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For years news outlets have tied major sporting events to an increase in sex trafficking, but researchers have now revealed that assumption is a myth and that misleading news stories foster distorted views and misguided interventions that do not reduce harm or protect victims. Before 2018, 76% of U.S. print media helped propagate the myth of spiking numbers of sex trafficking during the Super Bowl. A new paper, published in Anti-Trafficking Review, by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, used empirical evidence to correct the media narrative linking major sporting events and sex trafficking....

The good news is that analysis of lunar samples returned to Earth in the past by Moonwalkers and robots shows sufficient essential minerals are available for plant growth, apart from nitrogen compounds. The bad news is that lunar soil (or ‘regolith’) compacts in the presence of water, creating problems for plant germination and root growth. Hydroponic farming therefore offers a practical alternative; this type of agriculture involves feeding plant roots directly with nutrient-rich water, without the need for soil....

According to a study by Eric Dahlin, a sociology professor at Brigham Young University, there is no need to fear an imminent robot takeover of jobs. Dahlin’s research suggests that the rate at which robots are replacing humans is not as high as many people believe and that people tend to greatly overestimate the extent to which robots are taking over the workforce. The study, recently published in the journal Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, found that only 14% of workers say they’ve seen their job replaced by a robot....

The current cosmological model to explain our universe, the “Big Bang” model, aims to describe all the phenomena we observe, which includes the galaxies and their evolution from earliest times to the present day. One of the major problems faced by the standard form of this model is that it has predicted a star formation rate – the speed at which new stars are born- which is far too big....

The domestication of sheep, goat, and cattle first took place in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia and the nearby mountain zones of western Asia roughly 10,000 years ago, in lockstep with the first domestication of plant crops like wheat and barley. This innovation in human subsistence, known as the Neolithic Revolution, spread northwards to Europe and southwards to Africa and India, transforming human societies across three continents. But until recently, it seemed that this dramatic expansion of domestic plants and animals failed to reach eastward to the rich mountain zones of Central Asia, where — despite their outsized significance in the later millennia of the Bronze Age and beyond — there was little evidence of a Neolithic dispersal....

A team of physicists has uncovered a new state of matter—a breakthrough that offers promise for increasing storage capabilities in electronic devices and enhancing quantum computing. Breakthrough Offers Promise for Enhanced Storage and Computation Capabilities A team of physicists has uncovered a new state of matter—a breakthrough that offers promise for increasing storage capabilities in electronic devices and enhancing quantum computing. “Our research has succeeded in revealing experimental evidence for a new state of matter—topological superconductivity,” says Javad Shabani, an assistant professor of physics at New York University....

The newly developed molecule belongs to a class of compounds known as RNA aptamers and it is based on the same type of building blocks that are used for mRNA vaccines. This makes them much cheaper and easier to manufacture than the antibodies that are currently used to treat COVID-19 and to detect viral infection using rapid antigen tests. An aptamer is a piece of DNA or RNA that folds into a 3D structure that can recognize a specific target molecule of interest....

Microscopic materials analysis is essential to achieve desirable performance in next-generation nanoelectronic devices, such as low power consumption and high speeds. However, the magnetic materials involved in such devices often exhibit incredibly complex interactions between nanostructures and magnetic domains. This, in turn, makes functional design challenging. Traditionally, researchers have performed a visual analysis of the microscopic image data. However, this often makes the interpretation of such data qualitative and highly subjective....

The capsules, manufactured using 3-D-printing technology, could be deployed to deliver drugs to treat a variety of diseases, particularly in cases where drugs must be taken over a long period of time. They could also be designed to sense infections, allergic reactions, or other events, and then release a drug in response. “Our system could provide closed-loop monitoring and treatment, whereby a signal can help guide the delivery of a drug or tuning the dose of a drug,” says Giovanni Traverso, a visiting scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, where he will be joining the faculty in 2019....

