The team of researchers, led by scientists at the University of York, consulted with key figures from the agriculture and fishing industries nationwide to produce a framework for managing land and seas after the UK has left the EU. The results highlight how leaving both the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy is an opportunity for the UK to shift its focus to protecting the environment and livelihoods, rather than maximizing production....

Last week, Webb was placed on top of Ariane 5 and a protective ‘shower curtain’ was put up to avoid any contamination. On the day of encapsulation in the fairing, a protective cover on top of Webb was removed and the fairing was lowered down over the observatory and locked in place for liftoff. This was a particularly delicate operation, assisted by a laser guiding system, because the margins between the folded up observatory (4....

What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, said philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Who would have thought that a similar notion might apply to materials? To explain, we have to start with something almost as strange. “The reason concrete is so strong is because it’s so weak,” says Professor Alex Hansen, and already here our head may start to spin a little. Hansen’s role as the head of PoreLab, a Center of Excellence for outstanding research at NTNU and the University of Oslo (UiO), is not exactly coincidental....

“It’s been known for decades that proteins can be internalized from the cell boundary into cellular compartments known as endosomes,” said Yale’s Alanna Schepartz, Sterling Professor of Chemistry and professor of molecular, cellular & developmental biology. “Getting these molecules out of endosomes and into the cell interior was the big problem.” Schepartz and colleagues here at Yale now report the identity of a molecular key that effectively unlocks the endosome, allowing the selective passage into the cell interior of potentially life-saving protein drugs....

Young adults across the US took part in loneliness study. A new national survey, looking at how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted young US adults’ loneliness, reveals “significant depressive symptoms” in 80% of participants. Over 1,000 Americans aged 18-35 took part in the online anonymous questionnaire, which also asked the subjects to report on their anxiety and substance use. The analyzed findings, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, show that “alarming” levels of loneliness are associated with significant mental health issues, as approximately 61% of respondents reporting moderate (45%) to severe (17%) anxiety....

“We have never seen anything like this in the 24 years we have studied the supermassive black hole,” said Andrea Ghez, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy and a co-senior author of the research. “It’s usually a pretty quiet, wimpy black hole on a diet. We don’t know what is driving this big feast.” A paper about the study, led by the UCLA Galactic Center Group, which Ghez heads, is published today in Astrophysical Journal Letters....

The scientists highlight that “the present environmental crisis is much more than a carbon problem” and are asking all countries “to wake up to the challenge” of halving nitrogen waste from all sources globally by 2030. Nitrogen, through its many forms — which include ammonia, nitrogen dioxide, nitrous oxide (‘laughing gas’, a greenhouse gas 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide), and nitrate — is polluting our air, soil, and water, posing a threat to human health, biodiversity, economies, and livelihoods....

The study reports evidence that 26 animals regularly in contact with people may be susceptible to infection. Led by University College London (UCL) researchers, the research paper was published today (October 5) in the journal Scientific Reports. The researchers investigated how the spike protein from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could interact with the ACE2 protein it attaches to when it infects people. The focus of the investigation was whether mutations in the ACE2 protein in 215 different animals, that make it different from the human version, would reduce the stability of the binding complex between the virus protein and host protein....

As a minimally invasive tool for imaging features inside living tissues, the extremely thin endoscope could enable a variety of research and medical applications. The research will be presented at the Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science (FIO + LS) conference, held September 15–19 in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. According to Juergen W. Czarske, Director and C4-Professor at TU Dresden, Germany and lead author on the paper: “The lensless fiber endoscope is approximately the size of a needle, allowing it to have minimally invasive access and high-contrast imaging as well as stimulation with a robust calibration against bending or twisting of the fiber....

Although current formulations comprised of pure copper are antibacterial and self-sanitizing, they kill certain forms of bacteria with a thicker cell wall (Gram-positive bacteria), more slowly than bacteria with a thinner cell wall (Gram-negative). Using zinc and bacteria-killing nanoscale features, a team of the University of British Columbia researchers under the direction of Dr. Amanda Clifford, an assistant professor in the department of materials engineering, has created a nano-copper coating....

