Science Daily

A team has found that high resolution mass spectrometry could be a valuable tool for identifying and assessing air-borne contaminants produced by natural and human-made disasters.

During pregnancy, the effects of therapeutical doses of amphetamine have been investigated on birth outcomes in humans. However, a thorough investigation of the mechanisms underlying the long-term effects of embryonal exposure to addictive doses of amphetamine remains largely unexplored. Using a tiny worm, researchers have revealed the underlying mechanisms of embryonal exposure to methamphetamine (Meth) and amphetamines, a psychostimulant used to treat a variety of brain dysfunctions.

This fossil looks like a lumpy, rounded rock with a couple of exposed teeth that are a little worse for wear, having been submerged and tumbled along the floor of the Gulf of Mexico for thousands of years before washing up on a beach. But when it was X-rayed a doctoral student saw there was more to the fossil that met the eye: a hidden canine tooth that had not yet erupted from the jaw bone. It was just what researchers needed to identify the fossil as belonging to a Homotherium, a genus of large cat that roamed much of the Earth for millions of years.

New research sheds light on how individual neurons in the hippocampus of rats stabilize and tune spatial representations during periods of rest following the animals' first time running a maze, offering first proof of neuroplasticity during sleep.

Researchers are building out the repertoire of chemical reactions, using light. They report a method using photobiocatalysis to produce non-canonical (not naturally occurring) amino acids that are valuable building blocks of peptide therapeutics, bioactive natural products and novel functional proteins.

A technical achievement marks a significant advance in the burgeoning field of observing individual molecules without the aid of fluorescent labels. While these labels are useful in many applications, they alter molecules in ways that can obscure how they naturally interact with one another. The new label-free method makes the molecules so easy to detect, it is almost as if they had labels.

When we're told 'This coffee is hot' upon being served a familiar caffeinated beverage at our local diner or cafe, the message is clear. But what about when we're told 'This coffee is not hot'? Does that mean we think it's cold? Or room temperature? Or just warm? A team of scientists has now identified how our brains work to process phrases that include negation (i.e., 'not'), revealing that it mitigates rather than inverts meaning -- in other words, in our minds, negation merely reduces the temperature of our coffee and does not make it 'cold.'

In a finding that vastly expands the understanding of tumor evolution, researchers discover genetic biomarkers that can predict the breast cancer subtype a patient is likely to develop.

New research demonstrated a possible formation mechanism of intermediate-mass black holes in globular clusters, star clusters that could contain tens of thousands or even millions of tightly packed stars. The first ever star-by-star massive cluster-formation simulations revealed that sufficiently dense molecular clouds, the 'birthing nests' of star clusters, can give birth to very massive stars that evolve into intermediate-mass black holes.

Humans may be accelerating the rate at which organic matter decomposes in rivers and streams on a global scale, according to a new study. That could pose a threat to biodiversity in waterways around the world and increase the amount of carbon in Earth's atmosphere, potentially exacerbating climate change. The study is the first to combine a global experiment and predictive modeling to illustrate how human impacts to waterways may contribute to the global climate crisis.

A great armada entered the North Atlantic, launched from the cold shores of North America. But rather than ships off to war, this force was a fleet of icebergs. And the havoc it wrought was to the ocean current itself. The future of the Atlantic circulation will be determined by a tug-o-war between Greenland's decreasing ice flux and its increasing freshwater runoff.

Reaserchers have created a prototype for what they call 'living bioelectronics': a combination of living cells, gel, and electronics that can integrate with living tissue. Tests in mice found that the devices could continuously monitor and improve psoriasis-like symptoms, without irritating skin.

Scientists studying ultra-processed foods have created a new tool for assessing the rewarding and reinforcing properties of foods that make up 58 percent of calories consumed in the United States. The foods have been linked to a wide range of negative health outcomes.

The formation of aggregates due to protein misfolding and resulting protein instability is associated with several diseases. Previous studies have shown the potential of sulfobetaine polymer, a zwitterionic polymer, to suppress protein aggregation. Now, researchers elucidate the mechanism underlying this process and show ways to optimize protein stabilization using these polymers. Going ahead, future therapies may be able to prevent or reverse diseases like Alzheimer's by building on the unique ability of zwitterionic polymers.

Engineers have helped design a new method to make hydrogen gas from water using only solar power and agricultural waste such as manure or husks. The method reduces the energy needed to extract hydrogen from water by 600%, creating new opportunities for sustainable, climate-friendly chemical production.

Findings showed that how tight a parental T cell binds to a cancer-related protein determines whether its offspring will become functional anti-cancer effector cells or dysfunctional 'exhausted' T cells.

A team of researchers have developed a new machine-learning method that detects hate speech on social media platforms with 88 per cent accuracy, saving employees from hundreds of hours of emotionally damaging work.

Over the last two years, scientists have used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to explore what astronomers refer to as Cosmic Dawn -- the period in the first few hundred million years after the big bang where the first galaxies were born.

Research reveals taking pictures of food isn't just content for our social media feeds, but could be the key to improving people's diets.

Cultivating creativity in schools is vital for a future driven by artificial intelligence (AI). But while teachers embrace creativity as an essential 21st century skill, a lack of valid and reliable creativity tests means schools struggle to assess student achievement. Now, a new machine-learning model is providing teachers with access to high-quality, fit-for-purpose creativity tests, that can score assessments in a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost.