Hundreds of genetic drivers affect sexual and reproductive behaviour Combined with social factors, these can affect longevity and health An Oxford-led team, working with Cambridge and international scholars, has discovered hundreds of genetic markers driving two of life's most momentous milestones - the age at which people first have sex and become parents. In a paper published today in Nature Human Behaviour, the team linked 371 specific areas of our DNA, called genetic variants (known locations on chromosomes), 11 of which were sex-specific, to the timing of first sex and birth. These variants interact with environmental factors, such as socioeconomic status and when you were born, and are predictors of longevity and later life disease. The researchers ...

People who have lost their sense of smell are being failed by healthcare professionals, new research has revealed. A study by Newcastle University, University of East Anglia and charity Fifth Sense, shows poor levels of understanding and care from GPs and specialists about smell and taste loss in patients. This is an issue that has particularly come to the forefront during the Covid-19 pandemic as many people who have contracted the virus report a loss of taste and smell as their main symptoms. Around one in 10 people who experience smell loss as a result of Covid-19 report that their sense of smell has ...

In a new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI 10.29026/oea.2021.210040, Researchers led by Professor Daewook Kim from The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA consider advances in optical engineering for future telescopes. Astronomical advances are largely coupled with technological improvements - from the invention of the first optical telescope used by Galileo in 1609 and for the foreseeable future, astronomy and optical engineering will be forever linked. This paper summarizes several advances that will enable future telescopes to expand scientific understanding of the universe. Significant optical engineering advances at the University of Arizona are being made for design, fabrication, and construction of next ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Scientists at Indiana University have found that significant amounts of the two main components of cannabis, THC and CBD, enter the embryonic brain of mice in utero and impair the mice's ability as adults to respond to fluoxetine, a drug commonly used to treat anxiety and depression and known by the brand name Prozac. The study suggests that when the developing brain is exposed to THC or CBD, normal interactions between endocannabinoid and serotonin signaling may be diminished as they become adults. "Hemp-derived CBD is a legal substance in the U.S., and we are in a time of increasing state-level legalization of cannabis. ...

A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge, University College London, University of Oxford, and University of Brescia/RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment carried out the first systematic analysis of the relative performance of probabilistic cost forecasts from expert-based methods and model-based methods. They specifically focused on one expert-based method -- expert elicitations -- and four model-based methods which model costs either as a function of cumulative installed capacity or as a function of time. The results of this ...

Researchers have developed a more efficient platform for studying proteins that play a key role in regulating gene expression. The approach uses engineered yeast cells to produce enzyme and histone proteins, conduct biochemical assays internally, and then display the results. "Biomedical and biotech researchers are interested in the mechanisms that allow histones to regulate gene activity," says Alison Waldman, first author of a paper on the work and a Ph.D. student at North Carolina State University. "But the conventional tools for histone research are unwieldy ...

Mass-flowering crops such as oilseed rape or faba bean (also known as broad bean) provide valuable sources of food for bees, which, in turn, contribute to the pollination of both the crops and nearby wild plants when they visit. But not every arable crop that produces flowers is visited by the same bees. A team from the University of Göttingen and the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) in Braunschweig has investigated how the habitat diversity of the agricultural landscape and the cultivation of different mass-flowering crops affect wild bees. The research shows that diverse agricultural landscapes increase the species richness ...

A team led by Skoltech professor Artem R. Oganov studied the structure and properties of ternary hydrides of lanthanum and yttrium and showed that alloying is an effective strategy for stabilizing otherwise unstable phases YH10 and LaH6, expected to be high-temperature superconductors. The research was published in the journal Materials Today. Cuprates had long remained record-setters for high-temperature superconductivity until H3S was predicted in 2014. This unusual sulfur hydride was estimated to have high-temperature superconductivity at 191-204 K and was later obtained experimentally, setting a new record in superconductivity. Following this discovery, many scientists turned to superhydrides, which are abnormally rich in hydrogen, and discovered new compounds that ...

Laboratories are an inherent part of technology qualifications, as practical experiments are essential for students to acquire the competencies and skills that they will need during their future professional development. Providing this learning in a virtual format is one of the challenges posed by the current COVID-19 pandemic--a challenge that distance universities have been addressing for years. RLAB-UOC is a remote laboratory designed and developed by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) that enables students in the Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications to conduct practical experiments with real electronic and communications equipment anywhere, at any time. A new article published in the scientific journal Electronics has described the characteristics ...

