Check out these new flying dinosaur bones

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popsci.com | Aug 14 @ 20:00

“Pterosaur bones are so uncommon. The Saints and Sinners Quarry is chock full of thousands and thousands of Triassic-era bones. Though better known as pterodactyls to the general public, pterosaurs are familiar to anyone with even a basic knowledge of paleontology. These flying dinosaurs seem to have been much more common and diverse than we thought. There are so many that researchers don’t just dig them out of the ground one at a time.

What you can do to prevent Google—and others—from tracking your phone

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popsci.com | Aug 14 @ 18:43

At the top of the Location page, there’s a toggle to switch off all location services. Step 2: For iPhones Managing what your iPhone knows about your location is a similar process: Go to Settings, Privacy, and then Location Services. Next, in the box below Web and App Activity, you’ll see another field called Location History. Take charge of whether or not Google, and other apps and services, is tracking your location. At the very bottom, click on Google Location History.

Chemicals found in vegetables prevent colon cancer in mice

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 18:36

This can restore epithelial cell differentiation, offering resistance to intestinal infections and preventing colon cancer. Chemicals produced by vegetables such as kale, cabbage and broccoli could help to maintain a healthy gut and prevent colon cancer, a new study from the Francis Crick Institute shows. Instead, they divide uncontrollably which can ultimately lead to colon cancer. "This suggests that even without genetic risk factors, a diet devoid of vegetable matter can lead to colon cancer. Preventing colon cancer"Seeing the profound effect of diet on gut inflammation and colon cancer was very striking," says senior author Dr Gitta Stockinger, Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute.

Zombie gene protects against cancer -- in elephants

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 18:36

The LIF6 gene makes a protein that goes, quite rapidly, to the mitochondria, the cell's main energy source. This gene enables humans and elephants to recognize unrepaired DNA damage, a precursor of cancer. This makes their cells significantly more sensitive to damaged DNA and quicker to engage in cellular suicide. They knew that humans, like all other animals, have one copy of the master tumor suppressor gene p53. Three years ago, research teams from the University of Chicago and the University of Utah, working separately, began to unravel why.

Deadly collapse in Italy turns spotlight onto aging bridges around the world

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popsci.com | Aug 14 @ 17:53

The bridge collapsed in the middle of a extremely wet and rainy day in Genoa. But problems with aging bridges are hardly unique to Italy. The paper also noted that a twin of the Genoa bridge, designed by the same engineer, partially collapsed in 1964 after being hit by an oil tanker. Reuters reported that restructuring work had taken place in 2016, and that work shoring up the bridges foundations was underway. Bridges in Italy have not fared well in recent years.

Bananas: your cousin, maybe?

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popsci.com | Aug 14 @ 16:58

Both fruit flies and humans, for instance, rely on the Wnt family of proteins to establish the back and belly of the embryo. All living thingsTo compare across distant species—whose codes diverge too greatly to lay side by side—scientists look for overlaps in the molecules DNA produces, such as proteins. Unique strings of these molecules, matched up in units called base pairs, form doubled DNA helixes, which serve as the recipes for all living things. A’s, T’s, G’s, and C’s are all it takes to make you, me, or a banana. Because the challenges of life—such as absorbing nutrients, replicating, and moving—are fairly consistent across organisms, there’s plenty of overlap between sequences.

Snake fungal disease alters skin microbiome in eastern Massasaugas

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 16:33

This species of endangered rattlesnake is highly susceptible to the fungal pathogen Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, which causes snake fungal disease (SFD). "Snake fungal disease has been identified in a number of snake species, but very little is known about contributing factors for infection. SFD results in disfiguring sores on snake skin, has a high mortality rate, and poses a significant threat to snake populations in North America and Europe. The study, which was recently published in Scientific Reports, a Nature research journal, focused on eastern massasaugas in Illinois. Findings related to the specific bacteria and fungi found in greater or lesser abundance depending on the disease status of the snake are detailed in the study.

Early opaque universe linked to galaxy scarcity

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 16:09

At that early time, however, the gas in deep space looked very different from one region of the universe to another. Because the gas in deep space is kept transparent by the ultraviolet light from galaxies, fewer galaxies nearby might make it murkier. By studying both galaxies and the gas in deep space, astronomers hope to get closer to understanding how this intergalactic ecosystem took shape in the early universe. "If you look in any direction you find, on average, roughly the same number of galaxies and similar properties for the gas between galaxies, the so-called intergalactic gas. In the first billion years after the Big Bang, ultraviolet light from the first galaxies filled the universe and permanently transformed the gas in deep space.

