250 articles from THURSDAY 5.9.2019

Black hole movies coming soon, says leading astronomer

By the time an international group of scientists stunned the world with the first ever image of a black hole, they were already planning a sequel: a movie showing how massive clouds of gas are forever sucked into the void. The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration has already recorded the necessary observations and is processing the mountains of data to produce the first video, which will likely...

Open Lunar Foundation comes out in the open with its plan to build a moon village

After spending five years in semi-stealth mode, a San Francisco venture called the Open Lunar Foundation is talking about its plan to create a settlement on the moon at a cost in the range of $5 billion. "At $5B, it's not only achievable within current NASA budgets, it offers the tantalizing possibility that a single passionate individual could fund the entire program as their...

Ocean Heat Wave Off U.S. West Coast Could Badly Disrupt Marine Life, Scientists Say

(SEATTLE) — Federal scientists said Thursday they are monitoring a new ocean heat wave off the U.S. West Coast, a development that could badly disrupt marine life including salmon, whales and sea lions. The expanse of unusually warm water stretches from Alaska to California, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday. It resembles a similar heat wave...

Spacewatch: European Mars rover ready for final test

European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover arrives in France for final tests before next year’s mission The European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover has arrived in France for final tests before being prepared for its mission next year.Named Rosalind Franklin after the English chemist, the rover is designed to determine whether there has ever been life on Mars. It will also better understand the...

Squirrels, bees could get US aid but not Yellowstone's bison

U.S. wildlife officials rejected petitions Thursday to protect Yellowstone National Park's storied bison herds but pledged to consider protections for two other species—a tiny, endangered squirrel in Arizona and bees that pollinate rare desert flowers in Nevada.

A molecular 'atlas' of animal development

In a paper in Science this week, Penn researchers report the first detailed molecular characterization of how every cell changes during animal embryonic development. The work, led by the laboratories of Perelman School of Medicine's John I. Murray, the School of Arts and Sciences' Junhyong Kim, and Robert Waterston of the University of Washington (UW), used the latest technology in the emergent...

Closing in on elusive particles

In the quest to prove that matter can be produced without antimatter, the GERDA experiment is looking for signs of neutrinoless double beta decay. The experiment has the greatest sensitivity worldwide for detecting the decay in question. To further improve the chances of success, a follow-up project, LEGEND, uses an even more refined decay experiment.

Tiny airborne particles from wildfires have climate change implications

Wildfires are widespread across the globe. They occur in places wherever plants are abundant -- such as the raging fires currently burning in the Brazilian Amazon. Such biomass burning (BB) can be an environmental calamity. The smoke from BB events produces large amounts of aerosol particles and gases. These emissions can cause major problems for visibility and health, as well as for local and...

Newfound phalanx fragment shows Denisovans closer to modern humans than Neanderthals

A phalangeal fragment from Denisova Cave revealed it belonged to the member of a previously unknown human population, the Denisovans. Scientists have now measured and photographed another fragment found in Denisova Cave. Genomic analysis reveals it is the missing piece of the same phalanx whose proximal fragment enabled initial sequencing of the Denisovan genome. The scientists compared the new...

A molecular 'atlas' of animal development

Scientists have studied the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans for decades, making essential contributions to basic science. In the latest milestone, scientists used cutting-edge technology to individually profile the genes expressed in more than 80,000 cells in a developing C. elegans embryo.

High blood pressure treatment may slow cognitive decline

Among middle-aged and older adults, high blood pressure accelerated cognitive decline and treatment slowed the regression. The rate of cognitive decline was similar between adults receiving high blood pressure treatment and those who did not have high blood pressure at all.

OB-GYNs hesitate to talk about fertility

A new study shows many OB-GYNs are uncomfortable counseling their patients on fertility at a time when more women are delaying pregnancy and needing their doctors to be more vigilant about this education.

Temps up, blood pressures down in hot yoga study

Adults taking hot yoga had lower blood pressure measurements after three months of classes, in a small study examining hot yoga's impact on blood pressure. Hot yoga is typically a vigorous workout practiced under hot and humid conditions. Study researchers say this is one of the first studies of hot yoga's benefits in lowering blood pressure and more research is needed to determine if the practice...

