Category: Global News

Here’s a climate solution we can all get behind: don’t kill elephants. Or poach gorillas — or wipe out tapirs, hornbills, or other large-bodied wildlife that eat fruit and disperse large seeds. That’s because a new paper by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) found that overhunting of these species makes…

Researchers at the Babraham Institute are proposing an alternative link between diet and ageing based on studies in yeast. Dr Jon Houseley and his team have published their experiments, showing that healthy ageing is achievable through dietary change without restriction by potentially optimising diet, and that ill-health is not an…

CNN  —  A Russian network of internet trolls has begun to spread messages online blaming “enemies from the West” for the plane crash that killed Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin last week, according to two experts who monitor the activity of the trolls. Prigozhin had previously turbo-charged the use of trolls…

Scientists at Rice University in Houston, Texas have developed a fabric-based wearable device that “taps” a user’s wrist with pressurized air, silently helping them navigate to their destination. The study, published August 29 in the journal Device, demonstrated that users correctly interpreted which direction the device was telling them to…

We’ve long known that hosts malfunction without their microbiome — whether they are missing key microbial species or are completely microbe free. This malfunctioning is usually explained by the need for microbes to perform unique and beneficial functions, but evolutionary ecologist Tobin Hammer of the University of California, Irvine, is…

With their intricate arrangements and dynamic functionalities, proteins perform a plethora of biological tasks by employing unique arrangements of simple building blocks where geometry is key. Translating this nearly limitless library of arrangements into their respective functions could let researchers design custom proteins for specific uses. In Journal of Applied…

When infants are involved in agonistic conflicts, male crested macaques (Macaca nigra) are more likely to respond to screams from their own offspring. This is the conclusion of a recent study led by behavioural ecologist Professor Anja Widdig from Leipzig University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in…

A team of researchers from Yale University and other institutions globally has developed an innovative patient triage platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that the researchers say is capable of predicting patient disease severity and length of hospitalization during a viral outbreak. The platform, which leverages machine learning and metabolomics…

Researchers have shown that dissipative Kerr solitons (DKSs) can be used to create chip-based optical frequency combs with enough output power for use in optical atomic clocks and other practical applications. The advance could lead to chip-based instruments that can make precision measurements that were previously possible only in a…

Recently, a Korean company donated a wearable robot, designed to aid patients with limited mobility during their rehabilitation, to a hospital. These patients wear this robot to receive assistance for muscle and joint exercises while performing actions such as walking or sitting. Wearable devices including smartwatches or eyewear that people…

Modern blood-thinning drugs (known as NOACs) reduce the risk of serious bleeding by up to 45 percent compared to the traditional drug Waran in the treatment of blood clots in the legs and lungs, according to a comprehensive and long-term study conducted at the University of Gothenburg. Blood thinners are…

People in Asia are known to report worse sleep than their counterparts in Europe and North America. New research, using objective measures of sleep rather than subjective reports, has shown that not only do people in Asia go to sleep later and have shorter sleep, they also have lower sleep…

Reaching the age of 90, 95 or 100, known as exceptional longevity, was more likely for women who maintained their body weight after age 60, according to a multi-institutional study led by University of California San Diego. Older women who sustained a stable weight were 1.2 to 2 times more…

The Empa spin-off BTRY wants to revolutionize rechargeable batteries: Their thin-film batteries are not only safer and longer-lasting than conventional lithium-ion batteries, they are also much more environmentally friendly to manufacture and can be charged and discharged in just one minute. For now, the battery is very small, but the…

It has long been known that graphene has excellent electronic properties. However, it was unclear until now how stable these properties are. Are they destroyed by disturbances and additional effects, which are unavoidable in practice, or do they remain intact? Scientists have now succeeded in developing a comprehensive computer model…

People at increased risk for cardiovascular disease who participated in produce prescription programs increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables, which was associated with improved body mass index (BMI), blood sugar and blood pressure levels, as well as a decrease in food insecurity. This new research was published today in…

Satellite data from across California’s landscapes reveal an increase in nitrogen dioxide levels in remote forest areas, and wildfire and soil emissions are likely the reasons why, according to a paper from University of California, Davis, published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Nitrogen dioxide is short-lived in the…

Scientists at UC San Francisco are working on a new approach to treating kidney failure that could one day free people from needing dialysis or having to take harsh drugs to suppress their immune system after a transplant. They have shown for the first time that kidney cells, housed in…

Several major childhood allergies may all stem from the community of bacteria living in our gut, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of British Columbia and BC Children’s Hospital. The research, published in Nature Communications, identifies gut microbiome features and early life influences that are…

Almost one in five Danes experiences depression during their lives. A new study from Aarhus University now shows that the genetic risk of depression can be linked to an increased genetic risk of other psychiatric diagnoses. The study has just been published in Nature Medicine. Through a detailed genetic scan,…

Findings from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research reveal a new Australian drug that targets scar-like ‘fibrotic’ tissue within tumours shows promise for treating pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, one of the most aggressive forms of pancreatic cancer with a five-year survival rate of less than 10%. The research in mouse models…

A team from the University of Leicester, Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology and the Institute of Palaeontology at Yunnan University, Chengjiang Fossil Museum, and the Natural History Museum in London, have redescribed a unique fossil animal from rocks nearly 520 million years old that fills in a gap in our…

Countries like Japan are experiencing declining birth rates and an aging population. The increased burden of care for this aging population may lead to a shortage of caregivers in a decade’s time. Thus, the recruitment and allocation of resources must be planned in advance. Technological interventions in the form of…

The field of quantum physics is rife with paths leading to tantalising new areas of study, but one rabbit hole offers a unique vantage point into a world where particles behave differently — through the proverbial looking glass. Dubbed the ‘Alice ring’ after Lewis Carroll’s world-renowned stories on Alice’s Adventures…

How much time elapses between a blow to the head and the start of damage associated with Alzheimer’s disease? A device that makes it possible to track the effects of concussive force on a functioning cluster of brain cells suggests the answer is in hours. The “traumatic brain injury (TBI)…

Methylcyclohexane is very promising as a hydrogen carrier that can safely and efficiently transport and store hydrogen. However, the dehydrogenation process using catalysts has issues due to its durability and large energy loss. Recently, Japanese researchers have succeeded in using solid oxide fuel cells to generate electricity directly from methylcyclohexane…

A new study suggests rough surfaces inspired by the bacteria-killing spikes on insect wings may be more effective at combatting drug-resistant superbugs, including fungus, than previously understood. The increasing rates of drug-resistant infection has health experts globally concerned. To avoid infection around implants — such as titanium hips or dental…

An advancement in 3D bioprinting of native-like skeletal muscle tissues has been made by scientists at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI). The key to the TIBI scientists’ approach lies in their specially formulated bioink, which contains microparticles engineered for sustained delivery of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). As was…

Researchers have isolated a new strain of marine bacteria with unique characteristics from the ocean seabed. The research, published today as a Reviewed Preprint in eLife, is described by the editors as an important study that advances our understanding of physiological mechanisms in deep-sea Planctomycetes bacteria, revealing unique characteristics such…

In response to the low-fat craze of the 1990s, many food companies removed saturated fats from their products, only to replace them with sugars to maintain their palatability. Unfortunately, the resulting products were no healthier than the originals, and the average person today consumes too much saturated fat. Now, a…