Science

World Climate Research Programme launches a Lighthouse Activity on Climate Intervention Research

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https://council.science/current/blog/world-climate-research-programme-launches-a-lighthouse-activity-on-climate-intervention-research/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=world-climate-research-programme-launches-a-lighthouse-activity-on-climate-intervention-research

Vacancy: Executive Director of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) programme

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https://council.science/current/news/executive-director-of-irdr-programme/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=executive-director-of-irdr-programme

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The Computation Moonshot is a competition for high schools which encourages students to learn about data science, computer science, distributed computing, and a wide array of fields in science by having them contribute to real, useful outcomes for researchers in an exciting competitive atmosphere. We utilize the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing !boinc@sopuli.xyz to connect students to groundbreaking scientific research projects around the world. This year we are running on the World Community Grid project which studies, among other topics: climate science, genetics, cancer, and tuberculosis. We call processing data for these research projects “crunching”.

Our goal in 2024 is to reach 50,000 donated hours of computation to research.

The competition is free to all and requires no special knowledge or skills. We provide setup guides for teachers and students, along with educational resources on the research to which your computers are contributing.

Compete for over $6,000 in prizes for schools and students, all while doing science!

More information on the competition, including how to register your high school, can be found at https://computationmoonshot.org/

Achieving sustainable development requires the full inclusion of women and girls in science

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https://council.science/current/blog/achieving-sustainable-development-requires-the-full-inclusion-of-women-and-girls-in-science/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=achieving-sustainable-development-requires-the-full-inclusion-of-women-and-girls-in-science

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/11686099

A scientific paper that raised concerns about the safety of the abortion pill mifepristone was retracted by its publisher this week. The study was cited three times by a federal judge who ruled against mifepristone last spring. That case, which could limit access to mifepristone throughout the country, will soon be heard in the Supreme Court.

The now retracted study used Medicaid claims data to track E.R. visits by patients in the month after having an abortion. The study found a much higher rate of complications than similar studies that have examined abortion safety.

Sage, the publisher of the journal, retracted the study on Monday along with two other papers, explaining in a statement that "expert reviewers found that the studies demonstrate a lack of scientific rigor that invalidates or renders unreliable the authors' conclusions."

It also noted that most of the authors on the paper worked for the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of anti-abortion lobbying group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and that one of the original peer reviewers had also worked for the Lozier Institute.

Mary Ziegler, a law professor and expert on the legal history of abortion at U.C. Davis: "We've already seen, when it comes to abortion, that the court has a propensity to look at the views of experts that support the results it wants," she says. The decision that overturned Roe v. Wade is an example, she says. "The majority [opinion] relied pretty much exclusively on scholars with some ties to pro-life activism and didn't really cite anybody else even or really even acknowledge that there was a majority scholarly position or even that there was meaningful disagreement on the subject."

The new world record has been set at the UK-based JET laboratory.

The result came from the lab's final experiment after more than 40 years of fusion research.

The experiments produced 69 megajoules of energy over five seconds. That is only enough energy for four to five hot baths - so not a lot.

It is clear we are still a long way off from nuclear fusion power plants, but with every experiment it is bringing us one step closer.

International Day of Women and Girls in Science

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https://council.science/current/blog/international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science-2024/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science-2024

“Imagine the Earth almost completely frozen over,” said the study’s lead author, ARC Future Fellow Dr Adriana Dutkiewicz. “That’s just what happened about 700 million years ago; the planet was blanketed in ice from poles to equator and temperatures plunged. However, just what caused this has been an open question.

“We now think we have cracked the mystery: historically low volcanic carbon dioxide emissions, aided by weathering of a large pile of volcanic rocks in what is now Canada; a process that absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide.”

In the latest study by Prof. Dr. Leonid Ionov, Professor of Biofabrication, and his team at the University of Bayreuth, various types of hydrogels were extensively tested for the 3D printing of tissues. A hydrogel is a water-retaining and also water-insoluble polymer. In addition, the cell containing–hydrogels, also known as bioink, are combined with fibers to create a composite material.

This is achieved by using 3D (bio) printing with an integrated touch-spinning process. Touch spinning is a scalable process for producing fibers from a polymer solution or melt. The Bayreuth scientists have now combined 3D (bio) printing technology with touch-spinning technology in a single device for the first time.

"The insights gained in this study are of great importance for the production of tissues and in particular tissues with fibrous structures and uniaxial alignment of cells such as connective and muscle tissue," explains Prof. Dr. Ionov.

Open science round-up: January 2024

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https://council.science/current/blog/open-science-round-up-january-2024/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=open-science-round-up-january-2024

Temperature is a measure of the microscopic-scale motions of atoms and molecules that comprise matter

It turns out that the appendix appears to have two related functions. The first function is supporting the immune system. The appendix has a high concentration of immune tissue, so it's acting to help the immune system fight any bad things in the gut.

The second function that it serves is what we refer to as the safe house. So this was a hypothesis that was put forward by a team from Duke University in 2007. And they argued that the appendix may serve as a safe reservoir for the beneficial gut bacteria that we have.

Analysis of sequence databases reveals novel circular RNA genomes belonging to “obelisks”.