Researchers have identified a protein that evolved concurrently with the emergence of cellular compartments crucial for the multiplication of the toxoplasmosis pathogen. Toxoplasmosis is an infectious disease found worldwide, caused by the single-celled parasite Toxoplasma gondii. In humans, infection poses a particular risk to pregnant woman, as it can lead to birth defects. Like the closely related malaria pathogen – Plasmodium falciparum – and other related species, T. gondii possesses special organelles, so-called rhoptries ...

The random information posted online could be used to generate information about biodiversity and its conservation. “I think it's quite amazing that images and comments that people post online can be used to infer changes on biodiversity”, says Dr. Andrea Soriano-Redondo, the lead-author of a new article published in the journal Plos Biology and a researcher at the Helsinki Lab of Interdisciplinary Conservation Science at the University of Helsinki. Scientists from the University of Helsinki together with colleagues from other universities and institutions around the world propose a strategy for integrating online digital data from media platforms to complement ...

Having a heart attack significantly increases the risk of developing other serious long-term health conditions, a major new study shows.  Researchers at the University of Leeds have analysed more than 145 million records covering every adult patient admitted to hospital over a nine-year period to establish the risk of long-term health outcomes following a heart attack – in the largest study of its kind.  Whilst heart attacks are a serious and life-threatening condition, the British Heart Foundation estimates that nowadays more than seven in 10 people survive them, provided they receive quick and emergency treatment to get the blood flowing to the heart muscle again.  Yet ...

New research suggesting a improved method for extracting lithium by applying plasma technology has been recently published. On the 31st of January, the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy(KFE) announced revealed that their researchers have successfully increased the lithium extraction rate by three times compared to pre-existing methods by applying CO2 microwave plasma technology. The most common method of extracting lithium is mixing sodium carbonate(Na2CO3) to saltwater that contains lithium and extracting lithium carbonate(Li2CO3)-which is a mixture of lithium and carbon dioxide. The downside to this method ...

How can humans protect the Earth from “devastating asteroid and comet impacts?” According to the National Academies and their 2023-2032 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey, ground based astronomical radar systems will have a “unique role” to play in planetary defense. There is currently only one system in the world concentrating on these efforts, NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar, part of the Deep Space Network (DSN). However, a new instrument concept from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory ...

Self-monitoring of physical activity with an accelerometer and feedback is an effective tool to improve physical activity in elderly people requiring long-term support. The Kobe University study is the first to show that with simple and safe means the physical activity of this demographic can be improved, which is expected to help prevent serious illness and reduce costs for long-term care. Taking more steps and sitting less is well known as having a significant influence on a wide range of noncommunicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, orthopedic diseases and stroke. This is particularly problematic in senior citizens who depend on long-term care such as in day-care ...

West Virginia University engineers have secured $3 million in U.S. Department of Energy funding to research a new chemical reactor system that uses microwaves to reduce industrial heat and carbon emissions. The first-of-its-kind technology would allow industrial facilities to simultaneously produce ethylene and ammonia, two chemicals that contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, within a single microwave reactor. That device uses heat from microwave electromagnetic radiation to carry out chemical reactions. The ...

  GEN Biotechnology announces the publication of its February 2024 issue. GEN Biotechnology publishes outstanding peer-reviewed research and perspectives in all aspects of biotechnology. The Journal, led by Editor-in-Chief Hana El-Samad, PhD (UCSF; Altos Labs) and Executive Editor Kevin Davies, PhD, is published bimonthly in print and online. For full-text copies of articles or to arrange interviews with Dr. El-Samad, Dr. Davies, authors, or members of the editorial board, contact Kathryn Ryan at the Publisher.  1.  Original Research: ...

Penn Engineers have developed a new chip that uses light waves, rather than electricity, to perform the complex math essential to training AI. The chip has the potential to radically accelerate the processing speed of computers while also reducing their energy consumption. The silicon-photonic (SiPh) chip’s design is the first to bring together Benjamin Franklin Medal Laureate and H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor Nader Engheta’s pioneering research in manipulating materials at the nanoscale to perform mathematical computations using light ...

A new study published in Nature Communications provides direct evidence that antidepressant use during pregnancy can impact a child’s brain development and contribute to the risk of mental health disorders later in life. The study, led by researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, focused on the effect of fluoxetine, commonly used in medications such as Prozac and Sarafem for treating depression and perinatal depression, on a developing prefrontal cortex. Since fluoxetine works by increasing the levels of serotonin in the brain, the researchers looked at the impact serotonin has on prefrontal ...

A revolutionary nanomaterial with huge potential to tackle multiple global challenges could be developed further without acute risk to human health, research suggests.  Carefully controlled inhalation of a specific type of graphene – the world’s thinnest, super strong and super flexible material – has no short-term adverse effects on lung or cardiovascular function, the study shows.  The first controlled exposure clinical trial in people was carried out using thin, ultra-pure ...

Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Harvard Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, and Utrecht University have reported on a previously elusive way to improve the selectivity of catalytic reactions, adding a new method of increasing the efficacy of catalysts for a potentially wide range of applications in various industries including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and much more.  The research is published in ...

A dipole magnetic field, created by a ring current, is the most fundamental type of magnetic field that is found both in laboratories and in space. Planetary magnetospheres, such as Jupiter's, effectively confine plasma. The RT-1 project aims to learn from nature and create a magnetosphere-type high-performance plasma to realize advanced fusion energy. Simultaneously, the artificial magnetosphere offers a means to experimentally understand the mechanisms of natural phenomena in a simplified and controlled ...

