Endangered orangutan in New Orleans expecting twins

A critically endangered Sumatran orangutan in New Orleans is pregnant with twins, the zoo in New Orleans announced Thursday.

Study finds breast cancer survival increases with early diagnosis and treatment

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. According to a recent Cleveland Clinic study, breast cancer survival increases when treatment involving surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are completed within 38 weeks of the initial diagnosis.

Study provides insight into how we sense threats in our environment

Researchers at the University of Toronto have shown that our ability to quickly assess threats in our environment comes from our perception of discrete linear features in a scene rather than details or objects within it.

US must act to protect climate migrants, government report says

National security officials warn that worsening heat waves, droughts and other climate-fueled hazards are likely to drive a surge in global migration in the coming decades, increasing political instability among the United States' allies and strengthening its adversaries.

Novel advanced light design and fabrication process could revolutionize sensing technologies

Vanderbilt and Penn State engineers have developed a novel approach to design and fabricate thin-film infrared light sources with near-arbitrary spectral output driven by heat, along with a machine learning methodology called inverse design that reduced the optimization time for these devices from weeks or months on a multi-core computer to a few minutes on a consumer-grade desktop.

New material could pave way for better, safer batteries

In pursuit of batteries that deliver more power and operate more safely, researchers are working to replace the liquids commonly used in today's lithium ion batteries with solid materials. Now, a research team from Brown University and the University of Maryland has developed a new material for use in solid-state batteries that's derived from an unlikely source: Trees.

Biodiversity of islands worldwide is in peril, scientists warn

Scientists are sounding the alarm. The biodiversity of islands around the world is becoming increasingly threatened, due in large part to habitat loss, overexploitation, invasive species and climate change. If healthy island environments are to be conserved and restored, immediate action is needed by everyone, from policymakers to the general population. These findings and recommendations are in "Scientists' warning—The outstanding biodiversity of islands is in peril," published in Global Ecology and Conservation in September 2021 and co-authored by a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa professor.

Owl unseen for 150 years has been photographed in the wild for the first time

British scientists working in Ghana have rediscovered a "holy grail" giant owl that has lurked almost unseen in African rainforests for 150 years.

New study finds no risk of pregnancy loss from COVID-19 vaccination

A new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine has found no correlation between COVID-19 vaccinations and risk of first-trimester miscarriages, providing further evidence of the safety of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy.

Climate tipping might be predicted using algebraic topology

The Earth's climate system seems to have shifted abruptly between colder and warmer modes in the past. Do we risk the same today from anthropogenic climate change? Frankly, climate models cannot answer that question yet. But a result in the journal Chaos by Gisela D. Charó, Mickaël D. Chekroun, Denisse Sciamarella and Michael Ghil suggests a way to resolve the matter. Analyzing a model that combines the two leading theories for climate change with algebraic topology tools, the authors show that the climate system indeed progresses through abrupt transitions, also known as tipping points. These tools are applicable to reduced climate models and they well might help assess whether the Earth's climate system on a whole is about to tip due to global warming. The work is part of the TiPES project, a European science collaboration on tipping points in the Earth system.

Artificial intelligence spots anomalies in medical images

Scientists from Skoltech, Philips Research, and Goethe University Frankfurt have trained a neural network to detect anomalies in medical images to assist physicians in sifting through countless scans in search of pathologies. Reported in IEEE Access, the new method is adapted to the nature of medical imaging and is more successful in spotting abnormalities than general-purpose solutions.

Researchers map neurons in the brain involved with social interactions with others in groups

Meaningful social interactions are critical to an individual's well-being, and such interactions rely on people's behaviors towards one another. In research published in Science, investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have mapped the neurons in the brain that allow a monkey to process and remember the interactions and behaviors of another monkey to influence the animal's own actions. The findings might be used to develop treatment strategies for people with neuropsychiatric conditions.

