as it was running out of fuel. On Oct. 30, 2018, its fuel tanks depleted, the ...

Proteins are biological molecules that perform almost all biochemical tasks in all forms of life. In doing so, the tiny structures perform ultra-fast movements. In order to investigate these dynamic processes more precisely than before, researchers have developed a new algorithm that can be used to evaluate measurements at X-ray free-electron lasers such as the SwissFEL more efficiently. They have now presented it in the journal Structural Dynamics. Sometimes, when using the navigation system while travelling by car, the device will locate you off the road for a short time. This is due to the inaccuracy ...

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have identified three 4,000-year-old British cases of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria causing the plague – the oldest evidence of the plague in Britain to date, reported in a paper published today in Nature Communications. Working with the University of Oxford, the Levens Local History Group and the Wells and Mendip Museum, the team identified two cases of Yersinia pestis in human remains found in a mass burial in Charterhouse Warren in Somerset and one in a ring cairn monument in Levens in Cumbria. They took small skeletal samples from 34 individuals across the ...

WASHINGTON, May 30, 2023 – Holograms are often displayed in science fiction as colorful, life-sized projections. But what seems like the technology of the future is actually the technology of the present, and now it has been used to recreate the Mona Lisa. In Applied Physics Reviews, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Tianjin University, the Beijing Institute of Technology, Rowan University, the University of Missouri, Qingdao University, Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, and Beijing Jiaotong University developed an acoustic metasurface-based holography technique that uses a deep learning algorithm to generate and iteratively ...

WASHINGTON, May 30, 2023 -- How do flying insects like important pollinators locate odor sources in the great outdoors, despite encountering highly variable wind conditions? They use odor plumes — which travel like smoke and form when the wind blows odor molecules from their source — to track down sources such as flowers or pheromones. But wind tunnels are typically unable to replicate realistic outdoor wind conditions. In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, University of Nevada at Reno researchers decided to explore microscale wind conditions in various outdoor environments to better understand what flying insects might experience while tracking odor plumes. Authors ...

About The Study: The findings of this study that included 1,979 women indicate that healthy sleep measured prior to SARS-CoV-2 infection, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, may be protective against post–COVID-19 condition (PCC), also known as long COVID. Future research should investigate whether interventions on sleep health may prevent PCC or improve PCC symptoms.  Authors: Siwen Wang, M.D., of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: ...

About The Study: In this study of 30,465 adults without myocardial infarction (MI; heart attack), stroke, or dementia, overall, incident MI was not associated with an acute decrease in global cognition, memory, or executive function at the time of the event compared with no MI. The rate of decline in global cognition, memory, and executive function was significantly faster over the years for adults with an MI event compared with those without an MI. These findings suggest that prevention of MI ...

About The Study: Using survey data from across the United States, researchers found that volunteering was associated with higher odds of excellent or very good health and flourishing in children and adolescents, and with lower odds of anxiety in adolescents and behavioral problems in children and adolescents. Authors: Kevin Lanza, Ph.D., of the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living in Austin, Texas, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.15980) Editor’s ...

About The Study: Use of and access to metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) have increased among U.S. youth and among most racial and ethnic groups. Compared with 2015-2019, MBS use in youths increased significantly in 2020-2021 during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, MBS rates in adults decreased in 2020.  Authors: Sarah E. Messiah, Ph.D., of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health—Dallas Campus, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2023.0803) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The results of this study of 8,269 pediatric patients show disparities in central line–associated bloodstream infection rates for Black patients and patients who speak a language other than English that persisted after adjusting for known risk factors, suggesting that systemic racism and bias may play a role in inequitable hospital care for hospital-acquired infections. Stratifying outcomes to assess for disparities prior to quality improvement efforts may inform targeted interventions to improve ...

A survey of philosophers finds they broadly agree with economists on the best way of valuing the environment of the future in policy decisions made now – although for different reasons. In a new study published in Nature Climate Change, environmental economists including the University of Exeter’s Professor Ben Groom found consensus between the two academic disciplines over an aspect of climate policy known as the ‘social discount rate’, with philosophers offering support for a rate of 2% - a value predominantly backed by economists, and which is in line with UN climate ...

A spacecraft can estimate the attitude state by comparing external measurements from attitude sensors with reference information. CubeSats tend to use 4-quadrant analog solar sensors which have the advantages of extremely low power consumption, minimal volume, low complexity, low cost, and high reliability as attitude sensors, considering the limitation of satellite volume and payload. The performance of the sensor can be importantly improved by the calibration procedure and compensation model. However, the various error sources affecting the calibration of the 4-quadrant sun sensor lead to a complicated ...

Being obese significantly increases the chances of also developing mental disorders. This applies to all age groups, with women at higher risk than men for most diseases, as a recent study of the Complexity Science Hub and the Medical University of Vienna shows. The results were published in the specialist journal "Translational Psychiatry".   “We analyzed a population-wide national registry of inpatient hospitalizations in Austria from 1997 to 2014 in order to determine the ...

Astronauts are affected by various physical and chemical factors during spaceflight, resulting in a series of pathological and physiological changes. Many studies have shown that spaceflight causes oxidative stress and induces brain disorder in astronauts, negatively affecting neuronal function and brain structure. However, the underlying mechanisms and the countermeasures need to be further explored. Moreover, it is observed that hydrogen has preventative and curative effects on ischemia–reperfusion ...