Meteorites May Have Created Some of Earth's Oldest Rocks

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scientificamerican.com | Aug 14 @ 15:45

Scientists think rocks from space may be responsible for the very oldest rocks on Earth. That’s according to new research published today (Aug. 13), which argues that meteorite bombardment is the most likely way to explain the temperature and pressure conditions under which 4.02-billion-year-old Canadian rocks formed. Specifically, the team looked at the chemical composition of those rocks and modeled what conditions rocks with that recipe could have formed under. Most of the rocks produced during that time have fallen back into the Earth’s interior through plate tectonics, melting away its identifiable characteristics. The research is described in a paper published today in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Origins and spread of Eurasian fruits traced to the ancient Silk Road

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 15:05

However, most historical discussions of the ancient Silk Road focus on the presence of East Asian goods in the Mediterranean or vice versa. Over the next few years, the research team expects that their research will better elucidate the nature of interaction and contact in the mountains of Central Asia. In his forthcoming book, "Fruit from the Sands," Spengler traces the spread of domesticated plants across Central Asia. The article shows the importance of archaeological research in Central Asia, highlighting its role in the development of cultures across the ancient world. These exchange routes functioned more like the spokes of a wagon wheel than a long-distance road, placing Central Asia at the heart of the ancient world.

Magnetic gene in fish may someday help those with epilepsy, Parkinson's

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 15:05

An aquarium fish that senses the Earth's magnetic field as it swims could help unlock how the human brain works and how diseases such as Parkinson's and other neurological disorders function. Michigan State University scientists are the first to discover a navigational gene in glass catfish called the electromagnetic-perceptive gene, or EPG, that responds to certain magnetic waves. "A person suffering Parkinson's disease tremors, for example, could have the gene injected into a specific location or subset of cells in the brain. A magnet that emits electromagnetic waves in an eyeglass frame could then activate the gene to help control, if not stop, the tremors. "The researchers said their next steps are to figure out what makes the electromagnetic-perceptive gene so sensitive to these magnetic waves.

Unraveling the nature of 'whistlers' from space in the lab

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 15:05

"Whistler waves are considered a form of helicon waves, or low-frequency electromagnetic waves that travel in a corkscrewlike, or helixlike, pattern. "We have discovered new effects of these so-called whistler waves," said Reiner Stenzel, an author on the paper. "These new laboratory studies will help expand our knowledge on this intriguing electromagnetic phenomenon and suggest new applications and possible inventions. Stenzel and his co-author, Manuel Urrutia, studied the growth, propagation and decay of whistler waves in nonuniform magnetic fields in their laboratory. "Whistler waves were first detected in the early 1900s.

Medicaid expansion states see rise in coverage for low income adults with substance use disorders

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:42

Yet while more in the group were covered in Medicaid expansion states than those living elsewhere, Medicaid expansion states saw no corresponding increase in substance use treatment. Before the 2014 Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion, most low-income people in need of substance use disorder treatment were ineligible for Medicaid. The percentage of low-income residents with substance use disorders without coverage decreased from 34 percent in 2013 to 20 percent in 2015 within states that had implemented Medicaid expansion -- or expansion states -- compared to 45 percent to 39 percent in non-expansion states. They focused on four substance use disorders: alcohol, cannabis, heroin, and cocaine. Although insurance coverage may be necessary, it is often not sufficient for people to seek help for their substance use problems.

New approach to treating chronic itch

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:42

In their experiments, the pharmacologists were able to show that it not only suppresses acute itch, but is also effective against chronic itch. In a series of experiments in mice and dogs they successfully alleviated different forms of acute as well as chronic itch. " At the same time the findings should be very valuable for veterinary medicine, since: "Like humans, dogs also often suffer from chronic itch. Two receptors in the spinal cord and the right experimental drug: Researchers at the University of Zurich have discovered a new approach that suppresses itch. It is with these GABA receptors that for example benzodiazepines, a class of drugs used to treat insomnia, anxiety or epilepsy, interact.

How MERS Coronavirus evolves to infect different species

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:42

They then grew virus on cells that had vampire bat receptors and observed the virus evolving to better infect the cells. While many other coronaviruses in nature are not known to infect people, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV are notable for their ability to infect a variety of different species, including humans. To cause infection, a virus must first attach to a receptor molecule on cells of the host species. To evaluate how MERS-CoV evolves to infect host cells, the scientists tested 16 bat species and found that the virus could not efficiently enter cells with receptors from the common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus. Thus, while these two viruses are different, they use the same general approach to enter the cells of new species.

