|  Will 2-D tin be the next super material?  | A single layer of tin atoms could be the world's first material to conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency at the temperatures that computer chips operate, according to theoretical physicists. | Read More » Climate change may disrupt butterfly flight seasons  | The flight season timing of a wide variety of butterflies is responsive to temperature and could be altered by climate change, according to a new study that leverages more than a century's worth of museum and weather records. | Read More » Who learns from the carrot, and who from the stick?  | To flexibly deal with our ever-changing world, it is thought that we need to learn from both the negative and positive consequences of our behavior. In other words, from punishment and reward. Scientists have now demonstrated that serotonin and dopamine related genes influence how we base our choices on past punishments or rewards. This influence depends on which gene variant you inherited from your parents. | Read More » Power boosting self-cleaning solar panels  | High-power, self-cleaning solar panels might be coming soon to a roof near you. There are two obvious problems with photovoltaic cells, solar panels. First, they are very shiny and so a lot of the incident sunlight is simply reflected back into the sky rather than being converted into electricity. Secondly, they get dirty with dust and debris caught on the wind and residues left behind by rain and birds. Now, new research suggests that it might be possible to add a nanoscopic relief pattern to the surface of solar cells that makes them non-reflective significantly boosting efficiency and at the same time making them highly non-stick and self-cleaning. | Read More » New brain cells for Parkinson's and Huntington's patients? Attractants prevent nerve cell migration  | Medical researchers have been working toward implanting nerve precursor cells in the brains of patients with Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. It was hoped that these cells would assume the function of the cells that have died off. However, the implanted nerve cells frequently did not migrate as hoped, rather they hardly move from the site. Scientists have now discovered an important cause of this: Attractants secreted by the precursor cells prevent the maturing nerve cells from migrating into the brain. | Read More » The era of neutrino astronomy has begun  | Astrophysicists using a telescope embedded in Antarctic ice have detected the mysterious phenomena known as cosmic neutrinos -- nearly massless particles streaming to Earth at the speed of light from outside our solar system, striking in a powerful burst of energy. Researchers now will try to detect the cosmic neutrinos' source. | Read More » Monster gamma-ray burst in our cosmic neighborhood  | Gamma-ray bursts are violent bursts of gamma radiation associated with exploding massive stars. For the first time ever, researchers have observed an unusually powerful gamma-ray burst in the relatively nearby universe -- a monster gamma-ray burst. | Read More » Improve learning by taming instructional complexity  | From using concrete or abstract materials to giving immediate or delayed feedback, there are rampant debates over the best teaching strategies to use. But, in reality, improving education is not as simple as choosing one technique over another. Carnegie Mellon University and Temple University researchers scoured the educational research landscape and found that because improved learning depends on many different factors, there are actually more than 205 trillion instructional options available. | Read More » Black hole birth captured by cosmic voyeurs  | Intelligent telescopes got a front row seat recently for an unusual birth -- a very bright cosmic birth announcement for a black hole. | Read More » What can happen when graphene meets a semiconductor  | A new study has found that intrinsic ripples form on a sheet of graphene when it is placed on top of a semiconductor. The ripples further change the Schottky barrier height, affecting electron transport. | Read More » How flu evolves to escape immunity  | Scientists have identified a potential way to improve future flu vaccines after discovering that seasonal flu typically escapes immunity from vaccines with as little as a single amino acid substitution. | Read More » Two Y genes can replace the entire Y chromosome for assisted reproduction in mice  | Live mouse offspring can be generated with assisted reproduction using germ cells from males with the Y chromosome contribution limited to only two genes: the testis determinant factor Sry and the spermatogonial proliferation factor Eif2s3y. | Read More » First Class 1 evidence for cognitive rehabilitation in MS  | Researchers published the results of the MEMREHAB Trial, providing the first Class I evidence for the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation in multiple sclerosis. | Read More » Researchers map brain areas vital to understanding language  | In a new study, researchers uncovered the brain mechanisms that underlie discourse comprehension, or the ability to understand written or spoken language through the construction of rich mental models. | Read More » 'Undruggable' mutation meets its match  | Researchers have identified and exploited a newfound "Achilles heel" in K-Ras, the most commonly mutated oncogene in human cancers. K-Ras has earned a reputation as being "undruggable" because scientific researchers have failed to design a drug that successfully targets the mutant gene. The weak point is a newly discovered "pocket," or binding site, identified a team that has designed a chemical compound that fits inside this pocket and inhibits the normal activity of mutant K-Ras, but leaves the normal protein untouched. | Read More » Reducing salt in bread without losing saltiness, thanks to a texture trick  | Want to make bread taste pleasantly salty without adding more salt? Change the bread's texture so it is less dense, say