Новости за 09.12.2021

Solitude, or being alone, has traditionally been considered a matter of being physically separated from other people. As the world becomes increasingly mediated, we have to rethink what it is to be alone and reconceptualize it as "noncommunication," according to a University of Michigan researcher.

It should be no surprise that many military veterans—trained to be highly disciplined, organized, team-oriented, strategy-minded, and goal oriented—aim for entrepreneurship after having served. But a new study, commissioned by the Veterans Future Lab (VFL) at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, and Barclays, the founding supporter of the VFL since its launch in 2017, offers a revealing perspective into what motivates vets to leap into the innovation economy, and the most successful routes and resources for veteran-led startups.

Most birds aren't as colorful as parrots or peacocks. But if you look beyond the feathers, bright colors on birds aren't hard to find: Think pink pigeon feet, red rooster combs and yellow pelican pouches.

Tropical forests are converted at an alarming rate through deforestation. A new study, published in Science, shows that regrowing tropical forests recover surprisingly fast on abandoned land.

In a paper published today in the scientific journal Science, DeepMind demonstrates how neural networks can be used to describe electron interactions in chemical systems more accurately than existing methods.

Grass is cut regularly by our mowers and grazed on by cows and sheep, yet continues to grow back. The secret to its remarkable regenerative powers lies in part in the shape of its leaves, but how that shape arises has been a topic of longstanding debate.

Detecting the activity of CRISPR gene editing tools in organisms with the naked eye and an ultraviolet flashlight is now possible using technology developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The boss says your opinion matters on major decisions, and company leaders are using crowdsourcing software to solicit your input.

Despite much rhetoric and progress on paper, the UK remains a safe haven for dirty money, a great deal of which comes from Russia and Eurasia.  Failure to tackle this thriving billion-dollar industry is "materially and reputationally damaging for the UK's rule of law and to the UK's professed role as an opponent of international corruption," the report says and it calls for a new anti-kleptocracy strategy on the part of the British state.

Citizen scientists have discovered a new object orbiting a Sun-like star that had been missed by previous searches. The object is very distant from its host star—more than 1,600 times farther than the Earth is from the Sun—and is thought to be a large planet or a small brown dwarf, a type of object that is not massive enough to burn hydrogen like true stars. Details about the new world are published today in The Astrophysical Journal.

A skull is not one single bone but rather a collection of bone plates joined together early in development. In a study of mice, scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai showed how the activity of one gene, turned on in a newly discovered group of bone-bordering cells, may play an important role in shaping the skull. The skulls of mice that were missing the gene were misshapen and were depleted of the cells in a manner that is reminiscent of craniosynostosis, a developmental disorder... Читать дальше...

Sea level rise has more consistently pushed underground water closer to the surface—sometimes reaching underground levels of coastal buildings, according to a new study conducted by Florida International University's FIU Institute of Environment.

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Advanced Quantum Testbed (AQT) demonstrated that an experimental method known as randomized compiling (RC) can dramatically reduce error rates in quantum algorithms and lead to more accurate and stable quantum computations. No longer just a theoretical concept for quantum computing, the multidisciplinary team's breakthrough experimental results are published in Physical Review X.

Large segments of society are under-represented in science and engineering within academia at every level, but particularly among tenured professors. Moreover, the groups that are most under-represented are the fastest growing in the U.S. population. This is often attributed to challenges in recruiting graduate students and faculty from these groups. A new study published in PLoS One points to another key reason: retention.

University of Kentucky entomology researchers have found that skin triglycerides, or lipids, keep bed bugs from staying very long on human hosts. Their finding could lead to new management strategies for this important human pest.

Using state-of-the-art technology and techniques, EMBL's Müller group has provided the most detailed structure to date of human RNA polymerase I (Pol I), offering fundamental information about cellular function for those studying rare diseases and cancers. RNA Pol I has been implicated in certain disorders and cancers.

Based on a unique, previously unpublished data set ranging from 1970 to 2016, an international team including the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) compared long-term statistical records about pest and disease occurrence in China with potential climatic driving factors—such as temperature, precipitation, humidity—as well as factors from farming practices, including for instance fertilizer application, irrigation, use of pesticides. They found that, since the 1970s, the occurrence... Читать дальше...

The quest to deliver ultra-fast and energy efficient magnetic recording could be a step closer to fruition, due to pioneering new research on all-optical switching of magnetization.

Americans' attitudes and behaviors have become more liberal overall in the past 50 years and have taken a decidedly liberal tilt since the 1990s, shows a new analysis of public opinion data. Americans are substantially more liberal on matters of gender, sexuality, race, and personal liberty than they were in the 1970s. However, this trend may be masked by static views on a few hot-button issues—which also predict voter behavior—such as gun ownership, abortion, taxes, and law enforcement, all of which changed little over the last half century.

Millions of people have kept a balloon aloft with a hairdryer or a ball floating with a hot-air cannon. But what if you were to shrink that down? Could scientists still hold something tiny from a distance with a highly sensitive force? A research team at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) has recently found that they can hold microscopic objects by manipulating fluid flows with light.

Using the MeerKAT telescope, astronomers have conducted radio observations of a millisecond pulsar known as J1909−3744. The study found that J1909−3744 experiences the so-called mode changing, which makes it only the third known millisecond pulsar that exhibits such behavior. The finding was detailed in a paper published December 2 on the arXiv pre-print server.

A team of researchers from Hokkaido University and the Gunma Museum of Natural History, both in Japan and Carleton University in Canada, has found evidence of anatomical parts in an ancient relative of the crocodile that allowed it to continue breathing as prey held in its mouth drowned. In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the group describes their study of the anatomy of an Amphicotylus milesi fossil found in Wyoming in 1993.

A large team of researchers affiliated with a host of institutions across the U.S. has tested the idea of conducting megastudies to better under social issues or problems. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes conducting a megastudy to learn more about how to get people to continue working out at a gym. Heather Royer, with the University of California, Santa Barbara has published a News & Views piece in the same journal issue outlining the history of megastudies and the work done by the team on this new effort.

Two years into the pandemic, what impacts have COVID-19 really had on Australian university finances and staffing in 2020 and in 2021? Our recently published research shows the impacts varied greatly across the sector. However, staff cuts appear to have been disproportionate to overall financial losses.

Eucalypt forests are well known for bouncing back after fire, and the green shoots that emerge from eucalypts stems as they begin their first steps to recovery provide some of the most iconic images of the Australian bush.