From Italy and the World

CNN  —  Poland’s police chief Jaroslaw Szymczyk was hospitalized with minor injuries on Wednesday after a gift that he had received in Ukraine suddenly exploded, according to a government statement “Yesterday at 7:50 a.m., an explosion occurred in a room adjacent to the office of the Police Chief,” Poland’s Interior…

Washington CNN  —  The National Archives on Thursday released thousands of previously classified documents collected as part of the government review into the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The cache of over 13,000 documents is the second of two JFK assassination-related document dumps that President Joe Biden ordered…

CNN  —  A planned spacewalk by the Russian space agency Roscosmos has been called off following the discovery of a coolant leak coming from the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which is currently docked to the International Space Station. NASA’s Rob Navias, speaking on a late Wednesday evening NASA TV broadcast, called…

This image looks like a festive, holiday-inspired necklace. But it’s actually colorful water droplets clinging to a wire. Because the wire is engineered to attract water, the droplets glide along the line, eventually merging into one another. Led by Northwestern University’s Kyoo-Chul Kenneth Park, this new research is not just…

Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä and the Central Finland Health Care District have developed an AI based neural network to detect an early knee osteoarthritis from x-ray images. AI was able to match a doctors’ diagnosis in 87% of cases. The result is important because x-rays are the primary…

The nature and properties of materials depend strongly on dimension. Imagine how different life in a one-dimensional or two-dimensional world would be from the three dimensions we’re commonly accustomed to. With this in mind, it is perhaps not surprising that fractals – objects with fractional dimension — have garnered significant…

Grass is famously resilient. But Paspalum vaginatum, a species better known as seashore paspalum, can tolerate stresses diverse and deadly enough to rival camels and cactuses. Salinity? It’s still worth its salt. Drought? Not thirsty. Heat? No sweat. Cold? It can chill. How about 22 soccer players sprinting, kicking and…

Jealousy, lies and backstabbing: Harry and Meghan point the finger in final Netflix episodes Source link

CNN  —  Ukrainian forces have unleashed the biggest attack on the occupied Donetsk region since 2014, according to a Russia-installed official, in the wake of heavy fighting in the east of the country. Donetsk has been held by Russian-backed separatists for eight years and it is one of four Ukrainian…

Octopuses have captured the attention of scientists and the public with their remarkable intelligence, including the use of tools, engaging in creative play and problem-solving, and even escaping from aquariums. Now, their acuity may provide a critical link in understanding the evolution of complex life and cognition, including the human…

Limbic predominate age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy or LATE is a recently recognized form of dementia that affects memory, thinking and social skills. It mimics Alzheimer’s disease or AD (and sometimes co-exists with it), but LATE is a different condition, with its own risks and causes. In a new study, published December…

CNN  —  Real Madrid has signed the highly-touted 16-year-old Brazilian forward Endrick from Brazilian club Palmeiras, both clubs announced on Thursday. “Real Madrid C. F., Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras, and Endrick and his family have reached an agreement that allows the player to join Real Madrid when he reaches legal age…

CNN  —  The decisions taken by soccer bodies FIFA and UEFA to block the European Super League (ESL) are in line with European Union (EU) competition laws, according to an EU Opinion issued on Thursday. “The FIFA-UEFA rules under which any new competition is subject to prior approval are compatible…

NIMS, Harvard University and the University of Connecticut have designed and fabricated a simple device capable of imaging a gas injected into it in multiple colors in accordance with its gaseous properties, enabling chromatic discrimination of different gases. This user-friendly device converts the pressure generated by an injected gas into…

Published in JAMA Network Open, University of Minnesota Medical School researchers found there is often a disconnect between the medical language used by doctors and patient understanding. This mismatch in clinicians’ intent to speak plainly with the reality that they continue to use confusing terminology is known as jargon oblivion.…

Since the 1960s, researchers have postulated that major depression stems from disruptions in the serotonin neurotransmitter system, but the evidence for that idea, though plentiful, was indirect. In fact, a recent comprehensive analysis of existing studies concluded that there was not strong evidence to support the “serotonin hypothesis.” In its…

Nature-based solutions to fight climate change take a holistic approach that promotes biodiversity and ecosystem preservation. While many efforts have focused on planting trees or restoring wetlands, researchers publishing in Trends in Ecology and Evolution on December 15 advocate for the importance of understanding the carbon sequestration potential of the…

Wheat — the most widely cultivated crop in the world — is under growing attack from harmful toxins. Across Europe, almost half of wheat crops are impacted by the fungal infection that gives rise to these toxins, according to a study led by fungal biologist Dr Neil Brown from the…

The London Underground is polluted with ultrafine metallic particles small enough to end up in the human bloodstream, according to University of Cambridge researchers. These particles are so small that they are likely being underestimated in surveys of pollution in the world’s oldest metro system. The researchers carried out a…

A team led by UdeM astronomers has found evidence that two exoplanets orbiting a red dwarf star are “water worlds,” planets where water makes up a large fraction of the volume. These worlds, located in a planetary system 218 light-years away in the constellation Lyra, are unlike any planets found…

To alleviate hunger and food insecurity, it’s not just the size of the fish catch — it’s about who ultimately is able to put the right fish on the table. A group led by scientists at Michigan State University (MSU) have devised a way to track and measure the true…

Drug overdoses in the United States have risen sharply in the last two decades. Nearly 92,000 people died from overdoses of illegal drugs and prescription opioids in 2020 — more than five times the number of deaths in the year 2000 — and synthetic opioids like fentanyl are one of…

London CNN  —  Central banks in Europe on Thursday joined the US Federal Reserve in slowing down the pace of interest rate hikes as decades-high inflation shows signs of easing. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank both hiked rates by half a percentage point in their final…

Applying either rosin powder made from pine resin or a wax-like sticky substance to a baseball significantly alters the friction between the pitcher’s fingertips and the ball surface, which can in turn influence the rate at which the ball spins. These findings, published in Communications Materials, also highlight how rosin…

A large VA clinical trial found that the blood pressure drug chlorthalidone (CTD) was not superior to hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) for the prevention of cardiovascular disease or non-cancer death. Both drugs are in a class of medications called thiazide diuretics, commonly known as water pills. They are used to help the…

For decades, the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes have provided us with spectacular images of galaxies. This all changed when the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched in December 2021 and successfully completed commissioning during the first half of 2022. For astronomers, the universe, as we had seen it,…

As different as they may seem, black holes and Las Vegas have one thing in common: What happens there stays there — much to the frustration of astrophysicists trying to understand how, when and why black holes form and grow. Black holes are surrounded by a mysterious, invisible layer —…

Monash University researchers have demonstrated a new, counterintuitive way to protect atomically-thin electronics — adding vibrations, to reduce vibrations. By ‘squeezing’ a thin droplet of liquid gallium, graphene devices are painted with a protective coating of glass, gallium-oxide. This oxide is remarkably thin, less than 100 atoms, yet covers centimetre-wide…

University of Auckland Business School researcher Dr William Cheung is analysing micro-level data about people and households to examine the effects of moving house on mental well-being and stress. His study, co-authored with business analyst Daniel Wong scrutinises stress levels among adults in the Auckland region, namely homeowners and renters,…