Новости за 10.11.2021

A first-of-its-kind, high-resolution mapping analysis estimates the amounts of nitrogen and pathogens released into coastal ecosystems from human wastewater sources around the world. Cascade Tuholske (now affiliated with the Columbia Climate School) and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, present this research in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 10, 2021.

Japanese customers have higher expectations of restaurants selling traditional foods more when they display an older year of establishment.

Which genes control the defining features that make us look as we do? And how do they make it happen?

Human-caused bird extinctions are driving losses of functional diversity on islands worldwide, and the gaps they leave behind are not being filled by introduced (alien) species, finds a new study led by UCL and University of Gothenburg researchers.

An analysis of data from four U.S. states suggests that Black people may be more likely than white people to be nonfatally shot and injured by police in these states, and these disparities are greater than seen for fatal police shootings. Justin Nix of the University of Nebraska Omaha and John Shjarback of Rowan University in New Jersey present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 10, 2021.

Researchers at Stockholm University have provided the first experimental evidence that brain regions can evolve independently of each other during cognitive evolution. This so called mosaic brain evolution was verified empirically in an artificial selection experiment with guppies (Poecilia reticulata) where telencephalon size (but no other regions) differed by 10 percent after only four generations of selection. The findings can have wide implications for the understanding of cognitive evolution in other vertebrates... Читать дальше...

Compared to peers at public schools, adolescents who are homeschooled are more likely to report greater character strengths and fewer risky health behaviors later in life, but are less likely to attain a college degree, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Tyler VanderWeele of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, US, and colleagues.

Nature documentaries have long exploited the elegant swerves of massive schools of fish. Fish team up to more easily cut through the water and protect themselves from predators.

Duke University scientists have developed a suite of isotope-based tests that can be used to identify the origin of lead contamination in urban soils and assess the risk it poses to children who inhale or ingest contaminated dirt or dust.

Choosing more expensive colleges may seem like an unwise financial decision considering a large student debt burden after graduation. However, new research led by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business demonstrates that avoiding such colleges can lead to bigger financial problems in the long run.

As the impacts of climate change become more severe and limits to adaptation draw near, vulnerable communities will need different kinds of finance to build resilience and transform how they protect themselves. Work by IIASA researchers has culminated in a new policy brief, which lays out a finance framework for such climate risk and provides relevant model insight to inform international debates around adaptation and Loss and Damage.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have discovered how drugs can affect various membrane-spanning proteins in addition to their intended target, potentially causing unwanted side effects. The results illuminate one of the central problems of drug discovery and point to new strategies for solving it.

A group of scientists working at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), Pune have for the first time unraveled the eclipse mechanisms for the millisecond pulsars in compact binary systems using the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT). Eclipses in millisecond pulsars have been known since the 1980's, but the exact cause of these eclipses have not been understood till now. Devojyoti Kansabanik a Ph.D. student at NCRA is the lead author of the paper describing this work, which was done under the guidance of Dr. Читать дальше...

Over the past decade, several extreme heat waves and heat domes have had a catastrophic impact on society and the biosphere. In 2021, all regions of the northern hemisphere have been affected. In late June and July, we saw simultaneous extreme heat waves in the Pacific Northwest, persistent heat waves in Siberia that fueled massive wildfires, and temperatures and humidity in Pakistan, northern India, and the Middle East that were at the limit of what the human body can withstand.

Building better air filters could help head off the next pandemic. At the 74th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, scientists will present the latest results on how future face masks may work, what happens when masks get wet, and why improper mask usage can sometimes be worse than no mask at all.

Despite effective vaccines, it has become clear that SARS-CoV-2 will not fully disappear anytime soon. At the 74th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, physicists and engineers will present innovative ways to avoid clouds of coronavirus whether waiting in line, going to class, listening to the opera, or encountering people elsewhere.

Given that mining to extract high-grade mineral ores is wastefully energy intensive, exhaustible, and bad for the environment, scientists have been scouting for alternatives. A group of Korean researchers, led by Professor Myoung-Jin Kim, from Korea Maritime and Ocean University, have now succeeded in extracting high-quality minerals from just seawater. Specifically, they have achieved the extraction of 99.8% pure magnesium sulfate (MgSO4), from seawater desalination brine (SDB).

The Snowman Nebula is an emission nebula that resides in the constellation Puppis in the southern sky, about 6,000 light-years away from Earth. Emission nebulae are diffuse clouds of gas that have become so charged by the energy of nearby massive stars that they glow with their own light. The radiation from these massive stars strips electrons from the nebula's hydrogen atoms in a process called ionization. As the energized electrons revert from their higher-energy state to a lower-energy state, they emit energy in the form of light... Читать дальше...

Volunteer citizen scientists parsing data from a network of telescopes around the world this year identified 10,000 new variable stars in the Milky Way, according to a recent paper.

An international team of space researchers has learned more about the density of the Martian surface by analyzing data from the Mars InSight lander that was received during Perseverance's descent. In their paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the group describes their study of seismic data from InSight as Perseverance dropped heavy blocks during its descent.

Dried snack foods such as apple chips are a convenient alternative to fresh fruit, providing longer shelf life and easier storage. Consumers increasingly demand product variety, so companies coat such snack foods with fruit and vegetable powders to enhance taste and sensory appeal.

Governments are considering calling for pulling the plug on coal power, the single biggest source of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, according to a draft deal under negotiation in U.N. climate talks.

Using data from various spacecraft, astronomers have investigated an ultra-luminous X-ray pulsar known as NGC 7793 P13. The new study, published November 1 on the arXiv pre-print server, yields essential information regarding timing and spectral properties of this source.

A number of behaviors in younger adults that increase risk for the transmission of HIV/AIDS have declined or changed between 2010 and 2020, according to the national Monitoring the Future study.

Scientists at SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research have simultaneously read out the signal of 37 TES pixels at a resolution of 2.2 eV for X-rays (6 keV). It is the first time that a simultaneous readout fulfills the requirements for future space telescopes at the level of Athena in terms of both number of pixels and energy resolution. In 2020, SRON already set a world record of 1.3 eV energy resolution for X-rays with TES, but only with a single pixel readout.