Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 10, 2020 at 10:03am

Manmade mass now outweighs life on Earth: study

For the first time in history manmade materials now likely outweigh all life on Earth, scientists said recently in research detailing the "crossover point" at which humanity's footprint is heavier than that of the natural world.

The weight of roads, buildings and other constructed or manufactured materials is doubling roughly every 20 years, and authors of the research said it currently weighed 1.1 teratonnes (1.1 trillion tonnes).

As mankind has ramped up its insatiable consumption of natural resources, the weight of living biomass—trees, plants and animals—has halved since the agricultural revolution to stand at just 1 teratonne currently, the study found.

Estimating changes in global biomass and manmade mass since 1990, the research showed that the mass of human-produced objects stood at just three percent of the weight of biomass at the start of the 20th century.

But since the post-World War II global production boom, manufacturing has surged to the extent that humans now produce the equivalent of the weight of every person on Earth every week on average.

Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-3010-5 , www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-3010-5

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-manmade-mass-outweighs-life-earth.htm...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 10, 2020 at 8:40am

Space weather discovery puts 'habitable planets' at risk

A discovery that links stellar flares with radio-burst signatures will make it easier for astronomers to detect space weather around nearby stars outside the Solar System. Unfortunately, the first weather reports from our nearest neighbour, Proxima Centauri, are not promising for finding life as we know it.

Astronomers have recently found there are two 'Earth-like' rocky planets around Proxima Centauri, one within the 'habitable zone' where any water could be in liquid form. 

Proxima Centauri is just 4.2 light years from Earth.

But given Proxima Centauri is a cool, small red-dwarf star, it means this habitable zone is very close to the star; much closer in than Mercury is to our Sun.

Some present research shows is that this makes the planets very vulnerable to dangerous ionising radiation that could effectively sterilise the planets. astronomers have for the first time shown a definitive link between optical flares and radio bursts on a star that is not the Sun. The finding, published today in The Astrophysical Journal, is an important step to using radio signals from distant stars to effectively produce space weather reports.

 Astrophysical Journal (2020). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/abca90

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-space-weather-discovery-habitable-pla...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 9, 2020 at 11:06am

It's Not Just Humans. Sparrows Have Been Seen Using Preventative Medicine

 we might not be the only species that knows certain things in nature can help treat our ills.

A new correspondence paper has put forward the idea that russet sparrows (Passer cinnamomeus) in China are using wormwood (Artemisia verlotorum) leaves in their nest as a preventative medicine, to reduce parasites and help their babies get bigger.

The conclusion that animals can use medicinal plants to their benefit is not necessarily new
 Pregnant elephants in Kenya eat a particular leaf to induce birth, while many other mammals use medicinal plants to self-medicate – sometimes to prevent disease or just generally feel better from an ailment.

But it's still pretty amazing that a tiny sparrow might know that some plants are more important than others for protecting against disease.

"In China, russet sparrows incorporate wormwood leaves into their nests around the same time that local people hang wormwood from their doors as a traditional custom during the Dragon Boat Festival

The belief that this behaviour confers protection against ill health is supported by the description of anti-parasite compounds in wormwood. It has been suggested that the incorporation of fresh wormwood leaves into nests may serve a similar function for sparrows. the birds actively seek out nest locations close to the available wormwood and resupply established nests with fresh wormwood leaves gathered based solely on the leaves smell.

The nests containing wormwood leaves had lower parasite loads. By decreasing the number of parasites such as mites, the sparrows that add more wormwood leaves to their nest produce heavier and healthier chicks.

Sparrows use a medicinal herb to defend against parasites and increase offspring condition

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)31525-6

https://www.sciencealert.com/sparrows-have-been-seen-using-preventa...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 9, 2020 at 9:37am

Using targeted microbubbles to administer toxic cancer drugs

New research has shown how microbubbles carrying powerful cancer drugs can be guided to the site of a tumour using antibodies.

Microbubbles are small manufactured spheres half the size of a red blood cell—and scientists think they can be used to transport drugs to highly specific locations within the body.

Scientists have targeted microbubbles through the use of a 'navigational aid' - antibodies attracted to the growth hormone found in high levels in the blood vessels supplying a tumour.

The antibodies were attached to the microbubbles—and as a result of being attracted to the growth hormone, the microbubbles became concentrated at the site of the tumour. A pulse from an ultrasound device was used to burst open the microbubbles, and that released the anti-cancer agent.

One of the big problems with cancer drugs is that they are highly toxic to the rest of the body too. Microbubble technology allows us to use these very powerful drugs with precision and that reduces the risk of the drug damaging healthy cells nearby.

This work is about finely focused drug delivery. The animal-based study also revealed that by attaching the drug directly to the microbubbles allowed it to circulate in the body for longer, increasing delivery into the tumour—in effect making the drug more potent. As a result, the scientists were able to slow cancer growth with a much smaller drug dose.

