Are cultural evolution rates similar across human societies? The emerging field of Cliodynamics uses mathematical models to study history. Tobias Wand and colleagues used a data-driven approach to estimate the rates of cultural evolution in 23 geographic areas, using data from Seshat: Global History Databank, which records nine “complexity characteristics” for 370 polities over 10,000 years, ending in the nineteenth century. The complexity characteristics are polity population; extent of polity territory; the size of the largest urban center; hierarchical complexity; the ...

Next month, scientists from around the world will convene to share new results from across the physical sciences in nearly 11,000 individual presentations. The American Physical Society’s (APS) March Meeting will be held in person in Minneapolis and online everywhere March 3-8. Discounted hotel rates are available for in-person attendees at select Minneapolis hotels near the Minneapolis Convention Center. Book your hotel by Feb. 9 to receive the discount.  Press Registration News media with valid APS press credentials may register for the meeting at no cost. To request press credentials, visit APS’s online newsroom. Registration ...

The search for habitable exoplanets involves looking for planets with similar conditions to the Earth, such as liquid water, a suitable temperature range and atmospheric conditions. One crucial factor is the planet's position in the habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water could potentially exist on the planet's surface. NASA's Kepler telescope, launched in 2009, revealed that 20–50% of visible stars may host such habitable Earth-sized rocky planets. However, the presence of liquid water alone does not guarantee a planet’s habitability. On Earth, ...

Over the past two decades, microfluidic devices, which use technology to produce micrometer-sized droplets, have become crucial to various applications. These span chemical reactions, biomolecular analysis, soft-matter chemistry, and the production of fine materials. Furthermore, droplet microfluidics has enabled new applications that were not possible with traditional methods. It can shape the size of the particles and influence their morphology and anisotropy. However, the conventional way of generating droplets in a single microchannel structure is often slow, ...

The city you live in could be making you, your family, and your friends more unconsciously racist. Or, your city might make you less racist. It depends on how populous, diverse, and segregated your city is, according to a new study that brings together the math of cities with the psychology of how individuals develop unconscious racial biases. The study, published in the latest issue of Nature Communications, presents data and a mathematical model of exposure and adaptation in social networks that can help explain why there is more unconscious, or implicit, racial bias ...

6 February 2024 The Geological Society of America Release No. 24-01 Contributed by Arianna Soldati, GSA Science Communication Fellow Boulder, Colo., USA: Earth is a stressed planet. As plates move, magma rises, and glaciers melt—just to mention a few scenarios—rocks are subject to varying pressure and compressional and extensional forces. The effect of these stresses on rock mineralogy and texture is of great interest to the tectono-metamorphic community. Yet the link between process and outcome remains elusive. There are two possible states of stress: either all principal ...

For the first time, researchers including those at the University of Tokyo discovered a way to improve the durability of gold catalysts by creating a protective layer of metal oxide clusters. The enhanced gold catalysts can withstand a greater range of physical environments compared to unprotected equivalent materials. This could increase their range of possible applications, as well as reduce energy consumption and costs in some situations. These catalysts are widely used throughout industrial settings, including chemical synthesis and production of medicines, these industries could benefit from improved gold catalysts. Everybody loves gold: athletes, pirates, bankers — everybody. ...

  In a significant leap forward for quantum nanophotonics, a team of European and Israeli physicists, introduces a new type of polaritonic cavities and redefines the limits of light confinement. This pioneering work, detailed in a study published today in Nature Materials, demonstrates an unconventional method to confine photons, overcoming the traditional limitations in nanophotonics.   Physicists have long been seeking ways to force photons into increasingly small volumes. The natural length scale of the photon is the wavelength and when a photon is forced into a cavity much smaller than ...

Promising trial results indicate that a new type of cell therapy could improve the prognosis of those who are critically ill with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) resulting from severe Covid-19. Published in the journal Nature Communications, Professor Justin Stebbing of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is the joint senior author of the new study investigating the use of agenT-797, MiNK Therapeutic’s allogeneic, unmodified invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cell therapy. The iNKT cell therapy has the effect of rescuing exhausted T cells and prompting an anti-inflammatory cytokine response, potentially activating anti-viral immunity to ...

Law enforcement seizures of “magic mushrooms” or “shrooms” containing the psychoactive component psilocybin increased dramatically in the United States between January 2017 and December 2022, according to a new study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. The number of law enforcement seizures increased from 402 seizures in 2017 to 1,396 in 2022. In addition, the total weight of psilocybin mushrooms seized by law enforcement increased ...

Seizures by law enforcement officials of psilocybin, a compound found in psychedelic mushrooms, have increased by 369% since 2017, a new study shows. The authors say their findings may signal growing availability and public awareness of the hallucinogenic drug, along with possible heightened risks associated with recreational and unsupervised use of the drug. The study was led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and other members of the National Drug Early Warning System, an organization that conducts surveillance of shifting drug trends. Their analysis of national and state-level trafficking data ...

Decidious and evergreen forests dominate the limestone karst formations of the northwestern highlands of Thailand. A vast number of caves and rock shelters intersperses the mountains. In over 40 such caves in Mae Hong Son province, large wooden coffins mounted on stilts, dating between 2,300 and 1,000 years ago, can be found. During the Iron Age period, each of these up to several-meter-long coffins was crafted from a single teak tree and features refined carvings of geometric, animal- or human-like shapes at the handles ...

Tokyo, Japan – A recent randomized controlled trial in Tokyo, Japan, has unveiled the positive impact of early mobilization, assisted by mobile patient lifts, on the recovery of ventilated intensive care unit (ICU) patients. The debate surrounding the efficacy of early mobilization in ICU has persisted for an extended period.   The treatment of critically ill patients in ICUs, often involving prolonged limb immobilization or restricted mobility, is acknowledged as a risk factor for diminished physical strength and diminished quality of life post-recovery, ...

