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Mitigating ghost fishing
Abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear, often informally called ‘ghost gear’, accounts for 10% of global ocean plastic pollution. It is also the deadliest form of marine plastic, with discarded nets, hooks and trawlers entangling and killing marine life. Such ghost fishing represents largely unaccounted ecosystem damage and food waste. This is a preview of subscription…
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Blood-sucking fish had flesh-eating ancestors
Jurassic lampreys (artist’s impression) used their toothed suckers to consume the flesh of their prey, a strategy that allowed them to grow larger than their ancestors.Credit: Heming Zhang Under the water on an Earth ruled by dinosaurs, an eerie-looking fish senses its prey. A sudden dart, and it latches onto its victim with a powerful…
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Open-access reformers launch next bold publishing plan
The group behind the radical open-access initiative Plan S has announced its next big plan to shake up research publishing — and this one could be bolder than the first. It wants all versions of an article and its associated peer-review reports to be published openly from the outset, without authors paying any fees, and…
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Comparison of the tidal volume by the recruitment maneuver combined with positive end-expiratory pressure for mechanically ventilated children
Abstract The recruitment maneuver (RM) combined with PEEP to prevent atelectasis have beneficial effects. However, the change in tidal volume (VT) due to RM combined with PEEP in pediatric patients during the induction of general anesthesia is unknown. Therefore, we assessed the effects of RM combined with PEEP on VT. Pediatric patients were divided into…
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The anthropogenic salt cycle
Abstract Increasing salt production and use is shifting the natural balances of salt ions across Earth systems, causing interrelated effects across biophysical systems collectively known as freshwater salinization syndrome. In this Review, we conceptualize the natural salt cycle and synthesize increasing global trends of salt production and riverine salt concentrations and fluxes. The natural salt cycle…
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Garbage in, garbage out: mitigating risks and maximizing benefits of AI in research
Artificial-intelligence models require the vast computing power of supercomputers, such as this one at the University of California, San Diego.Credit: Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Science is producing data in amounts so large as to be unfathomable. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly needed to make sense of all this information (see ref. 1 and…
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Sudan’s disastrous war — and the science it is imperilling
One April morning, medical student Asjad Yousif Abdalrahman Bushra awoke to the sound of bombs exploding in Khartoum. He was planning to attend a funeral that day and then start preparations for celebrating Eid. But war had erupted between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force called the Rapid Support Forces. As of 22 September,…
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mRNA vaccine encoding Gn provides protection against severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus in mice
Abstract We developed a promising mRNA vaccine against severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), an infectious disease caused by the SFTS virus that is primarily transmitted through tick bites. Administration of lipid nanoparticle-encapsulated mRNA-Gn successfully induced neutralizing antibodies and T-cell responses in mice. The vaccinated mice were protected against a lethal SFTS virus challenge, suggesting…
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Dust drove dinosaurs’ extinction after asteroid impact, scientists say
In the end it was the dust that did it for the dinosaurs. At least that is the finding of computer simulations of the aftermath of the asteroid impact that reshaped life on Earth 66m years ago. The cataclysmic impact in what is now Chicxulub on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula wiped out 75% of species on…
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These Creatures are Probably the Closest Thing Nature Has to Real Werewolves
Credit: Oxford Scientific Films/Getty Images Under the right conditions, the spadefoot tadpole will transform into a voracious predator of its own species. Full Transcript Brian Gutierrez: Werewolves aren’t real. Everyone knows that. But stay with me for a moment while I tell you about the spadefoot frogs—specifically, their tadpoles, which just might be the closest…