Near-death experiences are known from all parts of the world, various times and numerous cultural backgrounds. This universality suggests they may have a biological origin and purpose, but exactly what this could be has been largely unexplored. A new study conducted jointly by the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and the University of Liege (Belgium) and published in Brain Communications shows how near-death experiences in humans may have arisen from evolutionary mechanisms. "Adhering to a preregistered protocol, we investigated the hypothesis that thanatosis is the evolutionary origin of near-death experiences", says Daniel Kondziella, a neurologist from Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital. When attacked by a predator, as a last resort defense mechanism, ...

An affordable lab system that uses grass blades to turn cells into cultured meat has been developed at the University of Bath in the UK. Researchers have successfully taken grass from the university's campus and used it to create a scaffold that animal cells can attach to and grow on. The resulting tissue has the potential to be used both as lab-made meat and as human muscle tissue to repair or replace tissue which has been damaged or lost through injury or disease. The study, by Dr Paul De Bank (Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology), Professor Marianne Ellis (Department of Chemical Engineering) and Scott Allan (a PhD researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering), is published in this month's Journal of ...

RUDN University chemists have proposed a new method of producing fuel from Jatropha Curcas, a poisonous tropical plant. Natural minerals and a non-toxic additive from vegetable raw materials are used for that. The reaction efficiency is 85%. The fuel can be used in diesel internal combustion engines. The results are published in the International Journal of Green Energy. Jatropha Curcas is a common plant in many tropical regions. Its seeds contain lots of oil, but they cannot be used agriculture because the oil contains toxins that are dangerous for people and animals. But the composition of jatropha oil is suitable for the manufacture of biodiesel. One of challenge of the processing the plant raw materials is to select sufficiently ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Researchers from Brown University and MIT have developed a new data science framework that allows users to process data with the programming language Python -- without paying the "performance tax" normally associated with a user-friendly language. The new framework, called Tuplex, is able to process data queries written in Python up to 90 times faster than industry-standard data systems like Apache Spark or Dask. The research team unveiled the system in research presented at SIGMOD 2021, a premier data processing conference, and have made the software freely available to all. "Python is the primary programming language used by people doing data science," said Malte Schwarzkopf, an assistant professor of computer ...

A collaboration led by Distinguished Professor Dr. Kazunori Ikebukuro from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), Japan, discovered that G-quadruplex (G4)-forming DNA binds myoglobin through a parallel-type G4 structure. Through the G4 binding, the enzymatic activity of myoglobin increases over 300-fold compared to that of myoglobin alone (Figure). This finding indicates that DNA may work as a carrier of genetic information in living organisms and act as a regulator of unknown biological phenomena. "Aptamers" are nucleic acid-based synthetic ligands that can be used against many target molecules with high affinity and specificity. Some aptamers that bind to proteins ...

Zeolites are extremely porous materials: Ten grams can have an internal surface area the size of a soccer field. Their cavities make them useful in catalyzing chemical reactions and thus saving energy. An international research team has now made new findings regarding the role of water molecules in these processes. One important application is the conversion of biomass into biofuel. Fuel made from biomass is considered to be climate-neutral, although energy is still needed to produce it: The desired chemical reactions require high levels of temperature and pressure. "If ...

WASHINGTON -- If you've ever tried to capture a sunset with your smartphone, you know that the colors don't always match what you see in real life. Researchers are coming closer to solving this problem with a new set of algorithms that make it possible to record and display color in digital images in a much more realistic fashion. "When we see a beautiful scene, we want to record it and share it with others," said Min Qiu, leader of the Laboratory of Photonics and Instrumentation for Nano Technology (PAINT) at Westlake University in China. "But we don't want to see a digital photo or video with the wrong colors. Our new algorithms can help digital camera and electronic display developers better adapt their ...

There is a significant discrepancy between theoretical and observed amounts of lithium in our universe. This is known as the cosmological lithium problem, and it has plagued cosmologists for decades. Now, researchers have reduced this discrepancy by around 10%, thanks to a new experiment on the nuclear processes responsible for the creation of lithium. This research could point the way to a more complete understanding of the early universe. There is a famous saying that, "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." This holds true in every academic domain, but it's especially common in cosmology, the study of the entire ...

