News

Nearly 70 Percent of Glaciers Could Melt Away By 2100: StudyOslo, 15 Jan (ONA) --- A new study has found that nearly 70 percent of the world’s glaciers could disappear by the end of 2100.A group of international scientists recently reported the study in the Science journal. Their predictions were based on current climate change developments. However, the researchers noted many glaciers can be saved if planet warming is reduced.The findings provide the most detailed examination yet of the world’s 215,000 glaciers.The study considered four possible world temperature rises. One is ...

Japanese Researchers Begin Study Into Electricity Generation from SnowAomori, 8 Jan (ONA) --- Researchers in the city of Aomori have begun to study how to generate electricity from snow, with the aim of securing a renewable energy source to cover potential power shortages, the Japan Times reported.The city of Aomori, which sees heavy snow every year, started a trial in a swimming pool at an abandoned elementary school in December to explore the feasibility of producing energy by utilizing the temperature difference between stored snow and the surrounding air.In the joint project, local ...

China Launches New Test SatelliteBeijing, 7 Dec (ONA) --- China today successfully sent a new test satellite into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.The VHF Data Exchange System (VDES) test satellite was launched by a Kuaizhou-11 Y2 carrier rocket and entered the planned orbit.The satellite will be mainly used for communications test and key technologies verification of the VDES and the automatic identification system (AIS).It was the 23rd flight mission of the Kuaizhou-11 rockets, according to the launch center. --- Ends/Thuraiya/KH ...

Necessary Water Intake Varies Among People Based on Environment, Health, Age: StudyTokyo, 29 Nov (ONA) --- A new study shows that there is no easy way to pinpoint how much water you need to drink regularly.Researchers looked at the water intake and patterns of more than 5,000 people across 26 countries and found that how much water our bodies actually require depends on a myriad of factors, including environment, health and age.Water turnover refers to how much water our bodies use in a day, which indicates how much water we need to be consuming daily through food and drink in order ...

Astronomers Make Breakthroughs on Star Formation Washington, 27 Nov (ONA) --- An important new hint regarding how galaxies halt intense episodes of star formation has been found by astronomers using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) of the National Science Foundation in the United States (US).The research on the nearby galaxy M33 suggests that fast cosmic ray electrons can generate winds that blow away the gas required for the formation of new stars.As galaxies evolve over time, these winds are what cause the star formation rate to slow down. However, the primary sources of ...

Emotional Reappraisal Helps Boost Creativity: Study Washington, 27 Nov (ONA) --- In a set of experiments, researchers found that conventional thinkers, those who rank low on openness to new ideas and experiences, came up with more creative ideas than peers after they practised "emotional reappraisal." This means viewing a situation through another emotional lens, such as trying to see an anger-inducing event as one that is neutral or hopeful.The study, published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, indicates that creativity is something that can be ...

New Study Can Help in Exploring Ways to Control Noise in Quantum TechnologyNew Delhi, 24 Nov (ONA) --- A new study conducted by Bengaluru-based scientists has thrown fresh light on how a charged particle in contact with an environment in the presence of a magnetic field behaves when it is subjected to ultra-cold temperatures.Scientists involved in the study have said that the latest findings could deepen existing knowledge and explore ways to control noise in the domain of quantum technology, the Science and Technology Ministry said in a release today.Quantum technology is too ...

European Space Agency Set to Vote on Record Budget Paris, 23 Nov (ONA) --- The European Space Agency (ESA) is set to vote on whether to spend billions more euros to keep up with rising competition in space, as well as unveiling its much-anticipated new crop of astronauts, France 24 News reported. The ESA's 22 member states, whose ministers charged with space duties have been meeting in Paris since Tuesday, will decide on meeting the agency's request for a record 18.7 billion euros for new programmes over the next three years. The figure is more than 25 percent higher than ...

Venus was Temperate Before Suffering from Volcanoes: Study Washington, 21 Nov (ONA) --- New research suggests that volcanoes may have played a role in destroying Venus and leaving it as an uninhabitable world.The research has been conducted by American space agency NASA and suggests that thousands of centuries and erupting massive amounts of material may have transformed Venus from a temperate and wet world to the acidic hothouse.Venus is known for extremely high temperature - hot enough to melt lead - and volcanic activity. Similar in structure and size to Earth, the planet's ...

Climate Costs Deal Struck but No Fossil Fuel Progress Cairo, 20 Nov (ONA) --- A historic deal has been struck at the UN's COP27 summit that will see rich nations pay poorer countries for damage and economic losses caused by climate change. It ends almost 30 years of waiting by nations facing huge climate impacts. But developed nations left dissatisfied over progress on cutting fossil fuels. This year's talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, came close to collapse, and overran by two days, BBC news reported. It is, though, a huge symbolic and political statement from developed ...

