From Italy and the World

For centuries, human activity has intentionally or unintentionally driven the spread of plant species to areas far outside their native habitat. On average, about 10 percent of non-native species worldwide become invasive, often causing large ecological and economic consequences for affected regions. For the first time, a global team of…

Gold and mineral mining in and near rivers across the tropics is degrading waterways in 49 countries, according to a Dartmouth-led study. Published in Nature, the findings represent the first physical footprint of river mining and its hydrological impacts on a global scale. River mining often involves intensive excavation, which…

A new study led by the University of Southampton in the UK has revealed why coral reefs can thrive in seemingly nutrient poor water, a phenomenon that has fascinated scientists since Charles Darwin. The research shows that corals farm and feed on their photosynthetic symbionts — microscopic algae that live…

The Pacific Ocean covers 32% of Earth’s surface area, more than all the land combined. Unsurprisingly, its activity affects conditions around the globe. Periodic variations in the ocean’s water temperature and winds, called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, are a major meteorologic force. Scientists know that human activity is affecting this…

Researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley have developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) that has enabled a woman with severe paralysis from a brainstem stroke to speak through a digital avatar. It is the first time that either speech or facial expressions have been synthesized from brain signals. The…

What was once the final frontier of the human genome — the Y chromosome — has just been mapped out in its entirety. Led by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), a team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and many other organizations used…

A study led by researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Weill Cornell Medicine discovered a new relationship between cancer cells and the immune system, and shows how cancer can selfishly hijack a normally helpful immune pathway. Usually, activation of this key immune pathway — called the STING…

Researchers from The University of Warwick and the University of Manchester have finally solved the long-standing puzzle of why graphene is so much more permeable to protons than expected by theory. A decade ago, scientists at The University of Manchester demonstrated that graphene is permeable to protons, nuclei of hydrogen…

A growing repertoire of cell and molecule-based immunotherapies is offering patients with indomitable cancers new hope by mobilizing their immune systems against tumor cells. An emerging class of such immunotherapeutics, known as T cell bispecific antibodies (TCBs), are of growing importance with several TCBs that the U.S. Food and Drug…

Many plants and crops rely on insects to pollinate them so they can reproduce. A new study has shown that several flowering plants from the group Euonymus are pollinated by fungus gnats, a dipteran insect. Specifically, they pollinate Euonymus plants which have red-petaled flowers with short stamens and yogurt-like scent.…

A tailsitter is a fixed-wing aircraft that takes off and lands vertically (it sits on its tail on the landing pad), and then tilts horizontally for forward flight. Faster and more efficient than quadcopter drones, these versatile aircraft can fly over a large area like an airplane but also hover…

Hours of inactivity during childhood could be setting the stage for heart attacks and strokes later in life, according to research presented at ESC Congress 2023.1 The study found that sedentary time accumulated from childhood to young adulthood was associated with heart damage — even in those with normal weight…

A recent UNSW-led paper published in Nature Communications presents an exciting new way to listen to avalanches of atoms in crystals. The nanoscale movement of atoms when materials deform leads to sound emission. This so-called crackling noise is a scale-invariant phenomenon found in various material systems as a response to…

New Yorkers can apparently breathe a sigh of relief, at least for now. Their exposure to the smoke in June 2023 from Canadian wildfires led to only a slightly higher bump in visits to New York City hospital emergency departments for breathing problems or asthma attacks than what is seen…

CNN  —  A mountain guide found the body of a man believed to have died more than 20 years ago on a glacier in Austria, police announced on Tuesday. The guide discovered the body on Friday on East Tyrol’s Schlatenkees glacier at an altitude of approximately 2,900 meters (9,500 feet)…

CNN  —  A top Russian general who went missing after the mercenary group Wagner’s insurrection in June has been fired from his role as head of the country’s aerospace forces, Russian state media reported Wednesday citing unnamed sources. Gen. Sergey Surovikin had spent four decades as part of the Russian…

Ukrainian forces appear to have stepped up their efforts to weaken Russian air superiority in the war by attacking bases that house supersonic warplanes deep inside Russian territory. Kyiv said it had carried out a drone strike on the Shaykovka Russian military air facility some 200 kilometers (130 miles) northeast of the Ukrainian…

In the United States and other western countries, a form of esophageal and stomach cancer has risen dramatically over the last five decades. Rates of esophageal adenocarcinoma, or EAC, and gastric cardia adenocarcinoma, or GCA, are both highly fatal. However, Joel Rubenstein, M.D., M.S., a research scientist at the Lieutenant…

Diabetes is a condition in which the body produces too little or no insulin. Diabetics thus depend on an external supply of this hormone via injection or pump. Researchers led by Martin Fussenegger from the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel want to make the…

Ask any neurologist: Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder. The conspicuous symptoms of Parkinson’s disease — uncontrollable tremors, slowed down motions, and the feeling that one’s feet are stuck to the ground — all stem from the loss of neurons in a region of the brain that helps control movement.…

Cellular solids are materials composed of many cells that have been packed together, such as a honeycomb. The shape of those cells largely determines the material’s mechanical properties, including its stiffness or strength. Bones, for instance, are filled with a natural material that enables them to be lightweight, but stiff…

Now, scientists at The Wistar Institute have discovered a potential target for gastric cancers associated with Epstein-Barr Virus; study results were published in the journal mBio. In the paper, Wistar’s Tempera lab investigates the epigenetic characteristics of gastric cancer associated with the Epstein-Barr Virus: EBVaGC. In evaluating EBVaGC’s epigenetics —…

Bacteria live in nearly every habitat on earth including within soil, water, acidic hot springs and even within our own guts. Many are involved in fundamental processes like fermentation, decomposition and nitrogen fixation. But scientists don’t understand a fundamental process within bacteria cells: how they organize themselves before division. Driving…

One of the most common and practically useful experiments in all of fluid dynamics involves holding an object in air or submerging it fully underwater, exposing it to a steady flow to measure its resistance in the form of drag. Studies on drag resistance have led to technological advances in…

Freshwater ecosystems account for half of global emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Rivers and streams, especially, are thought to emit a substantial amount of that methane, but the rates and patterns of these emissions at global scales remain largely undocumented. An international team…

A new study by Indiana University School of Medicine researchers uses more genetically diverse mouse models to study the accumulation and spread of abnormal tau protein deposits in the brain — a known sign of Alzheimer’s disease and several other neurodegenerative diseases. The study’s findings, recently published in the Journal…

It’s human nature to be judgmental. But why do we place less blame on someone, or give more praise, if we find out that person had a history of suffering in childhood? In a recent study, University of Missouri researchers discovered why someone’s childhood adversity influences how others judge their…

A study in more than 15,000 people has found that physical fitness is linked with a lower likelihood of developing atrial fibrillation and stroke. The research is presented at ESC Congress 2023. Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder, affecting more than 40 million people worldwide. It is…