Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 28, 2022 at 6:34am

Heat flow shown to be more efficient when temperature is oscillatin...

A team of researchers from the Institute of Scientific Instruments working with a colleague from Charles University, both in the Czech Republic, has shown that heat flows more efficiently when the temperature of the material through which it is flowing oscillates, as opposed to remaining steady. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes experiments they conducted with heating and cooling helium in a container and its relevance to a theory proposed just two years ago.

--

Discovery of the one-way superconductor, thought to be impossible

Associate professor Mazhar Ali and his research group at TU Delft have discovered one-way superconductivity without magnetic fields, something that was thought to be impossible ever since its discovery in 1911—up until now. The discovery, published in Nature, makes use of 2D quantum materials and paves the way toward superconducting computing. Superconductors can make electronics hundreds of times faster, all with zero energy loss. Ali: "If the 20th century was the century of semiconductors, the 21st can become the century of the superconductor."

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 28, 2022 at 6:25am

Study identifies causes of cancer

A team of  researchers can now quantify the factors causing changes in the DNA that contribute most to cancer growth in tumors of most major tumor types.

They write in a new paper, published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, that their new molecular analysis approach brings clarity to a longstanding debate over how much control humans have over developing cancer across time.

Looking at the instances of specific genetic mutations can reveal the extent to which preventable exposures like ultraviolet light caused tumor growth in 24 cancers.

We can now answer the question—to the best of our knowledge—'What is the underlying source of the key mutations that changed those cells to become a cancer instead of remaining normal tissue'.

Previously, scientists have shown that they can reliably predict how certain factors that cause specific mutations that alter the genome in tissues. By combining this knowledge with their method that quantifies the contribution of each mutation to cancer, researchers showed the specific percentage of the blame to be assigned to known and unknown but identified factors in the emergence of cancer.

This work now done is really direct: scientists look in your tumor, and they see the signal written in your tumor of what caused that cancer.

They write in their report that some cancers are more controllable than others.For example, preventable factors account for a large part of the formation of tumors of the bladder and skin. However, they found that prostate cancers and gliomas are largely attributable due to internal age-associated processes.

Attribution of cancer origins to endogenous, exogenous, and preventable mutational processes, Molecular Biology And Evolution (2022). DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msac084

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04-cancer.html?utm_source=nwlet...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 28, 2022 at 6:16am

Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste

An enzyme variant created by engineers and scientists  can break down environment-throttling plastics that typically take centuries to degrade in just a matter of hours to days.

This discovery, published recently in Nature, could help solve one of the world's most pressing environmental problems: what to do with the billions of tons of plastic waste piling up in landfills and polluting our natural lands and water. The enzyme has the potential to supercharge recycling on a large scale that would allow major industries to reduce their environmental impact by recovering and reusing plastics at the molecular level.

The project focuses on polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a significant polymer found in most consumer packaging, including cookie containers, soda bottles, fruit and salad packaging, and certain fibers and textiles. It makes up 12% of all global waste.

The enzyme was able to complete a "circular process" of breaking down the plastic into smaller parts (depolymerization) and then chemically putting it back together (repolymerization). In some cases, these plastics can be fully broken down to monomers in as little as 24 hours.

Hal Alper, Machine learning-aided engineering of hydrolases for PET depolymerization, Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04599-z. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04599-z

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-plastic-eating-enzyme-billions-tons-l...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 28, 2022 at 6:07am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 28, 2022 at 6:06am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 26, 2022 at 9:49am

Scientists discover how salt in tumors could help diagnose and treat breast cancer

Analyzing sodium levels in breast cancer tumors can give an accurate indication of how aggressive a cancer is and whether chemotherapy treatments are taking effect, new research has shown.

In this new study, researchers developed a technique using sodium magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect salt levels in breast cancer tumours in mice.

Using this technique, the researchers looked at breast cancer tumours and discovered that salt (sodium) was being accumulated inside cancer cells and that more active tumors accumulate more sodium.

The researchers then took a group of 18 tumors and targeted some of them with chemotherapy treatment. When they scanned the tumors a week later they found that sodium levels had reduced in the tumors treated with chemotherapy.