Webb Dazzles with Image of Newly Forming Star Paris, 17 Nov (ONA) --- The time has come again to gaze upon the majesty of the universe, thanks to the incredible images provided by the James Webb Space Telescope as it unveils its latest look into celestial grandeur, producing an image of an ethereal hourglass of orange and blue dust being shot out from a newly forming star at its center. The colorful clouds are only visible in infrared light, so had never been seen before being captured by Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), NASA and the European Space Agency said in ...

NASA’s Mightiest Moon Rocket Lifts off 50 Years after Apollo Florida, 16 Nov (ONA) --- NASA’s new moon rocket today blasted off on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard, bringing the US a big step closer to putting astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program 50 years ago. If all goes well during the three-week, make-or-break shakedown flight, the crew capsule will be propelled into a wide orbit around the moon and then return to Earth with a Pacific splashdown in December. After years of delays and billions in ...

Sleeping With Light Pollution Linked To Diabetes: Study Beijing, 15 Nov (ONA) --- Sleeping in a room exposed to outdoor artificial light at night may increase the risk of developing diabetes, according to a new study conducted in China.The study, published in the Diabetologia journal, found that people who lived in areas of high light pollution at night were about 28% more likely to develop diabetes than people who lived in the least polluted areas.However, a lack of darkness affects more than urban areas. Urban light pollution is so widespread that it can affect suburbs and forest ...

Study Discovers Signature Connections of Certain Brain Regions in People with AutismCalifornia, 14 Nov (ONA) --- New study results from an international research team led by University of Southern California (USC) scientists have identified a signature pattern of white matter connectivity exclusive to the brains of autistic people distinct from that in the brains of people with developmental coordination disorder (DCD).Approximately 85 percent of autistic people have been, or likely could be, diagnosed with DCD, a condition that interferes with learning and motor control. DCD ...

Astronomers Discover Closest Known Black Hole to EarthCambridge, 10 Nov (ONA) --- Astronomers have discovered a black hole closer to Earth than any other previously found. It’s about ten times as massive as the sun and is located 1,600 light-years away, which is considered as nearby on a cosmic scale.While scientists have only spotted about 20 black holes in the Milky Way to date, they estimate that some 100 million more are lurking in our galaxy, each between 5 and 100 times more massive than the sun.With so many more undetected, the newly discovered black hole shouldn’t hold ...

Whales Ingest Millions of Microplastic Pieces per Day: Study California, US, 9 Nov (ONA) --- A new study found that startling numbers of ocean plastic is being consumed by the world's largest creatures. Stanford researchers have determined that Blue Whales in Monterey Bay are ingesting up to 10 million pieces of microplastic each day.It is those tiny specks, barely visible to the human eye, that concern Matt Savoca, an ocean pollution researcher at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove. He was part of the study to find out how much of the microplastic fibers are getting ...

Transposition of China Space Station Lab Module Completed Beijing, 3 Nov (ONA) --- China's space station lab module Mengtian successfully completed in-orbit transposition today, announced the China Manned Space Agency. This transposition marked the formation of the space station's basic T-shape configuration, representing a key step toward the completion of China's space station, said the agency. The Mengtian lab module first completed its state setting and then separated from the space station combination. Mengtian next conducted transposition and docked at the side ...

Crossword Puzzles Serve Memory Functions More than Cognitive Computer Games: Study New York, 27 Oct (ONA) --- According to a new study, doing crossword puzzles has an advantage over computer video games for memory functioning in older adults with mild cognitive impairment. Study finds adults with mild cognitive decline assigned puzzles showed less brain shrinkage, better daily functioning.A new study shows that doing crossword puzzles has an advantage over computer video games for memory functioning in older adults with mild cognitive impairment. The research was conducted by ...

Bird and Birdsong Encounters Improve Mental Health: StudyLondon, 27 Oct (ONA) --- Seeing or hearing birds is associated with an improvement in mental well-being that can last up to eight hours, according to new research from King’s College London.This mental improvement from seeing or hearing birds was also evident in people with a diagnosis of depression, which is the most common mental illness worldwide. This suggests the potential role of birdlife in helping those with mental health conditions.The study, led by academics from King’s College London, also found that ...

Depression is Linked to Early Fears: StudyWashington, 27 Oct (ONA) --- Early risk factors linked to children’s temperament and a neural process that could foretell whether an individual might develop depression and anxiety in adolescence and early adulthood have been identified during a recent imaging study led by a scientist at the University of Texas at Dallas.The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, tracked a cohort of 165 individuals from 4 months old, between 1989 and 1993, through age 26.Dr. Alva Tang, assistant professor of psychology in the School of Behavioral and Brain ...

