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In China, they want to create a spacecraft with a length of several kilometers

2021-09-04 17:41 The National Foundation of Natural Sciences of China has selected five promising projects in the field of space exploration. One of them turned out to be a project for the construction of a giant spacecraft several kilometers long — 15 million yuan was allocated for its development, which in terms of our money is equal to about 169 million rubles. It is believed that the huge design will allow people to sta...

Plastic is a triple threat on a planetary scale

2021-09-03 21:27 Plastic follows us everywhere: on the ground, in the water and in the air. Unless drastic measures are taken, the amount of plastic in the ocean will triple by 2040. Ingrid Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), reminded the participants of the ministerial conference on the problems of marine debris and plastic waste. "Turtles entangled in torn plastic bags. Dead w...

Scientists have identified five episodes of the migration of ancient people from Africa to Arabia

2021-09-02 18:37 According to the results of an international study published in the journal Nature, the first people came to Arabia from Africa 400 thousand years ago. After that, there were at least four more waves of migration, each of which coincided with a short period of decreasing aridity in the region, when the Arabian Peninsula was covered with greenery and numerous lakes. Archaeological excavations have been cond...

Scientists have explained how and where the first biomolecules were formed on Earth

2021-09-01 17:30 The results of the study of German scientists show that the first self-reproducing biomolecules could be formed in the microcracks of basalts from the "correct" mixture of salts, under the influence of heat flows associated with volcanism. It is believed that the first living systems were based on self-replicating RNA molecules carrying hereditary information. According to the hypothesis of the "RNA world"...

400 thousand years ago, the inhabitants of Italy made tools from elephant bones

2021-08-31 18:44 A team of researchers from Italy, the United States, Switzerland and France found that about 400 thousand years ago, the ancient inhabitants of Castel di Guido, on the outskirts of modern Rome, made a large number of tools from elephant bones. In the manufacture of these tools, methods were used that became widespread only a hundred thousand years later. At that time, there was a ravine with a flowing stre...

MSU chemists have come up with an environmentally friendly way to extract food dyes

2021-08-30 12:47 Employees of the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University have developed effective extraction systems and methods for extracting food dyes. The work is published in the Microchemical Journal. Next up are proteins, vitamins, and steroids. Extraction is a widely used method of separating, separating, and concentrating substances with a solvent. This is the most important stage in preparing the sample ...

Treatment of deafness: scientists have printed the eardrum on a 3D printer

2021-08-29 20:06 According to the World Health Organization, by 2050, about 2.5 billion people will suffer from hearing problems worldwide. The reasons will be different, ranging from the consequences of diseases and ending with injuries. And in at least 700 million cases, the situation will be so difficult that people will need urgent medical care. Recently, American scientists have learned to print implants of eardrums on...

More children than ever before live as migrants or refugees, outside their birth countries – UNICEF

2021-08-28 15:01 More girls and boys than ever are on the move, with 35.5 million having lived outside their country of birth in 2020 and an additional 23.3 million displaced internally, according to a new report by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) published on Friday. The report, Uncertain Pathways, found that over the course of the year, there were almost 15 million new displacements or 41,000 each day, and that boys outn...

Physicists have directly observed the movement of atoms in liquid water molecules

2021-08-27 20:52 For the first time, an international group of experimental physicists from the United States and Sweden directly observed how hydrogen atoms in water molecules pull and push neighboring molecules when they are excited by laser light. Each water molecule contains one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, and a network of hydrogen bonds between positively charged hydrogen atoms in one molecule and negatively c...

The main structures of dark RNA are described

2021-08-26 17:51 Non-coding RNA in the cell enters some important organelles, regulates protein synthesis, accelerates individual reactions and participates in other biologically important processes. Often, the functioning of non-coding RNAs is ensured by stable interactions of the nucleotides of one or more RNA molecules. A bioinformatician from MIPT and the Institute of Mathematical Problems of Biology of the Russian Acad...

