Welcome to the “Phys.org” update from Hawaii Science Digest. Views expressed in this science and technology news summary are those of the reporters and correspondents. Content, including text, photos, images, and video, provided by “Phys.org.” This journal is an official publication of the SpaceX Network.
Accessed on 22 July 2019, 0545 UTC.
Source: https://phys.org/
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Cuttlefish ink found promising for cancer treatment
Researchers have found that cuttlefish ink—a black suspension sprayed by cuttlefish to deter predators—contains nanoparticles that strongly inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors in mice. The nanoparticles consist mostly …
21 HOURS AGO
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1473
What gives meteorites their shape? New research uncovers a ‘Goldilocks’ answer
Meteoroids coming from outer space are randomly shaped, but many of these, which land on earth as meteorites, are found to be carved into cones. Scientists have now figured out how the physics of flight in the atmosphere …
10 HOURS AGO
2
176
Plants defend against insects by inducing ‘leaky gut syndrome’
Plants may induce “leaky gut syndrome”—permeability of the gut lining—in insects as part of a multipronged strategy for protecting themselves from …
ECOLOGY
10 HOURS AGO
1
88
Seeing smaller through cells: A natural single-cell biomagnifier for subwavelength imaging
Optical microscopes and tweezers can image and manipulate objects at the microscale for applications in cellular and molecular biology. The optical resolution …
OPTICS & PHOTONICS
17 HOURS AGO
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92
New model describes phase separation that spoils antibody solutions
A new mathematical model describes how highly concentrated antibody solutions separate into different phases, similar to an oil and water mixture. This …
MATERIALS SCIENCE
10 HOURS AGO
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29
White police officers are not more likely to shoot minorities
Reports of racially motivated, fatal shootings by police officers have garnered extensive public attention and sparked activism across the nation. New research from Michigan State University and University of Maryland reveals …
SOCIAL SCIENCES
10 HOURS AGO
21
2533
Astronomers make first calculations of magnetic activity in ‘hot Jupiter’ exoplanets
Gas-giant planets orbiting close to other stars have powerful magnetic fields, many times stronger than our own Jupiter, according to a new study by a team of astrophysicists. It is the first time the strength of these fields …
ASTRONOMY
13 HOURS AGO
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341
Understanding the drivers of a shift to sustainable diets
One of the 21st century’s greatest challenges is to develop diets that are both sustainable for the planet and good for our bodies. An IIASA-led study explored the major drivers of widespread shifts to sustainable diets using …
ENVIRONMENT
14 HOURS AGO
7
72
Russian website reportedly selling science article authorships
Several websites are reporting that a Russian website is selling authorships for research papers being published in several journals. Sites making such claims include retractionwatch.com and Science Chronicle—they are further …
New mechanism moving droplets at record-high speed and long distance without extra power
Transporting droplets on solid surfaces at high speed and long distances without additional force, even against gravity, is a formidable task. But a research team comprising scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) …
GENERAL PHYSICS
14 HOURS AGO
1
220
Astronomers decode Milky Way’s violent birth
The Milky Way gobbled up a galaxy one quarter of its mass 10 billion years ago in a “violent collision” that didn’t fully settle for eons, astronomers said in new research published Monday.
ASTRONOMY
11 HOURS AGO
9
162
Parasitic plants use stolen genes to make them better parasites
Some parasitic plants steal genetic material from their host plants and use the stolen genes to more effectively siphon off the host’s nutrients. A new study led by researchers at Penn State and Virginia Tech reveals that …
BIOTECHNOLOGY
14 HOURS AGO
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365
Evolutionary gene loss may help explain why only humans are prone to heart attacks
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine say the loss of a single gene two to three million years ago in our ancestors may have resulted in a heightened risk of cardiovascular disease in all humans …
10 HOURS AGO
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435
Multiphysics Simulation Case Studies
Read how simulation applications enable collaboration in developing new products in this free eBook.
