Tuesday 4 June 2019

Nation's most ambitious project to clean up nuclear weapons waste has stalled

The Energy Department's most environmentally important and technically ambitious project to clean up Cold War nuclear weapons waste has stalled, putting at jeopardy an already long-delayed effort to protect the Columbia River in central Washington.

* This article was originally published here

'Cannibalism' is a double-whammy for cell health

Certain Inflammatory and infectious diseases, such as hardening arteries and tuberculosis, are caused by the build-up inside immune cells of harmful substances, such as cholesterol and bacteria. A study published today by University of Sydney researcher Hugh Ford has shown that these concentrations occur in part by virtue of cell cannibalism.

* This article was originally published here

Mortality rate 'weekend effect' not a reliable measure of care quality in hospitals

The higher mortality rate for weekend hospital admissions should not be used as an indicator of quality of care due to the lack of data preceding patient admission and on the severity of their illness, a new study conducted at the University of Warwick Medical School has concluded.

* This article was originally published here

iOS13: Here's what you need to know about Apple's new iPhone operating system

Goodbye iTunes, it's been a great 18-year ride.

* This article was originally published here

Would you eat genetically modified food if you understood the science behind it?

Jonathon McPhetres, a newly minted Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Rochester, admits he's "personally amazed" what we can do with genes, specifically genetically modified food—such as saving papayas from extinction.

* This article was originally published here

Do images of food on kids' clothes influence eating behavior?

Frosted cupcakes, sprinkled donuts and chocolate chip cookies—all on the list of foods that pediatrician Megan Pesch suddenly found difficult to avoid.

* This article was originally published here

Exomoons may be home to extra-terrestrial life

Moons orbiting planets outside our solar system could offer another clue about the pool of worlds that may be home to extra-terrestrial life, according to an astrophysicist at the University of Lincoln.

* This article was originally published here

Policy changes proposed to meet projected need for palliative care

(HealthDay)—Policies to support team-based palliative care are urgently needed to meet the growing demand for specialty palliative care, according to a study published in the June issue of Health Affairs.

* This article was originally published here

Floating power plants

Paper, tin cans, glass—the world recycles as much as possible. So why not declare the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) a recycling product as well? Liquid fuels based on carbon will continue to play an important role in the future—despite international efforts to reduce them. So it seems sensible to recover the CO2 exhaust from the environment and use it again.

* This article was originally published here

A deep neural network that can maximize or minimize coloring to blend into or stand out against a background

A team of researchers at the University of Bristol has developed a deep learning neural network that can identify the best way to minimize or maximize coloring to allow for blending into a background or standing out. In their paper published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, the team describes their network and possible uses for it.

* This article was originally published here

New website for tracking marine heatwaves

While the impacts of climate change are reflected in the massive storms, heat waves and droughts that ravage communities around the world, the ocean too is feeling the heat.

* This article was originally published here

For many, friends and family, not doctors, serve as a gateway to opioid misuse

In a common narrative of the path to opioid misuse, people become addicted to painkillers after a doctor prescribed them pills to treat an injury and then, later, switch to harder drugs, such as heroin. However, nonmedical opioid users were more likely to say they began abusing opioids after friends and family members offered them the drugs, according to researchers.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers try to recreate human-like thinking in machines

Researchers at Oxford University have recently tried to recreate human thinking patterns in machines, using a language guided imagination (LGI) network. Their method, outlined in a paper pre-published on arXiv, could inform the development of artificial intelligence that is capable of human-like thinking, which entails a goal-directed flow of mental ideas guided by language.

* This article was originally published here

App Store in crosshairs as Apple courts developers

Apple is set to court software savants at its annual developers conference beginning Monday while contending with criticism that the iPhone maker has made its App Store a walled garden.

* This article was originally published here

Research group finds way to turn plastic waste products into jet fuel

A research group led by Washington State University scientists has found a way to turn daily plastic waste products into jet fuel.

* This article was originally published here

How a leap of faith can take science forward

At the movies, scientific discoveries are often portrayed as a Eureka moment in the laboratory. Reality, however, couldn't be more different—early-stage academic inventions often require long cycles of testing, validation and regulatory approvals before they can be turned into something useful, such as a new vaccine.

* This article was originally published here

Jamaica: a scientist in search of lost ganja

A supreme ganja, smoked by Rastas and even Bob Marley himself in the 1970s? This pipe dream of every self-respecting ganja aficionado is becoming reality again thanks to the horticultural talents of a scientist in Jamaica.

* This article was originally published here

Measuring impact of product placement

Researchers from Indiana University and Emory University published new research in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science (Editor's note: The source of this research is INFORMS), which reveals the impact of product placement in television programming. The findings indicate that prominent product placement embedded in television programming does have a net positive impact on online conversations and web traffic for the brand.

* This article was originally published here