Новости за 02.02.2022

A powerful class of antibiotics called carbapenems can circumvent antibiotic resistance thanks to a particular chain of atoms in their structure. Now, a team of researchers from Penn State and Johns Hopkins University have imaged an enzyme involved in the creation of this chain to better understand how it forms—and perhaps replicate the process to improve future antibiotics. A paper describing the process appears Feb. 2 in the journal Nature.

In California and seven other states, and Washington, D.C., some hourly workers, by law, have to be compensated if they report to work only to have their shift cut short. But some hourly workers may not be receiving this pay, and if they are not, it's often on the employees to call attention to the law, according to a University of California, Davis, study.

Researchers at the University of Bath, working in collaboration with industrial partner Integrated Graphene, have developed, for the detection of glucose levels in the blood, a new sensing technique based on graphene foam. Since it is a chemical sensor instead of being enzyme-based, the new technology is robust, has a long shelf-life and can be tuned to detect lower glucose concentrations than current systems.

Cities that adopt roadside emissions sensors to detect high polluting vehicles, together with an enforcement program to inspect and repair these vehicles, could significantly improve urban air quality, new research shows.

Curtin University researchers studying a Martian meteorite have found the first evidence of high-intensity damage caused by asteroid impact, in findings that have implications for understanding when conditions suitable for life may have existed on early Mars.

Bubbles aren't just for bath time. Bubbles, specifically bubbles in foamy flows, are critical for many industrial processes, including the production of food and cosmetics and drug development and delivery. But the behavior of these foamy flows is notoriously difficult to compute because of the sheer number of bubbles involved.

A team of researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they had engineered a new rubber-like solid substance that has surprising qualities. It can absorb and release very large quantities of energy. And it is programmable. Taken together, this new material holds great promise for a very wide array of applications, from enabling robots to have more power without using additional energy, to new helmets and protective... Читать дальше...

A young whale that washed up near Athens last week was found dead on a nearby island Wednesday despite "superhuman" efforts to save the wounded animal, the Greek government said.

The recent launches of the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) and the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) by NASA and its international partners are excellent reminders that the universe emits light or energy in many different forms. To fully investigate cosmic objects and phenomena, scientists need telescopes that can detect light across what is known as the electromagnetic spectrum.

Finding an elusive elementary particle is more viable than ever after an international team of scientists conducted the first experiment to explore magnetic monopoles using the Large Hadron Collider.

As the Great Resignation continues to unfold, employees are leaving their current jobs to pursue more promising opportunities. As a result, it has become increasingly important for firms to design more effective onboarding programs for their new hires to speed time to productivity and value. The sales role is no exception: Accelerating the ramp-up time can mean notching more sales that crucial first year of employment. As digital advances enable remote delivery of richer training content, managerial... Читать дальше...

A new study from North Carolina State University shows that methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is largely generated in the soils below standing dead trees in so-called ghost forests, or coastal forests that are being killed off by rising sea levels.

Many people would like to see better animal welfare and transparency in livestock farming. In recent years, agriculture has increasingly tried to be more open, for example by offering farm tours. Even though farm tours are well received or appreciated by the public, they are not really feasible for the vast majority of people because of hygiene requirements or accessibility. As an innovative approach to overcome these limitations, researchers at the University of Göttingen were the first to investigate... Читать дальше...

Using ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft, astronomers have observed a galactic source designated IGR J18007–4146. The observational campaign has found that this source is an intermediate polar. The finding is reported in a paper published January 26 on arXiv.org.

Animal cells can use elements or ions to generate electrical impulses. These impulses are then conveyed from one cell to another, traveling across cellular networks.

Nitrogen (N) is an essential mineral element for plant development and is widely used in crop production. While synthetic nitrogen fertilizers significantly improve global crop yields, the use of nitrate-based nitrogen fertilizers bears the risk of nitrate leaching or nitrogen oxide emission. Since ammonium is less prone to leaching than nitrate and is energetically cheaper to produce, ammonium-based fertilizers are often used in agricultural crop production.

An international team of researchers has found that orcas are teaching one another how to steal fish and their remains from human fisheries. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, the group describes their study of the number of orcas feeding on fish or their remains at human fisheries and whether they are additions to the local environment or the same whales that have learned a new skill.

The holy grail of bio-fuel researchers is to develop a self-sustaining process that converts waste from sewage, food crops, algae and other renewable carbon sources into fuels, while keeping waste carbon out of our atmosphere and water. Much progress has been made in converting such waste to useful fuel but completing the cycle using clean energy has proved a tough nut to crack.

A team of researchers has documented the changes that occurred to a type of prey (cape fur seals) when their predator (great white sharks) disappeared from their environment. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, the group describes their study of the seals both before and after the sharks left the environment.

Researchers from Skoltech, Lomonosov Moscow State University, and Sirius University of Science and Technology have proposed a new method for visualizing chemical reactions to help scientists understand the global chemical reaction space and come up with ways of synthesizing organic compounds used in the industry. Reported in ACS Omega, the neural network-based method projects chemical reactions onto a 2D plane as dots, grouping similar chemical reactions together.

According to experts, bringing an end to the pandemic will require rapid screening of people attending large gatherings, such as conferences and weddings. Even those who are asymptomatic can still transmit COVID-19 to others, making it important to identify and isolate them until they are no longer contagious. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Nano have developed a prototype "breathalyzer" that can sensitively and accurately diagnose COVID-19, even in asymptomatic individuals, in less than five minutes.

Yoshiharu Suzuki, a researcher with the Research Center for Advanced Measurement and Characterization, National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, has found evidence for the existence of two forms of liquid water. In his paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, he outlines an experiment he conducted with trehalose and what he learned from it.

Elementary students from low-income families increasingly attend different schools than middle-class peers—a nationwide trend that holds negative consequences for learning among kids who are living in poverty, a new study finds.

Benefits to UK fisheries from Brexit "fall far short of government rhetoric," a new study has revealed.

Life in the wild can be tough, and sometimes animals don't have the luxury of taking time out when they are sick. That's certainly the reality of life for vervet monkeys living in Southern Africa, even though parasites and viruses are an ever-present component of animal life.