People with mild cognitive impairment are at higher risk of developing
dementia if they have diabetes or psychiatric symptoms such as
depression, finds a new review led by UCL researchers.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a state between normal ageing and
dementia, where someone's mind is functioning less well than would be
expected for their age. It affects 19% of people aged 65 and over, and
around 46% of people with...
Monday
Ancient and modern cities aren't so different
Despite notable differences in appearance and governance, ancient human
settlements function in much the same way as modern cities, according to
new findings by researchers at the Santa Fe Institute and the
University of Colorado Boulder.
Previous research has shown that as modern cities grow in population,
so do their efficiencies and productivity. A city’s population outpaces
its development of urban infrastructure,...
Greenland is melting: The past might tell what the future holds
A team of scientists lead by Danish geologist Nicolaj Krog Larsen have
managed to quantify how the Greenland Ice Sheet reacted to a warm period
8,000-5,000 years ago. Back then temperatures were 2-4 degrees C warmer
than they are in the present. Their results have just been published in
the scientific journal Geology, and are important...
Sunday
Key indicator for successful treatment of infertile couples
Couples have choices in infertility treatments. A recent finding by
Marlene Goldman, MS, ScD of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
and colleagues, published in Fertility and Sterility, gives doctors and
couples a new tool to determine which technique may be more effective
for their situation.
"As a woman approaches menopause, her level of follicle stimulating
hormone (FSH) rises," explained Goldman. "A higher...
Mars exploration: NASA's MAVEN spacecraft completes first deep dip campaign
This image shows an artist concept of NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission.
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution has completed the first of
five deep-dip maneuvers designed to gather measurements closer to the
lower end of the Martian upper atmosphere.
"During normal science mapping, we make measurements...
Brain's iconic seat of speech goes silent when we actually talk
New findings will better help map out the brain's speech regions.
For 150 years, the iconic Broca's area of the brain has been recognized
as the command center for human speech, including vocalization. Now,
scientists at UC Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University in Maryland are
challenging this long-held assumption with new evidence...
Hubble gets best view of a circumstellar debris disk distorted by a planet
The photo at the bottom is the most detailed picture to date of a large,
edge-on, gas-and-dust disk encircling the 20-million-year-old star Beta
Pictoris. The new visible-light Hubble image traces the disk in closer
to the star to within about 650 million miles of the star (which is
inside the radius of Saturn's orbit about the Sun)....
For the first time, spacecraft catch solar shockwave in the act: 'Ultrarelativistic, killer electrons' made in 60 seconds
Earth's magnetosphere is depicted with the high-energy particles of the
Van Allen radiation belts (shown in red) and various processes
responsible for accelerating these particles to relativistic energies
indicated. The effects of an interplanetary shock penetrate deep into
this system, energizing electrons to ultra-relativistic energies...
Friday
First glimpse of a chemical bond being born
This illustration shows atoms forming a tentative bond, a moment
captured for the first time in experiments with an X-ray laser at SLAC
National Accelerator Laboratory.
The reactants are a carbon monoxide molecule, left, made of a carbon
atom (black) and an oxygen atom (red), and a single atom of oxygen, just
to the right of it. They...
Application of laser microprobe technology to Apollo samples refines lunar impact history
This is a photomicrograph of a petrographic thin section of a piece of a
coherent, crystalline impact melt breccia collected from landslide
material at the base of the South
Massif, Apollo 17 (sample 73217, 84). Different mineral and lithic
clasts, as well as impact melt phases are evident. Determining the ages
of different melt components...
Magnitude of plastic waste going into the ocean calculated: 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans per year
The 192 countries with a coast bordering the Atlanta, Pacific and Indian
oceans, Mediterranean and Black seas produced a total of 2.5 billion
metric tons of solid waste. Of that, 275 million metric tons was
plastic, and an estimated 8 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic
waste entered the ocean in 2010.
A plastic grocery bag...
Warming pushes Western U.S. toward driest period in 1,000 years: Unprecedented risk of drought in 21st century
Soil moisture 30 cm below ground projected through 2100 for high
emissions scenario RCP 8.5. The soil moisture data are standardized to
the Palmer Drought Severity Index and are deviations from the 20th
century average.
During the second half of the 21st century, the U.S. Southwest and Great
Plains will face persistent drought worse...
Cosmology: First stars were born much later than thought
New maps from ESA's Planck satellite uncover the 'polarised' light from
the early Universe across the entire sky, revealing that the first stars
formed much later than previously thought.
The history of our Universe is a 13.8 billion-year tale that
scientists endeavour to read by studying the planets, asteroids, comets
and other objects in our Solar System, and gathering light emitted by
distant stars, galaxies and the...
Dogs know that smile on your face
This is the experimental set-up used to test whether dogs can discriminate emotional expressions of human faces.
Dogs can tell the difference between happy and angry human faces, according to a new study in the Cell Press journal Current Biology
on February 12. The discovery represents the first solid evidence that
an animal other than...
Sunday
Scientists predict Earth-like planets around most stars
Planetary scientists have calculated that there are hundreds of billions
of Earth-like planets in our galaxy which might support life.
Planetary scientists have calculated that there are hundreds of billions
of Earth-like planets in our galaxy which might support life.
The new research, led by PhD student Tim Bovaird and Associate...
Wednesday
Add nature, art and religion to life's best anti-inflammatories
The awe we feel when we're in nature may help lower levels of pro-inflammatory proteins, a new study suggests.
Taking in such spine-tingling wonders as the Grand Canyon, Sistine
Chapel ceiling or Schubert's "Ave Maria" may give a boost to the body's
defense system, according to new research from UC Berkeley.
Researchers have linked...
Scientists discover organism that hasn't evolved in more than 2 billion years
This is a section of a 1.8 billion-year-old fossil-bearing rock.
An international team of scientists has discovered the greatest absence
of evolution ever reported -- a type of deep-sea microorganism that
appears not to have evolved over more than 2 billion years. But the
researchers say that the organisms' lack of evolution actually...
Magnetic sense for humans? Electronic skin with magneto-sensory system enables 'sixth sense'
The new magnetic sensors are light enough (three gram per square meter) to float on a soap bubble.
Scientists from Germany and Japan have developed a new magnetic sensor,
which is thin, robust and pliable enough to be smoothly adapted to human
skin, even to the most flexible part of the human palm. The achievement
suggests it may be...
New technique doubles the distance of optical fiber communications
Optical fiber (stock image).
A new way to process fibre optic signals has been demonstrated by UCL
researchers, which could double the distance at which data travels
error-free through transatlantic sub-marine cables.
The new method has the potential to reduce the costs of long-distance
optical fibre communications as signals wouldn't...
Computer chips: Engineers use disorder to control light on the nanoscale
Artist's depiction of light traveling through a photonic crystal
superlattice, where holes have been randomly patterned. The result is a
more narrow beam of light.
A breakthrough by a team of researchers from UCLA, Columbia University
and other institutions could lead to the more precise transfer of
information in computer chips,...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)