A wonder of nature As a human cell begins division, its 23 chromosomes duplicate into identical copies that remain joined at a region called the centromere. Here lies the kinetochore, a complicated assembly of proteins that binds to thread-like structures, the microtubules. As mitosis progresses, the kinetochore gives green light to the microtubules to tear the DNA copies apart, towards the new forming cells. "The kinetochore is a beautiful, flawless machine: You almost never lose a chromosome in a normal cell!", says Musacchio. "We already know the proteins that constitute it, yet important questions about how the kinetochore works are still open: How does it rebuild itself during chromosome replication? ...

Researchers at the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku, Finland, study insect biodiversity particularly in Amazonia and Africa. In their studies, they have discovered hundreds of species previously unknown to science. Many of them are exciting in their size, appearance, or living habits. "The species we have discovered show what magnificent surprises the Earth's rainforests can contain. The newly discovered Dolichomitus meii wasp is particularly interesting for its large size and unique colouring. With a quick glance, its body looks black but glitters electric blue in light. Moreover, its wings are golden yellow. Therefore, you could say it's like a flying jewel," says Postdoctoral Researcher Diego Pádua from the Instituto Nacional ...

Contrary to what science once suggested, older people with a declining sense of smell do not have comprehensively dampened olfactory ability for odors in general - it simply depends upon the type of odor. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen reached this conclusion after examining a large group of older Danes' and their intensity perception of common food odours. That grandpa and grandma aren't as good at smelling as they once were, is something that many can relate to. And, it has also been scientifically demonstrated. One's sense of smell gradually begins to decline from about the age of 55. Until now, it was believed that one's sense of smell broadly ...

Plastic waste is considered one of the biggest environmental problems of our time. IASS researchers surveyed consumers in Germany about their use of plastic packaging. Their research reveals that fundamental changes in infrastructures and lifestyles, as well as cultural and economic transformation processes, are needed to make zero-waste shopping the norm. 96 percent of the German population consider it important to reduce packaging waste. Nevertheless, the private end consumption of packaging in Germany has increased continuously since 2009. At 3.2 million tons in 2018, the amount of plastic packaging waste generated by end consumers in Germany ...

One year after infection by SARS-CoV-2, most people maintain anti-Spike antibodies regardless of the severity of their symptoms, according to a study with healthcare workers co-led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), the Catalan Health Institute (ICS) and the Jordi Gol Institute (IDIAP JG), with the collaboration of the Daniel Bravo Andreu Private Foundation. The results suggest that vaccine-generated immunity will also be long-lasting. One of the key questions to better predict the pandemic's evolution is the duration of natural immunity. A growing number of studies suggest that most people generate a humoral ...

The eruption of the Laacher See volcano in the Eifel, a low mountain range in western Germany, is one of Central Europe's largest eruptions over the past 100,000 years. The eruption ejected around 20 cubic kilometers of tephra and the eruption column is believed to have reached at least 20 kilometers in height, comparable to the Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines in 1991. Technical advances in combination with tree remains buried in the course of the eruption now enabled an international research team to accurately date the event. Accordingly, the eruption of the Laacher See volcano occurred 13,077 years ago and thus 126 years earlier than previously assumed. This sheds new light on the climate history of the entire North ...

Scientists at the University of Helsinki have found an essential factor from the extracellular matrix that regulates functionality of the breast tissue for instance during pregnancy. Extracellular matrix (ECM) has previously been recognised as an important element for the growth of various epithelial cells, but rather as a scaffold. A new study shows that ECM can also regulate the function of epithelial cells. Our tissues constitute of differentiated cell types, which perform specific tasks that are tightly controlled. Normal growth and functioning of tissues is possible only when the various differentiated cell types interact appropriately. Differentiation and function of breast epithelium is guided by a group of cells responsive for estrogen and progesterone hormones. In the recent ...

Flat optics based on patterned liquid crystals (LCs) has recently received extensive research interest. Comparing with dielectric metasurfaces which are usually fabricated by sophisticated lithography process, LC polymer-based planar optics, owing to the self-assembly properties, can be fabricated through all-solution process. During the past decades, a variety of planar optical devices have been demonstrated based on geometric phase (also termed as Pancharatnum-Berry phase) manipulation. The total effective thickness of the device, including the underlying liquid crystal ...