Scientists have found out when the first quadrupeds appeared on Earth

2021-08-25 17:59 American scientists, using mathematical methods of Bayesian modeling, restored the dynamics of the evolution of the first quadrupeds, which descended from fish 400-360 million years ago and gave rise to all vertebrate inhabitants of the land.One of the most important evolutionary events in the history of life on Earth is the transition from fish to quadrupeds — vertebrates with limbs. It happened somewhere ...

The quantum simulator solved a problem that took a week of work of a powerful computing cluster in two hours

2021-08-24 18:46 Scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, MISIS, the Russian Quantum Center, the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, and the Dukhov All-Russian Research Institute of Automation conducted an experiment in which superconducting qubits simulated the transfer of photons in the Bose-Hubbard model. The numerical solution of the model on a classical computer to verify the experimental d...

What inheritance do we leave to our children? A new UNICEF study

2021-08-23 18:49 Almost every child on the planet is more or less exposed to climatic or environmental hazards. Hundreds of millions of children and adolescents may die, be injured or become ill as a result of cyclones, floods, droughts or air pollution. Today, a report with the climate risk index for children was published for the first time under the auspices of UNICEF, according to which children in the Central African ...

Scientists have received evidence of a cycle of the Earth's magnetic field with a period of 200 million years

2021-08-22 18:12 The results of a new study by the University of Liverpool provide additional evidence for an approximately 200-million-year cycle of the strength of the Earth's magnetic field. Scientists performed thermal and microwave paleomagnetic analysis of rock samples from ancient lava flows in Eastern Scotland to measure the strength of the geomagnetic field at key time periods in the practical absence of previ...

Rattlesnake rattles trick human ears

2021-08-21 21:27 Rattlesnakes increase their rattling rate as potential threats approach, and this abrupt switch to a high-frequency mode makes listeners, including humans, think they're closer than they actually are, researchers report August 19th in the journal Current Biology. "Our data show that the acoustic display of rattlesnakes, which has been interpreted for decades as a simple acoustic warning signal about th...

The Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences has published an electronic archaeological map of Russia

2021-08-20 21:48 The Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences has opened access to the geoinformation system "Archaeological Monuments of Russia" — an electronic map that contains data on more than 42.5 thousand objects. In 2014, a working group led by the Director of the IA RAS Nikolai Makarov began to develop a nationwide electronic archaeological map. An automated information processing system and a da...

Cancer under the control of a magnetic field

2021-08-19 11:44 The non-magnetic coating of silicon oxide magnetic nanoparticles significantly increases the death of cancer cells. This conclusion was reached by Russian scientists as a result of the study. Such a shell does not allow the nanoparticles to combine, as a result, they retain effective magneto-mechanical properties in a low-frequency alternating magnetic field. The study is published in the journal Colloids a...

Spyware: Rights experts push for surveillance technology moratorium

2021-08-18 10:31 A group of UN-appointed experts on Thursday called for a moratorium on the sale of surveillance technology, warning against the danger of allowing the sector to operate as “a human rights-free zone.” Their recommendation comes in the wake of the Pegasus spyware scandal targeting hundreds of journalists, activists and politicians. Violating rights, endangering lives They said until robust regulations o...

The Trade robot uses threaded fins to overcome obstacles

2021-08-17 11:47 When it comes to robots designed to move across rough terrain, there are usually models with tracks or legs. However, the new Tready robot combines the best of both approaches by using four tread "fins". This robot, manufactured by HEBI Robotics, is designed for applications such as search and rescue, industrial control or just exploring the area. "Tready is designed for everyone who is interested in a stro...

Результаты Международного конкурса научно-исследовательских работ, посвященного Международному дню молодежи (ООН), «Science in the modern world»

2021-08-16 10:47 Уважаемые участники конкурса, руководители!Благодарим за интерес, проявленный к нашему конкурсу. Поздравляем победителей, призеров, лауреатов специальных номинаций. Желаем Вам новых интересных идей и дальнейших успехов!Просим обратить внимание, что в соответствии с тематикой поступивших на конкурс работ были образованы дополнительные направления.Результаты конкурса можно скачать по следующим ссылкам:ШКОЛЬНИ...