Rates of re-excision after initial breast-conserving surgery in women with breast cancer remain high across the United States, leading to an increased cost of care and a higher risk of postoperative complications, according to new research from UTHealth Houston. The study, led by first author Youngran Kim, PhD, assistant professor; and senior author Trudy Krause, PhD, professor, was published today in Annals of Surgical Oncology. Both are with the Center for Health Care Data in the Department of Management, Policy ...

Our genomes provide the instructions for proper growth and development. Millions of genomic switches, known as enhancers, control the location and timing of gene expression, which in turn ensures the correct proteins are made in the right cells at the right time throughout our lives. New research from University of California San Diego Assistant Professor Emma Farley’s lab shows how we can now predict which single base-pair changes to the DNA within our genomes will alter these instructions and disrupt development, causing extra digits and hearts. We now ...

One of the most common add-ons to IVF procedures undertaken in Australia and globally by infertile couples may be a waste of time as well as expensive and invasive, and maye even reduce the chances of success, according to a new report in The Lancet. The research, by Monash University’s Professor Ben Mol in Australiaa and Dr. Rui Wang and colleagues in China, found that intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) whereby a single sperm is injected directly into a mature egg – originally developed in 1992 for couples with severe male infertility but which has since expanded ...

Males born to obese women are more likely to be overweight at birth and develop metabolic complications in later life, including liver disease and diabetes. The way that male sex hormones activate pathways in the developing liver is partly to blame. That’s the finding from a new study led by University of South Australia (UniSA) researchers looking at the impact of maternal obesity on fetal liver androgen signalling. Male fetuses of obese pregnant women have different signals that are activated by male sex hormones in the liver, which encourages them to prioritise growth at the expense of their health. UniSA researcher Dr Ashley Meakin ...

Understanding the responses of different rhizosphere microbial lineages to soil amendments during in situ remediation of Cd-contaminated soil is of great importance in the assessment of the restoration and crop health. This study demonstrates the distinct responses of rice rhizosphere microbial communities to soil amendment applications, highlighting the interactive associations between microbiomes, which is vital for enhancing our ability to develop effective strategies for sustainable soil management. The researchers' findings appeared December 4, 2023 in Soil Ecology Letters.   A series ...

Pulmonary malignancy is one of the most frequent and fatal cancers in older patients. Studies have shown that lung cancer patients have a high incidence of lower respiratory tract infections. This is due to the fact that these patients usually have airway obstruction, sticky sputum that is not easy to cough up, destruction of mucosal surfaces, and treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. When most patients are found to have lung cancer, they have already developed distal metastasis and lost the chance of surgery, therefore, they usually choose to be treated with radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted drugs. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy ...

Researchers at the University of Queensland have revealed the crucial role of saturated fatty acids in the brain’s consolidation of memories.  Dr Isaac Akefe from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute has uncovered the molecular mechanism and identified the genes underlying the memory creation process, opening the door to a potential treatment for neurodegenerative disorders.  “We’ve shown previously that levels of saturated fatty acids increase in the brain during neuronal communication, but we ...

Deep learning has led to great improvements recently on a number of difficult tasks. In CRYPTO 2019, Gohr innovatively integrated deep learning with differential cryptanalysis, specifically applied to Speck32/64, resulting in developing a neural distinguisher that outperforms the DDT-based distinguisher. Applying differential neural cryptanalysis methods to more cryptographic algorithms is an issue worth studying. To solve the problems, a research team led by Liu ZHANG published their new research on 15 Dec 2023 in Frontiers of Computer Science co-published by Higher Education Press ...

Ottawa, ON, February 5, 2024 – Twenty-seven percent of individuals who had an emergency department visit for cannabis use developed a new anxiety disorder within three years, according to new research. Led by researchers at the Bruyère Research Institute, University of Ottawa Department of Family Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital, and ICES, this is the largest study of the relationship between cannabis use and anxiety to date. The study published today in The Lancet’s open access journal eClinical Medicine included over 12 million individuals living in Ontario, Canada, between 2008 and 2019 who had never received a diagnosis or treatment for anxiety. The researchers ...

A Doppler ultrasound that measures the blood flow of small unborn babies can reveal whether or not the placenta is working properly. In case of repeated deviations from these Doppler measurements, additional monitoring of the unborn baby is necessary. These deviations indicate a higher risk of oxygen deficiency and other health problems for the baby. This study by Amsterdam UMC in collaboration with UMC Groningen and 17 other Dutch hospitals is published today in the British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology.  Around 10% of unborn babies are classed as small for ...

A new species of pterosaur from specimens found on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, has been announced by scientists from the Natural History Museum, University of Bristol, University of Leicester, and University of Liverpool. The new pterosaur is part of the Darwinoptera clade of pterosaurs. Its discovery shows that the clade was considerably more diverse than previously thought, and persisted for more than 25 million years, from the late Early Jurassic to the latest Jurassic. During this period species within the clade spread worldwide. The discovery underpins a new and more complex model for the early evolution of pterosaurs. The rarity of Middle Jurassic pterosaur ...

The influence of online vote advice tools designed to help voters discover more about candidates is limited when elections are affected by authoritarianism, a new study shows. Voting advice applications offer voters nonpartisan information about political parties, candidates, and policy issues. The research shows they could be an alternative source of information for those interested in learning about politics in democracies, but their use would be limited in authoritarian settings, particularly in the longer term. In the short-term, and during highly competitive elections with tiny winning margins for candidates ...