From Italy and the World

Russia’s armed aggression “is becoming synonymous with torture and other inhuman cruelty,” according to the United Nations official responsible for investigating torture. “The volume of credible allegations of torture and other inhumane acts that are being perpetrated against civilians and prisoners of war by Russian authorities appears to be unabating,” UN…

Many of today’s artificial intelligence systems loosely mimic the human brain. In a new paper, researchers suggest that another branch of biology — ecology — could inspire a whole new generation of AI to be more powerful, resilient, and socially responsible. Published September 11 in Proceedings of the National Academy…

For significant portions of the globe faced with water shortage problems, a beacon of hope may be on the way: the ability to easily turn hot air into drinking water. For the past few years, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have focused on the moisture present in…

CNN  —  An American caver has been rescued by emergency workers near Anamur, in southern Turkey, after he became stranded hundreds of meters underground earlier this month. Mark Dickey is “out in the hands of a rescue worker. He seems fine at first look. He will take a chopper to…

Coffee can do a lot of things: Wake you up, warm you up and lessen that existential dread. According to a new study, it could also help reduce the waste from 3D printing. That’s the vision behind a new project led by Michael Rivera, an assistant professor in the ATLAS…

University of Houston atmospheric science researchers have found that while local emissions play a role in the rise of ozone levels in Houston, most of the pollutants can be carried in from other regions across the country, leading to excess ozone pollution. Their findings offer insights into strategies to mitigate…

Biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have found evidence for evolutionary “syndromes” — sets of traits that occur together — that help to explain how tomatoes first evolved their distinctive blend of color, sweetness, acidity and aroma. The research, represented by a pair of papers recently published in Plants…

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a pervasive endocrine disorder that affects millions of women globally, impacting their hormonal balance, fertility and overall well-being. It is notoriously difficult to treat, with widely varying symptoms and mysterious, complex underlying causes. Researchers at the University of Chicago recently unveiled a potential new PCOS…

For much of the last century, many cities across the United States and Canada burned their trash and waste in municipal incinerators. Most of these facilities were closed by the early 1970s due to concerns about the pollution they added to the air, but a new Duke University study finds…

A new material that packs deadly heat for viruses on its outer surface while staying cool on the reverse side could transform the way we make and use personal protective equipment (PPE), cutting down the pollution and carbon footprint associated with current materials and practices. The composite, textile-based material developed…

A machine-learning algorithm demonstrated the capability to process data that exceeds a computer’s available memory by identifying a massive data set’s key features and dividing them into manageable batches that don’t choke computer hardware. Developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the algorithm set a world record for factorizing huge data…

Researchers at the University of Arizona Cancer Center discovered a new class of iron-targeting compounds that hamper the proliferation of cultured malignant cells in a laboratory setting. The results of the study were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. “Cancer cells are what we call ‘addicted’ to…

CNN  —  Here’s a look at the life of award-winning screen legend Sophia Loren. Birth date: September 20, 1934 Birth place: Rome, Italy (grew up in Pozzuoli, outside of Naples) Birth name: Sofia Villani Scicolone Father: Riccardo Scicolone Mother: Romilda Villani Marriages: Carlo Ponti (April 9, 1966-January 10, 2007, his…

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health found that living in an area with high levels of particulate air pollution was associated with an increased incidence of breast cancer. The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is one of the largest studies to date looking at…

Understanding the interactions between materials and chemical species is critical for engineers as it helps them determine their best uses for both day-to-day life and global-level applications. Metal oxides, a binary material of metal and oxygen, greatly interest researchers because of their importance in transforming energy storage, production, and conversion.…

New research found the most common form of breast cancer presents differing metabolic signatures in the blood of African American women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer compared with non-Hispanic white women. The scientists also identified a protein — negative elongation factor complex E — that was linked with higher mortality…

When humans or animals get infected, the body’s immune system tries to not only clear the infection but also build up a memory of the pathogen that caused it. So, when the pathogen comes around again for possible reinfection, the body has an army of memory T cells that can…

A healthy lifestyle that involves moderate alcohol consumption, a healthy diet, regular physical activity, healthy sleep and frequent social connection, while avoiding smoking and too much sedentary behaviour, reduces the risk of depression, new research has found. In research published today in Nature Mental Health, an international team of researchers,…

One of the most invasive species in the world is Solenopsis invicta, a red fire ant species with a painful sting. Native to South America, the ant has established itself across the globe. In an article publishing in the journal Current Biology on September 11, a group of ant experts…

The sequencing of the human genome promised a revolution in medicine, but scientists soon realized that a genetic blueprint alone does not show the body in action. That required understanding the proteome — all the proteins, expressed by our genes, forming the cellular machinery that performs the bulk of the…

An international team of scientists has successfully conducted large-scale helicopter-based observations along the coast of East Antarctica and has identified pathways through which warm ocean water flows from the open ocean into ice shelf cavities for the first time. During six days of observations, the team was able to retrieve…

Parkinson’s disease, characterized by various motor dysfunctions, is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder in the world. It is known that specific gene mutations that are passed down through families are responsible for some cases of Parkinson’s disease. But now, researchers from Japan have found that this might open the…

Root hairs represent a low-cost strategy to enhance nutrient uptake because they can significantly increase the nutrient-acquiring surface of plant roots. While primary and lateral roots are stimulated to elongate when plants grow under mild nitrogen deficiency, the existence of such a foraging response for root hairs and its underlying…

Having a hobby is linked to fewer depressive symptoms and higher levels of happiness, self-reported health and life satisfaction among people aged 65 and over, and this holds true across 16 countries on three continents, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers. The study, published…

New research suggests that hospital electronic health records (EHRs) that are difficult to use are also less likely to catch medical errors that could harm patients. As clinicians navigate EHR systems, alerts, reminders, and clinical guidelines pop up to steer decision making. Yet a common complaint is that these notifications…

As the universe evolves, scientists expect large cosmic structures to grow at a certain rate: dense regions such as galaxy clusters would grow denser, while the void of space would grow emptier. But University of Michigan researchers have discovered that the rate at which these large structures grow is slower…

Researchers in UC Santa Barbara professor Yasamin Mostofi’s lab have proposed a new foundation that can enable high-quality imaging of still objects with only WiFi signals. Their method uses the Geometrical Theory of Diffraction and the corresponding Keller cones to trace edges of the objects. The technique has also enabled,…

Scientists have detected new strains of malaria-causing parasites in Ethiopia that are both resistant to current treatments and escape detection by common diagnostic tests — a development that could increase cases and deaths from malaria and make eliminating the persistent disease an even greater challenge. The authors detailed their findings…

Hadal trenches, with their deepest locations situated in the so-called hadal zone, the deepest parts of the ocean in water depth >6km, are the least-explored environment on Earth, linking the Earth’s surface and its deeper interior. For the first time, an international team conducted deep-subsurface sampling in a hadal trench…