A new study from Yale University shows that a protein derived from ticks enhances the effectiveness of antibiotic treatment for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The research teams believes using the protein in combination with existing treatments can help address the growing challenge of antibiotic-resistant MRSA and other staph infections. Resistance to antibiotic treatment is a widespread problem in medicine, and MRSA is prime example of a resistant bacterium that can cause deadly infections....

The team, composed of five members, including two women scientists, teaching or studying at Mahidol University, wants to investigate the high-protein aquatic plant as a food and oxygen source for space exploration and on other planets that may have higher gravity than Earth. The team members bring a variety of academic backgrounds to the project, including physics, bio-innovation, biochemistry and electrical engineering. They are the winners of the inaugural cycle of the HyperGES fellowship, offering scientists all over the world the chance to conduct their own hypergravity experiments using ESA’s Large Diameter Centrifuge (LDC)....

Parents with young children are often concerned about the amount of time they spend on screens, such as tablets, phones, computers, and televisions. They may also be wondering about the impact of screen time on their child’s development and if there is a way to counteract its negative effects. A recent study from Japan has found that a higher amount of screen time at age 2 is correlated with weaker communication and practical skills at age 4....

Now, ICFO researchers Lukasz Piatkowski, Nicolò Accanto, Gaëtan Calbris, Sotirios Christodoulou, led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Niek F. van Hulst, in collaboration with Iwan Moreels (Ghent University, Belgium), have published a study in Science entitled “Ultrafast stimulated emission microscopy of single nanocrystals,” where they report on a technique for studying ultrafast events in individual non-fluorescent nano-objects. In their study, they took individual QDs and rather than waiting for the QD to spontaneously emit light through photoluminescence, the team used a sophisticated combination of laser pulses to promote individual QDs into excited state and then, force them down, back to the ground state to first: image individual QDs and second: discern the evolution of the excited charges within the entire photocycle....

A Southwest Research Institute scientist has updated Mars chronology models to find that terrains shaped by ancient water activity on the planet’s surface may be hundreds of millions of years older than previously thought. This new chronology for Mars, based on the latest dynamical models for the formation and evolution of the solar system, is particularly significant as the days count down until NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover lands on the Red Planet on February 18, 2021....

A new video from NASA’s Dawn mission reveals the dappled, variegated surface of the giant asteroid Vesta. The animation drapes high-resolution false color images over a 3D model of the Vesta terrain constructed from Dawn’s observations. This visualization enables a detailed view of the variation in the material properties of Vesta in the context of its topography. The colors were chosen to highlight differences in surface composition that are too subtle for the human eye to see....

Characterization of graphene devices is in high demand. Raman spectroscopy can be used to do this. Laser light is directed at the material sample, and scattered photons provide information about the rotations and vibrations of the molecules therein, as well as the crystal structure. On average, only around 1 in 10 million photons is scattered in this way. This not only makes it hard to detect the right information, but it is also very slow: it may take half a second to image one single pixel....

Researchers at the University of Arizona Health Sciences are closer to developing a safe and effective non-opioid pain reliever after a study showed that a new compound they created reduces the sensation of pain by regulating a biological channel linked to pain. Most people experience pain at some point in their lives, and the National Institutes of Health estimates 100 million people in the U.S. suffer from chronic pain. Approximately 21-29% of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them and 8-12% of people using an opioid for chronic pain develop an opioid use disorder, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse....

The scientists published their findings in two studies in the journal BMJ.[1,2] The first study used data on 15,174 male and female athletes who won medals in the Olympic Games since 1896. It found that 30 years after any given Olympics, 8% more medalists were alive than others from their country and birth year.[1] The effect wasn’t just seen in Olympic athletes who participated in high-endurance and high-intensity events. Researchers found no difference in mortality between cyclists, rowers, tennis stars and cricket players....

Astronomers have spotted the “greenest” of galaxies, one that converts fuel into stars with almost 100 percent efficiency. The findings come from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, and the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer in the French Alps. “This galaxy is remarkably efficient,” said Jim Geach of McGill University in Canada, lead author of a new study appearing in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. “It’s converting its gas supply into new stars at the maximum rate thought possible....