The research, published on October 5, 2022, in the journal Nature, was carried out by a team of scientists led by Dr. Davide Foffa, a Research Associate at National Museums Scotland, and now a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. Working together with colleagues at Virginia Tech, the team used Computed Tomography (CT) to provide the first accurate whole skeleton reconstruction of Scleromochlus taylori. The results reveal new anatomical details that conclusively identify it as a close pterosaur relative....

The researchers claim that their FAST device, which stands for “Flexible Autonomous Sensor measuring Tumors,” is a completely novel, fast, affordable, hands-free, and accurate method of evaluating the effectiveness of cancer drugs. On a larger scale, it might pave the way for exciting new directions in cancer treatment. The researchers’ findings were recently published in the journal Science Advances. Every year, researchers use mice with subcutaneous tumors to test thousands of potential cancer drugs....

Scientists developed a europium-based thin-film coating and demonstrated that it accelerates both vegetal plant and tree growth. This technology can improve plant production speed and has the potential to help address global food supply issues. The interdisciplinary team of researchers was from Hokkaido University’s Engineering and Agriculture departments and the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD). Plants use a process called photosynthesis to transform visible light into energy....

Three new studies by scientists at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Cincinnati, highlight the relationship between air pollution and mental health in children. A study to be published on September 25, 2019, in Environmental Health Perspectives found that short-term exposure to ambient air pollution was associated with exacerbations of psychiatric disorders in children one to two days later, as marked by increased utilization of the Cincinnati Children’s emergency department for psychiatric issues....

A team of astronomers and chemists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has detected the chemical fingerprints of sodium chloride (NaCl) and other similar salty compounds emanating from the dusty disk surrounding Orion Source I, a massive, young star in a dusty cloud behind the Orion Nebula. “It’s amazing we’re seeing these molecules at all,” said Adam Ginsburg, a Jansky Fellow of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Socorro, New Mexico, and lead author of a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal....

PRISMA+ and HIM scientists report the latest findings of the CASPEr research program in Science Advances. A team led by Prof Dmitry Budker has continued their search for dark matter within the framework of the “Cosmic Axion Spin Precession Experiment” (or “CASPEr” for short). The CASPEr group conducts their experiments at the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM). CASPEr is an international research program that uses nuclear magnetic resonance techniques to identify and analyze dark matter....

This year, the Arctic sea experienced a record ice melt during the summer and this might mean that northern Europe will experience a frigid winter. In the past years, when there was a lot of ice melt, there were bad winters. Jennifer Francis, a researcher at Rutgers University, states that they can’t make any certain predictions, but she suspects that winter will be hard this year. This year’s ice melt has broken the record that was established in 2007....

In the urgent battle to treat COVID-19 patients, a group of eleven international medical research organizations is investigating whether overactive immune cells that produce Neutrophil Extracellular Traps (NETs) cause the most severe cases. The consortium, called the NETwork, includes Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC). A paper published today (April 16, 2020) in the Journal of Experimental Medicine describes that patients with severe COVID-19 infection develop Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), pulmonary inflammation, thick mucus secretions in the airways, extensive lung damage, and blood clots....

Artemis I is the first mission in a large program to send astronauts around and on the Moon sustainably. This uncrewed first launch will see the Orion spacecraft travel to the Moon, enter an elongated orbit around our satellite, and then return to Earth. The Orion spacecraft is powered by the European-built module that supplies electricity, propulsion, fuel, water, and air in addition to keeping the spacecraft operating at the right temperature....

Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have figured out a way to detect cells infected with the chikungunya virus that survive the infection. They genetically modified the virus such that it activated a fluorescent tag within cells during infection. Months after the initial infection, the researchers could detect glowing red cells still harboring viral RNA. The study, in mice, opens up new ways to understand the cause of – and find therapies for – chronic viral arthritis....