How a deadly land fungus began killing marine mammals in the Salish Sea

In the early 2000s, a fungus infected hundreds of animals and people in British Columbia and Washington State. Scientists found that the disease also killed porpoises and dolphins in the Salish Sea—perhaps affecting cetaceans even earlier than people.

Study shows COVID vaccine booster increases antibody responses, is protective in rhesus macaques

A booster dose of the mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine given to rhesus macaques about six months after their primary vaccine series significantly increased levels of neutralizing antibodies against all known SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, according to a new study from National Institutes of Health scientists and colleagues. The study, published in Science, also showed that the increased neutralizing antibody responses were sustained for at least eight weeks after the boost, were significantly higher than after the primary vaccine series, and generated high-level protection—meaning the ability to significantly limit virus from replicating in the lungs and nose. These data suggest that boosting triggers a strong immune memory response and potentially longer lasting immunity.

Research team launches mobile depression app to aid clinicians in treatment planning

Columbia Psychiatry faculty, in partnership with avoMD, a next-gen clinical decision support platform, have developed an interactive smartphone application that provides point-of-care treatment algorithms for major depression.

Google to slash fee it takes from subscriptions on App Store

Alphabet Inc.'s Google is slashing the fees it takes from subscription services on its app store following pressure from developers and lawmakers.

Pentagon, intelligence agencies detail climate threat to security

Reports released Thursday by the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community laid out in frank terms the national security threat posed by climate change, and how rapidly evolving weather patterns will impact global stability in the decades to come.

Enhanced touch screens could enable users to 'feel' objects

The next time you buy a new couch, you may not ever have to leave your old one to get a feel for the texture of the new material.

Fighting viruses with interchangeable defense genes

Bacterial viruses, so-called phages, destroy bacteria. Bacteria are constantly exposed to viral attacks. A research team led by Martin Polz, a microbiologist at the University of Vienna, has now studied how bacteria defend themselves against viral predators. The study shows that bacteria have exchangeable genetic elements that are specifically designed for defense against viruses, allowing a bacterial population to switch its innate immunity surprisingly quickly. The question of how and how quickly bacteria develop resistance to viruses is of central importance for the development of phage-based therapies against bacterial infections. The study now appears in the journal Science.

Hubble Space Telescope gives unprecedented, early view of a doomed star's destruction

Like a witness to a violent death, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope recently gave astronomers an unprecedented, comprehensive view of the first moments of a star's cataclysmic demise. Hubble's data, combined with other observations of the doomed star from space- and ground-based telescopes, may give astronomers an early warning system for other stars on the verge of blowing up.

Scientists discover how bacteria use liquid protein droplets to overcome stress

Scientists have revealed how bacteria make tiny liquid droplets from proteins to help them survive harsh environments and thus reduce their chances of being killed by antibiotics.

What drove the invention of military technologies?

Peter Turchin from the Complexity Science Hub Vienna (CSH) and an interdisciplinary team of colleagues set out to test competing theories about what drove the evolution of war machines throughout world history. Their study, published today in the journal PLOS ONE, sees the strongest influence on the evolution of military technology coming from world population size, the connectivity between geographical areas, and advances in critical technologies such as iron metallurgy or horse riding. Conversely, and somewhat surprisingly, state-level factors such as the size of the population, the territory, or the complexity of governance seem not to have played a major role.

Going off the rails: Research reveals ecological impact of rail transport on UK bat species

New research from the University of Sussex has revealed the ecological impact of rail transport on bats in the UK, throwing light on a previously unstudied area.

Zapping untreated water gets rid of more waterborne viruses

Using sophisticated microscopy and computational analysis, Texas A&M University researchers have now validated the merit of a water purification technology that uses electricity to remove and inactivate an assortment of waterborne viruses. They said the yet-to-be-implemented water purification strategy could add another level of safety against pathogens that cause gastrointestinal ailments and other infections in humans.

