A fungus living in the soils of Nova Scotia may be a secret weapon in the battle against drug-resistant germs that kill tens of thousands of people every year, including one considered a serious global threat.

A team of researchers has discovered a fungus-derived molecule known as AMA is able to disarm one of the most dangerous antibiotic-resistance genes: NDM-1 or New Delhi Metallo-beta-Lactamase-1, identified by the World Health Organization as a global public health threat.  

Discovering the properties of the fungus-derived molecule is critical because it can provide a means to target and rapidly block the drug-resistant pathogens that render carbapenem antibiotics—a class of drugs similar to penicillin—ineffective.

Wrinkles, creases and folds are everywhere in nature, from our skin to the buckled crust of the Earth. They're useful structures for engineers. Wrinkles in thin films, for example, can help make durable circuit boards for flexible electronics.

A new mathematical model developed by researchers from Brown University could help engineers control the formation of wrinkle, crease, and fold structures in a wide variety of materials. It may also help scientists understand how these structures form in nature. 

To read media accounts and claims by lawyers, everyone in the NFL except kickers is suffering some sort of brain damage. It was only a matter of time before those same claims were being made about pee-wee league football also/

While there are obviously cases in which that has happened, in-depth neurological examinations of 45 retired NFL players, ranging in age from 30-to 60-years old, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) along with comprehensive neuropsychological and neurological examinations, interviews, blood tests and APOE (apolipoprotein E) genotyping, found that most players haven't been affected. 

If there is a spill, the chemical makeup of wastewater generated by fracking could cause the release of tiny particles in soils that might bind heavy metals and pollutants, Cornell University researchers have found.

Space debris in Earth's orbit, especially small things that are untraceable and unavoidable, have been a growing concern. Experiments and satellites need to be as light as possible so numerical simulation can be used to enhance or improve the protection structure of the spacecraft, and reduce the harm of the space debris. 

If you have read about feminized frogs due to pesticides, or other scary claims by environmentalists, you may wonder why the EPA does not use those studies when registering chemicals.

The reason is because they often have no parallel to the real world. Chemical companies, despite claims by their cultural detractors, want to be overly cautious, while anti-science activists want to use enough exposure to create the effect they want to write about. In both cases, they use gavage dosing.

It's often said that if we do make contact with Extra Terrestrials (ETs), e.g. detect a radio transmission from a distant galaxy through SETI, that maths would be one of the few things we would have in common with them. But - how similar would their maths actually be to ours?

Modern maths- with its many sizes of infinity and logical paradoxes, has lead to much debate and puzzlement over the last century or so. Would this be the same for ETs? And would it lead to many different ideas about maths and the philosophy of maths, as we have here, or would they find some other solution none of us have thought of?

Elites in California and Washington and New York like to claim they are showing leadership with every fad they embrace - they should be showing leadership by telling their citizens to stop promoting anti-vaccine nonsense. 

Otherwise, the US could end up like the UK, where an ongoing culture war against genetic modification, vaccines and the other science wars of progressives have results in a 20 percent chance that a child with a persistent cough have Pertussis - whooping cough - even if they have been vaccinated.  Whooping cough is a highly transmissible infection which can cause symptoms such as coughing, vomiting and whooping. However, whooping cough can lead to serious complications in unvaccinated infants.