Troy Oakes

Brain Changes Found in Self-Injuring Teen Girls

The brain changes of teenage girls who engage in serious forms of self-harm, including cutting, show features similar to those seen in adults with borderline personality disorder, a severe and hard-to-treat mental illness, a new study has found. Reduced brain volumes seen in these girls confirms biological — and not just behavioral — changes and ...

Troy Oakes

The human brain.

Ground and Stream Water Clues Reveal Shale Drilling Impacts

Chemical clues in waters near Marcellus Shale gas wells in rural Pennsylvania can identify new drilling-related sources of methane contamination, according to scientists. The findings provide a new tool for distinguishing potential environmental impacts of shale drilling from pre-existing methane levels commonly found in Pennsylvania waterways, the researchers said. Scientists also found that methane contamination ...

Troy Oakes

Deep Sea Mining Zone Hosts CO2-Consuming Bacteria

Scientists have discovered that CO2-consuming bacteria in the deepest parts of the seafloor could be turning themselves into an additional food source for other deep-sea life. Bacteria living 4000m below the ocean surface in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCFZ) are consuming carbon dioxide and turning it into biomass, a new study shows. Until now, scientists ...

Troy Oakes

Simple Way to Massively Improve Crop Loss Simulations

In a new study, researchers with NASA, the University of Chicago, and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research added data on when each specific region plants and harvests its crops — and found it was the single most effective way to improve crop loss simulations. Droughts or heat waves have consequences that spread beyond ...

Troy Oakes

People Can Sustainably Share Resources, Under Some Conditions

In an analysis of eight case studies from around the world — from foragers in Australia to mangrove fishers in Ecuador — researchers found that people can successfully sustainably share resources under certain conditions. Thus, there is no “tragedy” in the “tragedy of the commons,” according to a new analysis that challenges a widely accepted ...

Troy Oakes

Climate Change Could Lead to Threefold Increase in Storms

Powerful storms that cause extreme weather conditions — such as flooding across Europe and North America, with the potential to wreak social and economic havoc — could increase threefold by the end of the 21st century due to climate change. Pioneering new research, led by Dr. Matt Hawcroft from the University of Exeter, has shown new and ...

Troy Oakes

Thunderstorm with lightning.

Brain Activity Pattern May Indicate Early Signs of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia, a brain disorder that produces hallucinations, delusions, and cognitive impairments, usually strikes during adolescence or young adulthood. While some signs can suggest that a person is at high risk for developing the disorder, there is no way to definitively diagnose it until the first psychotic episode occurs. MIT neuroscientists working with researchers at Beth ...

Troy Oakes

Abnormal brain connections can predict onset of psychotic episodes.

Giant Planets Around Young Star Raise Questions About How Planets Form

Researchers have identified a young star with four Jupiter- and Saturn-sized planets in orbit around it, the first time that so many giant planets have been detected in such a young system. The system has also set a new record for the most extreme range of orbits yet observed: The outermost planet is more than ...

Troy Oakes

Cl Tau with orbiting giant gas planets.

Drug Pollution Is Passing From Stream Bugs to Predators

Sixty-nine pharmaceutical compounds have been detected in stream insects, some at concentrations that may threaten animals that feed on them, such as trout and platypuses. When these insects emerge as flying adults, they can pass this drug pollution on to spiders, birds, bats, and other streamside foragers. These findings by an international team of researchers ...

Troy Oakes

A syringe and hospital drugs.

Where Did Earth’s Water Come From? An Overlooked Source Discovered

Where did Earth’s water come from? A team of Arizona State University geoscientists led by Peter Buseck, Regents’ Professor in ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) and School of Molecular Sciences, has found an answer in a previously neglected source. The team has also discovered that our planet contains considerably more hydrogen, a ...

Troy Oakes