Since mobile phones are held close to the head, the radiofrequency waves they emit penetrate several centimeters into the brain, with the temporal and parietal lobes being most exposed. This has led to concern that mobile phone users may be at an increased risk of developing brain tumors, with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifying radiofrequency waves as ‘possibly carcinogenic.’ However, most of the studies that have investigated this question to date have been retrospective studies in which individuals report mobile phone use after a diagnosis of cancer, meaning that the results may be biased....

Many people tend to put on weight as they leave adolescence and move into adulthood, and this is the age when the levels of obesity increase the fastest. This weight gain is related to changes in diet and physical activity behavior across the life events of early adulthood, including the move from school to further education and employment, starting new relationships, and having children. Writing in Obesity Reviews, researchers from the Center for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) at Cambridge looked at changes in physical activity, diet, and body weight as young adults move from education into employment and to becoming a parent....

“In the United States, the number of premature deaths associated with exposure to outdoor particulate matter exceeds the number of car accident fatalities every year. This highlights the vital role that the EPA plays in reducing the exposure of people living in the United States to harmful pollutants,” says Colette Heald, associate professor in CEE and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. The EPA’s 1970 Clean Air Act and amendments in 1990 address the health effects of particulate matter, specifically by regulating emissions of air pollutants and promoting research into cleaner alternatives....

A new study shows drinking low-fat milk — both nonfat and 1% milk — is significantly associated with less aging in adults. Research on 5,834 U.S. adults by Brigham Young University exercise science professor Larry Tucker, Ph.D., found people who drink low-fat (1% and skim) milk experience several years less biological aging than those who drink high-fat (2% and whole) milk. “It was surprising how strong the difference was,” Tucker said....

The spacecraft’s exquisitely sensitive seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), can pick up vibrations as subtle as a breeze. The instrument was provided by the French space agency, Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), and its partners. SEIS was designed to listen for marsquakes. Scientists want to study how the seismic waves of these quakes move through the planet’s interior, revealing the deep inner structure of Mars for the first time....

Scientists have found evidence of plate tectonics on Jupiter’s moon Europa. This indicates the first sign of this type of surface-shifting geological activity on a world other than Earth. Researchers have clear visual evidence of Europa’s icy crust expanding. However, they could not find areas where the old crust was destroyed to make room for the new. While examining Europa images taken by NASA’s Galileo orbiter in the early 2000s, planetary geologists Simon Kattenhorn, of the University of Idaho, Moscow, and Louise Prockter, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, discovered some unusual geological boundaries....

The virus’s ability to change makes it likely that new human coronaviruses will arise. A team of scientists studying the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, found that it was especially well-suited to jump from animals to humans by shapeshifting as it gained the ability to infect human cells. Conducting a genetic analysis, researchers from Duke University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of Texas at El Paso and New York University confirmed that the closest relative of the virus was a coronavirus that infects bats....

And approval of foreign vaccines already deployed elsewhere around the globe should be speeded up as a matter of urgency, argue the authors from the ICMR-National Institute of Malaria Research and the Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi. India is now reporting the largest daily number of COVID-19 infections in the world amid critical shortages of hospital beds, ICU beds, medicines, ventilators, oxygen, and healthcare staff. Despite international aid pouring into the country and emergency use authorization for several vaccines, poor planning of home-grown vaccine production and deployment means that India doesn’t have enough vaccines to go round, say the authors....

Figures correspond to nearly 7% more than expected, show World Bank economist estimates. An extra 267,000 infants will likely have died in 2020 in low and middle income countries as a result of the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, finds a modelling study, published in the online journal BMJ Open. This toll is 7% higher than expected for the year, say the World Bank economist authors. The global economy is expected to have contracted almost 5% in the first year of the pandemic, increasing the numbers of people living in poverty by 120 million....

A man with almost no hair on his body has grown a full head of it after a novel treatment by doctors at Yale University. There is currently no cure or long-term treatment for alopecia universalis, the disease that left the 25-year-old patient bare of hair. This is the first reported case of a successful targeted treatment for the rare, highly visible disease. The patient has also grown eyebrows and eyelashes, as well as facial, armpit, and other hair, which he lacked at the time he sought help....

