ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Ocean bacteria release carbon into the atmosphere
• Road salts and other human sources are threatening world's freshwater supplies
• Spanking may affect the brain development of a child
• Unusual fossil reveals last meal of prehistoric pollinator
• A multidimensional view of the coronavirus
• How cells control the physical state of embryonic tissues
• Feces core records 4,300 years of bat diet and environment
• Early cannabis use linked to heart disease
• Biologists investigate effects of bisphenols on nerve cells
• Pain receptors linked to the generation of energy-burning brown fat cells
• Major risk of injury for recreational runners
• Lighting the way to folding next-level origami
• The indestructible light beam
• Women 'risk' grey hair to feel authentic
• Bigger brains gave squirrels the capacity to move up in the world
• Keeping livestock: Can we end the cage age?
• Why some of us are hungry all the time
• SMART discovers the science behind varying performance of different colored LEDs
• New Jurassic flying reptile reveals the oldest opposed thumb
• COVID-19 pandemic has been linked with six unhealthy eating behaviors
• Thawing permafrost cools Arctic currents: This might affect fish stocks
• Prehistoric Pacific Coast diets had salmon limits
• Search for sterile neutrinos: It's all about a bend in the curve
• Speeding up sequence alignment across the tree of life
• A tummy invader: This bacterial molecule may be key to fighting stomach cancer
• Spit samples uncover genetic risk factors for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Auxin visualized for the first time
• Novel immunotherapy approach to fight melanoma
• Life on Venus? First we need to know more about molecules in the atmosphere
• Policy decisions will affect coastal communities' risk more than climate change
• Centrifugal multispun nanofibers put a new spin on COVID-19 masks
• Shift in diet allowed gray wolves to survive ice-age mass extinction
• Imbalance in gum bacteria linked to Alzheimer's disease biomarker
• Making music from spider webs
• Another way 'good' cholesterol is good: Combatting inflammation
• Rapid evolution in foxgloves pollinated by hummingbirds
• Volcanic pollution return linked to jump in respiratory disease cases
• Researchers discover new way to starve brain tumors
• New CAR T approach minimizes resistance, helps avoid relapse in non-Hodgkin's B-cell lymphoma
• Immune-stimulating drug before surgery shows promise in early-stage pancreatic cancer

Ocean bacteria release carbon into the atmosphere Posted: 12 Apr 2021 04:42 PM PDT Researchers have discovered that deep-sea bacteria dissolve carbon-containing rocks, releasing excess carbon into the ocean and atmosphere. The findings will allow scientists to better estimate the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, a main driver of global warming.

Road salts and other human sources are threatening world's freshwater supplies Posted: 12 Apr 2021 01:18 PM PDT When winter storms threaten to make travel dangerous, people often turn to salt to melt snow and ice. Road salt is an important tool for safety, but a new study warns that introducing salt into the environment -- for de-icing roads, fertilizing farmland or other purposes -- releases toxic chemical cocktails that create a serious and growing global threat to our freshwater supply and human health.

Spanking may affect the brain development of a child Posted: 12 Apr 2021 01:18 PM PDT A new study linking spanking and child brain development shows spanking could alter a child's neural responses to their environment, in similar ways to a child experiencing more severe violence.

Unusual fossil reveals last meal of prehistoric pollinator Posted: 12 Apr 2021 11:27 AM PDT An amber fossil of a Cretaceous beetle has shed some light on the diet of one of the earliest pollinators of flowering plants.

A multidimensional view of the coronavirus Posted: 12 Apr 2021 11:27 AM PDT What exactly happens when the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 infects a cell? New research paints a comprehensive picture of the viral infection process.

How cells control the physical state of embryonic tissues Posted: 12 Apr 2021 09:12 AM PDT In the earliest stage of life, animals undergo some of their most spectacular physical transformations. Once merely blobs of dividing cells, they begin to rearrange themselves into their more characteristic forms, be they fish, birds or humans. Understanding how cells act together to build tissues has been a fundamental problem in physics and biology.

Feces core records 4,300 years of bat diet and environment Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:48 AM PDT A 2-meter guano pile holds information about changes in climate and how the bats' food sources shifted over the millennia, analogous to records of the past found in layers of lake mud and Antarctic ice, according to a new study.

Early cannabis use linked to heart disease Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:48 AM PDT Smoking cannabis when you're young may increase your risk of developing heart disease later, according to a recent study.