Entitled “Distinct oxygen isotope compositions of the Earth and Moon,” the research paper may challenge the current understanding of the formation of the Moon. Previous research led to scientists to develop the Giant Impact Hypothesis suggesting the Moon was formed from debris following a giant collision between early-Earth and a proto-planet named Theia. The Earth and Moon are geochemically similar. Samples returned from the Moon from the Apollo missions showed a near-identical composition in oxygen isotopes....

Study shows our species is still evolving and changes in natural selection could be the major reason. Humans haven’t developed genetic mutations for telepathy or superpowers just yet, but a new study shows our species is still evolving in unique ways and changes in the natural selection could be the major reason. An investigation by Dr. Teghan Lucas at Flinders University and Professor Maciej Henneberg and Dr. Jaliya Kumaratilake at the University of Adelaide published in the Journal of Anatomy has shown a significant increase in the prevalence of the median artery in humans since the late 19th century....

Simply put, the researchers don’t know enough about these species to be able to say whether or not they are in danger of becoming extinct. However, with a little more knowledge now at hand, the news is once again not good. “We looked at species that are relatively poorly known, but where at least the geographical distribution is known. These species tend to be threatened with extinction more often than ones that we know more about,” says Francesca Verones, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s (NTNU) Industrial Ecology Programme....

However, scientists found that whale sharks in the reef were consuming a lot of plant material when they analyzed biopsy samples from the animals. “This causes us to rethink everything we thought we knew about what whale sharks eat,” said Australian Institute of Marine Science fish biologist Dr. Mark Meekan. “And, in fact, what they’re doing out in the open ocean.” The discovery makes whale sharks, which have been measured up to 18....

Mice, like the majority of humans, like foods that are high in fat and sugar. Instead of eating these foods to survive, they may do so for enjoyment. They may indulge in these treats for pleasure, rather than for survival. The neurons Li and his colleagues studied trigger this behavior, called hedonic eating. Li notes: “Even if the animal is supposed to stop eating because they are already full, if those neurons are still active, it can still drive those animals to eat more....

The scientists published their findings in the journal PLOS Medicine. The study was done at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute. The researchers quantified how many years of life are gained by being active at different levels, among all individuals as well as among various groups having different body mass indexes (BMI). Low amounts of physical activity, such as 75 minutes of brisk walking per week, was associated with an increased longevity of 1....

The findings appear in a recent study published in the journal Physical Review Letters and a follow-up work published in Physical Review B. The fundamental phases of matter — solid, liquid, and gas — are well known. But there are many other phases, including ones that emerge when matter is chilled or heated to extreme temperatures. Extreme heat, for example, can create plasma phases by breaking down the individual atoms in a substance....

It’s not often in nuclear physics that you can clearly get both sides of the story, but a recent experiment allowed researchers to do just that. They compared very similar nuclei to each other to get a clearer view of how the components of nuclei are arranged and found that there’s still more to learn about the heart of matter. The research, carried out at the Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, was recently published as an editors’ suggested read in Physical Review Letters....

Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology teamed up with colleagues from the U.S. and Switzerland and returned the state of a quantum computer a fraction of a second into the past. They also calculated the probability that an electron in empty interstellar space will spontaneously travel back into its recent past. “This is one in a series of papers on the possibility of violating the second law of thermodynamics....

Scientists used satellite data to measure the extent of subnival vegetation — plants growing between the treeline and snowline — in this vast area. Little is known about these remote, hard-to-reach ecosystems, made up of short-stature plants (predominantly grasses and shrubs) and seasonal snow, but the study reveals they cover between 5 and 15 times the area of permanent glaciers and snow. Using data from 1993 to 2018 from NASA’s Landsat satellites, University of Exeter researchers measured small but significant increases in subnival vegetation cover across four height brackets from 4,150-6,000 meters (13,600-19,700 feet) above sea level....