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The standard view of gamma-ray bursts as a signature for different types of dying stars might need a rewrite. Recent astronomical observations, supported by theoretical modeling, reveal a new observational fingerprint of neutron-star mergers, which may shed light on the production of heavy elements throughout the universe. “Astronomers have long believed that gamma-ray bursts fell into two categories: long-duration bursts from imploding stars and short-duration bursts from merging compact stellar objects,” said Chris Fryer, an astrophysicist and Laboratory Fellow at the U....

A recent analysis of the latest generation of climate models — known as a CMIP6 — provides a cautionary tale on interpreting climate simulations as scientists develop more sensitive and sophisticated projections of how the Earth will respond to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Researchers at Princeton University and the University of Miami reported that newer models with a high “climate sensitivity” — meaning they predict much greater global warming from the same levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide as other models — do not provide a plausible scenario of Earth’s future climate....

In the last five decades, we’ve learned a lot about the secret lives of proteins — how they work, what they interact with, the machinery that makes them function — and the pace of discovery is accelerating. The first three-dimensional protein structure began emerging in the 1970s. Today, the Protein Data Bank, a worldwide repository of information about the 3D structures of large biological molecules, has information about hundreds of thousands of proteins....

According to Kamyar Parto, a Ph.D. student at UC Santa Barbara and co-lead author of a paper published in Nano Letters, the current state of quantum devices is “about where the computer was in the 1950s,” or at the very beginning of its development. Parto works in the lab of Galan Moody, a renowned expert in quantum photonics and an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. The paper details a significant breakthrough in the field – the creation of an on-chip “factory” for generating a steady and rapid flow of single photons, which are crucial for the advancement of photonic-based quantum technologies....

Going from one to two is a minor feat in most contexts. But in the world of quantum physics, doing so is crucial. For years, researchers around the world have strived to develop stable quantum light sources and achieve the phenomenon known as quantum mechanical entanglement – a phenomenon, with nearly sci-fi-like properties, where two light sources can affect each other instantly and potentially across large geographic distances. Entanglement is the very basis of quantum networks and central to the development of an efficient quantum computer....

Political parties who care less about an issue will take more extreme stances on it when drawing up policies to appeal to the electorate — and it can pay off at the ballot box. Research from Lancaster University and the University of Hagen, published in European Economic Review, shows parties can take radically different policy positions on an issue despite receiving the same information on which to base their stances....

“Animal and plant communities are organized in a similar way to cities, ghettos, or ethnic neighborhoods,” the researchers say. “This organization could be behind the persistence of rare species since they could avoid the competitive pressure of the most abundant species, either because they cooperate with each other or because they prefer specific microhabitats or both at the same time,” they point out. The results of this research, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution on December 16, 2019, suggest a general explanation for the maintenance of biodiversity in competitive environments, clarifying the principle of competitive exclusion whereby species with the lowest competitive abilities should be excluded by more efficient competitors....

A University of Alberta professor has revealed the workings of a celestial event involving binary stars that produce an explosion so powerful its luminosity ranks close to that of a supernova, an exploding star. Theoretical astrophysicist Natalia Ivanova says researchers have long debated about what happens when binary stars, two stars that orbit one another, come together in a “common envelope.” “When this dramatic cannibalizing event ends there are two possible outcomes: the two stars merge into a single star or an initial binary transforms into an exotic short-period one,” said Ivanova....

Researchers have estimated that protecting all of the world’s threatened species will cost $4 billion a year. Effectively conserving the significant areas that these species live in will cost more than $76 billion a year. The scientists published their findings in the journal Science. Stuart Butchart, conservation scientist at BirdLife International in Cambridge, UK, admits that these numbers seem quite large. However, in terms of governmental budgets, he believes they are trivial....

The project includes fluid dynamics physicists, virologists, and biomedical engineering specialists. The researchers are using a supercomputer to carry out 3D modeling and believe that the first results will be obtained in the next few weeks. Aalto University, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the University of Helsinki have brought together a multidisciplinary group of researchers to model how the extremely small droplets that leave the respiratory tract when coughing, sneezing or talking are transported in air currents....

