Other Sciences News

Increasingly Dry Conditions Contributed to Norse Abandonment of Southern Greenland, Study Shows

Kuitems et al. provide evidence that the Norse were active on the North American continent in the year 1021 CE. Image credit: Oscar C.R.
Mar 23, 2022 by News Staff

Declining temperature has been thought to explain the abandonment of Norse settlements in southern Greenland in the early 15th century CE, although limited evidence is available from the inner settlement region itself. In a new study, scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and elsewhere reconstructed the temperature and hydroclimate history from lake sediments at a site adjacent to a former Norse farm; they found no substantial temperature...

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Alpha-linolenic acid, a type of omega-3 fatty acid, is found in flaxseed oil as well as canola, soy, perilla, and walnut oils. Image credit: Handwerker / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Plant-Derived Fatty Acid Reduces Heart Disease Risk, New Review Says

Mar 23, 2022 by News Staff

Alpha-linolenic acid, a vegetable omega-3 fatty acid, can benefit heart health and reduce the risk of heart disease, according to a review paper published...

Heiss et al. found daily consumption of cranberries for one month improved cardiovascular function in healthy men. Image credit: Pexels.

Daily Cranberry Consumption Improves Cardiovascular Function: Study

Mar 22, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Daily consumption of whole cranberry powder for one month improves vascular function in healthy men and this is linked with specific metabolite profiles...

Phase diagram of ice: dark blue-, green-, and red-shaded regions denote ice VII, VIIt and X, respectively, and projected phase boundaries separating high-pressure ice phases from our work are shown as solid black lines; ice X phase boundaries connect the measured transition at 30.9 GPa and 300 K to the inflection point in the melt curve, which have been associated with the transition from molecular to ionic fluid; dashed lines show measured melting curves; superionic boundary is highlighted. Image credit: Grande et al., doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.105.104109.

New Form of Ice Discovered: Ice VIIt

Mar 21, 2022 by News Staff

Physicists have observed the transition from a previously known cubic phase, ice VII, to the newly-discovered intermediate, and tetragonal, phase, ice...

Yan et al. designed an acoustic fabric, woven with a fiber that is designed from a piezoelectric material that produces an electrical signal when bent or mechanically deformed: (a) the tympanic membrane is a four-layer construct composed of circumferentially and radially oriented high-modulus collagen fibers, which are key for sound conduction; the tympanic membrane motion is ultimately transmitted to the cochlea through the ossicular chain, wherein short cilia fibers convert pressure waves into electrical signals (ionic), which are picked up by the nervous system; (b) in the acoustic fabric, high-modulus Twaron yarns and cotton yarns are oriented at right angles, mimicking the construction of the tympanic membrane; this construction converts faint audible frequency sound pressure waves into low-order mechanical vibration modes; within that same medium, a single strand of piezoelectric elastomeric fiber transducer is woven, leading to a synergistically coupled fabric, where sound transduction is a collective effect; this results in a fabric capable of operating as a sensitive microphone that detects weak sound signals (for example, human speech) as low as 10-7 atm. Image credit: Yan et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04476-9.

Newly-Developed ‘Acoustic Fabric’ Converts Sounds into Electrical Signals

Mar 18, 2022 by News Staff

Fabrics, by virtue of their composition and structure, have traditionally been used as acoustic absorbers. Inspired by the auditory system, a team of engineers...

Sesso et al. examined whether cocoa extract supplementation decreases total cardiovascular disease among older adults. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Cocoa Flavanols May Help Reduce Cardiovascular Risk

Mar 17, 2022 by News Staff

In the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), a team of researchers led by Brigham and Women’s Hospital scientists examined whether...

Use of the reverse phosphorolysis action of acholetin phosphorylase (AchP) provides an efficient method to enzymatically synthesize acholetin, which is a new biodegradable polymeric material. Image credit: Macdonald et al., doi: 10.1021/acscentsci.1c01570.

Scientists Create New Type of Biodegradable Polymeric Material

Mar 16, 2022 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of British Columbia and elsewhere has identified a bacterial enzyme that can make a new type of polysaccharide,...

Locations of four vertical cross sections (thick, solid lines) on two LLSVPs (yellow). Image credit: Yuan & Li, doi: 10.1038/s41561-022-00908-3.

Study: Two Blob-Like Structures in Earth’s Mantle Have Different Densities and Compositions

Mar 14, 2022 by News Staff

Seismic observations have recently revealed two seismic anomalies in Earth’s lowermost mantle, one beneath Africa and the other beneath the Pacific Ocean,...

