From Italy and the World

Humans like to discover. Presented with something we’ve never seen before, most of us will be compelled to explore and learn more about it. The same can’t exactly be said for our closest living relatives — the great apes. Although decades of studies have shown that captive chimpanzees, gorillas, and…

Quantum technology is promising, but also perplexing. In the coming decades, it is expected to provide us with various technological breakthroughs: smaller and more precise sensors, highly secure communication networks, and powerful computers that can help develop new drugs and materials, control financial markets, and predict the weather much faster…

New cancer drugs are being launched at a rapid pace, before their long-term effectiveness for patients can be evaluated. Several years later, most of them still lack scientific evidence for actually increasing life expectancy or improving quality of life. This has been shown by a study at the University of…

Rice University chemists have discovered that tiny gold “seed” particles, a key ingredient in one of the most common nanoparticle recipes, are one and the same as gold buckyballs, 32-atom spherical molecules that are cousins of the carbon buckyballs discovered at Rice in 1985. Carbon buckyballs are hollow 60-atom molecules…

Bioengineers can tailor the genomes of cells to create “cellular therapies” that fight disease, but they have found it difficult to design specialized activating proteins called transcription factors that can throw the switch on bioengineered genes without occasionally turning on some of the cell’s naturally occurring genes. In a study…

The energy demands of the world are ever increasing. In our quest for clean and eco-friendly energy solutions, transportable hydrogen energy offers considerable promise. In this regard, proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs) that convert excess electric energy into transportable hydrogen energy through water electrolysis have garnered remarkable interest. However,…

Life’s random rhythms surround us-from the hypnotic, synchronized blinking of fireflies…to the back-and-forth motion of a child’s swing… to slight variations in the otherwise steady lub-dub of the human heart. But truly understanding those rhythms — called stochastic, or random, oscillations — has eluded scientists. While researchers and clinicians have…

Nanovesicles can be bioengineered to target cancer cells and deliver treatments directly, according to research at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Two unfortunate facts about chemotherapy: It can harm healthy cells as well as cancerous ones, and many therapeutic targets stay within cancer cells, making them harder to…

In a new study, scientists Stewart Edie of the Smithsonian, Shan Huang of the University of Birmingham and colleagues drastically expanded the list of bivalve species, such as clams, oysters, mussels, scallops and their relatives, that humans are known to harvest and identified the traits that make these species prime…

CNN  —  At least 30 people were killed and more than 100 injured when a fire caused an explosion at a gas station in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, local authorities said. The blaze started at a car repair shop on Monday night then spread to the nearby fuel…

CNN  —  Poland is set to hold its largest military parade in decades on Tuesday, in a flex of defensive muscle that comes as tensions rise on the border between the NATO nation and key Russian ally Belarus. Poland’s Defense Ministry said the celebration of Polish Army Day on Tuesday…

A Polish soldier walks near tanks during preparations before National Army Day Parade at Wesola military base, in Warsaw, Poland, on August 10. Kacper Pempel/Reuters Poland is set to hold its largest military parade in decades on Tuesday, in a flex of defensive muscle that comes as tensions rise on the border between the NATO nation…

Bacteria draw from an arsenal of weapons to combat the drugs intended to kill them. Among the most prevalent of these weapons are ribosome-modifying enzymes. These enzymes are growing increasingly common, appearing worldwide in clinical samples in a range of drug-resistant bacteria. Now scientists have captured the first images of…

University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists have discovered and documented the largest known single dinosaur track site in Alaska. The site, located in Denali National Park and Preserve, has been dubbed “The Coliseum” by researchers. The Coliseum is the size of one-and-a-half football fields and contains layer upon layer of prints…

Farmers around the world could help the planet reach a key carbon removal goal set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by mixing crushed volcanic rocks into their fields, a new study reports. The study also highlights wet, warm tropics as the most promising locations for this climate…

Equipping cancer-infecting, or oncolytic, viruses with tumor-inhibiting genetic cargo stimulates the immune system and helps immunotherapy to shrink or completely clear aggressive tumors in mice, according to a new study in the Journal of Experimental Medicineled by University of Pittsburgh and UPMC researchers. The results pave the way for clinical…

Older adults who play digital puzzle games have the same memory abilities as people in their 20s, a new study has shown. The study, from the University of York, also found that adults aged 60 and over who play digital puzzle games had a greater ability to ignore irrelevant distractions,…

A deafened adult cannot recover the ability to hear, because the sensory hearing cells of the inner ear don’t regenerate after damage. In two new studies, partially funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences (PNAS), USC Stem Cell…

Scientific journals and research papers are evaluated by a metric known as their “impact factor,” which is based on how many times a given paper is cited by other papers. However, a new study from MIT and other institutions suggests that this measure does not accurately capture the impact of…

Scientists have completed a deep analysis of the proteins driving cancer across multiple tumor types, information that can’t be assessed by genome sequencing alone. Understanding how proteins operate in cancer cells raises the prospect of new therapies that block key proteins that drive cancer growth, or therapies that trigger immune…

In 2020, 771 million people worldwide still lacked access to clean drinking water, according to UNICEF and the World Health Organization. For this reason, many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) prioritize building new water projects, including handpumps and small piped systems, to bring clean water to rural areas of developing countries. Alfonso…

In the rush to harness artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to make care more efficient at hospitals nationwide, a new study points to another possible use: identifying patients with non-medical needs that could affect their health and ability to receive care. These social determinants of health — everything from…

High-temperature flames are used to create a wide variety of materials — but once you start a fire, it can be difficult to control how the flame interacts with the material you are trying to process. Researchers have now developed a technique that utilizes a molecule-thin protective layer to control…

Columbia researchers have identified brain injuries that may underlie hidden consciousness, a puzzling phenomenon in which brain-injured patients are unable to respond to simple commands, making them appear unconscious despite having some level of awareness. “Our study suggests that patients with hidden consciousness can hear and comprehend verbal commands, but…

Imagine using insects as a source of chemicals to make plastics that can biodegrade later — with the help of that very same type of bug. That concept is closer to reality than you might expect. Today, researchers will describe their progress to date, including isolation and purification of insect-derived…

Dangerous “forever chemicals” left in the soil from firefighting foam could be destroyed by grinding, according to a proof-of-concept study by University of Auckland scientists collaborating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Ball milling” appears viable for decontaminating soil from military bases, airports, and refineries around the world where the…

One of the biggest obstacles to the uptake of plant-based alternatives to meat is their very dry and astringent feel when they are eaten. Scientists, led by Professor Anwesha Sarkar at the University of Leeds, are revolutionising the sensation of plant proteins, transforming them from a substance that can be…

A study published in Science indicates that climatic shifts over the past 400,000 years have influenced Neanderthal and Denisovan interbreeding. Recent paleogenomic research revealed that interbreeding was common among early human species. However, little was known about when, where, and how often this hominin interbreeding took place. Using paleoanthropological evidence,…

With climate change, irrigating more crops in the United States will be critical to sustaining future yields, as drought conditions are likely to increase due to warmer temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns. Yet less than 20% of croplands are equipped for irrigation. A Dartmouth-led study finds that by the middle…