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Gut microbes may affect the course of ALS
Encephalitis identified as rare toxicity of immunotherapy treatment
Toxin responsible for Legionella growth identified
Quantifying how the brain smells
New opportunities for treating kidney failure
Overstuffed cancer cells may have an Achilles’ heel
Canned laughter works, finds study of ‘dad jokes’
First impressions go a long way in the immune system
Old vaccine brings new surprises
Serious falls are a health risk for adults under 65
Targeting old bottleneck reveals new anticancer drug strategy
Offspring of pregnant women exposed to high level of pollutants may have lower IQs
College spending habits may predict when ‘adulting’ starts
A convolutional network to align and predict emotion annotations
French inventor to hover across English Channel on ‘flyboard’
Baby tech: Pampers to deliver a big diaper change
E-scooters now seem less likely to run people off sidewalks
Kitchen disruption: better food through artificial intelligence
A technique to improve machine learning inspired by the behavior of human infants
This deep neural network fights deepfakes
Machine learning approach significantly expands inovirus diversity
To answer the question, “Where’s Waldo?” readers need to look for a number of distinguishing features. Several characters may be spotted with a striped scarf, striped hat, round-rimmed glasses, or a cane, but only Waldo will …
CELL & MICROBIOLOGY
14 HOURS AGO
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51
Molecular sensor scouts DNA damage and supervises repair
In the time it takes you to read this sentence, every cell in your body suffers some form of DNA damage. Without vigilant repair, cancer would run rampant, and now scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have gotten a …
MOLECULAR & COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
14 HOURS AGO
1
279
Miniaturized version of ribosome found in microsporidia
A research team lead by MIMS/SciLifeLab research group leader Jonas Barandun, Umeå University, Sweden, uses cryo-electron microscopy to provide near atomic details of the smallest known eukaryotic cytoplasmic protein synthesis …
CELL & MICROBIOLOGY
14 HOURS AGO
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98
Study finds Nunavik Inuit are genetically unique
A new study has found that an Inuit population in Canada’s Arctic are genetically distinct from any known group, and certain genetic variants are correlated with brain aneurysm.
10 HOURS AGO
2
279
A new study shows Americans are drilling deeper than ever for fresh water
Groundwater may be out of sight, but for over 100 million Americans who rely on it for their lives and livelihoods it’s anything but out of mind. Unfortunately, wells are going dry and scientists are just beginning to understand …
EARTH SCIENCES
13 HOURS AGO
7
121
Scientists document late Pleistocene/early Holocene Mesoamerican stone tool tradition
From the perspective of Central and South America, the peopling of the New World was a complex process lasting thousands of years and involving multiple waves of Pleistocene and early Holocene period immigrants entering into …
ARCHAEOLOGY & FOSSILS
10 HOURS AGO
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62
A convolutional network to align and predict emotion annotations
Machine learning models that can recognize and predict human emotions have become increasingly popular over the past few years. In order for most of these techniques to perform well, however, the data used to train them is …
A toxic chemical in marine ecosystems turns out to play a beneficial role
Advocates of healthy eating often extol the benefits of adding antioxidants to one’s diet. These compounds are thought to suppress “free radical” molecules in the body that can age cells as a response to stress.
ENVIRONMENT
10 HOURS AGO
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59
Physicists create record-setting quantum motion
Showcasing precise control at the quantum level, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a method for making an ion (electrically charged atom) display exact quantities of quantum-level …
QUANTUM PHYSICS
13 HOURS AGO
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147
A torque on conventional magnetic wisdom
Physicists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have observed a magnetic phenomenon called the “anomalous spin-orbit torque” (ASOT) for the first time. Professor Virginia Lorenz and graduate student Wenrui Wang, …
GENERAL PHYSICS
11 HOURS AGO
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132
NASA seeks ideas from US firms on future lunar lander
US space agency NASA on Monday asked American aerospace companies to offer detailed ideas for vehicles that could bring two astronauts to the Moon by 2024, an American objective that was reconfirmed on the 50th anniversary …
Robots roaming in Antarctic waters reveal why Ross Ice Shelf melts rapidly in summer
A new paper offers fresh insight into the forces causing the world’s largest ice shelf to melt.
