Science Daily

For over a century, researchers have thought that the patterns of brain activity that define our experiences, hopes and dreams are determined by how different brain regions communicate with each other through a complex web of trillions of cellular connections. Now, a study has examined more than 10,000 different maps of human brain activity and found that the overall shape of a person's brain exerts a far greater influence on how we think, feel and behave than its intricate neuronal connectivity.

A team of researchers has created a new class of titanium alloys that are strong and not brittle under tension, by integrating alloy and 3D-printing process designs. They say they embedded circular economy thinking in their design, creating great promise for producing their new titanium alloys from industrial waste and low-grade materials.

Rare earth elements, like neodymium and dysprosium, are a critical component to almost all modern technologies, from smartphones to hard drives, but they are notoriously hard to separate from the Earth's crust and from one another. Scientists have discovered a new mechanism by which bacteria can select between different rare earth elements, using the ability of a bacterial protein to bind to another unit of itself, or 'dimerize,' when it is bound to certain rare earths, but prefer to remain a single unit, or 'monomer,' when bound to others.

Researchers have partnered to create a first-of-its-kind open-source, reproducible analysis platform for pediatric brain tumors. With the help of thousands of genomically sequenced samples, researchers have used this platform to identify initial findings about genetic variants associated with poorer outcomes that could help guide future diagnostic and therapeutic advances.

Scientists have taken the world's first X-ray SIGNAL (or SIGNATURE) of just one atom. This groundbreaking achievement could revolutionize the way scientists detect the materials.

According to new research, the amount of oxygen in one of 10 breaths was made possible thanks to a newly identified cellular mechanism that promotes photosynthesis in marine phytoplankton. The new study identifies how a proton pumping enzyme (known as VHA) aids in global oxygen production and carbon fixation from phytoplankton.

Chess grandmasters are often held up as the epitome of thinking far ahead. But can others, with a modest amount of practice, learn to think further ahead? In addressing this question, a team of cognitive scientists has created a computational model that reveals our ability to plan for future events. The work enhances our understanding of the factors that affect decision-making and shows how we can boost our planning skills through practice.

Links have been reported between schizophrenia and proteins produced by the immune system that can act against one's own body, known as autoantibodies. Researchers have now identified autoantibodies that target a 'synaptic adhesion protein' in a subset of patients with schizophrenia. When injected into mice, the autoantibodies caused many schizophrenia-related changes.

Optical probes have led to numerous breakthroughs in applications like optical memory, nanopatterning, and bioimaging, but existing options have limited lifespans and will eventually 'photobleach.' New work demonstrates a promising, longer-lasting alternative: ultra-photostable avalanching nanoparticles that can turn on and off indefinitely in response to near-infrared light from simple lasers.

There's an intriguing exoplanet out there -- 400 light-years out there -- that is so tantalizing that astronomers have been studying it since its discovery in 2009. One orbit for WASP-18 b around its star that is slightly larger than our Sun takes just 23 hours. There is nothing like it in our Solar System. A new study about this exoplanet, an ultra-hot gas giant 10 times more massive than Jupiter.

About two-thirds of the risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is thought to arise from genetic influences, but about a third could be influenced by environment and lifestyle, opening the door for behavioral interventions that could delay or prevent pathophysiological changes that occur with AD. Now a new study in a mouse model of AD examines the effects of environmental enrichment on AD symptom progression and pathology.

Research using the world's most energetic laser has shed light on the properties of highly compressed matter -- essential to understanding the structure of giant planets and stars, and to develop controlled nuclear fusion, a process that could harvest carbon-free energy.

Geneticists have unearthed a major event in the ancient history of sturgeons and paddlefish that has significant implications for the way we understand evolution. They have pinpointed a previously hidden 'whole genome duplication' (WGD) in the common ancestor of these species, which seemingly opened the door to genetic variations that may have conferred an advantage around the time of a major mass extinction some 200 million years ago.

Chemists add another powerful tool to their 'molecular editing' toolkit for crafting pharmaceuticals and other valuable compounds.

Scientists have identified a key chemical associated with lethal bronzing (LB) infected palm trees. LB is a bacterial disease that kills more than 20 species of palm trees in the Southern United States and Caribbean and has been devastating the Florida green industries for nearly two decades.

Researchers suggest a simple tweak to the first meal of the day might help people living with Type 2 diabetes (T2D) better control their blood sugar levels. Switching from a traditional western-style low-fat breakfast, like oatmeal, toast and fruit, to a low-carb meal higher in protein and fat, like eggs with bacon or cheese, can help people with T2D better manage their blood sugar for most of the day.

In the first-ever 'before and after' assessment of the impact of establishing Mexico's Revillagigedo National Park on the fishing industry, a team of US and Mexican researchers found that Mexico's industrial fishing sector did not incur economic losses five years after the park's creation despite a full ban in fishing activity within the MPA.

The ground beneath Antarctica's most vulnerable glacier has now been mapped, helping scientists to better understand how it is being affected by climate change. Analysis of the geology below the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica shows there is less sedimentary rock than expected -- a finding that could affect how the ice slides and melts in the coming decades.

Chemical and environmental engineering scientists have identified two species of bacteria found in soil that break down a class of stubborn 'forever chemicals'-- per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that have contaminated groundwater below industrial and military sites throughout the nation. The discovery gives hope for low-cost biological cleanup of these pollutants.

Municipal climate action plans often identify equity and justice as goals, but engagement with these concepts is mostly rhetorical. A new study details how planners can bridge the gap and challenge the current state of climate change and social inequity.