Spectrometers are technology for reading light that date back to the era of famed 17th-century physicist Isaac Newton. They work by breaking down light waves into their different colors — or spectra — to provide information about the makeup of the objects being measured.  UC Santa Cruz researchers are designing new ways to make spectrometers that are ultra-small but still very powerful, to be used for anything from detecting disease to observing stars in distant galaxies. Their inexpensive production cost makes them more accessible and customizable for specific applications.  The team of researchers, led by an interdisciplinary ...

Since its launch in late 2021, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has raised the possibility that we could detect signs of life on exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. Top candidates in this search are rocky, rather than gaseous, planets orbiting low-mass stars called M-dwarfs — easily the most common stars in the universe. One nearby M-dwarf is TRAPPIST-1, a star about 40 light years away that hosts a system of orbiting planets under intense scrutiny in the search for life on planets orbiting stars other than the sun. Previous research questioned the habitability of planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, finding that intense UV rays would burn away their ...

In certain parts of the United States, especially Appalachia, New England and the Northwest, the ability of residents to prepare for and respond to flooding is being undercut on three different levels. This is according to a new study from the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability.  "It's a very worrying confluence that does keep me up," said Joshua Newell, a professor with the school's Center for Sustainable Systems and senior author of the study. "The communities that are most at risk of catastrophic flooding ...

    Saving the bats: Researchers find bacteria, fungi on bat wings that could help fight deadly white-nose syndrome    Hamilton, ON, Oct. 23, 2024 – Bacteria and fungi from the wings of bats could play a significant role in saving them from white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease affecting the skin of wings and muzzle, which has nearly wiped out vulnerable bat populations across North America.   Researchers at McMaster University have gathered and analyzed samples from the community of microorganisms, or microbiome, on the wings of several bat species ...

Washington, D.C. – October 23, 2024 – Project Cure CRC, the breakthrough research fund of the leading nonprofit Colorectal Cancer Alliance (Alliance), has announced five new awardees of funds to advance urgent science in the colorectal cancer space. To date, 10 research grants have been awarded for a grand total of almost $5 million in critically needed funding.    Recipients of the most recent grants totaling almost $1 million include investigators from the University of California, San Francisco, Indiana University, University of Saskatchewan, Georgetown University, and Anglia Ruskin University. ...

California’s Channel Islands are home to the Channel Island fox (Urocyon littoralis), one of the smallest and most cherished species of island fox in the United States. Although no longer on the Endangered Species List, they remain a species of special concern due to their ecological importance. In the 1990s, the San Miguel Island fox nearly went extinct, dropping to just 15 individuals. A recovery program restored their numbers by 2010. However, from 2014 to 2018, the population fell to 30% of its peak right after a new acanthocephalan parasite, commonly known as thorny-headed worms, was identified on the island. This also occurred while a multi-year draught heated San ...

ATLANTA, Oct. 23, 2024 -- Chemical Insights Research Institute (CIRI) of UL Research Institutes has joined with UL Standards and Engagement to release new guidance for communities at risk for fires in wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas. An estimated 70,000 communities and 45 million residential buildings are at risk of destruction caused by wildfires. Additionally, WUI fires pose significant health risks. The smoke emitted by WUI fires likely contains a mixture of contaminants such as combustion gases, organic and inorganic metal complexes, volatile organic compounds and numerous reaction products. WUI wildfire plumes carry the risks of ...

(Boston, MA) — Concussion researchers have recognized a new concussion sign that could identify up to 33% of undiagnosed concussions. After a hit to the head, individuals sometimes quickly shake their head back and forth. Although it has been depicted in movies, television, and even cartoons for decades, this motion has never been studied, named, and does not appear on any medical or sports organization’s list of potential concussion signs. A new study, led by Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF) CEO and co-founder Chris Nowinski, PhD, says it should.   The study, published today in Diagnostics, reveals that when athletes exhibit this movement, ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – As athletes prepare to dive into Hawaiian waters for the first part of the IRONMAN World Championship on Oct. 26, they may want to pay a little extra attention to the water inside their bodies. Contrary to previous research, a Washington State University-led study of three decades of the IRONMAN’s top competition found a connection between dehydration and exercise-induced muscle cramps. Based on medical data of more than 10,500 triathletes, the study, published in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, found a strong link between dehydration and participants seeking treatment for muscle cramps during the competition. ...

Images of coastal houses being carried off into the sea due to eroding coastlines and powerful storm surges are becoming more commonplace as climate change brings a rising sea level coupled with more powerful storms. In the U.S. alone, coastal storms caused $165 billion in losses in 2022.  Now, a study from MIT shows that protecting and enhancing salt marshes in front of protective seawalls can significantly help protect some coastlines, at a cost that makes this approach reasonable to implement. The new findings are being reported in the journal Communications ...

Researchers from Nagoya University Institute of Transformative Biomolecules (WPI-ITbM) in Japan and their colleagues have identified and derivatized a chemical compound that effectively regulates the density of stomata in model plants. Stomata are crucial for water regulation. As the environment grows increasingly unpredictable, managing water consumption for crops during droughts through chemical methods will become increasingly important. The results of their study were published in Nature Communications. Manipulating protein interactions using chemical compounds is revolutionizing ...

“While exposure to persecution, war and displacement is associated with high rates of psychological disorders, such as PTSD and depression, remarkably the majority of refugees, despite having gone through very difficult experiences, don’t go on to develop a psychological disorder,” says Prof. Nickerson, Director of the Refugee Trauma and Recovery Program at UNSW’s School of Psychology. Despite this, previous research has focused on trying to understand factors that predict psychopathology or psychological distress, rather than factors that ...

