From Italy and the World

A research team at Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech), led by Professor David Williams, has for the first time demonstrated the use of a novel control method in an aircraft with no tail. The technology allows an aircraft to be as smooth and sleek as possible, making it safer…

Scientists at Nagoya University in Japan have developed an index to estimate how a bird uses its wings for flight or other locomotion by measuring the strength of the coracoid bone and the animal’s body mass. It should improve our understanding of how extinct animals used their wings and the…

Protected marine areas are one of the essential tools for the conservation of natural resources affected by human impact — mainly fishing — , but, are they enough to recover the functioning of these systems? A study published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science, led by researchers from the…

Scientists from Northwestern University have collaborated on the implementation of an accurate, low-cost and easy-to-use test for detecting toxic levels of fluoride in water. The new biosensor device developed at Northwestern has been field tested in rural Kenya, providing evidence that water testing for fluoride can be easily used outside…

Hydrogen fuel could be a more viable alternative to traditional fossil fuels according to University of Surrey researchers who have found that a type of metal-free catalysts could contribute to the development of cost-effective and sustainable hydrogen production technologies. The study has shown promising results for the use of edge-decorated…

Certain complications during pregnancy bring an increased risk of heart disease later on. However, there is still much to learn about how arteriosclerosis develops between pregnancy and heart disease later in life. A large new study led by researchers from Lund University in Sweden shows that narrowing and calcification of…

An exciting prospect in modern optics is to exploit “patterns of light,” how the light looks in its many degrees of freedom, often referred to as structured light. Each pattern could form an encoding alphabet for optical communication or might be used in manufacturing to enhance performance and productivity. Unfortunately,…

‘Put down’ language is a key indicator of poor mental health in athletes, recent research shows. More than 400 athletes across a variety of sports, ages and levels of experience were questioned for the study by sports psychology experts from Staffordshire University and Manchester Metropolitan University. The findings reveal that…

In two studies, researchers at the University of Turku in Finland have found that carbon sequestration and plant resilience as well as forage pasture yield can be increased through key adjustments in agricultural management. The results provide a roadmap for reducing pesticide loads in soils and the first steps towards…

Access to clean water is being strained as the human population increases and contamination impacts freshwater sources. Devices currently in development that clean up dirty water using sunlight can only produce up to a few gallons of water each day. But now, researchers in ACS Central Science report how loofah…

The infamous spike proteins on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 help it bind to and enter human cells. Because of their important role in spreading infection, these spike proteins are one of the main targets for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. But those remedies gradually lose effectiveness when certain segments of the…

People with higher incomes also score higher on IQ-tests — up to a point. At high incomes the relationship plateaus and the top 1% score even slightly lower on the test than those whose incomes rank right below them. This suggests that one cannot infer high intelligence from high income,…

A new study by University of Liverpool researchers reveals how resistance to bacteraemic pneumonia is provided by a unique subset of lung T regulatory cells. Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) is the leading cause of community acquired pneumonia with a significant proportion of cases developing bloodstream infections. Such cases of bacteraemic…

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in plastics may contribute to diabetes risk in women, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Phthalates are chemicals widely used in plastics such as personal care products, children’s toys, and food and beverage packaging. Phthalate exposure is…

In the ongoing search for signs of life on Mars, a new study proposes focusing on “time-resolved analogs” — dynamic and similar Earth environments where changes can be analyzed over many years. Alberto Fairén, visiting scientist of astronomy at Cornell University, led an investigation in the extremely salty Tirez lagoon…

A new study analyzes the factors that drive environmental concern among Europeans in an effort to understand how we can bolster popular support for combating climate change. While we can already feel the effects of climate change on our skins, the majority of the European population still does not consider…

Concerns are mounting among policymakers and utility companies amid the impact of severe weather on the nation’s electrical grids. In recent months, electrical grids in Texas have been tested to the point of near failure. So it seems like perfect timing that new research in the INFORMS journal Management Science…

With cancer, diabetes and heart disease among the leading causes of disability and death in the United States, imagine a long-term, in-home monitoring solution that could detect these chronic diseases early and lead to timely interventions. Zheng Yan and a team of researchers at the University of Missouri may have…

We all do it: that high-pitched, sing-songy voice that spills out of your mouth whenever a baby is around. Caregivers have long used this playful, emotional, exaggerated form of speech — called “motherese” — to capture their children’s attention. Now, scientists may be able to use it to diagnose autism…

As we age, the end caps of our chromosomes, called telomeres, gradually shorten. Now, Salk scientists have discovered that when telomeres become very short, they communicate with mitochondria, the cell’s powerhouses. This communication triggers a complex set of signaling pathways and initiates an inflammatory response that destroys cells that could…

Scientists have discovered a new ring system around a dwarf planet on the edge of the Solar System. The ring system orbits much further out than is typical for other ring systems, calling into question current theories of how ring systems are formed. The ring system is around a dwarf…

Over the course of billions of years, galaxies grow and evolve by forging new stars and merging with other galaxies through aptly named “galactic immigration” events. Astronomers try to uncover the histories of these immigration events by studying the motions of individual stars throughout a galaxy and its extended halo…

Caribou have been using the same Arctic calving grounds for more than 3,000 years, according to a new study by the University of Cincinnati. Female caribou shed their antlers within days of giving birth, leaving behind a record of their annual travels across Alaska and Canada’s Yukon that persists on…

It’s not unusual for parents and especially mothers to sacrifice their own future success for the sake of their offspring. Now a new study in Current Biology on February 8 shows that killer whale mothers take this to a surprising extreme. They sacrifice their own reproductive success to care for…

Sometime this spring or summer, the Supreme Court is expected to issue a case ruling that will legally define whether federal protections should be extended to wetlands outside of navigable waters. The justices might consider reading a new Stanford-led study that finds, although wetlands remain threatened in many parts of…

The collapse of the Hittite Empire in the Late Bronze Age has been blamed on various factors, from war with other territories to internal strife. Now, a Cornell University team has used tree ring and isotope records to pinpoint a more likely culprit: three straight years of severe drought. The…

The ground below your feet contains some 2,500 gigatons of carbon, approximately three times the amount of carbon held in our atmosphere and four times more than is stored in every living thing — trees, ants, whales, and humans included — on our planet. Despite this, the dynamics that drive…

Kahramanmaras, Turkey CNN  —  The body of a 4-year-old girl wrapped in a pink blanket was brought out Wednesday from the wreckage of a building in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras. She’s one of the latest young victims of Monday’s massive quake. Elsewhere, excavators dug out the body of man…

CNN  —  There are “strong indications” that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally approved the decision to provide separatists in Ukraine with the missile that shot down the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014, Dutch investigators said Wednesday. Citing intercepted telephone conversations by Russian government officials, the Public Prosecution Service’s Joint…

London CNN  —  BP (BP), Chevron (CVX), ExxonMobil, Shell and Total (TOT)Energies raked in a record $199.3 billion in profits in 2022, benefiting from the surge in oil and gas prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. TotalEnergies capped off the historic series of earnings Wednesday when it reported annual…