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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 30, 2021 at 7:49am

Researchers develop smartphone-based COVID-19 test that delivers results in about 10 minutes

Researchers at the University of Arizona are developing a COVID-19 testing method that uses a smartphone microscope to analyze saliva samples and deliver results in about 10 minutes.

The research team aims to combine the speed of existing nasal swab antigen tests with the high accuracy of nasal swab PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, tests. The researchers are adapting an inexpensive method that they originally created to detect norovirus—the microbe famous for spreading on cruise ships—using a smartphone microscope.

Nature Protocols (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41596-020-00460-7

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-smartphone-based-covid-resul...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 29, 2021 at 10:23am

Drugs used to treat HIV and flu can have detrimental impact on crops

The increased global use of antiviral and antiretroviral medication could have a detrimental impact on crops and potentially heighten resistance to their effects, new research has suggested.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 29, 2021 at 10:17am

Turning food waste back into food

There's a better end for used food than taking up space in landfills and contributing to global warming.

Scientists have discovered fermented food waste can boost bacteria that increase crop growth, making plants more resistant to pathogens and reducing carbon emissions from farming.

Since the plants in this experiment were grown in a greenhouse, the benefits of the waste products were preserved within a closed watering system. The plant roots received a fresh dose of the treatment each time they were watered.

Deborah Pagliaccia et al, Two Food Waste By-Products Selectively Stimulate Beneficial Resident Citrus Host-Associated Microbes in a Zero-Runoff Indoor Plant Production System, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (2020). DOI: 10.3389/fsufs.2020.593568

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 29, 2021 at 10:13am

First evidence that water can be created on the lunar surface by Earth's magnetosphere

Before the Apollo era, the moon was thought to be dry as a desert due to the extreme temperatures and harshness of the space environment. Many studies have since discovered lunar water: ice in shadowed polar craters, water bound in volcanic rocks, and unexpected rusty iron deposits in the lunar soil. Despite these findings, there is still no true confirmation of the extent or origin of lunar surface water.

The prevailing theory is that positively charged hydrogen ions propelled by the solar wind bombard the lunar surface and spontaneously react to make water (as hydroxyl (OH^-) and molecular (H₂O)). However, a new multinational study published in Astrophysical Journal Letters proposes that solar wind may not be the only source of water-forming ions. The researchers show that particles from Earth can seed the moon with water, as well, implying that other planets could also contribute water to their satellites.

Earth wind as a possible source of lunar surface hydration. arxiv.org/abs/1903.04095

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-evidence-lunar-surface-earth-magnetos...

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Though the solar wind is a likely source for lunar surface water, computer models predict that up to half of it should evaporate and disappear at high-latitude regions during the approximately three days of the full moon when it passes within Earth's magnetosphere.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 28, 2021 at 12:13pm

Purported phosphine on Venus more likely to be ordinary sulfur diox...

In September, a team led by astronomers in the United Kingdom announced that they had detected the chemical phosphine in the thick clouds of Venus. The team's reported detection, based on observations by two Earth-based radio telescopes, surprised many Venus experts. Earth's atmosphere contains small amounts of phosphine, which may be produced by life. Phosphine on Venus generated buzz that the planet, often succinctly touted as a "hellscape," could somehow harbor life within its acidic clouds.

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Researchers realizing the limitless possibilities of wearable elect...

Benoît Lessard and his team are developing carbon-based technologies which could lead to improved flexible phone displays, make robotic skin more sensitive and allow for wearable electronics that could monitor the physical health of athletes in real-time.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 28, 2021 at 12:10pm

World's largest opinion survey on climate change: Majority call for wide-ranging action

The results of the Peoples' Climate Vote, the world's biggest ever survey of public opinion on climate change are published yesterday (27/1/2021). Covering 50 countries with over half of the world's population, the survey includes over half a million people under the age of 18, a key constituency on climate change that is typically unable to vote yet in regular elections. 

Results show that people often want broad climate policies beyond the current state of play. For example, in eight of the ten survey countries with the highest emissions from the power sector, majorities backed more renewable energy. In four out of the five countries with the highest emissions from land-use change and enough data on policy preferences, there was majority support for conserving forests and land. Nine out of ten of the countries with the most urbanized populations backed more use of clean electric cars and buses, or bicycles.

https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/news-centre/news/2021/Wor...