Microsoft joins project on ethical artificial intelligence
Microsoft on Monday announced a $1 billion investment in an OpenAI ethical artificial intelligence project backed by Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon.
India monsoons below ‘normal’ baseline amid water crisis
India’s weather agency said Monday it was set to cut estimates for average monsoon rainfall after decades of below-normal downpours, with climate change causing greater variations.
NASA sees outside winds affecting new tropical Eastern Pacific depression
A new tropical depression formed in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, far enough away from the coast so that no coastal warnings are needed. Infrared imagery from NASA’s Aqua satellite shows that Tropical Depression 5E’s strongest …
Mississippi River drops enough to begin closing big spillway
The Mississippi River is finally low enough again to let the Army Corps of Engineers begin closing a huge spillway after a record-breaking run diverting water into Lake Pontchartrain.
Tracking smoke from fires to improve air quality forecasting
NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory took to the skies on Monday to kick off a two-month investigation into the life cycles of smoke from fires in the United States. The goal is to better understand smoke impact on weather and climate …
Vampire algae killer’s genetic diversity poses threat to biofuels
New DNA analysis has revealed surprising genetic diversity in a bacterium that poses a persistent threat to the algae biofuels industry. With the evocative name Vampirovibrio chlorellavorus, the predatory pest sucks out the …
Lots of lead in the water? Maybe manganese is to blame
Manganese is not a particularly toxic mineral. In fact, people need a little in their diets to remain healthy.
Cosmic pearls: Fossil clams in Florida contain evidence of ancient meteorite
Researchers picking through the contents of fossil clams from a Sarasota County quarry found dozens of tiny glass beads, likely the calling cards of an ancient meteorite.
Texas’ strategic goal for students’ debt burden shows potential promise and pitfalls
College students in Texas who graduated from public universities with a bachelor’s degree had, on average, student loan debts that equaled 74 percent of what they earned in their first-year wages, according to a new study …
ATLAS Experiment searches for rare Higgs boson decays into muon pairs
Could the Higgs boson still surprise us? Since its discovery in 2012, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN have been actively studying the properties of this latest and most mysterious addition to the Standard Model …
New research identifies deadly hidden weather hazard that has the potential to affect millions of people
New research, led by Loughborough University academics, has found that tropical cyclones followed by deadly heat is an emerging weather threat that could put millions of people at risk as global temperatures continue to rise.
School psychologists develop intervention to reduce hallway disruptions
A gamelike intervention developed by school psychology researchers in UT’s College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences may help reduce hallway disruptions among elementary school children.
New hard X-ray eclipsing polar identified
Using ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Swift spacecraft, astronomers have found that a hard X-ray source known as 2PBCJ0658.0-1746 is an eclipsing magnetic cataclysmic variable of the polar type. The finding, presented in a paper …
New opportunities for treating kidney failure
Our kidneys can sense when we need them to work a bit harder. As the intestines begin to produce more waste products, the kidneys start to work harder to excrete them. Researchers at, among others, Utrecht University and …
10 HOURS AGO
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23
Search for new semiconductors heats up with gallium oxide
University of Illinois electrical engineers have cleared another hurdle in high-power semiconductor fabrication by adding the field’s hottest material—beta-gallium oxide—to their arsenal. Beta-gallium oxide is readily …
NANOMATERIALS
12 HOURS AGO
1
43
Genes linked to death from sepsis identified in mice
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body’s immune response to infection spirals out of control. Bacteria in the bloodstream trigger immune cells to release powerful molecules called cytokines to quickly …
10 HOURS AGO
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35
Astronomers map vast void in our cosmic neighborhood
An astronomer from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (IfA) and an international team published a new study that reveals more of the vast cosmic structure surrounding our Milky Way galaxy.