scientists. They report that simply making the pores, or holes, larger can make people perceive bread as having saltier taste. The process could become a new strategy for reducing salt intake, which is a risk factor for high blood pressure and heart disease. | Read More » Tiny antisense molecules increase 'good cholesterol' levels in obese primates  | A strategy to increase levels of beneficial high-density lipoprotein (HDL) has been shown for the first time to be effective in non-human primates. The approach uses tiny antisense sequences to block the action of microRNAs that would otherwise inhibit a protein required for generation of HDL, the "good cholesterol" that helps remove harmful lipids from the body. | Read More » Minority parents fear for kids online  | Nearly all parents agree -- when their children go online, stranger danger is their biggest safety concern, followed closely by exposure to pornography, violent content and bullying, according to a new study. But, a parent's level of concern for these and other online safety issues varies depending on their racial and ethnic background, researchers said. | Read More » Does obesity reshape our sense of taste?  | Obesity may alter the way we taste at the most fundamental level: by changing how our tongues react to different foods. Biologists report that being severely overweight impaired the ability of mice to detect sweets. | Read More » The last croak for Darwin's frog?  | Deadly amphibian disease chytridiomycosis has caused the extinction of Darwin's frogs, believe scientists. | Read More » Sticky business: Magnetic pollen replicas offer multimodal adhesion  | Researchers have created magnetic replicas of sunflower pollen grains using a wet chemical, layer-by-layer process that applies highly conformal iron oxide coatings. The replicas possess natural adhesion properties from the pollen while gaining magnetic behavior. | Read More » Dreading pain can be worse than pain itself  | Faced with inevitable pain, most people would choose to get it out of the way as soon as possible, according to a new study. | Read More » Nut consumption linked to reduced death rate, study suggests  | In the largest study of its kind, people who ate a daily handful of nuts were 20 percent less likely to die from any cause over a 30-year period than were those who didn't consume nuts, say scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Harvard School of Public Health | Read More » Engineering education may diminish concern for public welfare issues  | Collegiate engineering education may foster a "culture of disengagement" regarding issues of public welfare, according to new research. | Read More » Clues of antibiotic use, resistance in US children's hospitals  | Two studies published show antibiotic resistance patterns for children have held stable over a seven-year period and surgical patients in US children's hospitals account for 43 percent of all antibiotic use in children's hospitals, presenting an opportunity for targeted intervention. | Read More » Sudden steep drop in blood pressure may predict atrial fibrillation years later  | Results of a study have identified a possible link between a history of sudden drops in blood pressure and the most common form of irregular heartbeat. | Read More » Aging impacts epigenome in human skeletal muscle  | Our epigenome is a set of chemical switches that turn parts of our genome off and on and are impacted by environmental factors including diet, exercise and stress. Research reveals that aging also effects the epigenome in human skeletal muscle. The study provides a method to study sarcopenia, the degenerative loss of muscle mass that begins in middle age. | Read More » Nurses eliminate pressure ulcers in premature infants  | Infants born prematurely are at a significantly increased risk for pressure ulcers, yet nurses at one hospital have been able to eliminate this threat for patients in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit. | Read More » Study shows diet alone can be significant source of arsenic  | Diet alone can be a significant source of arsenic exposure regardless of arsenic concentrations in drinking and cooking water, a study finds. | Read More » Archaeologists discover largest, oldest wine cellar in Near East: 3,700 year-old store room held 2,000 liters of strong, sweet wine  | Archaeologists have unearthed what may be the oldest -- and largest -- ancient wine cellar in the Near East, containing 40 jars, each of which would have held 50 liters of strong, sweet wine. | Read More » College students more likely to be lawbreakers if spanked as children  | No matter where they live in the world, university students who were spanked as children are more likely to engage in criminal behavior, according to new research. Even young adults whose parents were generally loving and helpful as they were growing up showed higher rates of criminal behavior. | Read More » Colossal new predatory dino terrorized early tyrannosaurs  | A new species of carnivorous dinosaur – one of the three largest ever discovered in North America – lived alongside and competed with small-bodied tyrannosaurs 98 million years ago. Siats meekerorum, (pronounced see-atch) was the apex predator of its time. | Read More » Pre-industrial rise in greenhouse gases had natural and anthropogenic causes  | For years scientists have intensely argued over whether increases of potent methane gas concentrations in the atmosphere -- from about 5,000 years ago to the start of the industrial revolution -- were triggered by natural causes or human activities. A new study suggests the increase in methane likely was caused by both. A new study, published Friday in the journal Science, suggests the increase in methane likely was caused by both. | Read More » Sea level rise forecasts helped by insights into glacier melting  | Predictions of sea level rise could become more accurate, thanks to new insight into how glacier movement is affected by melting ice in summer. | Read More » | |
No comments:
Post a Comment