Новости за 20.10.2021

Since the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, many states have passed legislation requiring public schools to assess and treat lead in their drinking water. Two Princeton University researchers examined the efforts by New York City, the largest school district in the country, to determine the efficacy of its lead reduction strategies.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Penn State scientists have demonstrated how a protein can be recovered and purified for radioactive metals like actinium that could be beneficial for both next-generation drugs used in cancer therapies and the detection of nuclear activities.

Finding solutions for the current climate and energy crisis has become a common goal across the globe. And why look far when we have the perfect solution right around us? Taking a page out of nature's book, scientists have been trying to recreate the process of photosynthesis to combat climate change. Beyond helping plants prepare their food, photosynthesis also makes them one of the major carbon sinks that trap carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and convert it to other forms. This makes artificial... Читать дальше...

Users of online dating apps evaluate date-worthiness of recommended partners based on the tailoring process used by the app, according to new research led by Penn State. The team's results suggest that it matters whether the app uses an algorithm to suggest potential partners or uses the date preferences indicated by users.

Argonne-developed high-resolution models predict the effect of climate change on the extratropical storms that bear down on the Northeast in the winter.

NASA seeks young engineers to help design a new robot concept for an excavation mission on the Moon. The Lunabotics Junior Contest is open to K-12 students in U.S. public and private schools, as well as home-schoolers.

There's a widespread hypothesis that links the resilience of coral reefs with their remoteness from human activities—the farther away they are from people, the more likely corals are to bounce back from disturbances.

In 2019, history student Rodrigo Gomes found out on social media about a call for volunteers to take part in a scientific project relating to the ocean and conducted by the Federal University of São Paulo's Institute of Marine Sciences (IMAR-UNIFESP) in Santos, on the coast of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. He signed up for the project, took workshops, and trained in the field. "I was very fortunate to have all that contact with professors and learned a great deal about conservation," says Gomes, now a citizen scientist. Читать дальше...

Throughout Earth's oceans runs a conveyor belt of water. Its churning is powered by differences in the water's temperature and saltiness, and weather patterns around the world are regulated by its activity.

As a baby seedling emerges from the depths of the soil, it faces a challenge: gravity's downward push. To succeed, the plant must sense the force, then push upward with an even greater force. Visible growth is proof that the seedling has won against the force of gravity.

Fossils trapped in amber provide a unique snapshot of the anatomy, biology, and ecology of extinct organisms. The most common fossils found in amber, which is formed from resin exuded from tree bark, are land-dwelling animals, mainly insects. But on very rare occasions scientists discover amber housing an aquatic organism.

A study of 2,329 academic journals has found that, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer manuscripts were submitted by women than by men, and this gender gap was especially prominent in the medical field and for women in earlier stages of their careers. Flaminio Squazzoni of the University of Milan, Italy, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on October 13, 2021.

Scientists have revealed how bacteria make tiny liquid droplets from proteins to help them survive harsh environments and thus reduce their chances of being killed by antibiotics.

Peter Turchin from the Complexity Science Hub Vienna (CSH) and an interdisciplinary team of colleagues set out to test competing theories about what drove the evolution of war machines throughout world history. Their study, published today in the journal PLOS ONE, sees the strongest influence on the evolution of military technology coming from world population size, the connectivity between geographical areas, and advances in critical technologies such as iron metallurgy or horse riding. Conversely... Читать дальше...

New research from the University of Sussex has revealed the ecological impact of rail transport on bats in the UK, throwing light on a previously unstudied area.

Using sophisticated microscopy and computational analysis, Texas A&M University researchers have now validated the merit of a water purification technology that uses electricity to remove and inactivate an assortment of waterborne viruses. They said the yet-to-be-implemented water purification strategy could add another level of safety against pathogens that cause gastrointestinal ailments and other infections in humans.

For decades, scientists have wondered how large molecules such as proteins pass through cell walls, also known as plasma membranes, without leaving a trace. That ability is part of what makes certain drugs—including some cancer treatments and the COVID-19 vaccine—work. And it is also how bacterial toxins enter human cells and wreak havoc.

Score one for a key climate change prediction.

The first rains that signal the beginning of the growing season kick off a flurry of activities in rural, agricultural communities. Farmers decide when to plant, how much labor to allocate, how many resources to devote to that season's crop and so on.

CO2 emissions from electricity in the UK fell by two thirds in the last decade due to several factors working together, rather than a single panacea.

As ancient DNA research sweeps the globe, ballooning from zero genomes sequenced as of 2009 to more than 6,000 as of 2021, those involved in and affected by the genetic analysis of human remains have pressed with ever greater urgency for ethical standards that can be applied wherever such research is carried out.

In a first-of-its-kind study, Florida's  critically endangered staghorn corals were surveyed to discover which ones can better withstand future heatwaves in the ocean. Insights from the study, led by scientists at Shedd Aquarium and the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, help organizations working to restore climate-resilient reefs in Florida and provide a blueprint for the success of restoration projects globally.

Researchers from University of Oxford published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines the use of chatbots in customer-service roles and finds that when customers are angry, humanlike chatbots can negatively impact customer satisfaction, overall firm evaluations, and subsequent purchase intentions.

The new visa for Hong Kongers is framed as 'a haven' for Britain's former colonial subjects but has 'undoubtedly colonialist overtones' warns a Lancaster University professor.

Water is a limited resource. As such, efficient ways to jointly manage and optimize water reserves are essential for our present and future. But how can a well-balanced system be established? In order to single out the relevant parameters, an international team of scientists, including Stefan Thurner from the Complexity Science Hub Vienna (CSH), applied a method from physics to a system in equilibrium: the century-old rice irrigation practices in Bali.