'Like a magic trick,' certain proteins pass through cell walls

For decades, scientists have wondered how large molecules such as proteins pass through cell walls, also known as plasma membranes, without leaving a trace. That ability is part of what makes certain drugs—including some cancer treatments and the COVID-19 vaccine—work. And it is also how bacterial toxins enter human cells and wreak havoc.

Spotify teams up with Shopify to allow in-app merch purchases

Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify announced Wednesday a partnership with music streaming giant Spotify that will allow in-app sales of artists' merchandise.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-10-spotify-teams-shopify-in-app-merch.html

Scientists uncover a gene involved in sexual conflict in fruit flies

Sexual conflict in fruit flies is governed by specifically wired neurons in the brain which have been pinpointed by scientists at the University of Birmingham, UK.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-scientists-uncover-gene-involved-sexual.html

How political partisanship governed in-person schooling during pandemic

One of the most controversial topics related to the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person schooling, wasn't necessarily determined by the severity of the virus. New research from Michigan State University reveals how political partisanship influenced schools' reopening plans amid the global pandemic.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-political-partisanship-in-person-schooling-pandemic.html

African grey parrots may have better self-control than macaws

African grey parrots may be better able than macaws to delay gratification—rejecting an immediate reward in favor of a better one in the future—according to a study published in the journal Animal Cognition.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-african-grey-parrots-self-control-macaws.html

Curators squeezed out by high dino bones price tag

This week the largest triceratops skeleton ever unearthed goes up for auction in Paris—but museum curators like Francis Duranthon can only dream of getting their hands on such a prize.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-curators-high-dino-bones-price.html

Ocean acidity data affirms predictions of changes to El Nino conditions

Score one for a key climate change prediction.

Predicting famines using rainfall season start

The first rains that signal the beginning of the growing season kick off a flurry of activities in rural, agricultural communities. Farmers decide when to plant, how much labor to allocate, how many resources to devote to that season's crop and so on.

No 'silver bullet' for UK reaching net zero carbon emissions for electricity

CO2 emissions from electricity in the UK fell by two thirds in the last decade due to several factors working together, rather than a single panacea.

Proceeding with Caution: First global guidelines proposed for ancient DNA research

As ancient DNA research sweeps the globe, ballooning from zero genomes sequenced as of 2009 to more than 6,000 as of 2021, those involved in and affected by the genetic analysis of human remains have pressed with ever greater urgency for ethical standards that can be applied wherever such research is carried out.

First large-scale census of coral heat tolerance published

In a first-of-its-kind study, Florida's  critically endangered staghorn corals were surveyed to discover which ones can better withstand future heatwaves in the ocean. Insights from the study, led by scientists at Shedd Aquarium and the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, help organizations working to restore climate-resilient reefs in Florida and provide a blueprint for the success of restoration projects globally. 

Trump announces launch of media company, social media site

Nine months after being expelled from social media for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, former President Donald Trump said Wednesday he's launching a new media company with its own social media platform.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-10-trump-media-company-social-site.html

South Korea launches own space rocket for the first time

South Korea launched its first domestically-developed space rocket on Thursday, carrying a 1.5-tonne payload as it seeks to join the ranks of advanced space-faring nations.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-south-korea-space-rocket-tv.html

New galaxy images reveal a fitful start to the Universe

New images have revealed detailed clues about how the first stars and structures were formed in the Universe and suggest the formation of the Galaxy got off to a fitful start.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-galaxy-images-reveal-universe.html

Fusarium wilt of cotton more aggressive and diverse than previously understood

Cotton is an important crop worldwide and grown in large amounts in the United States, which provided 38 percent of cotton exports in 2017. One of the greatest threats to cotton production is Fusarium wilt, a fungal disease caused by the soil-borne pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum (FOV).

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-fusarium-wilt-cotton-aggressive-diverse.html

Some of the world's oldest rubies linked to early life

While analyzing some of the world's oldest colored gemstones, researchers from the University of Waterloo discovered carbon residue that was once ancient life, encased in a 2.5 billion-year-old ruby.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-world-oldest-rubies-linked-early.html