WASHINGTON  –  U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) researchers have developed a patent-pending Continuous 3D-Cooled Atom Beam Interferometer derived from a patented cold and continuous beam of atoms to explore atom-interferometry-based inertial measurement systems as a path to reduce drift in Naval navigation systems.   Inertial navigation is a self-contained navigation technique in which measurements provided by accelerometers and gyroscopes are used to track the position and orientation of an object relative to a known starting point, orientation and velocity. Quantum inertial navigation is a new field of research and ...

Researchers from the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG) have helped to detect a remarkable gravitational-wave signal, which could hold the key to solving a cosmic mystery. The discovery is from the latest set of results announced today (5 April) by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, which comprises more than 1,600 scientists from around the world, including members of the ICG, that seeks to detect gravitational waves and use them for exploration of fundamentals of science. In May 2023, shortly after ...

The Common Loon, an icon of the northern wilderness, is under threat from climate change due to reduced water clarity, according to a new study authored by Chapman University professor, Walter Piper.  The study, published April 1 in Ecology, followed up an earlier paper that showed substantial reproductive decline in the author’s study area in northern Wisconsin.  The paper is the first clear evidence demonstrating an effect of climate change on this charismatic species. Specifically, the paper shows that July rainfall results in reduced July water clarity in loon territories. Reduced water clarity, in turn, ...

The same class of artificial intelligence that made headlines coding software and passing the bar exam has learned to read a different kind of text — the genetic code. That code contains instructions for all of life’s functions and follows rules not unlike those that govern human languages. Each sequence in a genome adheres to an intricate grammar and syntax, the structures that give rise to meaning. Just as changing a few words can radically alter the impact of a sentence, small variations in a biological sequence can make a huge ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Before the evolution of legs from fins, the axial skeleton — including the bones of the head, neck, back and ribs — was already going through changes that would eventually help our ancestors support their bodies to walk on land. A research team including a Penn State biologist completed a new reconstruction of the skeleton of Tiktaalik, the 375-million-year-old fossil fish that is one of the closest relatives to limbed vertebrates. The new reconstruction shows that the fish’s ribs likely attached to its pelvis, an innovation thought to be crucial to supporting the body and for the eventual evolution of walking. A paper describing the new ...

A groundbreaking was held Friday, April 5, for the Roy Blunt Soil Testing and Research Laboratory at the University of Missouri’s Fisher Delta Research, Extension and Education Center (FD-REEC) in Portageville, Mo. “As a longtime Delta Day attendee and Delta Center advocate, I’m pleased to have been part of spearheading a new facility that will support existing university programs while inspiring research among future generations of students,” former Sen. Blunt said. “It is an honor to have my name connected with this world-class facility ...

From star-stuff to software; hoagies to humans, each entity is alive and occupies its own private place in the cosmos. Grant Strate University Professor in SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts (SCA) Laura U. Marks’ new book The Fold offers a practical philosophy and aesthetic theory for living in an infinitely connected cosmos. Analyzing fiction, film, interactive media, and everyday situations, Marks outlines methods for detecting and augmenting the connections between each living entity and the cosmos. The Fold shows it ...

By Jade Boyd Special Rice News Rice University physicists have discovered a phase-changing quantum material — and a method for finding more like it — that could potentially be used to create flash-like memory capable of storing quantum bits of information, or qubits, even when a quantum computer is powered down. Phase-changing materials have been used in commercially available non-volatile digital memory . In rewritable DVDs, for example, a laser is used to heat minute bits of material that cools to form either crystals or amorphous clumps. Two phases ...

The IEEE Photonics Journal, the IEEE Photonics Society’s open access journal providing rapid publication of top-quality peer-reviewed papers at the forefront of photonics research, has released a Special Issue on "Globalization in Photonics", which provides a several detailed overviews of various worldwide developments in photonics. This all-invited special issue is a collection based on a series of presentations from the “Symposium on Globalization in Photonics Research & Development” at the ...

  East Hanover, NJ – April 5, 2024 – March job numbers showed minimal changes for people with disabilities, according to today’s National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) semi-monthly update issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability (UNH-IOD). Despite small declines in the employment-to-population ratio over the past four months, employment remains at historically high levels for people with disabilities. The small gain in their labor force participation rate is a positive sign that people with disabilities are still engaging in the labor market by looking for ...

Irvine, Calif., April 5, 2024 — A research team led by the University of California, Irvine has built the first genetic reference maps for short lengths of DNA repeated multiple times which are known to cause more than 50 lethal human diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington’s disease and multiple cancers. The UC Irvine Tandem Genome Aggregation Database enables researchers to study how these mutations – called tandem repeat expansions – are connected to diseases, ...

NEW YORK—A study by New York and Rocky Mountain U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs researchers showed blast exposure can cause intestinal permeability, a condition that can lead to gut bacteria entering the bloodstream and causing problems in other parts of the body. The study was the first to show a connection between blasts and intestinal permeability in a real-world operational setting. Researchers found biomarkers of intestinal permeability and signs of bacteria in the blood in 23 of 30 military breachers who were exposed to controlled, low-level explosive blasts during training. The ...