ASTRONOMY
15 HOURS AGO
1
1563
Scientists make fundamental discovery to creating better crops
A team of scientists led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have discovered the specific gene that controls an important symbiotic relationship between plants and soil fungi, and successfully facilitated …
PLANTS & ANIMALS
14 HOURS AGO
0
117
Scientists develop a physical biomarker for cornea restoration therapy
Our eyes—the windows to the soul—need constant care, and as we age, they sometimes also need significant repair.
12 HOURS AGO
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56
New, high-resolution images reveal clues to improve anti-nausea drugs for cancer patients
A new study using a special type of electron microscope using samples cooled to extremely cold temperatures provides critical information for drug developers seeking to reduce nausea and vomiting side effects of cancer treatments. …
11 HOURS AGO
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22
Gut microbes may affect the course of ALS
Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have shown in mice that intestinal microbes, collectively termed the gut microbiome, may affect the course of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s …
12 HOURS AGO
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163
Encephalitis identified as rare toxicity of immunotherapy treatment
After a cancer patient receiving an immunotherapy developed encephalitis and died 18 months into treatment, researchers at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) investigated why the complication occurred, performing a molecular …
13 HOURS AGO
0
108
Unique hybrid implant first installed to a cat
A scientific team from a small innovative enterprise, Biomimetix, based at the National University of Science and Technology MISIS together with their colleagues from the N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Centre of oncology …
Researchers develop new chip for superior forensic blood residue detection
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have developed a new chip device that offers superior identification of miniscule blood residues for forensic applications.
Scientists learn to control the oil lens
Reconstruction of factories (the construction of modern parks and the removal of communications on racks) significantly prevents the penetration of petroleum products into the ground. However, wastes, accumulated as a result …
New record in lead-free halide double perovskites
Illumination consumes more than 20 percent of electricity. Thus, finding an efficient, stable, single-phase warm white-light material is very important. Lead hybrid perovskites have drawn interest for excellent photoelectric …
Solving the salt problem for seismic imaging
The efficient extraction of oil and gas from within the Earth’s crust requires accurate images of subsurface rock structures. Some materials are hard to capture, so KAUST researchers have developed a computational method …
Tourist photographs are a cheap and effective way to survey wildlife
Tourists on safari can provide wildlife monitoring data comparable to traditional surveying methods, suggests research appearing July 22 in the journal Current Biology. The researchers analyzed 25,000 photographs from 26 …
Volcano eruption at different latitudes: A switch of hemispheric monsoon rainfall change
Volcanic eruptions eject sulfur dioxide gas high into the atmosphere, forming sulfate aerosol chemically, and block the incoming sunlight like an umbrella. This causes surface cooling globally, but the response of global …
Strongman leaders make for weak economies, study finds
A study of dictators over the past 150 years shows they are rarely associated with strong economies, and quite often with weaker ones.
Archaeological evidence verifies long-doubted medieval accounts of First Crusade
The Univeristy of North Carolina at Charlotte-led archaeological dig on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion has been going on for over a decade, looking at an area where there were no known ruins of major temples, churches or palaces, …
Studies show the influence of environment on the evolution of weeds
Rapid increases in herbicide resistance show that weeds can undergo important genetic changes over very brief periods of time. But herbicide use isn’t the only factor influencing the evolution of weeds.
Employers urged to find new ways to address workers’ mental health
In the middle of a work project at a global corporate consulting firm, Katherine Switz was gripped with a debilitating bout of anxiety. Her body froze, her heart raced, her chest tightened, and her mind went blank, which …
How to stroke a cat, according to science
Many of us will have experienced that super friendly cat who seems to love being stoked one minute, only to bite or swipe at us the next. It might be easy at this point to blame it on the cat, but what’s likely happening …
Paris braces for record heat as Europe scorched again
Parisians were on Monday bracing for potentially the hottest ever temperature in the French capital this week as a new heatwave blasted into northern Europe that could set records in several countries.
New nanoantennas to improve ultra-fast wireless connections
Researchers from the Nanophotonic Technology Centre (NTC) of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) have designed new silicon nanoantennas with direct applications in communication and data processing for the next generation …