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-world-largest-opinion-survey-climate....

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 28, 2021 at 12:05pm

How heavy is dark matter? Scientists radically narrow the potential mass range for the first time

Scientists have calculated the mass range for Dark Matter—and it's tighter than the science world thought.

The findings—due to be published in Physics Letters B in March—radically narrow the range of potential masses for Dark Matter particles, and help to focus the search for future Dark Matter-hunters. The  researchers used the established fact that gravity acts on Dark Matter just as it acts on the visible universe to work out the lower and upper limits of Dark Matter's mass.

The results show that Dark Matter cannot be either 'ultra-light' or 'super-heavy', as some have theorized, unless an as-yet undiscovered force also acts upon it.

The team used the assumption that the only force acting on Dark Matter is gravity, and calculated that Dark Matter particles must have a mass between 10^-3 eV and 10⁷ eV. That's a much tighter range than the 10^-24 eV—10¹⁹ GeV spectrum which is generally theorized.

What makes the discovery even more significant is that if it turns out that the mass of Dark Matter is outside of the range predicted by the Sussex team, then it will also prove that an additional force—as well as gravity—acts on Dark Matter.

This is the first time that anyone has thought to use what we know about quantum gravity as a way to calculate the mass range for Dark Matter.

 Xavier Calmet et al, Theoretical bounds on dark matter masses, Physics Letters B (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2021.136068

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-heavy-dark-scientists-radically-narro...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 28, 2021 at 11:46am

Electronic Tattoo - Science of Innovation

Electronic transfer tattoo with a crease amplification effect

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-01-electronic-tattoo-crease-amplif...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 28, 2021 at 11:37am

On nights before a full moon, people go to bed later and sleep less, study shows

New research indicates that our planet's celestial companion impacts something else entirely—our sleep.

Scientists report that sleep cycles in people oscillate during the 29.5-day lunar cycle: In the days leading up to a full moon, people go to sleep later in the evening and sleep for shorter periods of time. The research team, led by UW professor of biology Horacio de la Iglesia, observed these variations in both the time of sleep onset and the duration of sleep in urban and rural settings—from Indigenous communities in northern Argentina to college students in Seattle, a city of more than 750,000. They saw the oscillations regardless of an individual's access to electricity, though the variations are less pronounced in individuals living in urban environments.

The pattern's ubiquity may indicate that our natural circadian rhythms are somehow synchronized with—or entrained to—the phases of the lunar cycle. And although the effect is more robust in communities without access to electricity, the effect is present in communities with electricity.

How phases of the moon can affect your sleep

L. Casiraghi el al., "Moonstruck sleep: Synchronization of human sleep with the moon cycle under field conditions," Science Advances (2021). advances.sciencemag.org/lookup … .1126/sciadv.abe0465

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-nights-full-moon-people-bed.html?utm_...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 28, 2021 at 11:30am

Cell death shines a light on the origins of complex life

Organelles continue to thrive after the cells within which they exist die, a team of scientists have found, overturning previous assumptions that organelles decay too quickly to be fossilized.

Researchers from  were able to document the decay process of eukaryotic algal cells, showing that nuclei, chloroplasts and pyrenoids (organelles found within chloroplasts) can persist for weeks and months after cell death in eukaryote cells, long enough to be preserved as fossils.

The research found that organelles don't decay immediately after cell death, but actually take many weeks to dissolve. The results of these experiments shed light on the controversial fossils of early complex life that include structures within the cells.

The structures in Shuiyousphaeridium, a fossil from 1,700 million years ago, closely resemble nuclei. This interpretation has previously been dismissed because of the assumed rapid decay of nuclei. the new decay experiments have shown that nuclei can persist for several weeks, meaning the structures in Shuiyousphaeridium are likely to be nuclei.

By revealing the decay patterns of organelles, the study's authors say they can demonstrate the presence of complex life to 1,700 million years ago, helping to elucidate their evolutionary history with greater precision and clarity.

"Experimental taphonomy of organelles and the fossil record of early eukaryote evolution" Sciences Advances, advances.sciencemag.org/lookup … .1126/sciadv.abe9487

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-cell-death-complex-life.html?utm_sour...

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