New research from the Museums Victoria Research Institute has turned upside down our previous understanding of the evolution of the largest animals ever––baleen whales. | Continue reading
Animals cover astonishing distances when they are looking for food. While caribou, reindeer and wolves clock up impressive mileage on land, seabirds are unrivaled in their traveling distances. Arctic terns travel from the Arctic to Antarctica and back as part of their annual migr … | Continue reading
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub generated look-ahead projections for COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths under specific, policy-relevant scenarios. Those projections were provided to federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control … | Continue reading
A new study from a University of Colorado Boulder researcher, conducted with colleagues in Argentina, sheds new light on how the introduction of horses in South America led to rapid economic and social transformation in the region. | Continue reading
Even during a cost of living crisis, with interest rates and inflation high, the average spending per person for Christmas 2023 in the U.K. is expected to reach as much as £974. Retailers, advertisers and a sense of tradition continue to encourage us towards ever greater levels o … | Continue reading
As object identification and three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction techniques become essential in various reverse engineering, artificial intelligence, medical diagnosis, and industrial production fields, there is an increasing focus on seeking vastly efficient, faster speed, and … | Continue reading
The shift from dense forests to open plains in Africa may have caused our ancient ancestors to change their vocal calls, research involving Durham University anthropologists has found. | Continue reading
How do national policies impact deforestation? Researchers from the University of Bonn have looked into this question at the global scale and have found that, contrary to common assumptions, national strategies have a significant—and visible—influence on efforts to protect forest … | Continue reading
As the semi-arid Pilliga Scrub burns in New South Wales, many of us are thinking about fire once again. It's an El Niño summer in the hottest year on record. And there's a remarkable amount of grass drying out and ready to burn. | Continue reading
Most Canadians agree something should be done about climate change. Yet, even though there is tremendous pressure on politicians to do something, widespread discontent usually follows whatever action they may take. | Continue reading
As a major Earth system component, wildfire plays an important role in the Earth's terrestrial ecosystems and climate system, with significant impacts on the atmosphere, radiation effects, vegetation, surface properties, global biogeochemical cycles and human survival. Understand … | Continue reading
In November 2023, the James Webb Space Telescope observed a massive cluster of galaxies named MACS J0138.0-2155. Through an effect called gravitational lensing, first predicted by Albert Einstein, a distant galaxy named MRG-M0138 appears warped by the powerful gravity of the inte … | Continue reading
A pancake stack of radioactivity-sensitive films carried through the sky by a balloon was able to take the world's most accurate picture of a neutron star's gamma ray beam. To achieve this, Kobe University researchers combined the oldest method of capturing radioactive radiation … | Continue reading
Interspecific hybridization is a key process in plant evolution and breeding that can lead to phenotypic changes and the formation of new species. The merging of different genomes in a hybrid often triggers a so-called "genomic shock." These alterations include variation in gene … | Continue reading
Research groups around the world are developing technologies to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into raw materials for industrial applications. Most experiments under industrially relevant conditions have been carried out with heterogeneous electrocatalysts, i.e., catalysts that are … | Continue reading
A microscopic shock wave has been photographed passing through a single biological cell, thanks to a new photography technique. Nanosecond photography uses ultrafast electronic cameras to take images at the speed of a billionth of a second. However, image quality and exposure tim … | Continue reading
Under field conditions, soil respiration consists of heterotrophic respiration by soil microbes and autotrophic respiration by plants. Temperature sensitivity (Q10) is a common method to describe proportional changes in soil heterotrophic respiration in response to warming. Howev … | Continue reading
A study published in Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering on September 25, 2023, unveils the potential health risks associated with biodegradable microplastics, particularly polylactic acid (PLA). | Continue reading
Picrotoxinin, a plant-derived toxin that Asian fishermen traditionally have used to paralyze and catch fish, has long been seen as a possible starting point for new human therapeutics and other neuroactive products. | Continue reading
Seedlessness in table grapes is a key breeding target, mainly results from stenospermocarpy, linked to the Thompson Seedless grape variety. Advances in genetic research have identified the VviAGL11 gene, one of the MADS-box transcription factor family, as crucial in this process. | Continue reading
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a crucial role in plant gene regulation, with their biogenesis involving complex processes. Fine-tuning miRNAs is a powerful biotechnology strategy that can improve plant performance in the field, such as adjusting crop tolerance to abiotic or biotic stres … | Continue reading
The walnut (Juglans regia L.), which was domesticated in ancient Persia, is a globally cultivated nut crop. With global water scarcity, walnut production is facing significant challenges due to abiotic stresses, especially drought. Photosynthesis is a key physiological mechanism … | Continue reading
A team of environmental scientists at Hubei University, in China, working with a colleague from the University of Iceland, has found that blind spiders living deep within caves in China are still able to sense light and respond to it. In their study, reported in the journal Scien … | Continue reading