This resulted in a surge of infant fatalities during the 1930s and 1940s, as a result of fortifying foods such as milk, bread, cereal, and margarine with Vitamin D in an effort to eliminate rickets in children. Recent research had shown that the condition, now known as infantile hypercalcemia type 1, is caused by a gene mutation. But curiously, around 10 percent of patients experiencing symptoms do not have the genetic mutation....

A team of researchers, led by Prof. Hou Guangjin from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), has recently discovered the synergistic interplay mechanism of dual active sites on bimetallic oxides. This discovery can lead to more efficient syngas conversion at the atomic level. The research was recently published in the journal Chem. The researchers investigated syngas conversion over a representative spinel ZnAl2O4 oxide with combined advanced solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technologies....

Our vision is made possible by the specialized cells in our retina that absorb light. But, can one see without any absorption of light or even a single photon? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. Suppose you have a camera cartridge that could hold a roll of photographic film. The film is so delicate that even a single photon could damage it. Using conventional methods, it’s impossible to determine if there’s film in the cartridge....

By combining biochemical profiling technologies with mathematical analyses, scientists from The Institute of Cancer Research in London were able to uncover the mechanisms by which genetic changes can result in variations in the size of cancer cells. These findings may be utilized in the development of novel treatments. The researchers believe smaller cells could be more vulnerable to DNA-damaging agents like chemotherapy combined with targeted drugs, while larger cancer cells might respond better to immunotherapy....

Ryan McMullen had never heard of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences when he started casting about for a graduate chemistry program. But on the recommendation of one of his professors, he sent an email to the College’s Professor of Chemistry Stephen Bradforth proposing an experiment to tease out what makes a metal really a metal. The proposal would not only turn into his Ph.D. thesis but a major scientific breakthrough....

“In people with chronic migraine and episodic migraine without aura, there are significant changes in the perivascular spaces of a brain region called the centrum semiovale,” said study co-author Wilson Xu, an M.D. candidate at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “These changes have never been reported before.” Migraine is a common, often debilitating condition, involving a severe recurring headache. Migraines may also cause nausea, weakness, and light sensitivity....

Protoplanetary discs are dense, rotating planes of gas and dust that surround newly formed stars; providing the matter that one day becomes orbiting planets, moons, and other minor bodies. At less than one million years old, this system is very young, but already two clear gaps are being sculpted from the disc. The outer gap is deep, wide, and largely a dust-free zone, leading astronomers to believe that a giant planet almost the mass of Saturn is orbiting here — around 800 light-minutes from the central star, and more than three times the distance between Neptune and the Sun!...

The scientists published their findings in the journal Nature. Unlike other light absorbers, it’s relatively simple to make, and cheap, which implies that it could be easy to scale it up for industrial and domestic applications. The material was developed by David Smith, a materials scientist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and his colleagues. Metamaterials are usually used to make absorbers that can capture almost all light. These materials are engineered to have particular properties not found in nature....

Yale scientists may have found a cause for the sudden onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in some children, they report. Pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders, or PANDAS, were first proposed in the 1990s. Thought to be triggered by streptococcal infections, they account for an unknown portion of youth OCD cases. But the biology underpinning this disorder has baffled scientists. The new Yale research, published today (June 16, 2020) in the American Journal of Psychiatry, identifies antibodies that bind to particular brain cells called interneurons as an explanation....

The center of our galaxy is blowing a pair of enormous gamma radiation bubbles spanning 50,000 light-years (magenta structures in the image above). This hourglass-shaped phenomenon was seen using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope roughly ten years ago, but its origin has remained a mystery. These radiation lobes are known as Fermi bubbles, and they are patched with a few mysterious substructures of very bright gamma-ray emission. The Fermi cocoon, one of the brightest regions in the southern lobe (magnified inset in the image below), was once believed to be the result of previous outbursts from the galaxy’s supermassive black hole....