The Earth’s nitrogen cycle is among the most heavily exceeded planetary boundaries. Agricultural production and fossil fuel burning release nitrogen pollutants like ammonia (NH3), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and nitrous oxide (N2O), which contribute to air pollution and damage ecosystems. These pollutants harm human health, crops, and ecosystems. Given the growing global energy and food demand, this damage is expected to increase even further. The potential of nitrogen pollution mitigation technologies ...

More than 70 genes have been linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a developmental condition in which differences in the brain lead to a host of altered behaviors, including issues with language, social communication, hyperactivity, and repetitive movements. Scientists are attempting to tease out those specific associations gene by gene, neuron by neuron. One such gene is Astrotactin 2 (ASTN2). In 2018, researchers from the Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology at Rockefeller University discovered how defects in the protein produced by the gene disrupted ...

The European Union's law on artificial intelligence came into force on 1 August. The new AI Act essentially regulates what artificial intelligence can and cannot do in the EU. A team led by computer science professor Holger Hermanns from Saarland University and law professor Anne Lauber-Rönsberg from Dresden University of Technology has examined how the new legislation impacts the practical work of programmers. The results of their analysis will be published in the autumn. 'The AI Act shows ...

Imagine having to do your job, but not being able to visually process the data right in front of you. Nearly eight percent of genetic males and half a percent of genetic females have some form of Color Vision Deficiency (CVD), or the decreased ability to discern between particular colors. CVD is commonly referred to as color blindness. Scientists use colors to convey information. Many scientists in the weather radar community have CVD and the use and interpretation of color is an important aspect of their work. Most colormaps ...

A new scientific review explores the exciting potential of hot carriers, energetic electrons generated by light in plasmonic nanostructures. These tiny structures hold immense promise for future technologies due to their unique way of interacting with light and creating hot carriers.   Hot carriers are electrons with a surplus of energy. When light strikes a plasmonic nanostructure, it can excite these electrons, pushing them out of equilibrium. This non-equilibrium state unlocks a range of fascinating phenomena. Hot carriers can be used to control light itself, potentially leading to ...

New research from Smithsonian’s Bird Friendly Coffee program highlights a type of biodiversity that often gets overlooked: soil bacteria and fungal communities. For over twenty years, Smithsonian research has shown that coffee farms with shade trees protect more biodiversity than intensified, monoculture coffee farms. The new research, published today in Applied Soil Ecology, shows that soil bacteria and fungi on coffee farms also respond to the intensity of coffee farm management. To conduct this research, the team collected soils samples on coffee farms in Colombia, El Salvador, and Peru and used DNA analysis to profile bacterial and fungal soil on ...

Geoscientists from the University of Cologne have led an international study to determine the origin of the huge piece of rock that hit the Earth around 66 million years ago and permanently changed the climate. The scientists analysed samples of the rock layer that marks the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods. This period also saw the last major mass extinction event on Earth, in which around 70 percent of all animal species became extinct. The results of the study published in Science indicate that the asteroid formed outside Jupiter’s orbit during the ...

The Institute of Physics and IOP Publishing (IOPP) are launching Progress In Physics 2024, a two-day hybrid workshop hosted at the Institute of Physics’ office in London from 9-10 October 2024. The event will cover topics on condensed matter and will bring together leading physics researchers to exchange knowledge in both an in-person and online format.   Progress in Physics 2024 aligns with the mission of IOPP’s new Progress In seriesTM of journals. The series builds on the success of IOPP’s flagship journal Reports on Progress in PhysicsTM which celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.   With ...

Researchers discover smarter way to recycle polyurethane Researchers at Aarhus University have found a better method to recycle polyurethane foam from items like mattresses. This is great news for the budding industry that aims to chemically recover the original components of the material – making their products cheaper and better. Polyurethane (PUR) is an indispensable plastic material used in mattresses, insulation in refrigerators and buildings, shoes, cars, airplanes, wind turbine blades, cables, and much more. It could be called a wonder material if it weren’t also an environmental ...

Powerful telescopes like NASA’s Hubble, James Webb, and Chandra X-ray Observatory provide scientists a window into deep space to probe the physics of black holes. While one might wonder how you can “see” a black hole, which famously absorbs all light, this is made possible by tidal disruption events (TDEs) - where a star is destroyed by a supermassive black hole and can fuel a “luminous accretion flare.” With luminosities thousands of billions of times brighter than the Sun, accretion events enable astrophysicists to study supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at cosmological distances. TDEs occur when a star is violently ripped ...

“We have proposed a framework encompassing all discovered host immunological pathways, such as TH1, TH2a, TH2b, TH3, TH9, TH17, TH22, TH1-like, and THαβ immune reactions” BUFFALO, NY- August 16, 2024 – A new review was published as the cover paper of Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science), Volume 16, Issue 15, entitled, “Types of cell death and their relations to host immunological pathways”. Various ...

About The Study: In a cohort study of 1,300 emerging adolescents ages 9 to 11 across three assessments, higher levels of anxiety symptoms were associated with higher levels of perceived parental technoference later in development. Higher levels of perceived parental technoference were associated with higher levels of inattention and hyperactivity symptoms later in development. The findings of this study speak to the need to discuss digital technology use and mental health with parents and emerging adolescents as a part of routine care.  Corresponding Author: To contact ...