Video Games may Bring Cognitive Benefits to Kids, Study ShowsWashington, 26 Oct (ONA) --- Some parents worry about the negative impact video games could have on their children, but gaming may be associated with improved cognitive abilities, a new study found.Kids who play video games for three or more hours per day performed better on impulse control and memory tests than children who don’t play games, according to research published in JAMA Network Open.Researchers analyzed brain scans from more than 2,000 school-age participants in the ongoing Adolescent Brain Cognitive ...

Certain Chemicals on Human Skin Could Attract Mosquitoes: Study New York, 25 Oct (ONA) --- A new study found that some people attract mosquitoes much more than others, and it probably involves their smell.The researchers found that people who attract mosquitoes the most produce a lot of certain chemicals on their skin. These chemicals are connected to the scent that attracts the mosquitoes.Leslie Vosshall, one of the authors of the study said, “If you have high levels of this stuff on your skin, you’re going to be the one at the picnic getting all the bites.” For the study, ...

Scientists Discover New Evidence for Possibility of Liquid Water on MarsLondon, 5 Oct (ONA) --- An international team of researchers has found new evidence for the possible existence of liquid water beneath the south polar ice cap of Mars.The results, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, provide the first independent line of evidence, using data other than radar, that there is liquid water beneath Mars' south pole.The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge with involvement from the University of Sheffield, used spacecraft laser-altimeter measurements of the shape of the ...

Nobel Prize for Three Chemists who Made Molecules Click Stockholm, 5 Oct (ONA) --- Three scientists from the United States (US) and Denmark were jointly awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing a way of “snapping molecules together” that can be used to design better medicines. Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless were cited for their work on click chemistry and bioorthogonal reactions, which are used to make cancer drugs, map DNA and create materials that are tailored to a specific purpose. “It’s all about snapping ...

Three Physicists Share Nobel Prize for Work on Quantum Science Stockholm, 4 Oct (ONA) --- Three scientists jointly won this year’s Nobel Prize in physics for their work on quantum information science that has significant applications, for example in the field of encryption. Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger were cited by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for discovering the way that particles known as photons can be linked, or “entangled,” with each other even when they are separated by large distances. Speaking by phone to a news conference after ...

Ocean Acidification Is Four Times Faster in the Arctic: StudyNew York, 3 Oct (ONA) --- As new information about the rapidly warming Arctic continue to emerge, a new study published recently in Science found that the Western Arctic Ocean is acidifying four times faster than other ocean basins.With oceans absorbing over a third of all carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, cases of ocean acidification have been on the rise, as carbon emissions remain unabated.The authors of the study, drawn from Polar and Marine Research Institute at Jimei University, China and the School of Marine Science ...

Weightlifting Even in Old Age Expected to Reduce Risk of Early Death: StudyWashington, 2 Oct (ONA) --- It is known that aerobic exercise, such as running and cycling, can help people live longer, but less has been known about the effect of lifting weights on longevity.Now, results from a new study suggest that adding weightlifting to a person’s exercise regime, even in later life, is a sensible thing to do if you want to avoid an early death.The study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, aimed to find out if lifting weights was linked to a lower risk of death from ...

Advanced Software Tool Uncovers New Cancer-Driving GenesWashington, 27 Sep (ONA) --- An advanced software tool for analyzing DNA sequences from tumor samples has uncovered likely new cancer-driving genes, in a study led by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.In the study, published in Nature Communications, the researchers designed the software, known as CSVDriver, to map and analyze the locations of large mutations, known as structural variants (SVs), in tumor DNA datasets. They then applied the tool to a dataset of 2,382 genomes from 32 different cancer types, analyzing the cancer ...

Nasa Spacecraft Lining up to Smash into an Asteroid Florida, 26 Sep (ONA) --- In the coming hours, the American space agency will crash a probe into an asteroid. Nasa's Dart mission wants to see how difficult it would be to stop a sizeable space rock from hitting Earth. The demonstration is taking place some 11 million km away (7 million miles) on a target called Dimorphos, BBC news reported. The agency said the rock is not currently on a path to hit the Earth, nor will the test accidentally send it in our direction. The impact is timed for 23:14 GMT, Monday (00:14 BST, ...

Storm Ian Delays Launch of Nasa's Moon Rocket Florida, 25 Sep (ONA) --- The launch of Nasa's most-powerful ever rocket has been delayed due to a tropical storm which could become a hurricane. Artemis I Moon rocket was expected to launch from the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, this Tuesday. But the US state faces a hurricane threat as tropical storm Ian has strengthened and could approach Florida early next week as a major hurricane. The launch of the rocket had already been postponed twice, BBC news reported. The Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle is designed to ...