Tea is a significant global commodity, with an industry worth tens of billions of dollars and growing. However, its production—both in terms of quantity and quality—is highly sensitive to climate variations, particularly in the context of long-term human-induced global warming and its associated shorter-term impacts such as extreme weather events.   To tackle this challenge, a collaborative initiative between UK and Chinese scientists and tea industry stakeholders has been launched. This project, known as “Tea-CUP” ...

Women are more likely to receive good care during pregnancy where AI and other clinical software tools are used, a large review of research has found. In a paper published in eClinicalMedicine researchers have conducted a review of over 12,000 papers and 87 articles for different AI and related software tools, investigating the impact of their use in maternity settings. A meta-analysis of 35 included studies found the odds of improved outcomes was 1.69 times higher in women cared for using CDSS, with data from over 5.2 million pregnancies in both High-Income and ...

The British Sleep Society has released a position statement in the Journal of Sleep Research advocating for the abolition of the twice-yearly clock changes in the UK and the restoration of permanent Standard Time (Greenwich Mean Time). This recommendation is based on scientific evidence highlighting the adverse effects of the clock change and Daylight Saving Time (DST) on sleep and circadian health. The British Sleep Society emphasizes that sleep is central to health and well-being and the enforced changes of clock time to DST can interfere negatively with sleep regulation. “What we often don’t realize is that DST changes our schedules, moving them ...

Animal tracking studies for ecology and conservation all face technological limitations such as high costs or the need for tags to remain in close proximity to detectors. In research published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, investigators describe a solution that can overcome many current limitations by employing the massive global network of personal mobile phones as gateways for tracking animals using Bluetooth low energy beacons. In areas with medium to high density of people, these simple, lightweight, and inexpensive beacons can provide regular updates of position with a battery life of 1–3 years. Through field testing ...

In research published in the British Journal of Social Psychology, investigators examined the relationship between countries’ parental leave policies and young adults’ perceptions of social norms for the division of childcare duties between mothers and fathers. In the study of 19,259 university students (11,924 women) from 48 countries, the degree to which participants believed childcare is equally divided among mothers and fathers and the degree to which they believed childcare should be equally divided were both stronger when parental leave was available in their particular country. Analyses of time since policy change suggested ...

Woodland caribou populations in Canada are declining because of habitat changes that benefit common prey species of wolves (such as moose and deer), leading to increasing numbers of wolves that kill caribou. To protect caribou, wildlife managers have reduced wolf numbers in some caribou ranges, but this may cause moose populations to grow, resulting in a wolf rebound. New research in The Journal of Wildlife Management has found that reducing moose populations to historical levels through hunting could be helpful for caribou conservation. The analysis included regions in British Columbia and Alberta with high moose populations where lethal wolf removals were annually conducted ...

Planning policies to restrict the number of new fast-food outlets leads to fewer overweight and obese children according to research led by Lancaster University. Researchers examined the impact of policy in the North East of England where Gateshead Council prevented any existing non-fast-food commercial property from being converted into a hot fast-food takeaway. The lead authors of the study, published in the journal Obesity, are Dr Huasheng Xiang from Lancaster University Management School and Professor of Health Inequalities Heather Brown from the Faculty of Health and Medicine at Lancaster University. The researchers used Government collected data that ...

A team of leading sleep researchers from the British Sleep Society have called for the government to abolish the twice-yearly clock changes in the UK due to the adverse effects on sleep and circadian health. After considering the available scientific evidence that circadian and sleep health are positively affected by the availability of natural daylight during the morning and negatively affected by the twice-yearly changes of clock time, especially when the clocks move forward in spring, the British Sleep Society recommends the abolition of the twice-yearly clock changes in the UK. With sleep being central to health and wellbeing, the Society has issued a statement ...

Long term exposure to arsenic in water may increase cardiovascular disease and especially heart disease risk even at exposure levels below the federal regulatory limit (10µg/L) according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. This is the first study to describe exposure-response relationships at concentrations below the current regulatory limit and substantiates that prolonged exposure to arsenic in water contributes to the development of ischemic heart disease. The researchers ...

Researchers Takuma Nakamura, Kazuki Hashimoto, and Takuro Ideguchi of the Institute for Photon Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo have increased by a 100-fold the measurement rate of Raman spectroscopy, a common technique for measuring the “vibrational fingerprint” of molecules in order to identify them. As the measurement rate has been a major limiting factor, this improvement contributes to advancements in many fields that rely on identifying molecules and cells, such as biomedical diagnostics and material analytics. The findings were published in the journal Ultrafast ...

Gardens offer a steady and reliable source of nectar all year round, helping to keep pollinators fed when farmland sources are limited, researchers have discovered. This consistency means that even small patches of gardens in rural areas can sustain pollinators, particularly in early spring and late summer when nectar is scarce. In the findings, published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists at the University of Bristol discovered that gardens can provide between 50% and 95% of the total nectar during these critical ...

Treating opioid use disorder significantly lowers the very high rate (8 times the general population) of suicide among people with opioid dependence.  A Scottish study led by Glasgow Caledonian University of over 45,000 patients receiving methadone or buprenorphine for opioid use disorder reported this important result today in the scientific journal Addiction. There were 575 suicides among the group of 46,453 people with opioid use disorder, accounting for 1.2% of the group.  Although every member of the group received an OAT prescription at some point between 2011 and 2020, some ...

Abundant green space in urban areas is linked to lower rates of heat related illness and death as well as better mental health and wellbeing, finds a systematic review of the available research, published in the open access journal BMJ Open. Green space may help offset the adverse health effects of high temperatures, conclude the researchers. In recognition of the detrimental heat related effects of increasing urbanisation and climate change, one of the UN Sustainable Development Goal targets stipulates the ...