According to researchers, the integration of physical exercise and navigation in orienteering may stimulate certain parts of the brain that were crucial for hunting and gathering in our ancestors. It is believed that the brain evolved over thousands of years to adapt to harsh environments by developing new neural pathways. Those same brain functions are not as necessary for survival today due to modern conveniences such as GPS apps and readily available food....

That search turned up the first of what may be many “ghost” objects in the sky: in this case, an extremely bright source of radio emissions that blazed into existence in the 1990s and then faded out over the next 25 years. Based on the extreme brightness of the radio source and the type of galaxy in which the flare-up occurred, Law argues that it was the afterglow of the explosion of a massive star, which would have emitted an undetected long-duration gamma-ray burst....

Their findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, reveal that the strong black-white contrast and small dark patches in zebra fur are particularly effective in deterring horsefly attacks. These specific characteristics eliminate the outline of large monochrome dark areas that are attractive to horseflies at close range. The team theorizes that the thin back stripes serve to minimize the size of local features on a zebra that are appealing to the biting flies....

In the 1980s, Texas Tech University Professor Tom Lehman (then a Master’s student) was conducting research on rock layers at Rattle Snake Mountain and discovered badly-weathered bones. He and two others from the University of Texas at Austin collected them, but some were stuck together making them impossible to study. Research in the 1990s revealed an arched nasal crest thought to be distinctive of the hadrosaurid Gryposaurus. At the same time, the peculiar lower jaw was recognized....

Mitochondria are the vital organelles that deliver energy to all cells and mitochondrial damage has been found, for example, in brain imaging of bipolar patients and in post-mortem brains. Roughly 20% of patients with mitochondrial disease also have bipolar disorder, a major psychiatric disease characterized by manic and depressive episodes. Altered serotonin functioning, on the other hand, seems to be involved in bipolar disorder because drugs that target serotonin levels can effectively treat the condition....

Scientists have named a new species of bone-headed dinosaur (pachycephalosaur) from Alberta, Canada. Acrotholus audeti (Ack-RHO-tho-LUS) was identified from both recently discovered and historically collected fossils. Approximately six feet long and weighing about 40 kgs in life, the newly identified plant-eating dinosaur represents the oldest bone-headed dinosaur in North America, and possibly the world. Dr. Michael Ryan, curator of vertebrate paleontology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, co-authored research describing the new species, which was published on May 7, 2013, in the journal Nature Communications....

The inner core is formed and grows due to the solidification of liquid iron at the inner core boundary. The inner core is less dense than pure iron, and some light elements are believed to be present in the inner core. A joint research team led by Prof. Yu He from the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGCAS) has found that the inner core of the Earth is not a normal solid but is composed of a solid iron sublattice and liquid-like light elements, which is also known as a superionic state....

By turning HIV against itself, researchers at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research have demonstrated the ability to stop HIV replication in a laboratory environment. A Queensland Institute of Medical Research scientist has developed a way to use HIV to beat HIV in the laboratory. Associate Professor David Harrich, from QIMR’s Molecular Virology Laboratory, has determined how to modify a protein in the virus, so that it instead provides strong, lasting protection from infection....

To a large extent, DNA methylation, which regulates vital cell functions, is still a mystery to the scientific world. Now, scientists have developed a method to quickly couple methylation enzymes to their respective methylation pattern. This finding could become essential for successful gene engineering in many species. All species mark their DNA with methyl groups. This is done to regulate gene expression, distinguish indigenous DNA from foreign DNA, or mark old DNA strands during replication....

These organoids can be created using pluripotent stem cells, which then subsequently develop into particular cell types like nerve cells. The study team was able to create both chimpanzee and human brain organoids by using this method. “These brain organoids allowed us to investigate a central question concerning ARHGAP11B,” says Wieland Huttner of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, one of the three lead authors of the study....

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has begun exploring a region near the base of Jezero Crater’s ancient river delta that the science team calls “Yori Pass.” They’ve been eager to explore the area for several months after spotting a rock similar to one Perseverance collected samples from in July. Scientists find the feature so tantalizing because it is sandstone, which is composed of fine grains that have been carried from elsewhere by water before settling and forming stone....