Natural killer cells also have a memory function
IMAGE: Medical University of Vienna view more Credit: MedUni Wien/Matern (Vienna, 19 October 2020) Good news for the human immune system: researchers from MedUni Vienna’s Departments of Dermatology and Surgery have managed to ascribe an immunological memory function to a subset of cytotoxic NK cells, which have hitherto been regarded as antigen-non-specific. The researchers found under […]
Tropical cyclones moving faster in recent decades: study
Credit: CC0 Public Domain About 40% of the U.S. population lives in a coastal area and in Hawai’i, nearly everyone is vulnerable to the effects of tropical storms and hurricanes. Tropical cyclones, regionally known as hurricanes or typhoons, have been moving across ocean basins faster since 1982, according to a new study published in Environmental […]
History of Halloween | Live Science
Editor’s note: The COVID-19 pandemic is still in full swing, meaning that Halloween 2020 must be celebrated differently compared to previous years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published helpful guidelines for celebrating Halloween and other fall holidays in ways that will keep you safe and healthy. Parents and kids alike are gearing […]
Astrophysics team lights the way for more accurate model of the universe — ScienceDaily
Light from distant galaxies reveals important information about the nature of the universe and allows scientists to develop high-precision models of the history, evolution and structure of the cosmos. The gravity associated with massive pockets of dark matter that lie between Earth and these galaxies, however, plays havoc with those galactic light signals. Gravity distorts […]
Healthy forests do more than just prevent wildfires
A mixed-conifer forest in the central Sierra Nevada after restoration, with unthinned forest in the background. (Roger Bales/) Roger Bales is a distinguished professor of Engineering at the University of California, Merced. Martha Conklin is a professor of Engineering at the University of California, Merced. This story originally featured on The Conversation. As California contends […]
Global food production threatens the climate
IMAGE: Use of fertilizers in agriculture, in particular, is responsible for the increase in the climate-damaging nitrous oxide concentration in the atmosphere. view more Credit: (Photo: Markus Breig, KIT) Concentration of dinitrogen oxide – also referred to as nitrous oxide – in the atmosphere increases strongly and speeds up climate change. In addition to CO2 and […]
Sanctuary policies protect immigrants but don’t threaten public safety
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Sanctuary policies are at the center of the debate over immigration enforcement in the interior of the country. President Trump has called those policies “deadly” and claimed that they prevent the deportation of violent criminals and increase crime. Those claims are not true, according to a new study published in the […]
24 million-year-old nursery for baby megasharks discovered in South Carolina
About 24 million years ago, baby shark ancestors of the giant beast called megalodon needed a place to grow big before heading into the open ocean, so they swam around a coastal spot replete with easy-to-catch prey — a nursery in what is now South Carolina, according to new research. Until now, scientists knew of […]
A rope bridge restored a highway through the trees for endangered gibbons
With acrobatic leaps, Hainan gibbons can cross a great gully carved by a 2014 landslide in the forest on China’s Hainan Island. But when a palm frond caught by the vaulting apes to steady their landing started to sag, researchers rushed to provide a safer route across. Though slow to adopt it, the gibbons increasingly […]
A first-of-its-kind catalyst mimics natural processes to break down plastics — ScienceDaily
While plastics recycling is not new science, current processes don’t make it economically worthwhile — waste plastics get “down-cycled” into lower grade, less useful material. It’s a challenge that continues to be an obstacle in tackling a growing global pollution crisis in single use plastics. A multi-institutional team of scientists led by the U.S. Department […]
