Swordfish auction in the fish market of Vigo (Spain). / José Antonio Gil Martínez

Researchers from the University of Burgos (Spain) have developed a fluorescent polymer that lights up in contact with mercury that may be present in fish. High levels of the metal were detected in samples of swordfish and tuna. According to the conclusions of another Spanish study, mercury exposure is linked to reduced foetal and placental growth in pregnant women. The presence of the toxic metal mercury in the environment comes from natural sources, however, in the last decades industrial waste has caused an increase in concentrations of the metal in some areas of the sea. In the food chain, mercury can be diluted either in organic form as methylmercury (MeHg+) or as an inorganic salt, the cation Hg2+.

Giacomo Balla: Designing the Future

Organised in collaboration with the Biagiotti Cigna Collection, this major exhibition presents a career-spanning retrospective of one of Italian Futurism's most important and consistently inventive artists. Encompassing his early Divisionist imagery, iconic Futurist paintings and examples of his distinctive work in the sphere of the applied arts, it will offer a comprehensive survey of Balla's multifaceted activity between the years 1895 and 1958, including many works rarely seen outside Italy.

Trigeminal neuralgia: A glimmer of hope for patients – thanks to a newly tested substance. (Picture: Center of Dental Medicine; UZH)

Trigeminal neuralgia is characterized by sharp, lancinating pain in the teeth or facial area. The standard treatment for this chronic nerve pain can cause burdening side effects. A novel substance inhibits the pain effectively and is well tolerated, as documented by the initial results of an international study involving the Center of Dental Medicine at the University of Zurich. The sharp pain shoots to the face or teeth and seriously torments patients. Known as trigeminal neuralgia, it is one of the worst chronic nerve pains. The bouts are triggered by touch, such as shaving, putting on make-up, showering, talking and tooth brushing, or even a gust of wind. The cause is usually an irritation of the trigeminal nerve, the cranial nerve responsible for the sensory innervation of the facial area, parts of the scalp, and the oral cavity.

Megaslumps in fluvially incised hummocky moraine, Peel Plateau, northwestern Canada.

In bitter cold regions like northwestern Canada, permafrost has preserved relict ground-ice and vast glacial sedimentary stores in a quasi-stable state. These landscapes therefore retain a high potential for climate-driven transformation. In their open-access GEOLOGY article published online on 7 Feb. 2017, Steven Kokelj of the Northwest Territories Geological Survey and colleagues write that climate-driven renewal of deglaciation and potential postglacial permafrost landscape evolution has major implications for predicting the nature and trajectories of northern landscape change and the cascade of downstream impacts.

Lo strumento a raggi X e ultravioletti, imbarcato sul satellite geostazionario GOES-16 della NASA, ha seguito il brillamento del 21 gennaio scorso. I suoi dati, elaborati dal centro di meteorologia spaziale americana, saranno utili per migliorare la nostra conoscenza delle attività solari e mettere in atto strategie di prevenzione

Il dolmen di Monte Bubbonia

La Sicilia ha avuto una Preistoria talmente intricata, che risulta difficile orientarsi nel guazzabuglio di “Culture” che si sono succedute; e ciò per la sua posizione geografica, al centro del Mediterraneo, che le ha assicurato per millenni un ruolo alquanto dinamico, fatto di frequenti ondate migratorie da cui traspare sempre l'impatto tra due influenze: una mediterranea, di chiara matrice orientale, e l'altra europea, proveniente da nord-ovest e dalla stessa penisola italica.

Questo eterogeneo panorama si fa più chiaro a partire dalla fine del III millennio a.C., quando l'isola viene investita da un ulteriore movimento proveniente dall'Egeo e dalle coste anatoliche, che vi apporta nuove concezioni sociali, artistiche e spirituali. I segni di questo cambiamento si riconoscono nella necropoli di “Castelluccio” (tra Noto e Siracusa), che dà nome alla facies culturale più conosciuta e diffusa della Sicilia del bronzo antico (fine III millennio/prima metà II millennio a.C.). Le numerose tombe a “grotticella” scavate nelle pareti rocciose dei monti circostanti, documentano il culto dei morti, la pratica dell'inumazione collettiva, la devozione alla Madre terra.

Il team internazionale guidato dai ricercatori dell’Igb-Cnr ha svelato l’importanza di questi metaboliti nel destino delle cellule staminali embrionali. La scoperta, pubblicata su Stem Cell Reports può portare a risvolti applicativi importanti in campo oncologico e nella medicina rigenerativa

Vitamine e aminoacidi ricoprono un ruolo fondamentale nelle alterazioni epigenetiche, ossia nei meccanismi cellulari coinvolti nello sviluppo di malattie come il cancro. La scoperta, che promette risvolti applicativi in campo oncologico, arriva da un team internazionale coordinato dall’Istituto di genetica e biofisica 'A. Buzzati-Traverso' del Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche (Igb-Cnr) di Napoli, che ha coinvolto gli Istituti Cnr di chimica biomolecolare (Icb-Cnr) e di applicazioni del calcolo (Iac-Cnr), la Radboud University, Nijmegen (Olanda) e University of California, San Francisco (Usa). Lo studio è pubblicato sulla rivista Stem Cell Reports.

COMUNICATO STAMPA
L’empatia influisce sulle reazioni emotive scaturite da decisioni difficili, ma non determina tali decisioni
Una ricerca SISSA ridimensiona la componente emotiva nelle decisioni morali

L’empatia e la capacità di comprendere e rendere esplicite le emozioni che proviamo non influiscono sulle nostre decisioni morali. Questo è quanto suggerisce un nuovo studio pubblicato sulla rivista Social Neuroscience e guidato dalla neuroscienziata della SISSA Marilena Aiello. Le nostre scelte non dipendono dalla nostra empatia. Quello che cambia, invece, è il coinvolgimento emotivo, più marcato nelle persone più empatiche. Soprattutto se si sceglie di prendere delle decisioni scomode pur di massimizzare il benessere comune.

An image taken from the Minor Planet Centre’s web applet (http://www.minorplanetcenter.net) showing the orbit of Minor Planet Bernardbowen

A minor planet in the Solar System will officially be known as Bernardbowen from today after Australian citizen science project theSkyNet won a competition to name the celestial body.

The minor planet was named by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in honour of their founding chairman Dr Bernard Bowen. Bernardbowen sits in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and takes 3.26 Earth years to orbit the Sun. The minor planet was discovered on October 28, 1991, and until now has been known as (6196) 1991 UO4. Based at ICRAR, theSkyNet has been running since 2011 and sees citizen scientists donating their spare computing power to help Australian astronomers uncover the mysteries of the Universe. Its 50,000-odd volunteers entered an International Astronomical Union (IAU) contest to name planets beyond our Solar System.
Project founders ICRAR also won the right to name a minor planet within our Solar System. Bernardbowen was one of 17 minor planets to be christened today.

A new technique enables scientists to break down the collective atomic motion in a molecule into elementary components. (Image: KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

Every molecule holds a complex landscape of moving atoms – and the ability to single out and examine individual nuclear vibrations may unlock to the secret to predicting and controlling chemical reactions. Now a new method, developed by researchers in Sweden, enables biotech researchers to do just that. The new method offers unprecedented detail in measuring molecular motion and energy – enabling better control and understanding of chemical reactions in the field of biotechnology research. The technique, which was recently published in Nature Communications, uses X-ray scattering to measure the specific movements of atoms in a molecule with extreme energy resolution.