Effects of climate warming seen in tallgrass prairie ecosystem

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:42

A University of Oklahoma professor, Jizhong Zhou, and his team have completed a new study on the effects of climate warming on soil microbes in a long-term climate change experiment at a tallgrass prairie ecosystem. The new study shows that climate warming will affect microbial communities in the future, and future community states will be more predictable under warmed climate. Eventually, microbial communities will produce different functions and feedbacks to climate warming. Zhou and an OU team of researchers collaborated on this study with researchers from Central South University, Tsinghua University, China, and Michigan State University. "Understanding the responses and adaptations of biological communities to environmental changes, especially anthropogenic changes, is very challenging.

Models give synthetic biologists a head start

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:42

"This provides a way of designing and constructing large synthetic gene circuits more efficiently," Bennett said. "One of the first problems in synthetic biology was just getting enough parts to assemble larger circuits," Bennett said. "In the same way that we can predict how electronic circuits work before we build them by modeling them in computers, now we can do that with these gene circuits as well. The models used information from the input/output relations of simple, stand-alone circuits, and then predict how they'll work in combination. Combining data from several circuits allowed researchers to accurately predict the on-off responses in two-input circuits with two chimeras.

Potential guidance for gastric cancer treatment

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:42

In both, gastric cancer samples with MUC16 mutations exhibited significantly greater tumor mutation burdens than those without MUC16 mutations. There, they collected and stored cancer tissues with annotated clinical information, as well as conducted research on gastric cancer, currently the world's fifth most common cancer and its third leading cause of cancer death. Their findings, for example, could serve to open immunotherapy options for up to 38% of gastric cancer patients. The findings were published in the newest online edition of JAMA Oncology, based on an analysis of 437 gastric cancer tissue samples from the National Institutes of Health's Cancer Genome Atlas in the United States and 256 gastric cancer tissue samples from an Asian cohort comprised of multiple sources, including particularly TMUCIH's Tissue Banking Facility (TBF) in China. Researchers from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital (TMUCIH) have discovered that gastric cancer tissue samples bearing mutation of a specific gene, MUC16, too are associated with higher tumor mutation loads.

Security gaps identified in Internet protocol 'IPsec'

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:42

Secure and encrypted communicationAs an enhancement of Internet protocol (IP), "IPsec" has been developed to ensure cryptographically secure communication via publicly accessible resp. In collaboration with colleagues from Opole University in Poland, researchers at Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security (HGI) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have demonstrated that the Internet protocol "IPsec" is vulnerable to attacks. Automated key management and authentication, for example via passwords or digital signatures, can be conducted via the Internet Key Exchange protocol "IKEv1. The Internet Key Exchange protocol "IKEv1," which is part of the protocol family, has vulnerabilities that enable potential attackers to interfere with the communication process and intercept specific information. Nevertheless, the researchers' successful attack has demonstrated that established protocols such as "IPsec" still include the Bleichenbacher gap that makes them potentially vulnerable to attack.

Natural refrigerant replacements could reduce energy costs and conserve the environment

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:41

Recently, a team of Iranian researchers investigated how natural refrigerants could replace CFCs, HCFCs and HFCs in geothermal heat pumps to reduce energy consumption and operating costs. "A solution to reduce energy consumption in heat pumps is using the earth as a renewable heat source/sink to both increase efficiency and create a diversity of energy sources. The researchers also examined the environmental and economic benefits of zeotropic and azeotropic refrigerants, as well as natural refrigerants. Geothermal heat pumps extract heat from the ground (in the winter) and dissipate heat to the ground (in the summer) by circulating fluid such as water through buried pipes. Many heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems still use these synthetic refrigerants that violate those international agreements and inflict environmental damage.

Inching closer to a soft spot in isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:41

That is, the genetic change that makes TB resistant to isoniazid actually hinders production of that key TB protein. The team's results, including new information about a potential TB soft spot, recently were published in the journal Molecular & Cellular Proteomics. In fact, it takes only a single genetic mutation to grant TB resistance to isoniazid, one of the first-line antibiotics. The resistant patient strain was much less deadly than its parent strain, but the resistant mouse strain wasn't that different from its parent in terms of virulence. The researchers also examined TB strains, both responsive and resistant to the antibiotic, that had developed in another lab in a mouse model of infection.