Twice the charm: long-lived exotic particle discovered

2021-08-16 10:38 Today, the LHCb experiment at CERN is presenting a new discovery at the European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics (EPS-HEP). The new particle discovered by LHCb, labelled as Tcc+, is a tetraquark – an exotic hadron containing two quarks and two antiquarks. It is the longest-lived exotic matter particle ever discovered, and the first to contain two heavy quarks and two light antiquarks. Qu...

Researchers find a ‘fearsome dragon’ that soared over outback Queensland

2021-08-15 11:54 Australia’s largest flying reptile has been uncovered, a pterosaur with an estimated seven-metre wingspan that soared like a dragon above the ancient, vast inland sea once covering much of outback Queensland. University of Queensland PhD candidate Tim Richards, from the Dinosaur Lab in UQ’s School of Biological Sciences, led a research team that analysed a fossil of the creature’s jaw, discovered on Wanama...

A previously unknown species of carnivorous plants has been discovered in Canada

2021-08-14 11:26 Scientists have discovered a previously unknown species of carnivorous plants from the genus of false chrysanthemums in the forests of Canada, which selectively lures and kills its victims with extremely sticky juice. "The unique feature of this carnivorous plant is that its traps are very close to the inflorescences. Such a neighborhood, at first glance, should interfere with the normal pollination of flo...

NIH Scientists Find that Salmonella Use Intestinal Epithelial Cells to Colonize the Gut

2021-08-13 19:07 The immune system’s attempt to eliminate Salmonella bacteria from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract instead facilitates colonization of the intestinal tract and fecal shedding, according to National Institutes of Health scientists. The study, published in Cell Host & Microbe, was conducted by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) scientists at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, M...

International Youth Day 12 August

2021-08-12 11:45 Young people are on the frontlines of the struggle to build a better future for all. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the dire need for the kind of transformational change they seek – and young people must be full partners in that effort.” - UN Secretary-General António GuterresTransforming food systemsYouth innovation for human and planetary healthWith the world’s population expected to increase by 2 ...

IPCC report: ‘Code red’ for human driven global heating, warns UN chief

2021-08-11 13:46 Climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying, and some trends are now irreversible, at least during the present time frame, according to the latest much-anticipated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released on Monday. Human-induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. Scientists are also observing changes ac...

A wayward skull, at-home fossil analyses and a first for Antarctic amphibians

2021-08-10 18:48 Paleontologists had to adjust to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many had to postpone fossil excavations, temporarily close museums and teach the next generation of fossil hunters virtually instead of in person. But at least parts of the show could go on during the pandemic — with some significant changes. “For paleontologists, going into the field to look for fossils is where data collection begi...

The number of hungry people in the world has increased. What is the reason for this?

2021-08-09 10:18 In 2021, the world produces enough food to feed all the people living on our planet. But at the same time, more than 5 million young children die every year from hunger-related diseases. At least, such data is shared by representatives of the UN World Food Program, who are engaged in the fight against mass hunger. Residents of some regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America suffer especially badly from lack ...

Chemists have discovered a new type of reactions

2021-08-08 12:27 Scientists of St. Petersburg State University have discovered a new type of reactions, as a result of which it is possible to synthesize complex polycyclic organic molecules. The source code is unsaturated compounds, that is, with double or triple inter-carbon bonds, which in their structure resemble a Rubik's snake. This reaction allowed scientists to transform easily accessible and widely used in chem...

Another step towards a quantum computer: physicists unveil the condensation of ‘liquid light’ in a semiconductor crystal just one-atom-thick

2021-08-07 18:35 An international team of physicists has shown experimentally for the first time how a Bose-Einstein condensate — tens of thousands of quanta of ‘liquid light’ — is formed in the thinnest monatomic film of a semiconductor crystal. The team includes the head of the Spin Optics Laboratory at St Petersburg University, Professor Alexey Kavokin. This discovery will help create new types of lasers capable of produ...

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