New Florida law blocks Chinese students from academic labs
A new state law is thwarting faculty at Florida’s public universities who want to hire Chinese graduate students and postdocs to work in their labs.
In effect since July,
the law
prohibits institutions from taking money from or partnering with entities in China and six other “countries of concern.” The list of banned interactions includes offering anyone living in one of those countries a contract to do research. Students could be hired if they pass a rigorous vetting by state officials. But how that process would work is not clear, and the 12 public colleges and universities covered by the law are st...
Source: ScienceNOW - December 12, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Dino extinction researcher committed research misconduct —but not fraud, university report finds
Paleontologist Robert DePalma, whose claim that the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs struck in springtime drew accusations of fraud, is guilty of “several counts of poor research practice” that “constitute research misconduct,” according to an investigation. The report by the University of Manchester, which it shared with
Science
, says DePalma did not fabricate data, but notes he was unable to say where the key isotope data underlying
his 2021 paper in
Scientific Reports
were produced.
“I’m happy the university acknowledged poor research practices [and] misconduct,” says ...
Source: ScienceNOW - December 12, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Cheap electricity could recycle animal waste, recover valuable chemicals
Talk about a crappy problem. Every year the world’s livestock farms generate more than 3 billion tons of animal waste, equivalent to more than 9000 Empire State Buildings. All that manure pollutes bodies of water and releases noxious fumes and greenhouse gases. But a new recycling technique could reduce those burdens while turning a profit.
Researchers have shown that they can
use electricity to break down organic nutrients in animal waste
, all while recovering valuable chemicals. Initial projections—reported this month in
Nature Sustainability
—suggest that in most cases the value of these...
Source: ScienceNOW - December 11, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
NASA opens door to cooperation with China on Moon rock research
In what could become a rare case of U.S.-Chinese cooperation on space research, NASA is urging scientists it funds to apply to China’s space agency for access to the 1.7 kilograms of lunar soil and rock returned to Earth in 2020 by the Chang’e 5 mission.
Such research collaborations are barred by a long-standing U.S. law that forbids the use of NASA funds for projects with China or Chinese-owned companies—unless NASA certifies to Congress that there is no risk of transferring technology or data to China and that the studies don’t include Chinese officials involved in human rights violations.
Last week, ...
Source: ScienceNOW - December 7, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
‘Not dumb creatures.’ Livestock surprise scientists with their complex, emotional minds
Dummerstorf, Germany
—You’d never mistake a goat for a dog, but on an unseasonably warm afternoon in early September, I almost do. I’m in a red-brick barn in northern Germany, trying to keep my sanity amid some of the most unholy noises I’ve ever heard. Sixty Nigerian dwarf goats are taking turns crashing their horns against wooden stalls while unleashing a cacophony of bleats, groans, and retching wails that make it nearly impossible to hold a conversation. Then, amid the chaos, something remarkable happens. One of the animals raises her head over her enclosure and gazes pensively at me, her widely spaced eye...
Source: ScienceNOW - December 7, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Bacteria are evenly matched in swimming contests, no matter their size
Dedicated fans of the Olympics know many tall athletes swim faster because their long limbs churn more water with each stroke. But a new study published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
shows that for bacteria,
body sizes don’t affect their swimming speeds
, settling a long debate in the field.
Bacteria, big and small, use their tiny, lashlike limbs to travel. These minipropellers, called flagella, are their lifelines. They thrust the cells toward essential food sources and help them escape deadly threats.
Intuitively, longer cells should encounter more resistance in...
Source: ScienceNOW - December 7, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
NIH ’s new chief, Monica Bertagnolli, wants greater ‘equity’ in biomedical research
The new director of the National Institutes of Health said today her highest priority is making NIH-funded clinical research more inclusive and more accessible to the public.
“Equity will guide my approach to leading NIH,” Monica Bertagnolli told reporters in her first news conference, a 40-minute Zoom call. But Bertagnolli, a cancer surgeon who became head of NIH last month, did not unveil any specific programs for achieving her goals and tiptoed around hot-button issues such as whether NIH should exert so-called march-in rights on patents to control drug prices and its role in cracking down on the undisclosed f...
Source: ScienceNOW - December 6, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
The New England Journal of Medicine kicks off a historical series looking at its troubled past
The New England Journal of Medicine
(
NEJM
) is launching a new series today examining its own complicity in perpetuating slavery and its legacy in the United States. In doing so, the 211-year-old journal joins several other publications and medical organizations that have, in recent years, interrogated harmful aspects of their own histories.