This paper, led by Professor Wu (Wenzhou Institute University, Wenzhou Medical University) and Professor Huang (Northeastern University), explores LLPS, a phenomenon closely associated with various diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. As a frontier research area, LLPS plays a significant role in cancer through its regulation of multiple facets, including signaling pathways, gene expression, and tumor microenvironment. Dysregulation of LLPS leads to the formation of various aggregates, such as amyloid proteins, suggesting that modulating LLPS in ...

The brain is responsible for the "general command" of human thinking and coordination of the body. Thus, various brain diseases can cause great damage to the human body and nervous system. Brain tumors are caused by abnormal cells that grow and multiply irregularly within the brain. Glioma is one of the most common malignant tumors in adults. It originates from glial cells and the surrounding infiltrating tissue, compresses other normal tissues in the brain during the growth process, and blurs the boundary of the tumor. ...

Society relies heavily on diverse fluidic technologies. The ability toprecisely capture and release various chemical and biological fluids plays a fundamental role in many fields.A long-standing challenge is to design a platform that enables the switchable capture and release of liquids with precise spatial and temporal control and accurate volumes of the fluid. Recently, researchers at The Polytechnic University of Hong Kong (PolyU) have invented a new method to effectively overcome this challenge. Led by Prof. WANG Liqiu, Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Smart and Sustainable Energy, Chair ...

A tiny battery designed by MIT engineers could enable the deployment of cell-sized, autonomous robots for drug delivery within in the human body, as well as other applications such as locating leaks in gas pipelines. The new battery, which is 0.1 millimeters long and 0.002 millimeters thick — roughly the thickness of a human hair — can capture oxygen from air and use it to oxidize zinc, creating a current of up to 1 volt. That is enough to power a small circuit, sensor, or actuator, the researchers showed. “We think this is going to be very enabling ...

Studying cell migration is vital because it plays a crucial role in many biological processes, including immune response, wound healing, and cancer metastasis. Understanding how cells move and behave can lead to breakthroughs in treating diseases, developing new drugs, and creating innovative therapies. For example, in cancer research, tracking how cancer cells migrate can reveal how tumors grow and spread through the human body. This insight can led to the discovery of more efficient and targeted treatments to stop or even prevent metastasis. Scientists have introduced CellTracksColab, a tool that simplifies cell tracking data analysis. This free platform leverages advanced ...

Researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands have identified a new way in which the toxic protein aggregates associated with Huntington’s disease may damage nerve cells and cause them to die. The study, to be published August 16 in the Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), suggests that the aggregates can poke holes in the membrane that separates the nucleus from the rest of the cell, damaging the DNA inside the nucleus and changing the activity of neuronal genes. Huntington’s disease is a devastating neurogenerative disorder caused by a mutation in the HTT gene that results in cells producing abnormally large versions of the huntingtin protein. These ...

The Colorado River and its tributaries provide water for hydropower, irrigation and drinking water in seven U.S. states and Mexico. Much of this water comes from the snowpack that builds up over the winter and then melts each spring. Every year in early April, water managers use the snowpack to predict how much water will be available for the upcoming year. But since 2000, these predictions have been incorrect, with the actual streamflow being consistently lower than the predicted streamflow. That’s left water managers ...

On May 11, a gorgeous aurora surprised stargazers across the southern United States. That same weekend, a tractor guided by GPS missed its mark. What do the visibility of the northern lights have in common with compromised farming equipment in the Midwest? A uniquely powerful geomagnetic storm, according to two newly published papers co-authored by Virginia Tech's Scott England. “The northern lights are caused by energetic, charged particles hitting our upper atmosphere, which are impacted by numerous factors in space, including the sun,” said England, associate professor in the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering. “During ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new national study provides the best evidence to date that generous unemployment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic helped reduce reliance on high-cost credit use.   Researchers found that lower-income residents of states with more generous benefits were significantly less likely than those living in less-generous states to take out new credit cards, personal finance loans and payday loans or other alternative financial service offerings.   The study, published recently in the journal ...

With new medications on the market or in the works for Alzheimer’s disease and other kinds of dementia, a new study suggests that getting the diagnosis needed to access these new treatments may depend on where you live.  The percentage of people who get a new dementia diagnosis each year varies a lot across regions of the U.S., the study finds. And the differences between regions of the country are even larger for people on the young end of the dementia-risk age range, ages 66 to 74, and for those who are Black ...

August 16, 2024   The Banana Apocalypse is Near, but UMass Amherst Biologists Might Have Found a Key to Their Survival Discovery of molecular mechanisms used by the banana-destroying microbe brings hope to the breakfast table   AMHERST, Mass. – The bananas in your supermarket and that you eat for breakfast are facing functional extinction due to the disease Fusarium wilt of banana (FWB) caused by a fungal pathogen called Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense (Foc) tropical race 4 (TR4). However,  thanks to recent research from an ...

Rethinking the Dodo Review of 400 years of scientific literature corrects the record on icon of extinction Researchers are setting out to challenge our misconceptions about the Dodo, one of the most well-known but poorly understood species of bird. In a paper published today [16 August 2024] in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society researchers from the University of Southampton, Natural History Museum (NHM) and Oxford University Museum of Natural History have undertaken the most comprehensive review of the taxonomy of the Dodo and its closest relative, the Rodriguez ...

Could arts and crafts help protect the public’s mental health? A new study in Frontiers in Public Health provides evidence that indulging our creative side could provide everyone with a significant wellbeing boost. Because arts and crafts are relatively affordable and accessible, promoting the public’s access to artistic activities could provide a major boost to public mental health. “Crafting and other artistic activities showed a meaningful effect in predicting people’s ...