(Phys.org)—A smart filter with a shape-shifting surface can separate oil and water using gravity alone, an advancement that could be useful in cleaning up environmental oil spills, among other applications, say its University of Michigan developers.
Turning the volume up too high on your headphones can damage the coating of nerve cells, leading to temporary deafness, scientists have shown. Earphones or headphones on personal music players can reach noise levels similar to those of jet engines, the researchers said.
A new 'traffic light' test could be used in primary care to diagnose liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in high risk populations more easily than at present.
Evolutionary biologists have long puzzled over this because natural selection is expected to have selected for organisms that try to maximize their reproduction. But in industrialized societies around the world, increasing wealth coincides with people deliberately limiting their family size -- the so-called 'demographic transition'. In a new study, researchers reject a popular theory put forward to explain the phenomenon. This 'adaptive' hypothesis proposes that low fertility may boost evolutionary success in the long term by increasing offspring wealth, which in turn eventually increases the number of long-term descendants because richer offspring end up having more children.
Researchers have made a discovery that challenges a major theory in the field of coral reef ecology. The general assumption has been that the more flexible corals are, regarding which species of single-celled algae they host in coral tissues, the greater ability corals will have to survive environmental stress. However, scientists documented that the more flexible corals are, the more sensitive to environment disturbances they are.
Why are there so many species of beetles and so few crocodiles? The answer may be ecological limits to species number, scientists report.
The use of newer drugs, a greater number of effective drugs, and a longer treatment regimen may be associated with improved survival of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, according to a large study.
Increasingly humanitarian organizations will find themselves responding to health emergencies provoked by the adverse effects of mining and other extractive industries, setting up a potential clash to do with the core principles and values at the heart of humanitarian medicine, according to an expert.
Men who have been treated for prostate cancer, either with surgery or radiation, could benefit from taking aspirin regularly, says a new study.
It can fly through the air or hitch a ride on a handshake, hug or kiss. "It" is seasonal flu. There are many reasons to get an annual flu vaccine, but a physician offers a tongue-in-cheek "Top 10 Reasons Not to get a Flu Shot."
Pity the male of the marine whelk, Solenosteira macrospira. He does all the work of raising the young, from egg-laying to hatching -- even though few of the baby snails are his own. Throw in extensive promiscuity and sibling cannibalism, and the species has one of the most extreme life histories in the animal kingdom.
By examining the results of genome-wide association studies in conjunction with experiments on mouse and human red blood cells, researchers have identified the protein cyclin D3 as regulating the number of cell divisions RBC progenitors undergo, which ultimately affects the resulting size and quantity of RBCs.
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