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Mucous surfaces in the nose, throat, lungs, intestine, and genital tract are points of first contact for many pathogens. As a defensive strategy, most animals (and humans) can rapidly exfoliate these surfaces (i.e., shed the surface layer) to get rid of any attached attackers.

(Phys.org)—A trio of researchers with The University of Texas has found a possible way to create gamma ray beams by firing a laser beam at a piece of plastic. In their paper published in Physical Review Letters, David Stark, Toma Toncian and Alexey Arefiev describe the computer simulation they created, what they found and their hopes that their discovery will lead to a means for creating intense beams of gamma rays for use in a wide variety of applications.

Engineer Fabienne Sallaberry has calculated the losses sustained by solar thermal collectors, devices that convert the sun’s energy into useful heat, when one of their components is not correctly focusing direct solar radiation. This researcher is also proposing that certain sections included in the Spanish standards and in the international ones should be revised so that the global output of these devices can be better determined.

Longer, hotter, more regular heat waves could have a damaging effect on life expectancy and crop production in Africa warn climate scientists in a study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Examining temperature data from 1979 to 2015, the researchers caution that heat waves classified as unusual today could become a normal occurrence within 20 years

Modern wild sheep, Ovis, is widespread in the mountain ranges of the Caucasus through Himalaya, Tibetan Plateau, Tianshan-Altai, eastern Siberia, and the Rocky Mountains in North America. In Eurasia, fossil sheep are known by a few isolated records at a few Pleistocene sites in North China, eastern Siberia, and western Europe, but are so far absent from the Tibetan Plateau.

Using technologies originally developed to evaluate complex investments and portfolios, a new data-driven simulator is being developed to help individuals and families evaluate health plans and select the health insurance policies most likely to meet their projected needs, with realistic cost estimates under a wide range of potential healthcare outcomes.

Researchers from MIT, Princeton University, and elsewhere have developed a new technique to monitor the seasonal changes in Greenland’s ice sheet, using seismic vibrations generated by crashing ocean waves. The results, which will be published in the journal Science Advances, may help scientists pinpoint regions of the ice sheet that are most vulnerable to melting.

The MESSENGER mission has released the first global digital elevation model (DEM) of Mercury, revealing in stunning detail the topography across the entire innermost planet and paving the way for scientists to characterize fully the planet’s geologic history.

An international, multi-institutional team of researchers led by synthetic biologist James Collins, Ph.D. at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, has developed a low-cost, rapid paper-based diagnostic system for strain-specific detection of the Zika virus, with the goal that it could soon be used in the field to screen blood, urine, or saliva samples.

For the first time, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have developed a technology allowing them to “see” single molecules of messenger RNA as they are translated into proteins in living mammalian cells. Initial findings using this technology that may shed light on neurological diseases as well as cancer were published online today in Science.