Gut bacteria may be linked to high blood pressure and depression

A study of human gut bacteria -- known as the gut microbiome -- suggests that high blood pressure with depression may be a completely different disease than high blood pressure without depression. The gut may be targeted someday to prevent, diagnose and selectively treat different forms of high blood pressure with or without depression.

Team shows atoms can receive common communications signals

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a new type of sensor that uses atoms to receive commonly used communications signals. This atom-based receiver has the potential to be smaller and work better in noisy environments than conventional radio receivers, among other possible advantages.

The paradox of different house flies with few genetic differences

In the steamy, often filthy world of the humble house fly, (the Musca domestica) clear division exists among the males of the species. Though not a civil war, there are differences, to be sure, between males in the north and those that hail from the south. Finding out why those differences appear in the genetic sequences of the northerners and southerners is key to understanding nothing less than...

Building water-efficient cities

How much water single-family residences use is closely related to a community's built environment, according to a University of Arizona-led study. In particular, design factors such as vegetated land cover, housing density and lot size appear to have a strong impact on water use.

NASA Research Gives New Insight into How Much Atmosphere Mars Lost

Portal origin URL: NASA Research Gives New Insight into How Much Atmosphere Mars LostPortal origin nid: 450777Published: Thursday, September 5, 2019 - 15:00Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: A key tracer used to estimate how much atmosphere Mars lost can change depending on the time of day and the surface temperature on the Red Planet. Previous...

Time saving software in an age of ever-expanding data

Before embarking on a new research project, a thorough and exhaustive review of existing literature must be done to make sure the new project is novel. Researchers can also explore the entire body of previously published data on a subject to answer a new question using that same data. This is a daunting task, especially considering that millions of new research articles are published each year....

Scientists measure precise proton radius to help resolve decade-old puzzle

Researchers have made a precise measurement of the size of the proton -- a crucial step towards solving a mystery that has preoccupied scientists around the world for the past decade. The world's physicists have been scrambling to resolve the proton-radius puzzle. Now, a study finds a new measurement for the size of the proton at 0.833 femtometers, which is just under one trillionth of a...

Kilauea lava fuels phytoplankton bloom off Hawai'i Island

When Kilauea Volcano erupted in 2018, it injected millions of cubic feet of molten lava into the nutrient-poor waters off the Big Island of Hawai'i. The lava-impacted seawater contained high concentrations of nutrients that stimulated phytoplankton growth, resulting in an extensive plume of microbes that was detectable by satellite.

Diversity of Plasmodium falciparum across Sub-Saharan Africa

Scientists have identified the regional character to Plasmodium falciparum across Africa. Malaria, infecting 219 million individuals in 2017, remains a threat to public health and regional stability. Human movement and the introduction of antimalarial drugs were drivers of this genetic diversity. Gene flow between sub-populations could spread resistance from one sub-population to the rest of the...

The paradox of different house flies with few genetic differences

Evolutionary biologists have published findings on sex determinates of house flies. The work examines the slight difference in genetic makeup of male flies who hail from the north and those from the south. Though minute, the difference between the two types of flies is the position of the Y chromosome in the sequence of the genes.

New insights on impacts of crop trading in China

Feeding the world's growing population is one of the great challenges of the 21st century, particularly in China, which has nearly a quarter of the world's population but a fraction of the cropland. A recent study looks at both the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of crop trading in China for the first time.

Synthetic biologists extend functional life of cancer fighting circuitry in microbes

Bioengineers have developed a method to significantly extend the life of gene circuits used to instruct microbes to do things like produce and deliver drugs, break down chemicals and sense the environment. Most circuits synthetic biologists insert into microbes break or vanish after a certain period of time -- typically days to weeks -- because of various mutations. Researchers demonstrated they...

Stopping progression of tissue injury after button battery ingestion

Button battery injuries in children have been increasingly severe -- resulting in devastating injuries and even death. Button batteries damage esophageal tissue through isothermic hydrolysis reactions, resulting in alkaline caustic injury, which leads to tissue necrosis. Prompt removal of the battery is critical to minimizing damage. However, when children swallow a button battery, the injury can...