Biologists investigate effects of bisphenols on nerve cells Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:48 AM PDT Bisphenols contained in many everyday objects can impair important brain functions in humans, biologists warn. Their study shows that even small amounts of the plasticizers bisphenol A and bisphenol S disrupt the transmission of signals between nerve cells in the brains of fish. The researchers consider it very likely that similar interference can also occur in the brains of adult humans.

Pain receptors linked to the generation of energy-burning brown fat cells Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:48 AM PDT A new source of energy expending brown fat cells has been uncovered by researchers, which they say points towards potential new therapeutic options for obesity.

Major risk of injury for recreational runners Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:48 AM PDT Almost half of all recreational runners incur injuries, mostly relating to knees, calves or Achilles tendons, and the level of risk is equally high whatever your age, gender or running experience.

Lighting the way to folding next-level origami Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:48 AM PDT Synthetic biologists along with structural biologists have explored ways to fold artificial proteins into diverse shapes like origamis. They constructed diamond-shaped protein cages, and managed to transform them to different shapes. Similar technology exists for DNA, but origami proteins could have more applications, e.g. in making new materials, delivering drugs and vaccines, and more.

The indestructible light beam Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:48 AM PDT For any disordered medium (such as a sugar cube, for example), special light waves can be found which are practically not changed by the medium, only attenuated. These 'scattering invariant light modes' could play a major role in new imaging technologies.

Women 'risk' grey hair to feel authentic Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:48 AM PDT Many women 'risk' allowing natural grey hair to show in order to feel authentic, a new study shows.

Bigger brains gave squirrels the capacity to move up in the world Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:48 AM PDT Squirrels and other tree-dwelling rodents evolved to have bigger brains than their burrowing cousins, a study suggests.

Keeping livestock: Can we end the cage age? Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:48 AM PDT Between 2018 and 2020, 1,4 million EU citizens signed the petition 'End the Cage Age', with the aim of ending cage housing for farm animals in Europe. In response to this citizens initiative, the European Parliament requested a study on the possibilities to end cage housing.

Why some of us are hungry all the time Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:48 AM PDT New research shows that people who experience big dips in blood sugar levels, several hours after eating, end up feeling hungrier and consuming hundreds more calories during the day than others.

SMART discovers the science behind varying performance of different colored LEDs Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:47 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new multifaceted method that can directly observe compositional fluctuations in indium gallium nitride, a semiconductor material used in LEDs. The method can be adapted and applied in other materials science studies to investigate compositional fluctuations.

New Jurassic flying reptile reveals the oldest opposed thumb Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:47 AM PDT A new 160-million-year-old arboreal pterosaur species, dubbed 'Monkeydactyl', has the oldest true opposed thumb - a novel structure previously not known in pterosaurs.

COVID-19 pandemic has been linked with six unhealthy eating behaviors Posted: 12 Apr 2021 08:47 AM PDT A new probe into the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed correlations to six unhealthy eating behaviors, according to a new study.

Thawing permafrost cools Arctic currents: This might affect fish stocks Posted: 12 Apr 2021 07:19 AM PDT A new study finds that thawing permafrost in Alaska causes colder water in smaller rivers and streams. This surprising consequence of climate change could affect the survival of fish species in the Arctic's offshore waters.

Prehistoric Pacific Coast diets had salmon limits Posted: 12 Apr 2021 07:19 AM PDT Humans cannot live on protein alone - even for the ancient indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest whose diet was once thought to be almost all salmon. Anthropologists argue such a protein-heavy diet would be unsustainable and document the many dietary solutions ancient Pacific Coast people in North America likely employed to avoid 'salmon starvation,' a toxic and potentially fatal condition brought on by eating too much lean protein.

Search for sterile neutrinos: It's all about a bend in the curve Posted: 12 Apr 2021 07:19 AM PDT KATRIN experiment succeeds in strongly narrowing the search elusive particles.

Speeding up sequence alignment across the tree of life Posted: 12 Apr 2021 07:19 AM PDT A team of researchers develops new search capabilities that will allow to compare the biochemical makeup of different species from across the tree of life.

A tummy invader: This bacterial molecule may be key to fighting stomach cancer Posted: 12 Apr 2021 07:19 AM PDT Researchers found that H. pylori bacterial strains with low expression of a small RNA molecule called HPnc4160 are more likely to adapt to living in the human stomach. Gastric cancer patients have lower levels of HPnc4160, as well as higher levels of pathogenic bacterial proteins, than individuals without cancer. This work provides crucial knowledge for the development of new treatments for chronic H. pylori infections and gastric cancer.