Light-engineered bacterial shapes could hold key to future labs-on-a-chip

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:41

Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria are known to be fantastic swimmers. "We wanted to exploit this phenomenon to see if we could shape the concentration of bacteria using light. Scientists have used light patterns to control the swimming speed of bacteria and direct them to form different shapes, according to a new study in the journal eLife. Recently, scientists found a protein (proteorhodopsin) in ocean-dwelling bacteria that allows them to power their propellers using light. After four minutes, a recognisable bacterial replica of Leonardo da Vinci's painting could be seen, with brighter areas corresponding to regions of accumulated bacterial cells.

Cancer-fighting drugs also help plants fight disease

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:41

Cancer-fighting drugs used on humans can help plants fight disease as well. "We didn't expect anticancer drugs to help plants fight pathogens. "Unusual originsThis research didn't start with the goal of seeing what happened when you applied anticancer drugs to plants. "We think this will have important impacts for growers that will help better fight pathogens in the near future. "Then they used the drug in much smaller concentrations on the pea plants than what is used to fight cancer.

Diving robots find Antarctic winter seas exhale surprising amounts of carbon dioxide

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:41

The data was gathered through the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling (SOCCOM) project based at Princeton University. More than 100 oceanic floats are now diving and drifting in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica during the peak of winter. Results show that in winter the open water nearest the sea ice surrounding Antarctica releases significantly more carbon dioxide than previously believed. The new paper uses the pH measurements to calculate the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide, and then uses that to figure out how strongly the water is absorbing or emitting carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. "There is definitely strong variability on decadal scales in the Southern Ocean," Gray said.

Deaths from resident-to-resident incidents in dementia offers insights to inform policy

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:41

"The most common exhibitor-target dyad was man to man (approximately 50 percent) followed by man to woman (24 percent) and woman to woman (21 percent). " - Evenings (44 percent) were the most common time for incidents to occur, with 38 percent of all incidents occurring on weekends. "We need to develop a data-driven national action plan to reduce these incidents and ensure that frail and vulnerable residents will remain safe in the last years of their lives. "Caspi points out that his findings are not meant to suggest that residents with dementia are inherently "aggressive," "abusive," "violent," or "dangerous. In addition, stronger measures to prevent residents' unwanted entries into other residents' bedrooms (including the use of assistive technology) could reduce these incidents.

Workplace bias differs for single versus married parents

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sciencedaily.com | Aug 14 @ 14:41

In other words, while the motherhood penalty holds for married mothers, it disappears in the subsample of single mothers. "The penalty does not apply for single mothers the way it applies for married mothers," Abromaviciute said. "One caveat I'm making is that the single parents in this study were presented as driven, ambitious and accomplished," she said. In an experimental study, Abromaviciute found that when parents are not married, the motherhood penalty and fatherhood premium seem to disappear. Most existing research on the motherhood penalty and fatherhood premium doesn't explicitly take into consideration parents' marital status.

Air traffic controller training makes emergencies seem ordinary

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popsci.com | Aug 14 @ 14:32

While the Horizon Air incident is still under investigation by the FBI, outside air traffic control experts say it was all in a day’s work. Radio recordings of Russell’s communications with the air traffic control center went viral on Twitter and have since been shared selectively by the press. From the tarmac to the point of departure, planes are guided by an airport’s air traffic control tower. “But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t extraordinary.” Not every situation is handled so sure-handedly, she adds, but air traffic controllers have one thing on their side: extensive training. Not all air traffic controllers work in towers.

Warming Is Worsening Wildfires, but Not Everywhere or Every Time

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scientificamerican.com | Aug 14 @ 13:15

The progression of climate change is altering background weather and climate factors that contribute to wildfires in many places. Although experts are confident climate change is a major influence, they also point out that wildfires are among the most complex natural disasters on the planet. A 2016 study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that climate change has been worsening wildfires in the western United States for decades by drying out local vegetation. That doesn’t mean wildfires in individual regions aren’t increasing in response to climate change. And Moritz noted that, as climate change continues to alter the background conditions necessary for wildfires, changes in community development plans might be more warranted.

The best gear for going back to school

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popsci.com | Aug 14 @ 13:15

Rocketbook Everlast Smart Notebook Amazon Buy Now! The set comes in four colors—red, pink, purple, and orange—so you can color-code your classes. This set comes with two nylon oxford fabric bags with two zippered compartments each. Ember temperature-control mug Amazon Buy Now! The notebook comes with one pen.


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