Volcanic eruptions and human-caused changes to the atmosphere strongly influence the rate at which the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide, says a new study. The ocean is so sensitive to changes such as declining greenhouse gas emissions that it immediately responds by taking up less carbon dioxide. The authors say we may soon see this play out due to the COVID-19 pandemic lessening global fuel consumption; they predict the ocean will not continue its recent historic pattern of absorbing more carbon dioxide each year than the year before, and could even take up less in 2020 than in 2019....

NASA’s Sea Level Change Team has created a sea level projection tool that makes extensive data on future sea level rise from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) easily accessible to the public – and to everyone with a stake in planning for the changes to come. Pull up the tool’s layers of maps, click anywhere on the global ocean and coastlines, and pick any decade between 2020 and 2150: The tool, hosted on NASA’s Sea Level Portal, will deliver a detailed report for the location based on the projections in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, released on August 9, which addresses the most updated physical understanding of the climate system and climate change....

A new study published today in the journal Clinical Oral Investigations, has found that sugar-sweetened acidic drinks, such as soft drinks, is the common factor between obesity and tooth wear among adults. Scientists from King’s College London found that being overweight or obese was undoubtedly associated with having tooth wear. Significantly, they also found that the increased consumption of sugary soft drinks may be a leading cause of the erosion of tooth enamel and dentine in obese patients....

Paleontologists are referring to Chilesaurus diegosuarezi as a ‘platypus’ dinosaur because of its bizarre combination of characters that resemble different dinosaur groups. For example, Chilesaurus boasted a proportionally small skull, hands with two fingers like Tyrannosaurus Rex and feet more akin to primitive long-neck dinosaurs. Chilesaurus diegosuarezi is nested within the theropod group of dinosaurs, the dinosaurian group that gathers the famous meat eaters Velociraptor, Carnotaurus and Tyrannosaurus, and from which birds today evolved....

CfA astronomer Jennifer Yee is a member of a large international team of astronomers making parallax microlensing measurements of small stellar objects. The technique is a powerful tool for probing isolated objects like free-floating planets, brown dwarfs, low-mass stars, and black holes. At the low-mass end, microlensing has already detected several free-floating planet candidates including several possible Earth-mass objects. Such discoveries are crucial for testing theories about the origin and evolution of free-floating planets....

The coronavirus pandemic has brought the tourism and travel industry to a near-standstill, with nationwide lockdowns significantly impacting the aviation and maritime industry worldwide. Satellite images, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, show parked aircraft and anchored vessels in times of COVID-19. Global aviation is facing its battle to survive, with most flights grounded since March owing to travel restrictions in place to contain the coronavirus pandemic. According to aviation industry researcher Cirium, the number of passenger jets in service is the lowest it has been in 26 years....

Lead researcher Dr. Richard Campbell from The University of Manchester says his findings solve a long-standing mystery related to the lifetime of foams. And that could be useful for the development of a range of products that improve the creamy topping on a flat white coffee, the head on a pint of beer, shampoos we use every day, firefighting foams or even oil absorbent foams used to tackle environmental disasters....

University of Cincinnati researcher urges caution using remdesivir to treat COVID-19. While the world has its eyes on vaccines to stop the spread of coronavirus, therapeutics are still necessary to treat hospitalized patients. One of these treatments, remdesivir, is the first and only antiviral agent of its kind that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved so far for COVID-19. Research at the University of Cincinnati, however, contends that this antiviral drug is being used too indiscriminately when treating patients hospitalized with the virus....

According to recent research, massive stars in the densely populated stellar nurseries where most stars are created may steal or capture planets the size of Jupiter. University of Sheffield researchers have presented a new explanation for the newly found B-star Exoplanet Abundance STudy (BEAST) planets. These are Jupiter-like planets that are located far from massive stars—hundreds of times further than the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Until recently, their development has been a mystery, since massive stars generate large amounts of ultraviolet radiation, which prevents planets from expanding to the size of Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet....

In a study published in the Journal of Occupational Health, workers who had to sit for long periods of time during the COVID-19 pandemic reported worsened job performance. In the survey-based study of 14,648 workers in Japan, 15% of workers said that pandemic-related changes in the work environment worsened their work performance, 4% said it improved their work performance, and 81% said it caused no change. Although telework both improved and worsened performance, sitting for long periods of time was associated only with worsened performance....

