Science News

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Gemini Norte, que forma parte del Observatorio Internacional Gemini, y que opera NOIRLab de NSF, está de regreso observando el cielo nocturno, luego de la reparación y renovación de su espejo primario. La primera observación del telescopio capturó la supernova llamada SN 2023ixf, que fue descubierta el pasado 19 de mayo por el astrónomo japonés Koichi Itagaki. Este deslumbrante descubrimiento, la supernova más cercana vista en los últimos cinco años, se encuentra en uno de los brazos espirales de la Galaxia del Molinete (Messier 101).

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Gemini North, part of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, is back observing the night sky following the repair and refurbishment of its primary mirror. The telescope’s debut observation captured the supernova dubbed SN 2023ixf, which was discovered on 19 May by Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki. This dazzling point of light, the closest supernova seen in the past five years, is located along one of the spiral arms of the Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101).

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A new study has uncovered evidence of a “coupling” mechanism between the malaria parasite and its human host, which could one day lead to new treatments for a disease that claims the life of a child under age 5 every minute.

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Digital Science is positioning itself to play an even greater role in the pharmaceutical industry’s all-important drug discovery, by helping industry sift through a sea of information and focus on the research that matters.

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With human-induced greenhouse gases fueling global climate change, there is an urgent need to bolster emissions reductions with large-scale carbon dioxide removal.

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Despite attempts to anonymize user data, the fitness app Strava allows anyone to find personal information – including home addresses – about some users. The finding, which is detailed in a new study, raises significant privacy concerns.

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They’re a marine delicacy loved across Asia, but the humble sea cucumber is also proving to be a key ingredient in preventing diabetes, according to new research from the University of South Australia.

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Climate scientists at Rice University have discovered an “internally generated periodicity” — a natural cycle that repeats every 150 days — in the north-south oscillation of atmospheric pressure patterns that drive the movement of the Southern Hemisphere’s prevailing westerly winds and the Antarctic jet stream.

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A new study published in Geology evaluates the potential for cobalt extraction from the Idaho Cobalt Belt (ICB) of east-central Idaho, using a detailed study of the Iron Creek deposit. The ICB hosts the second largest known domestic resource of the critical mineral cobalt, one of the key ingredients in many rechargeable batteries needed for the green energy transition.

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A simple sponge has improved how robots grasp, scientists from the University of Bristol have found.   

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Flat-faced dogs, such as French and English Bulldogs, are extremely popular despite suffering from severe innate diseases. Hungarian researchers have attempted to uncover the explanation for this paradox. In the end, they concluded that although enthusiasts of flat-faced dogs are aware of the health issues and strive to provide the best for their dogs, they are likely to normalize health problems.

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Dreams have been considered a hallmark of human sleep for a long time. Latest findings, however, suggest that when pigeons sleep, they might experience visions of flight. Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence studied brain activation patterns in sleeping pigeons, using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

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Especially after the last few COVID-affected years, nobody doubts that emerging infectious diseases can threaten the whole world. But humans are not the only ones at risk! With intensive global trade, many tree parasites are accidently introduced to Europe in packaging or directly on goods. Traveling in the wood, on plants or in the soil of their pots, they can remain undetected for a long time.

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In a recent study, astronomers found evidence of two supermassive black holes circling each other through signals coming from the jets associated with the accretion of matter into both black holes.

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A team of experimental neurobiologists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and theoretical biologists at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has managed to solve a mystery that has been baffling scientists for decades. They have been able to determine the nature of the electrical activity in the nervous system of insects that controls their flight. In a paper recently published in Nature, they report on a previously unknown function of electrical synapses employed by fruit flies during flight.

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Shallow lakes and ponds emit significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but emissions from these systems vary considerably and are not well understood.

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While studying classical novae using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), a graduate researcher uncovered evidence the objects may have been erroneously typecast as simple. The new observations, which detected non-thermal emission from a classical nova with a dwarf companion, were presented today at a press conference during the 242nd proceedings of the American Astronomical Society in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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Tras estudiar estrellas novas clásicas con el Long Baseline Array (VLBA) del Observatorio Radioastronómico Nacional de Estados Unidos, una estudiante de posgrado descubrió pistas de que estos objetos no son tan simples como se creía. Las nuevas observaciones, en las que se detectaron emisiones no térmicas de una nova clásica con un objeto compañero enano, se presentaron hoy durante la 242 asamblea de la Sociedad Astronómica de Estados Unidos, celebrada en Albuquerque (Nuevo México).

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Stony Brook University will soon deploy a new High-Performance Computing (HPC) system built using new technologies launched this year by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Intel. Stony Brook is the first academic institution in the United States to set up this new HPC solution that uses the Intel Xeon CPU Max series on HPE ProLiant servers.

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Research meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier, who previously held prominent national science and policy leadership roles, will join the Atmospheric Sciences faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on Aug. 16.

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Animals can defend themselves against their natural enemies in various ways. Well-defended species often share conspicuous body colors with other well-defended or undefended species, forming mimetic interactions.

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Several animal species display brood care, a phenomenon where ‘caring’ parents provide their offspring with food and protection against predators.