Nicola Ingram et al, Ultrasound-triggered therapeutic microbubbles enhance the efficacy of cytotoxic drugs by increasing circulation and tumor drug accumulation and limiting bioavailability and toxicity in normal .tissues, Theranostics (2020). DOI: 10.7150/thno.49670

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-microbubbles-toxic-cancer-drugs.html?...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 9, 2020 at 9:30am

**Elementary particles part ways with their properties

Yakir Aharonov and Daniel Rohrlich What is nonlocal in counterfactual quantum communication?, Physical Review Letters, Accepted Manuscript. journals.aps.org/prl/accepted/ … bc9200223328b0ab042b

Arxiv: arxiv.org/abs/2011.11667

--

**Research: Millions of smart devices vulnerable to hacking

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-millions-smart-devices-vulnerab...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 8, 2020 at 11:35am

Scientists Discover an Unexpected Structure Hidden Inside Plant Cells

A team of researchers has just published a paper describing a surprising structure existing within an organelle – one that has remained hidden in plain sight for decades.

The organelle is called a peroxisome – a bubble-like single membrane filled with a granular protein matrix called a lumen. They aren't the most important cell machinery (not exactly a mitochondria or nucleus) but these very, very tiny cell organs have key roles in breaking down and synthesising molecules. Inside the peroxisomes of plant cells, researchers were surprised to find vesicles – something we didn't think the organelles had. Peroxisomes float around the cells of all multicellular organisms removing reactive molecules containing oxygen and helping break down fats. In humans and other mammals, they're only 0.1 micrometres – small enough that even with high power microscopes, there's not much to see. "Peroxisomes in yeast and mammalian cells are smaller than the resolution of light.

With fluorescence microscopy, you could only ever see a dot. That's just the limit that light can do.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20099-y

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-discover-surprise-structure...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 8, 2020 at 9:29am

The first observation of three massive gauge bosons produced in proton-proton collisions

The Standard Model, the most exhaustive existing theory outlining fundamental particle interactions, predicts the existence of what are known as triboson interactions. These interactions are processes in which three-gauge bosons are simultaneously produced from one Large Hadron Collider event.

Triboson interactions are incredibly rare, often up to hundreds of times rarer than Higgs boson events, as they typically take place once every 100 billion proton-proton collisions. Although the Standard Model predicts their existence, physicists had so far been unable to observe them experimentally.

The CMS Collaboration, a large group of researchers from numerous physics institutes worldwide have recently observed the production of three massive gauge bosons in proton-proton collisions for the first time ever. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, offers the first experimental evidence of the existence of triboson interactions, opening up new possibilities for the study the interactions between fundamental massive gauge bosons, namely the W±, Z, and Higgs boson.

Observation of the production of three massive gauge bosons at √s=13  TeV. Physical Review Letters(2020). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.151802.

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-triple-threat-massive-gauge-bosons.ht...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 8, 2020 at 9:21am

Reviving puppetry for science, technology communication

https://www.freepressjournal.in/bhopal/madhya-pradesh-reviving-pupp...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 8, 2020 at 7:46am

Research reveals how airflow inside a car may affect COVID-19 transmission risk

A new study of airflow patterns inside a car's passenger cabin offers some suggestions for potentially reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission while sharing rides with others.

The study used computer models to simulate the airflow inside a compact car with various combinations of windows open or closed. The simulations showed that opening windows—the more windows the better—created airflow patterns that dramatically reduced the concentration of airborne particles exchanged between a driver and a single passenger. Blasting the car's ventilation system didn't circulate air nearly as well as a few open windows, the researchers found.

Driving around with the windows up and the air conditioning or heat on is definitely the worst scenario, according to the computer simulations by this team.

The best scenario they found was having all four windows open, but even having one or two open was far better than having them all closed.

The researchers stress that there's no way to eliminate risk completely—and, of course, current guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) notes that postponing travel and staying home is the best way to protect personal and community health. The goal of the study was simply to study how changes in airflow inside a car may worsen or reduce risk of pathogen transmission.

Varghese Mathai et al, Airflows inside passenger cars and implications for airborne disease transmission, Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abe0166

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-car-pandemic-windows.html?utm_source=...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 7, 2020 at 10:51am

China turns on nuclear-powered 'artificial sun' (Update)

China successfully powered up its "artificial sun" nuclear fusion reactor for the first time, state media reported Friday, marking a great advance in the country's nuclear power research capabilities.

The HL-2M Tokamak reactor is China's largest and most advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device, and scientists hope that the device can potentially unlock a powerful clean energy source.

It uses a powerful magnetic field to fuse hot plasma and can reach temperatures of over 150 million degrees Celsius, according to the People's Daily—approximately ten times hotter than the core of the sun.

Located in southwestern Sichuan province and completed late last year, the reactor is often called an "artificial sun" on account of the enormous heat and power it produces.

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-china-nuclear-powered-artificial-sun....

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 681
• 682
• 683
• 684
• 685
• …
• 1054
• Next ›
• Page