A team of researchers have confirmed that 107-million-year-old pterosaur bones discovered more than 30 years ago are the oldest of their kind ever found in Australia, providing a rare glimpse into the life of these powerful, flying reptiles that lived among the dinosaurs. Published in the journal Historical Biology and completed in collaboration with Museums Victoria, the research analysed a partial pelvis bone and a small wing bone discovered by a team led by Museums Victoria Research Institute’s Senior Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology Dr Tom Rich and Professor Pat Vickers-Rich at Dinosaur Cove in Victoria, Australia in the late 1980s. The team found the bones belonged ...

One of Australia’s first long-distance walkers has been described after Flinders University palaeontologists used advanced 3D scans and other technology to take a new look at the partial remains of a 3.5 million year old marsupial from central Australia.   They have named a new genus of diprotodontid Ambulator, meaning walker or wanderer, because the locomotory adaptations of the legs and feet of this quarter-tonne animal would have made it well suited to roam long distances in search of food and ...

The field of transformation optics has flourished over the past decade, allowing scientists to design metamaterial-based structures that shape and guide the flow of light. One of the most dazzling inventions potentially unlocked by transformation optics is the invisibility cloak — a theoretical fabric that bends incoming light away from the wearer, rendering them invisible. Interestingly, such illusions are not restricted to the manipulations of light alone. Many of the techniques used in transformation optics have been applied to sound waves, giving rise to the parallel field of transformation acoustics. In fact, researchers ...

When people communicate, speakers and listeners use information shared by both the parties, which is referred to as ‘context.’ It is believed that there are cultural differences in the degree of reliance on this context, with Westerners having a low-context culture, i.e., they speak more directly, and Easterners having a high-context culture, i.e., they are subtle and speak less directly. Although Chinese are assumed to be in a high-context culture, Yamashina (2018) found that Chinese people are viewed as more direct speakers i.e., low-context cultural communicators ...

Scientists at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) are trialling an innovative approach to mitigating climate change and boosting crop yield in mid-Wales. Adding crushed rock dust to farmland has the potential to remove and lock up large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In the first trial of Enhanced Rock Weathering on upland grasslands in the world, UKCEH scientists have applied 56 tonnes of finely ground basalt rock from quarries to three hectares of farmland in Plynlimon, Powys, this month and are repeating this at the same time next year. The basalt rock dust particles, which are less than 2mm in size, absorb and store carbon at faster rates ...

A new study from the University of Bergen reveals that including offspring birthweight information from women’s subsequent births, is helpful in identifying a woman's long-term risk of dying from cardiovascular causes.  Knowledge of the association between offspring birthweight and long-term maternal cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality is often based on first-born infants without considering women’s consecutive births. “These possible relations are also less closely studied among women with term deliveries”, ...

CHICAGO—Researchers will delve into the latest research in diabetes, obesity, reproductive health and other aspects of endocrinology during the Endocrine Society’s ENDO 2023 news conferences June 15-18. The Society also will share its Hormones and Aging Scientific Statement publicly for the first time during a news conference on Friday, June 16. Reporters will have an opportunity to hear from members of the writing group that drafted the statement on the research landscape. Other press conferences will feature select abstracts that are being presented at ENDO 2023, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting. The event is being held at McCormick Place in Chicago, Ill. ...

An artificial intelligence computer program that processes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can accurately identify changes in brain structure that result from repeated head injury, a new study in student athletes shows. These variations have not been captured by other traditional medical images such as computerized tomography (CT) scans. The new technology, researchers say, may help design new diagnostic tools to better understand subtle brain injuries that accumulate over time. Experts have long known about potential risks of concussion among young athletes, particularly for those who play high-contact sports such as football, hockey, and soccer. Evidence is now mounting ...

The next generation of sustainable energy technology might be built from some low-tech materials: rocks and the sun. Using a new approach known as concentrated solar power, heat from the sun is stored then used to dry foods or create electricity. A team reporting in ACS Omega has found that certain soapstone and granite samples from Tanzania are well suited for storing this solar heat, featuring high energy densities and stability even at high temperatures. Energy is often stored in large batteries when not needed, but these can be expensive and require lots of resources to manufacture. A lower-tech alternative ...

Exhaust fumes probably come to mind when considering vehicle emissions, but they aren’t the only source of pollutants released by a daily commute. In a recent ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology study, researchers report that alcohols in windshield washer fluid account for a larger fraction of real-world vehicle emissions than previous estimates have suggested. Notably, the levels of these non-fuel-derived gases will likely remain unchanged, even as more drivers transition from gas-powered ...

A new study has shown that humans may have evolved a spring-like arch to help us walk on two feet. Researchers studying the evolution of bipedal walking have long assumed that the raised arch of the foot helps us walk by acting as a lever which propels the body forward. But a global team of scientists have now found that the recoil of the flexible arch repositions the ankle upright for more effective walking. The effects in running are greater, which suggests that the ability to run efficiently could have been a selective pressure for a flexible arch that made walking more efficient too. This discovery could even help doctors improve ...