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New work led by Carnegie’s Phillip Cleves uses cutting-edge CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing tools to reveal a gene that’s critical to stony corals’ ability to build their reef architectures.

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At a time of growing interest in the potential role of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in medicine and healthcare, a new study finds that the groundbreaking ChatGPT chatbot performs poorly on a major specialty self-assessment tool, reports Urology Practice®, an Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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Jefferson Lab’s Superconducting Radiofrequency Operations team builds parts for accelerators around the world. Now, the team has achieved certification for its quality management system, signifying that the system meets the rigorous standards set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in its ISO 9001: 2015 standard.

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Michaela Hemming, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), is using a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO) fellowship to make advances in propulsion under the guidance of NASA engineers.Hemming has designed a small-scale rotating detonation engine (RDE) manufactured by NASA as part of a joint research effort.

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A successful long-term experiment with live hogs indicates Nebraska scientists may be another step closer to achieving a safe, long-lasting and potentially universal vaccine against swine flu.

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists found that a small tweak created big performance improvements in a type of solid-state battery, a technology considered vital to broader electric vehicle adoption.

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Our familiar, warm, yellow sun is a relative rarity in the Milky Way. By far the most common stars are considerably smaller and cooler, sporting just half the mass of our sun at most. Billions of planets orbit these common dwarf stars in our galaxy.

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A new paper in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health makes the case that pandemic prevention requires a global taboo whereby humanity agrees to leave bats alone—to let them have the habitats they need, undisturbed.

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Researchers at the University at Albany’s RNA Institute have demonstrated a new approach to DNA nanostructure assembly that does not require magnesium. The method improves the biostability of the structures, making them more useful and reliable in a range of applications.

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Elemental Analysis is so widely adopted that chemistry journals require this technique to publish any new compound. The standard of the value obtained being plus or minus of 0.4% of the formula value for a compound, as determined by elemental analysis, but is this long-accepted +/-0.4% standard accurate? Depending on the nature of the compound, element assessed, and identity of the trace impurities, the +/-0.4% requirement could be too high or too low, and that intrigued an international research team led by a Baylor University chemistry professor to conduct the first-ever review of the validity of the standard.

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Research shows that the natural peptide, called drosocin, protects fruit flies from bacterial infections by binding to ribosomes in bacteria. Once bound, drosocin prevents the ribosome from making new proteins.

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In collaboration with researchers at Purdue and Hamline Universities, Ivan Baxter, PhD, member, at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center will lead a four-year, $2.5 million project to expand scientific understanding of the genetic processes that allow plants to absorb and make use of elements.

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Researchers have shown that an automated cancer diagnostic method, which pairs cutting-edge ultrasound techniques with artificial intelligence, can accurately diagnose thyroid cancer, of which there are more than 40,000 new cases every year.

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Developing nations need greater visibility, acknowledgement and support for their research into the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to the authors of a major analysis of the past 15 years of worldwide research into SDGs.

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A research collaboration between Cornell and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems has found an efficient way to expand the collective behavior of swarming microrobots: Mixing different sizes of the micron-scale ‘bots enables them to self-organize into diverse patterns that can be manipulated when a magnetic field is applied. The technique even allows the swarm to “cage” passive objects and then expel them.

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Nuclei such as Indium-115 (In-115) are extremely long lived, with half-lives of more than 100 billion years. These nuclei allow scientists to probe elusive high energy nuclear states. In a new study, scientists theoretically determined the electron energy spectrum from decays of In-115 based on data collected in a specialized detector. The scientists also performed the world’s most precise measurement of the half-life of In-115.

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A University of Minnesota Twin Cities-led team has developed a more energy-efficient, tunable superconducting diode—a promising component for future electronic devices—that could help scale up quantum computers for industry and improve artificial intelligence systems.

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Scientists from the National University of Singapore have invented a powerful tool that captures data on immune cell response at a single-cell level. This groundbreaking technique will accelerate the discovery of new immunotherapies to treat diseases such as cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases.

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In a new study, researchers used machine learning to create and test a framework that quantifies personalized privacy risks; performs personalized data obfuscation; and accommodates a variety of risks, utilities, and acceptable levels of risk-utility tradeoff.

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Daniel Lidar, the Viterbi Professor of Engineering at USC and Director of the USC Center for Quantum Information Science & Technology, and first author Dr. Bibek Pokharel, a Research Scientist at IBM Quantum, achieved this quantum speedup advantage in the context of a “bitstring guessing game.” They managed strings up to 26 bits long, significantly larger than previously possible, by effectively suppressing errors typically seen at this scale. (A bit is a binary number that is either zero or one).

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Defense of the United States is an undertaking that requires the help of experts from a wide array of obviously related disciplines — physics, engineering, computer science, political science and more. One discipline that might not immediately come to mind is plant ecophysiology. But the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Tala Awada is leading the way.

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Fundamental research offers opportunities for new varieties of pigmented rice and a resource to address malnutrition.

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A team of researchers from EPFL have found a way to use the phenomenon of strong gravitational lensing to determine with precision – about 3 times more precise than any other technique – the mass of a galaxy containing a quasar, as well as their evolution in cosmic time.