The venom of the black mamba snake can kill humans within 20 minutes, but among those deadly compounds are two snake proteins, called mambalgins, that can block pain in mice as effectively as morphine and with fewer side effects. The researchers published their findings in the journal Nature. Mambalgins were discovered as part of a search for alternative pain medication to opiates, since patients can develop a tolerance to opiates, requiring higher doses of the drugs over time....

A recent study led by Dr. Boris Goncharov and Prof Ryan Shannon—both researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)—has tried to solve this puzzle. Using the most recent data from the Australian experiment known as the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array, the team of scientists searched for these mystery gravitational waves from supermassive black holes. The experiment observed radio pulsars: extremely dense collapsed cores of massive supergiant stars (called neutron stars) that pulse out radio waves, like a lighthouse beam....

UC Berkeley demographers calculate pandemic’s impact on US lifespan based on projected mortality rates. With over 170,000 COVID-19 deaths to date, and 1,000 more each day, America’s life expectancy may appear to be plummeting. But in estimating the magnitude of the pandemic, UC Berkeley demographers have found that COVID-19 is likely to shorten the average U.S. lifespan in 2020 by only about a year. Seeking to put current COVID-19 mortality rates into historic, demographic and economic perspective, UC Berkeley demographers Ronald Lee and Joshua Goldstein calculated the consequences of U....

“Quantum computing is still in its infancy, but this transformative achievement rockets us forward,” said Eugene Tu, center director at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “Our missions in the decades to come to the Moon, Mars, and beyond are all fueled by innovations like this one.” Quantum computing is the study of how to harness the unique properties of quantum mechanics to solve certain types of problems far faster than on traditional computers....

Currently, the “gold standard” for COVID-19 testing is a technique called reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), which is slow, requires an uncomfortable nasopharyngeal swab for sample collection and must be performed in a lab. The rapid antigen test is much quicker but has a higher rate of false negatives and positives. Scientists have also developed breathalyzer-type tests for COVID-19, which rely on differences in concentrations of volatile organic compounds exhaled by those infected with the coronavirus, but most require bulky, nonportable instruments for analysis....

New research due to be presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID)* reveals that raw-type dog foods contain high levels of multidrug-resistant bacteria, including those resistant to last-line antibiotics. The potential transfer of such bacteria between dogs and humans is an international public health risk, conclude the authors who include Dr. Ana Raquel Freitas and colleagues from the Faculty of Pharmacy, UCIBIO/REQUIMTE, University of Porto, Portugal....

A former UBC post-doctoral research fellow led an international research team in re-analyzing all public RNA sequencing data to uncover almost ten times more RNA viruses than were previously known, including several new species of coronaviruses in some unexpected places. This planetary-scale database of RNA viruses can help pave the way to rapidly identify virus spillover into humans, as well as those viruses that affect livestock, crops, and endangered species....

An international team of scientists led by a Clemson University astrophysicist has discovered new evidence that planets are forming around a star about 335 light years from Earth. The team found carbon monoxide emission that strongly suggests a planet is orbiting a relatively young star known as HD100546. The candidate planet is the second that astronomers have discovered orbiting the star. Theories of how planets form are well-developed. But if the new study’s findings are confirmed, the activity around HD100546 would mark one of the first times astronomers have been able to directly observe planet formation happening....

The study led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and the University of Melbourne and published today (May 2, 2022) in the journal Nature Communications, has identified disease mechanisms in children with COVID-19 who present with multisystem inflammatory syndrome, where different body parts can become inflamed including the heart, lungs, and brain and acute respiratory distress syndrome, a type of lung disease. MCRI researcher and University of Melbourne PhD student Conor McCafferty said the main triggers for severe COVID-19 in children were blood clotting and how proteins in the immune system reacted to the virus....

Graphene – a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a lattice – is the strongest material in the world and so thin that it is flexible, the researchers said. It is considered one of the key ingredients of future technologies. Most of the current research on graphene targets the development of nanoscale electronic devices. Yet, researchers say that many technologies – from stretchable electronics to tiny robots so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye – require an understanding of the mechanics of graphene, particularly how it flexes and bends, to unlock their potential....