Amid growing global concern over climate change and plastic pollution, researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University are making great strides in the sustainable production of fumaric acid – a component of biodegradable plastics such as polybutylene succinate, which is commonly used for food packaging. The researchers have managed to efficiently produce fumaric acid, which is traditionally derived from petroleum, using renewable resources, carbon dioxide, and biomass-derived compounds. In a previous study, a research team led by Professor Yutaka Amao of the Research Center for Artificial Photosynthesis at ...

A 280-million-year-old fossil that has baffled researchers for decades has been shown to be, in part, a forgery following new examination of the remnants. The discovery has led the team led by Dr Valentina Rossi of University College Cork, Ireland (UCC) to urge caution in how the fossil is used in future research. Tridentinosaurus antiquus was discovered in the Italian alps in 1931 and was thought to be an important specimen for understanding early reptile evolution. Its body outline, appearing dark against the surrounding rock, was initially interpreted ...

Trace metals are nutrient elements, like zinc, that animals and plants need in small amounts to function properly. Animals generally get trace metals in their diets or through environmental exposures, while plants take their trace minerals up from soil. If we get too little, we may experience a deficiency, but the opposite can also be true: too much of a trace metal can be toxic. Scientists believe that up to 50% of the trace metals in soils and urban environments may be bound to the surfaces of mineral grains — rendering the trace metals ...

Addressing Brain Health in Adults With Intellectual Disabilities and Developmental Disabilities: A Companion to the KAER Toolkit for Primary Care Providers is a new publication from the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) designed to address the needs of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) who develop dementia. Freely available at geron.org/brainhealth, this companion document: Raises awareness of unique needs of adults living with I/DD. Equips and encourages caregivers and health care teams to engage in ...

People with disabilities are often at higher risk for exposure to HIV due to barriers in engaging healthcare and other systemic factors and are thus considered a priority for prevention and testing efforts. However, these efforts don’t always extend to people with intellectual disabilities due to the perception that people with intellectual disabilities are mostly asexual. Researchers at University of Michigan Health conducted one of the largest epidemiological studies of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to closely examine where the gaps in HIV care lie and found large disparities in care for Black patients as well as for patients ...

A new measure that compares earthquake-related fatalities to a country’s population size concludes that Ecuador, Lebanon, Haiti, Turkmenistan, Iran and Portugal have experienced the greatest impact from fatalities in the past five centuries. The new impact measure, introduced in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America by Max Wyss and colleagues at International Centre for Earth Simulation Foundation, is called the earthquake fatality load or EQFL. The EQFL of a particular earthquake is the ratio of earthquake fatalities to the population estimate for the country in the year of the earthquake. In their study, Wyss, Michel Speiser ...

New findings from researchers at the University of British Columbia suggest that cannabis could play a role in addressing the ongoing opioid overdose crisis. A new publication from Dr. Hudson Reddon, alongside UBC Okanagan’s Dr. Zach Walsh and UBC Vancouver’s Dr. M-J Milloy, observed that using cannabis is associated with decreased use of crystal methamphetamine among people at highest risk of overdose in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. About 45 per cent of the study’s participants reported using cannabis to manage their cravings for stimulant drugs ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. – In creating five new isotopes, an international research team working at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, at Michigan State University has brought the stars closer to Earth. The isotopes — known as thulium-182, thulium-183, ytterbium-186, ytterbium-187 and lutetium-190 — were reported Feb. 15 in the journal Physical Review Letters. These represent the first batch of new isotopes made at FRIB, a user facility for the U.S. Department of Energy ...

Oxygen is fundamental to sustaining life on Earth. The ocean gets its oxygen from its uppermost layers in contact with the atmosphere. As our planet continues to warm, the ocean is gradually losing its capacity to absorb oxygen, with severe consequences on marine ecosystems and human activities that depend on them. While these trends will likely continue in the future, it remains unclear how ocean oxygen will redistribute across the ocean interior, where ocean currents and biological degradation of biomass dominate over atmospheric diffusion. “Marine sediments are the history book of the ocean. ...

Springtime brings native wildflowers to bloom in the Santa Monica Mountains, northwest of Los Angeles. These beauties provide food for insects, maintain healthy soil and filter water seeping into the ground — in addition to offering breathtaking displays of color.  They’re also good at surviving after wildfire, having adapted to it through millennia. But new research shows wildflowers that usually would burst back after a blaze and a good rain are losing out to the long-standing, double threat of city smog and nonnative weeds. A recent study led by Justin Valliere, assistant professor in the UC ...

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States was high, as working-class laborers in the country viewed Chinese workers as a threat. Prior research has found that during that period, approximately 400,000 Chinese migrants came to the U.S., many of whom went to California to build the Transcontinental Railroad. Following the project's completion, competition for jobs grew tougher, and passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 banned Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S. But ...

A new study published in Atmospheric Environment by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill analyzed space and time trends for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the continental United States to track the progress of regulatory actions by federal, state and local authorities aimed at curbing air pollution. The team found that while the annual average concentration for PM2.5 had been significantly reduced, its chemical composition had changed during the study period of 2006 to 2020. Their analysis suggests targeted strategies to reduce specific pollutants for different regions ...