Photo from fieldwork at the edge of the Greenland Ice Sheet in 2019. Image credit: Pierre Beck.

Enormous Asteroid Crater in Greenland is 58 Million Years Old, Scientists Say

Mar 11, 2022 by News Staff

The 31-km- (19.2-mile) wide Hiawatha impact structure is located beneath Hiawatha Glacier in northwestern Greenland. Photo from fieldwork at the edge of...

Tabone et al. found that cocoa had no significant effects on serum and fecal metabolites and that its consumption had little impact on the metabolome after a bout of physical exercise. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Study: Cocoa Supplements Don’t Improve Exercise-Related Digestive Issues in Endurance Athletes

Mar 3, 2022 by News Staff

Cocoa is used in the sports world as a supplement, although there is no consensus on its use. In a new study, researchers from the Universidad Europea...

You et al. shows that meat intake is positively associated with life expectancy at national level; the underlying reasons may be that meat not only provides energy but also complete nutrients to human body; from the evolutionary point of view, meat has arguably been an indispensable component in human diet for millions of years, which is evidenced, genetically, by meat digesting enzymes and digestive tract anatomy; the complete nutritional profile of meat and human adaptation to meat eating have enabled humans to gain many physical benefits, including greater life expectancy; meat intake, or its adequate replacement, should be incorporated into nutritional science to improve human life expectancy. Image credit: Reinhard Thrainer.

Study: Meat Consumption is Positively Associated with Life Expectancy

Feb 22, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of scientists from Australia, Italy, Poland and Switzerland has examined the association between meat intake and life expectancy at a population...

Caffeine blocks PCSK9 expression and increases LDL cholesterol clearance in hepatocytes. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Study: Caffeine Impacts Expression of Genes Known to Mediate Cardiovascular Risk

Feb 18, 2022 by News Staff

Evidence suggests that caffeine reduces cardiovascular disease risk. However, the mechanism by which this occurs is still unknown. In a new study, researchers...

View of Grotte Mandrin, France. Image credit: Ludovic Slimak.

54,000-Year-Old Molar is Earliest Known Evidence of Anatomically Modern Humans in Western Europe

Feb 11, 2022 by News Staff

In a new paper published this week in the journal Science Advances, paleoanthropologists report hominin fossils from Grotte Mandrin in France that reveal...

Zhu et al. suggest rapid supermountain erosion increased atmospheric oxygen and nutrient levels. Image credit: Keith Johnston

Supermountains May Have Played Crucial Role in Evolution of Life on Earth

Feb 3, 2022 by News Staff

According to new research from the Australian National University and the Queensland University of Technology, the supermountains formed twice in Earth’s...

2DPA-1 is a 2D polymer that self-assembles into sheets and could be used as a lightweight, durable coating for car parts or cell phones, or as a building material for bridges or other structures. Image credit: Christine Daniloff, MIT.

Scientists Create Ultrastrong Polymeric Material

Feb 3, 2022 by News Staff

The new 2D polymer, named 2DPA-1, is stronger than steel and as light as plastic; it self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form...

Eight illusory face images from the total set of 256 images which illustrate images from different gender, age, and emotion categories. Image credit: Wardle et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2117413119.

Pareidolia Faces More Likely to be Perceived as Male than Female, New Study Reveals

Jan 31, 2022 by News Staff

Despite our fluency in reading human faces, sometimes we mistakenly perceive illusory faces in objects, a phenomenon known as face pareidolia. In a new...

Twelfth-Century Chronicle Contains Description of Ball Lightning

Jan 28, 2022 by News Staff

Durham University professors Brian Tanner and Giles Gasper have found a credible description of ball lightning in a monastic chronicle compiled and composed...

Many technologies key to modern society are vulnerable to solar storms. Image credit: National Space Weather Program.

Extreme Solar Storm Hit Our Planet 9,200 Years Ago

Jan 27, 2022 by News Staff

During solar storms, the Sun expels large amounts of energetic particles that can react with the atmosphere of Earth and produce cosmogenic isotopes such...

Watermelon is a unique fruit loved for its sweet juicy flesh and strong ties to hot summer days, picnics, and family gatherings. Image credit: Andrea Petra Fogas.

Regular Watermelon Consumption May Help Promote Cardio-Metabolic Health

Jan 26, 2022 by Natali Anderson

A team of researchers from the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the Illinois Institute of Technology has reviewed the preclinical and clinical...

Coffee Consumption Has Stimulating Effect on Digestive Processes, New Review Says

Jan 21, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Since coffee is widely consumed worldwide, it is of critical importance to know its effects on the first organs of the body with which it comes in contact...

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