In an
editorial
announcing the series
,
NEJM
editors write that they
“recognize that the
Journal
and other medical institutions have in the past justified and advocated the mistreatment of groups o...
Source: ScienceNOW - December 6, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Ancient redwoods recover from fire by sprouting 1000-year-old buds
When lightning ignited fires around California’s Big Basin Redwoods State Park north of Santa Cruz in August 2020, the blaze spread quickly. Redwoods naturally resist burning, but this time flames shot through the canopies of 100-meter-tall trees, incinerating the needles. “It was shocking,” says Drew Peltier, a tree ecophysiologist at Northern Arizona University. “It really seemed like most of the trees were going to die.”
Yet many of them lived. In a paper published yesterday in
Nature Plants
, Peltier and his colleagues help explain why: The charred survivors, despite being defoliated, mobilize...
Source: ScienceNOW - December 1, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
NIH puts hold on $30 million trial of potential stroke drug
Related article
Misconduct concerns, possible drug risks should stop major stroke trial, whistleblowers say
BY
Charles Piller
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has paused the start of a major human trial of an experimental drug aimed at protecting the brain after stroke. At the same time, the agency launched an investigation into recently aired concerns about the drug’s safety and whether lab studies supporting its promise contain manipulated images and data.
The agency’s 16 November m...
Source: ScienceNOW - December 1, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
This Antarctic penguin sleeps 11 hours a day —a few seconds at a time
For sleepy humans, nodding off can be inconvenient—say, during a boring lecture—or even downright dangerous, such as while driving a car. But for Antarctica’s nesting chinstrap penguins (
Pygoscelis antarcticus
), these secondslong bits of shuteye known as “microsleeps” may help them survive. These mininaps net the birds
about 11 hours of sleep per day
, potentially offering them a way to rest while remaining vigilant over their eggs and chicks, researchers report today in
Science
. The work could shine a light on how different animals adapt their dozing to cope with stressful...
Source: ScienceNOW - November 30, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Tiny ‘anthrobots’ built from human cells could help heal the body
In the medicine of the future, molecular physicians built from a patient’s own cells might ferret out cancer, repair injured tissue, and even remove plaque from blood vessels. Researchers have now taken a step toward that vision: They’ve coaxed tracheal cells to form coordinated groups called organoids that can propel themselves with tiny appendages. When added to wounded neurons in the lab,
these “anthrobots” helped neurons repair themselves
.
The work, reported today in
Advanced Science
, “is amazing, and groundbreaking,” says Xi “Charlie” Ren, a tissue engineer at Carnegie Mello...
Source: ScienceNOW - November 30, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Scientists thought they understood maize ’s origins. They were missing something big
Maize is one of the world’s most important crops, but its origins have long bedeviled scientists. It took more than a century for scientists to settle on the idea that it was
domesticated about 9000 years ago
in the lowlands of Mexico from a wild grass: a subspecies of teosinte called
parviglumis
. But now, a team of geneticists has complicated that history, reporting today in
Science
that
maize as we know it has a second wild ancestor
. Between 15% and 25% of the genes in all existing maize varieties come not from
parviglumis
, but from a highland subspecies of teosinte ...
Source: ScienceNOW - November 30, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
News at a glance: Lower pay for disabled Ph.D.s, more U.K. genomes, and quitting antismoking rules
LEADERSHIP
Argentina’s president targets science
The election last week of libertarian Javier Milei as Argentina’s next president has many of the nation’s scientists fearing the future. Milei, who won 55.7% of the vote, has
vowed to close or dramatically restructure the National Scientific and Technical Research Council
(CONICET), Argentina’s main science funding agency, and its health and environment ministries. He views climate change as a “socialist hoax.” Milei has called CONICET, which employs nearly 12,000 researchers and ranks as one of South America’s top government s...
Source: ScienceNOW - November 30, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
World ’s oldest forts upend idea that farming alone led to complex societies
People who lived in central Siberia thousands of years ago enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle despite the area’s cold winters. They fished abundant pike and salmonids from the Amnya River and hunted migrating elk and reindeer with bone and stonetipped spears. To preserve their rich stores of fish oil and meat, they created elaborately decorated pottery. And they built the world’s first known fortresses, perhaps to keep out aggressive neighbors.
With room inside for dozens of people and dwellings sunk almost 2 meters deep for warmth in Siberian winters, the fortresses were ringed by earthen walls several meters high ...
Source: ScienceNOW - November 30, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