Imaging salt levels could be a vital new tool to help diagnose and monitor breast cancer, the researchers say. The team is now conducting an observational study to see if their results can be replicated in human breast cancer patients.

Andrew D. James et al, Sodium accumulation in breast cancer predicts malignancy and treatment response, British Journal of Cancer (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41416-022-01802-w

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04-scientists-salt-tumors-breas...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 26, 2022 at 9:23am

Physicists calculated the scattering process for two gluons interacting to produce four gluons, as well as the scattering process for two gluons interacting to produce a gluon and a Higgs particle, both in a slightly simplified version of the standard model. To their surprise, they found that the results of these two calculations are related. A classical case of duality. Somehow, the answer for how likely it is for one scattering process to happen carries within it the answer for how likely it is for the other scattering process to happen. The strange thing about this duality is that we don't know why this relation between the two different scattering processes exists. Physicists are mixing two very different physical properties of the two predictions, and they see the relation, but it is still a bit of a mystery wherein the connection lies.

According to current understanding, the two should not be connected—but with the discovery of this surprising duality, the only proper way to react to it is to investigate further.

Lance J. Dixon et al, Folding Amplitudes into Form Factors: An Antipodal Duality, Physical Review Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.111602

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-duality-theoretical-particle-physics....

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 26, 2022 at 9:21am

New  duality found in theoretical particle physics

A new and surprising duality has been discovered in theoretical particle physics. The duality exists between two types of scattering processes that can occur in the proton collisions made in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland and France. The fact that this connection can, surprisingly, be made points to the fact that there is something in the intricate details of the standard model of particle physics that is not fully understood. The standard model is the model of the world on sub-atomic scale that explains all particles and their interactions, so when surprises appear, there is cause for attention. The scientific article is now published in Physical Review Letters.

The concept of duality occurs in different areas of physics. The most well known duality is probably the particle-wave duality in quantum mechanics. The famous double-slit experiment shows that light behaves like a wave, while Albert Einstein received his Nobel prize for showing that light behaves like a particle.

The strange thing is that light is actually both and neither of the two at the same time. There are simply two ways we can look at this entity, light, and each comes with a mathematical description. Both with a completely different intuitive idea, but still describe the same thing.

What physicists have now found is a similar duality. They calculated the prediction for one scattering process and for another scattering process.

Their current calculations are less experimentally tangible than the famous double slit experiment, but there is a clear mathematical map between the two, and it shows that they both contain the same information. They are linked, somehow.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 26, 2022 at 8:45am

New discoveries about the origin of the brain's immune system

What gets into the brain and what doesn't is strictly regulated. Researchers  have now studied phagocytes that coat the blood vessels in the brain and reinforce the blood-brain barrier. As the scientists have shown, these cells only mature fully after birth according to a defined step-by-step developmental program. Until now, it had been assumed that this process was completed during embryonic development. Their studies, which were published in the journal Nature on April 20, 2022, were initially carried out on genetically modified mouse lines and were confirmed on human samples. They are expected to provide important insights into the development and treatment of diseases of the brain.

Researchers  were able to show that the immune cells we studied migrate from the cerebral membrane to the blood vessels in the brain shortly before birth and mature there. This process is probably not completed until weeks after birth and could partly explain why the brain is so vulnerable at the beginning of life.

The late timing of the maturation of the phagocytes, also called macrophages, was very surprising , since the precursor cells are already present in the brain long before. In addition, the scientists were able to show for the first time that the vessels, as structure-giving cells of the brain, send important signals for normal development of the brain's macrophages.

The blood-brain barrier is formed by cells on the blood vessels of the brain. They control which substances can enter the brain and which cannot. This protects the brain from harmful substances and pathogens. The blood-brain barrier is particularly permeable in the case of infectious diseases, certain brain tumors and oxygen deficiency.

Significance for Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and more
In addition to the blood-brain barrier, the immune cells scientists studied control what can reach the brain cells from the blood, they eat pathogens and prevent excessive inflammation. They are also involved in the development of cancer, Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis. These findings could be important for a better understanding of these diseases and future therapies.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04596-2

https://researchnews.cc/news/12820/New-discoveries-about-the-origin...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 25, 2022 at 8:30am

Elephant trunk 

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 271
• 272
• 273
• 274
• 275
• …
• 851
• Next ›
• Page