FINDINGS A pilot study led by UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center investigators suggests that for people with borderline resectable pancreatic cancer, administrating an immunotherapy drug in combination with chemotherapy before surgery is safe and may improve long-term outcomes. The findings showed that treating patients with the combination therapy prior to surgery resulted in a higher rate of successful tumor removal, increased the period of time before the cancer worsened, and extended overall survival when compared to historical controls. The researchers also found that adding the immunotherapy component did not increase ...

SAN DIEGO ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. This special edition features presentations by MD Anderson researchers at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024. In addition to ...

Boston - Numerous studies conducted by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute show promising results for patients with endometrial, lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers. The results of these studies, along with dozens of others led by Dana-Farber faculty, will be presented at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting on April 5-10, 2024, in San Diego, Calif. The institute’s leading experts and researchers will present findings across a spectrum of diseases, underscoring their dedication to driving innovation, improving patient outcomes, and changing lives everywhere. Rebecca Porter, MD, PhD, ...

Boston - In a small, investigator-initiated phase 2 study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators, a novel combination of an antibody-drug conjugate and an immune checkpoint inhibitor showed notable activity in pre-treated patients with a difficult-to-treat form of endometrial cancer. In this study, tumors were reduced in six out of 16 patients treated with the combination, including one case in which the cancer disappeared. The study tested mirvetuximab soravtansine and pembrolizumab in patients with folate receptor-α ...

Woods Hole, Mass– The human gut is full of microbes. Some microbes can make people sick, while others are responsible for balancing gut health. But humans aren’t the only species who’s health depends on these microorganisms. Coral reef ecosystems rely on microorganisms to recycle organic matter and nutrients. These cells also help feed corals and other life reliant on reefs. Researchers from WHOI studied the microbes in coral reef water by examining eight reefs in the U.S. Virgin Islands over a period of seven years, which included periods of hurricane and coral ...

A new study by researchers at the Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University, published in Science Advances, reveals that PFAS re-emit into the air from crashing ocean waves at levels comparable to or greater than other sources, establishing a cyclical transport process for these "forever chemicals" between land and sea. “The common belief is that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, drain from the land into the oceans where they stay to be diluted into the deep oceans ...

    Images  A new "atlas" of the human ovary provides insights that could lead to treatments restoring ovarian hormone production and the ability to have biologically related children, according to University of Michigan engineers.   This deeper understanding of the ovary means researchers could potentially create artificial ovaries in the lab using tissues that were stored and frozen before exposure to toxic medical treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation. Currently, surgeons can implant previously frozen ovarian tissue to temporarily restore hormone and egg production. However, this ...

HOUSTON – (April 5, 2024) – If you were to throw a message in a bottle into a black hole, all of the information in it, down to the quantum level, would become completely scrambled. Because in black holes this scrambling happens as quickly and thoroughly as quantum mechanics allows. They are generally considered nature’s ultimate information scramblers. New research from Rice University theorist Peter Wolynes and collaborators at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, however, has shown that molecules can be as formidable at scrambling quantum information ...

The expansion of fiber optics is progressing worldwide, which not only increases the bandwidth of conventional Internet connections, but also brings closer the realization of a global quantum Internet. The quantum internet can help to fully exploit the potential of certain technologies. These include much more powerful quantum computing through the linking of quantum processors and registers, more secure communication through quantum key distribution or more precise time measurements through the synchronization of atomic clocks. However, the differences between the glass fiber standard of 1550 nm and the system wavelengths of the various quantum bits ...

Sex pheromones are vital in facilitating the chemical communication that underpins insect courtship and mating behavior. Among female American cockroaches (Periplaneta americana), two key volatile sex pheromone components, periplanone-A (PA) and periplanone-B (PB), are predominantly released. Previous studies have indicated that PB is the primary component, but the precise interplay between PA and PB, alongside their regulatory mechanisms in male courtship and mating behavior has remained ambiguous. Recently, a team led by Professor Sheng Li from the Institute of Insect Science and Technology, School of Life Sciences, South China Normal ...

West Virginia University is leading one of 50 projects as part of a nationwide effort to increase farmland availability to underserved populations, while also helping producers obtain working capital and means of food distribution. The WVU Institute for Community and Rural Health was awarded a five-year, $8.5 million cooperative agreement grant for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Increasing Land Access Program, funded by President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Titled “Working Lands of Central Appalachia,” ...

MISSOULA – An opinion paper published by University of Montana professor Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas MD, PhD identifies air pollution risk exposures and the development of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in exposed populations. Calderón-Garcidueñas coauthors, Dr. Alberto Ayala and Dr. Partha Mukherjee discussed US citizens are not fully aware of the harmful brain impact of exposures to ubiquitous anthropogenic combustion emissions and friction-derived nanoparticles, industrial nanoplastics, wildfires and ...

Diagnosing infectious conditions can be challenging. Diagnosis is especially challenging for uncommon and emerging infectious diseases for which there’s limited clinical experience. Nevertheless, successfully identifying patients with infectious diseases, especially communicable ones, is critical, so patients can be isolated to reduce disease spread. To address this challenge, investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, recently developed and validated a computer program that can be incorporated into electronic medical record systems to help clinicians diagnose mpox (formerly known as monkeypox). The research ...