Spit samples uncover genetic risk factors for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder Posted: 12 Apr 2021 07:19 AM PDT Researchers have discovered genetic risk factors for OCD that could help pave the way for earlier diagnosis and improved treatment for children and youth. Saliva samples from 5,000 kids were scanned and compared to responses using the Toronto Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. The team identified that those with a genetic variant in the gene PTPRD had a greater risk for obsessive-compulsive traits.

Auxin visualized for the first time Posted: 12 Apr 2021 07:19 AM PDT A biosensor visualizes redistribution dynamics of the plant hormone auxin in living cells.

Novel immunotherapy approach to fight melanoma Posted: 12 Apr 2021 07:19 AM PDT Researchers have advanced a tumor-targeting and cell penetrating antibody that can deliver payloads to stimulate an immune response to help treat melanoma.

Life on Venus? First we need to know more about molecules in the atmosphere Posted: 12 Apr 2021 07:18 AM PDT To confirm life on other planets, we need to detect far more molecules in their atmospheres than we currently do to rule out non-biological chemical processes.

Policy decisions will affect coastal communities' risk more than climate change Posted: 12 Apr 2021 07:18 AM PDT Coastal communities face increasing danger from rising water and storms, but the level of risk will be more closely tied to policy decisions regarding development than the varying conditions associated with climate change.

Centrifugal multispun nanofibers put a new spin on COVID-19 masks Posted: 12 Apr 2021 07:18 AM PDT Researchers have developed a novel nanofiber production technique called 'centrifugal multispinning' that will open the door for the safe and cost-effective mass production of high-performance polymer nanofibers.

Shift in diet allowed gray wolves to survive ice-age mass extinction Posted: 12 Apr 2021 05:45 AM PDT Gray wolves are among the largest predators to have survived the extinction at the end of the last ice age. A new study analysing teeth and bones shows that the wolves may have survived by adapting their diet over thousands of years --- from a primary reliance on horses during the Pleistocene, to caribou and moose today.

Imbalance in gum bacteria linked to Alzheimer's disease biomarker Posted: 12 Apr 2021 05:45 AM PDT Older adults with more harmful than healthy bacteria in their gums are more likely to have evidence for amyloid beta -- a key biomarker for Alzheimer's disease -- in their cerebrospinal fluid, according to new research. However, this imbalance in oral bacteria was not associated with another Alzheimer's biomarker called tau.

Making music from spider webs Posted: 12 Apr 2021 05:45 AM PDT Spiders are master builders, expertly weaving strands of silk into intricate 3D webs. If humans could enter the spider's world, they could learn about web construction, arachnid behavior and more. Now, scientists report they have translated the complex structure of a web into music, which could have applications ranging from better 3D printers, to cross-species communication and otherworldly musical compositions.

Another way 'good' cholesterol is good: Combatting inflammation Posted: 12 Apr 2021 05:45 AM PDT The ability of HDL particles (commonly known as 'good' cholesterol) to reduce inflammation in the cells that line blood vessels may help predict who is more likely to develop a heart attack or other serious heart-related event. Gauging the anti-inflammatory capacity of HDL cholesterol may one day improve standard heart disease risk assessment.

Rapid evolution in foxgloves pollinated by hummingbirds Posted: 12 Apr 2021 05:45 AM PDT Researchers have found common foxgloves brought to the Americas have rapidly evolved to change flower length in the presence of a new pollinator group, hummingbirds.

Volcanic pollution return linked to jump in respiratory disease cases Posted: 12 Apr 2021 05:45 AM PDT Respiratory disease increased by almost a quarter after the Holuhraun lava eruption in 2014-2015, one of Iceland's largest volcanic eruptions. Emissions returning in the days immediately following volcanic eruptions impact health and are not factored into responses to the public health threat caused by volcanoes. The study authors recommend government responses take these emissions into account.

Researchers discover new way to starve brain tumors Posted: 12 Apr 2021 05:45 AM PDT Scientists have found a new way to starve cancerous brain tumor cells of energy in order to prevent further growth.

New CAR T approach minimizes resistance, helps avoid relapse in non-Hodgkin's B-cell lymphoma Posted: 11 Apr 2021 08:40 AM PDT Early results from a new, pioneering chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy trial found using a bilateral attack achieves a more robust defense and helps avoid relapse.

Immune-stimulating drug before surgery shows promise in early-stage pancreatic cancer Posted: 11 Apr 2021 08:40 AM PDT Giving early-stage pancreatic cancer patients a CD40 immune-stimulating drug helped jumpstart a T cell attack to the notoriously stubborn tumor microenvironment before surgery and other treatments, according to a new study.

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