New research has found that six probiotic Bacillus strains are resistant to several antibiotics. Genetic analysis of other Bacillus strains has shown genes that contribute to antibiotic resistance towards various types of drugs and methods in which they can still grow in their presence. The research is presented at ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
Salt-tolerant bacteria grown in brine were able to revive after the brine was put through a cycle of drying and rewetting. The research has implications for the possibility of life on Mars, as well as for the danger of contaminating Mars and other planetary bodies with terrestrial microbes. The research is presented at ASM Microbe 2019, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
The promise of thermoelectric materials as a source of clean energy has driven the search for materials that can efficiently produce substantial amounts of power from waste heat.
Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine stressed Friday the need for dramatic climate action and international support to ensure her people are not left as "sitting ducks" when sea levels inevitably rise.
Nanotechnology and nanoscience are enabled by nanofabrication. Electron-beam lithography (EBL), which makes patterns down to a few nanometers, is one of the fundamental pillars of nanofabrication. In the past decade, significant progress has been made in electron-beam-based nanofabrication, such as the emerging ice lithography (IL) technology, in which ice thin-films are used as resists and patterned by a focused electron-beam. The entire process of IL nanofabrication is sustainable and streamlined... Читать дальше...
The specific number of chromosomes is one of the defining characteristics of a species. Whilst the common fruit fly carries 8 chromosomes, the genome of bread wheat counts 42 chromosomes. In comparison, the human genome is made out of a total of 46 chromosomes. However, about 15% of all eukaryotic species additionally carry supernumerary chromosomes referred to as "B chromosomes". Other than the essential chromosomes of the genome, B chromosomes are expendable and often preferentially inherited.... Читать дальше...
He was the last of the crusader kings who was thought to have died of the plague as he made one last—rather roundabout—attempt to recover the Holy Land for the Christianity.
Scientists from Tomsk Polytechnic University are developing a system for predicting the likelihood of forest fires. Using Gilbirinsky Forestry in the basin of Lake Baikal, they created a map of the territory and identified forest areas where the likelihood of fire emergency is the highest due to the vegetative conditions of the territory itself. This data will underpin a geographic information system (GIS) for predicting wildfires.
Audiences have been gripped by Chernobyl, the HBO/Sky series that charts the events and aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster of April 1986.
The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over the Lena River Delta, the largest delta in the Arctic.
Modern applications use self-cleaning strategies and digital microfluids to control individual droplets of fluids on flat surfaces but existing techniques are limited by the side-effects of high electric fields and high temperatures. In a new study, Edwin De Jong and co-workers at the interdisciplinary departments of Advanced Materials, Mechanical Engineering and Complex Molecular Systems developed an innovative "mechanowetting" technique to control droplet motion on changing surfaces based on the interfacial surface tension.
Mortierella alpina lives in the soil and likes to keep cool. This fungus, which belongs to the zygomycetes, grows best at temperatures of 10 to 15 degrees C and occurs mainly in alpine or arctic habitats. In biotechnology, the fungus has been used for the large-scale production of polyunsaturated fatty acids such as arachidonic acids, mainly as a dietary supplement in baby foods.
Gang-related violent crime continues to affect young people across England and Wales, with the latest reports suggesting that gang leaders are offering teenagers up to £1,000 pounds to carry out stabbings. In their efforts to curb violence among young people, police and politicians must distinguish between those who are involved in crime and those who are innocent—or risk further marginalizing deprived communities.
Greece's Acropolis Museum has opened to the public a new section housing the remains of an ancient Athens neighbourhood to mark its 10-year-anniversary, organisers said Friday.
Magnetic disturbances caused by phenomena like the northern lights can be tracked by a 'social network' of ground-based instruments, according to a new study from the University of Warwick.
If you want your child to have a rich and fulfilling life, one of the best things you can do is help build your child's vocabulary. Research shows strong language ability is associated with a number of positive things, including happiness, friendships, connections with family, academic success and a satisfying career.
Kelly Latimer, 54, is a test pilot for Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit—two commercial space companies owned by British billionaire Richard Branson. For space tourism company Virgin Galactic, Latimer flies the giant, twin-fuselage aircraft known as WhiteKnightTwo, which carries a smaller spaceship at its belly to an altitude of up to 50,000 feet before the spaceship detaches and blasts off toward suborbital space. Latimer is also chief test pilot for Virgin Orbit, where she flies a modified 747 plane called Cosmic Girl. Читать дальше...
Whales captured to perform in aquariums and held in cramped pens in far eastern Russia on Friday were journeying in trucks back to their home waters after President Vladimir Putin backed their release.
A study of whales and dolphins that have washed up dead in Greece over a 20-year period has found alarmingly high levels of plastic trash—mostly bags—in the animals' stomachs, which can condemn them to a slow and painful death.
Three teams of researchers working independently have conducted three specific studies of ruminants—a class of mammals that obtains nutrients from plants by fermenting it in chambered stomachs. The work was part of an overall project called, quite naturally, the Ruminant Genome Project. All three teams were made up of members from several institutions in China and a few other countries. All three groups have published their findings in the journal Science. Also, Dai Fei Elmer Ker and Yunzhi Peter... Читать дальше...
Symmetry is a fundamental characteristic in nature. Understanding the mechanisms that break symmetries is essential to scientific research. Spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), in particular, occurs when thermal or quantum fluctuations drive a system from a symmetric state into an ordered state, as it occurs when a liquid turns into a solid. This mechanism allows researchers to classify different phases of matter according to the different patterns generated by the broken symmetry.
Researchers from MIPT, Skoltech, the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Lomonosov Moscow State University report a new approach to oil composition analysis. They used high temperature and pressure to dissolve oil in water and analyze its composition. The new method is compliant with green chemistry principles as it obviates the need for environmentally hazardous solvents. The paper was published in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry.
Research from the University of Lincoln has shown employees who often bring their dogs to work report 22 percent higher satisfaction with their working conditions.
In classical computing, debugging programs is one of the most time-consuming tasks in software development. Successful debugging relies on software development tools and also on the experience of the programmer. In quantum computing, researchers predict debugging will be an even greater challenge. In a paper soon to appear at the ACM/IEEE 46th Annual International Symposium for Computer Architecture (as part of ACM's 2019 Federated Computing Research Conferences), researchers at Princeton University... Читать дальше...
A team of researchers from the University of Glasgow, the University of Strathclyde and Hobart and William Smith Colleges has developed a new coating for mirrors used on gravity detectors that is 25 times less noisy than mirror surfaces used on LIGO. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes how they made it and how well it performed during testing.