During its five-year primary mission, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has given astronomers an increasingly detailed portrait of the universe’s most extraordinary phenomena, from giant black holes in the hearts of distant galaxies to thunderstorms on Earth. But its job is not done yet. On August 11, Fermi entered an extended phase of its mission — a deeper study of the high-energy cosmos. This is a significant step toward the science team’s planned goal of a decade of observations, ending in 2018....

An experimental fingerprint detection approach can identify traces of cocaine on human skin, even after someone has washed their hands — and the test is also smart enough to tell whether an individual has actually consumed the class A drug, or simply handled it. In a paper published in Nature Publishing Group’s Scientific Reports, a series of experiments by the University of Surrey detail how it is possible to carry out drug testing accurately and painlessly using a single fingerprint sample....

Reference: “In-situ phosphine oxide physical networks: A facile strategy to achieve durable flame retardant and antimicrobial treatments of cellulose” by Rashid Nazir, Dambarudhar Parida, Joel Borgstädt, Sandro Lehner, Milijana Jovic, Daniel Rentsch, Ezgi Bülbül, Anja Huch, Stefanie Altenried, QunRen, Patrick Rupper, Simon Annaheim and Sabyasachi Gaan, 9 December 2020, Chemical Engineering Journal.DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2020.128028 For firefighters and other emergency service personnel, protective clothing provides the most important barrier. For such purposes, cotton is mainly used as an inner textile layer that needs additional properties: For example, it must be fireproof or protect against biological contaminants....

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope will be the world’s premier space science observatory when it launches later this year. Webb will solve mysteries about our Solar System, look at distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our Universe. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Mission officials for Webb have announced the selection of the General Observer programs for the telescope’s first year, known as Cycle 1....

“Our high-precision measurements of ′Oumuamua’s position revealed that there was something affecting its motion other than the gravitational forces of the Sun and planets,” said Marco Micheli of ESA’s (European Space Agency) Space Situational Awareness Near-Earth Object Coordination Center in Frascati, Italy, and lead author of a paper describing the team’s findings. This video explains how observatories, including NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, found that ‘Oumuamua gained an extra boost of speed, likely from comet-like jets of gas....

Spacecraft typically approach planets at speeds tens of thousands of miles per hour —screaming fast. Entering a planet’s atmosphere at those speeds compresses atmospheric gas, creating pressure shock and generating intense heat right in front of the spacecraft. Aeroshells slow spacecraft during entry and shield them from heat. ADEPT could be key to future NASA missions that require extra-large aeroshells to protect spacecraft destined to land on the surface of other planets, all without requiring larger rockets....

Published today (January 29, 2020) in The Journal of Nutrition, the study analyzed the dietary selections of more than 35,000 U.S. adults from 2003-2016 in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) who dined at full-service (those with wait staff) or fast-food restaurants, which included pizza shops and what has become known as fast-casual. The researchers assessed nutritional quality by evaluating specific foods and nutrients in the meals, based on the American Heart Association 2020 diet score....

The researchers published their findings in the journals Nature and Science. For now, it’s too soon to tell if the results, obtained for tumors of the brain, gut, and skin, will apply to other cancers, states Luis Parada, a cancer researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and who led the study on the brain tumors. If they do, there will be a paradigm shift in the way that chemotherapy efficacy is evaluated and how new therapeutics are developed, he states....

Throughout the 1800s, most Clevelanders lived, worked, and walked within the tight borders of Cleveland proper—today’s downtown area. The arrival of streetcars—first horse-drawn, then electric—allowed residents to live on the outskirts but still maintain an urban lifestyle. By the early 1900s, communities like Lakewood grew from this streetcar-fueled suburban revolution. The 1920s through 1940s paved the way for the next great transportation revolution and continuing suburban evolution. With automobiles in vogue, communities like Seven Hills developed even farther from the urban core....

When it comes time for NASA’s Psyche spacecraft to power itself through deep space, it’ll be more brain than brawn that does the work. Once the stuff of science fiction, the efficient and quiet power of electric propulsion will provide the force that propels the Psyche spacecraft all the way to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The orbiter’s target: a metal-rich asteroid also called Psyche. The spacecraft will launch in August 2022 and travel about 1....