Beta-amyloid forms plaques in the brain (seen in yellow) that play a role in Alzheimer’s disease JUAN GAERTNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Alamy
A cognitive “speed training” game that cuts dementia risk by 25 per cent alters levels of beta-amyloid, a protein that clogs up the brain in Alzheimer’s disease, in men, but not in women.
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Our universe is known to be remarkably homogeneous and isotropic. This essentially means that matter is distributed evenly throughout the universe and that it looks almost the same in all directions.
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Pyrite, an iron sulfide ore, is often known as fool's gold because its shiny metallic luster and pale brass-yellow color can easily fool the untrained eye into mistaking it for real gold. This time, however, 360 kilometers (220 miles) south of Tokyo, scientists have uncovered invisible gold within pyrite structures found deep beneath the ocean at the Higashi-Aogashima Knoll Caldera hydrothermal field.
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Nature is beautiful, powerful and essential. But nature is not always gentle. The same biological world that gives rise to forests, coral reefs and human life also produces infections, cancer, genetic disease, crop blights and toxins. Natural processes can heal, sustain and inspire, but they can also destroy.
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Why do some coral reefs weather marine heat waves better than others? A new study published in Scientific Reports shows that the answer may lie not only in local ocean conditions, but also in climate patterns that span entire ocean basins. By combining long-term ocean observations with chemical records preserved in coral skeletons, the researchers reveal how large-scale climate oscillations regulate the natural cooling that can help protect coral reefs during marine heat waves. First author Dr. Hana Camelia and Dr. Thomas Felis from MARUM—Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen led the study.
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More than 50 years ago, physicist Sir Roger Penrose proposed a remarkable idea: under the right conditions, it might be possible to extract energy from a rapidly spinning black hole. In his concept, a particle entering the black hole's ergosphere, a region where spacetime is dragged along by the object's rotation, could split into two. One fragment would fall into the black hole while the other escaped carrying away more energy than the original particle. Later, physicist Yakov Zel'dovich expanded on this concept, predicting that waves interacting with an object rotating fast enough could also gain energy and become amplified.
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They have been our meat and our messengers, a source of fertilizer and a religious symbol: while pigeons are now mostly reviled as dirty city pests, they long played an important role in human society.
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Researchers have traced the journey of a plastic bottle cap recovered near the waters of southern Japan by combining data from the label, chemical clues in tiny shells and ocean current simulations. They found 307 organisms, including a polychaete worm not found in Japanese waters before. The findings, published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, show that when species that significantly shape their environments (ecosystem engineers) colonize plastic debris, entire micro-communities can be transported over extended periods, with implications for invasive species risk and marine biodiversity conservation.
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Water reserves are being depleted rapidly in northern Italy, threatening farming as the region's main river dries up, local officials warned Friday.
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The justice system in England and Wales is failing to meet people's needs, with cuts to legal aid forming part of a wider pattern of declining investment and support, warns a new UCL–led report. The findings present a stark picture of a system under strain, with austerity and sustained underfunding having far-reaching consequences.
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