Spotlight Science News. 14 December 2018
Accessed on 14 December 2018, 1707 UTC.
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Comment: Here are today’s top science news stories from https://phys.org. Views expressed in this science news summary are those of the reporters and correspondents.
Thanks for joining us today.
Until next time,
Russ Roberts
https://hawaiisciencedigest.blogspot.com
Spotlight Science News
Early physical therapy can reduce risk, amount of long-term opioid use, study finds
Patients who underwent physical therapy soon after being diagnosed with pain in the shoulder, neck, low back or knee were approximately 7 to 16 percent less likely to use opioids in the subsequent months, according to a new …
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A new technique for synthesizing motion-blurred images
Researchers at Google have recently developed a new technique for synthesizing a motion blurred image, using a pair of un-blurred images captured in succession. In their paper, pre-published on arXiv, the researchers outlined …
Scientists create bee vaccine to fight off ‘insect apocalypse’
Scientists in Finland have developed what they believe is the world’s first vaccine to protect bees against disease, raising hopes for tackling the drastic decline in insect numbers which could cause a global food crisis.
Two stalagmites found in Chinese cave offer a way to improve accuracy of carbon-14 dating
A team of researchers with members affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. and China has found two stalagmites that offer a way to improve the accuracy of the carbon-14 dating technique. In their paper published …
How complexity science can quickly detect climate record anomalies
The history of our climate is written in ice. Reading it is a matter of deciphering the complex signals pulled from tens of thousands of years of accumulated isotopes frozen miles below the surface of Antarctica.
Study peels back details on mammalian keratin genes and adaptation to living on land or sea
Whether by land or by sea, mammals live in a diverse variety of protective skins adapted against the elements, from swimming in the deepest azure oceans to climbing precipitous mountain peaks.
Using Wi-Fi signals to perform analog, wave-based computations
A pair of researchers, one with the Langevin Institute, the other a company called Greenerwave, both in France, has developed a way to use ordinary Wi-Fi signals to perform analog, wave-based computations. In their paper …
A young star caught forming like a planet
Astronomers have captured one of the most detailed views of a young star taken to date, and revealed an unexpected companion in orbit around it.
A holiday gift to primary care doctors: Proof of their time crunch
The average primary care doctor needs to work six more hours a day than they already do, in order to make sure their patients get all the preventive and early-detection care they want and deserve, a new study finds.
Geneticists make new discovery about how a baby’s sex is determined
Medical researchers at Melbourne’s Murdoch Children’s Research Institute have made a new discovery about how a baby’s sex is determined—it’s not just about the X-Y chromosomes, but involves a ‘regulator’ that increases …
When heat ceases to be a mystery, spintronics becomes more real
The development of spintronics depends on materials that guarantee control over the flow of magnetically polarized currents. However, it is hard to talk about control when the details of heat transport through the interfaces …
How wireless recharging works – and doesn’t, yet
Though the days of hardwired wall-mounted phones are ending and wireless internet connections are common at home and on the go, people are still dependent on cords to charge their mobile devices. My research, and that of …
Black widow spiders dial up posture for survival and sex
A new study led by Western University’s Natasha Mhatre shows that body dynamics and posture are crucial to how black widow spiders decode the important vibrations that travel through their webs and up their legs. Black widows …
Data from Kilauea suggests the eruption was unprecedented
A very large team of researchers from multiple institutions in the U.S. has concluded that the Kilauea volcanic eruption that occurred over this past summer represented an unprecedented volcanic event. In their paper published …
Computing the origin of life
As a principal investigator in the NASA Ames Exobiology Branch, Andrew Pohorille is searching for the origin of life on Earth, yet you won’t find him out in the field collecting samples or in a laboratory conducting experiments …
Foveros, Sunny Cove are two big markers in Intel’s future
Magic number colloidal clusters
Complexity in nature often results from self-assembly, and is considered particularly robust. Compact clusters of elemental particles can be shown to be of practical relevance, and are found in atomic nuclei, nanoparticles …
Scientists design custom nanoparticles with new ‘stencil’ method
Nano-sized particles already make bicycles and tennis rackets lighter and stronger, protect eyeglasses from scratches, and help direct chemotherapy drugs to cancer cells. But their usefulness depends on being able to precisely …
A co-worker’s rudeness can affect your sleep—and your partner’s, study finds
Rudeness. Sarcastic comments. Demeaning language. Interrupting or talking over someone in a meeting. Workplace incivilities such as these are becoming increasingly common, and a new study from Portland State University and …
Researchers zero in on potential therapeutic target for diabetes, associated diseases
A recent study led by researchers in Texas A&M University’s department of nutrition and food science shows how a novel regulatory mechanism serves as an important biomarker for the development of diabetes, as well as a potential …
Early postpartum opioids linked with persistent usage
Vanderbilt researchers have published findings indicating that regardless of whether a woman delivers a child by cesarean section or by vaginal birth, if they fill prescriptions for opioid pain medications early in the postpartum …
Scientists identify method to study resilience to pain
Scientists at the Yale School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System have successfully demonstrated that it is possible to pinpoint genes that contribute to inter-individual differences in pain.
Study shows magnesium optimizes vitamin D status
A randomized trial by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers indicates that magnesium optimizes vitamin D status, raising it in people with deficient levels and lowering it in people with high levels.
Immunotherapy combo not approved for advanced kidney cancer patients on the NHS
People with a certain type of advanced kidney cancer will not be able to have a combination of two immunotherapy drugs on the NHS in England.
RNA processing and antiviral immunity
The RIG-I like receptors (RLRs) are intracellular enzyme sentries that detect viral infection and initiate a first line of antiviral defense. The cellular molecules that activate RLRs in vivo are not clear.
Mars InSight lander seen in first images from space
On Nov. 26, NASA’s InSight mission knew the spacecraft touched down within an 81-mile-long (130-kilometer-long) landing ellipse on Mars. Now, the team has pinpointed InSight’s exact location using images from HiRISE, a powerful …
Researchers use jiggly Jell-O to make powerful new hydrogen fuel catalyst
A cheap and effective new catalyst developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, can generate hydrogen fuel from water just as efficiently as platinum, currently the best—but also most expensive—water-splitting …
Does diabetes damage brain health?
(HealthDay)—Diabetes has been tied to a number of complications such as kidney disease, but new research has found that older people with type 2 diabetes can also have more difficulties with thinking and memory.
Hubble finds far-away planet vanishing at record speed
The speed and distance at which planets orbit their respective blazing stars can determine each planet’s fate—whether the planet remains a longstanding part of its solar system or evaporates into the universe’s dark graveyard …
Tangled magnetic fields power cosmic particle accelerators
Magnetic field lines tangled like spaghetti in a bowl might be behind the most powerful particle accelerators in the universe. That’s the result of a new computational study by researchers from the Department of Energy’s …