Though Saturn's unusual-looking "cup handle" features were first noted by Galileo in 1610, it would be another 45 years before they were described by Christiaan Huygens as a disk surrounding Saturn. Subsequently, ground-based telescopes could only distinguish four unique concentr … | Continue reading
Cultivated strawberries are now the basis of a multi-billion-dollar global industry. To meet the challenges posed by increasing demand, climate change, and water and land scarcity, new germplasm needs to be collected to improve cultivars. However, managing clonally propagated ger … | Continue reading
Fruit development, particularly ripening, is a crucial and energy-intensive stage in plant life, vital for both human consumption and plant breeding. It involves biochemical and physiological transformations, such as cell wall softening and pigment accumulation. Melon (Cucumis me … | Continue reading
Conventional computer processors have pretty much maxed out their "clock speeds"—a measurement of how fast they can toggle on and off—due to the limitations of electronic switching. Scientists looking to improve computer processors have become intrigued by the potential of all-op … | Continue reading
For many of us, when we think of microbiomes, our first thoughts are probably about the beneficial microorganisms that live in our guts. But now, researchers from Japan and the US have discovered how the microbes living in fruit flies can enhance their reproduction. | Continue reading
Researchers from Telethon Kids Institute and The University of Western Australia have developed a new technique to see inside cells with unprecedented detail, revealing a complicated web of interactions that provides new insights into how cells stay healthy. | Continue reading
"Green lungs" is the term often used to describe rainforests due to their ability to use photosynthesis to capture CO2, the planet's primary greenhouse gas. That makes them a key component of global climate regulation, and their preservation represents a major issue for decision- … | Continue reading
In a breakthrough discovery, published in Nature Communications, scientists from Queen Mary University of London in collaboration with researchers at Newcastle University and The Francis Crick Institute have unraveled the intricate mechanism behind how DnaA, the master initiator … | Continue reading
A group of researchers has investigated whether data mining could accelerate the identification of low-cost metal oxide electrocatalysts, speeding up the world's transition away from fossil fuels. | Continue reading
An archaeological find in the Huescan Pyrenees allowed researchers to identify for the first time livestock management strategies and feeding practices that demonstrate how the first high mountain societies at the start of the Neolithic period were already carrying out complex li … | Continue reading
While physicists continue to argue about whether time is indeed an illusion, as Albert Einstein claimed, biologists have no doubt about its significance for understanding life as a dynamic system. | Continue reading
Australian researchers have discovered a new way that epithelial cells, which form layers in organs like the skin and stomach, attach to one another, and how they perceive growth signals at these attachments, helping them form tissues of the right size and shape. | Continue reading
Dog owners may need to learn to appreciate their best friend's urine. Scientists at Osaka Metropolitan University have devised an efficient, non-invasive, and pain-free method to reprogram canine stem cells from urine samples, bringing furry companions one step closer to veterina … | Continue reading
When it comes to delivering drugs to the body, a major challenge is ensuring that they remain in the area they're treating and continuing to deliver their payload accurately. While major strides have been made in delivering drugs, monitoring them is a challenge that often require … | Continue reading
When you uncork a bottle of champagne, complex supersonic phenomena occur. Scientists at TU Wien have now been able to calculate exactly what happens for the first time. | Continue reading
Analyses of amber show that insect larvae were already using a wide variety of tactics to protect themselves from predators 100 million years ago. | Continue reading
A lipid and proteomic study of ancient carbonized material (foodcrust) on pottery from the Taihu Lake region of eastern China has revealed the presence of rice, seafood consumption, various pottery functions, as well as the southward spread and planting of millet during the 4th m … | Continue reading
Researchers from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have designed Slater-Pauling (S-P) Heusler materials with a unique structure resembling a Rubik's cube. These materials exhibit semiconductor-like properties and have potential in thermoe … | Continue reading
Poland's recent election has been hailed as a great triumph of democracy in a global environment of democratic backsliding. It brought to power a coalition of pro-democratic forces led by Donald Tusk, the former president of the European Council. | Continue reading
When people are released from prison back into society, they can find themselves in an unknown world for which they are ill-equipped. They need stability and security to get their lives back on track—yet they often have nowhere to go. They also tend to lack basic literacy and num … | Continue reading
Autophagy, a eukaryotic mechanism for breaking down cellular components, is a vital process in lytic organelles such as vacuoles in yeast and plants, and lysosomes in animals. Research has predominantly focused on the model plant Arabidopsis, revealing the conservation of autopha … | Continue reading
Amino acids are the building blocks of life. We obtain them from the food we eat, and the body uses them to make proteins, which in turn are used for growth, development, and a multitude of other functions. However, before the body can build with these blocks, it must first be ab … | Continue reading
In recent research, scientists have unlocked the potential of a remarkable material called perovskite to revolutionize the world of optical sensing. Their study is published in the journal Opto-Electronic Advances. | Continue reading
Nearly every organism on Earth follows a natural circadian rhythm that is coded by your cell's clock genes, which do exactly as you suspect from the name: regulate your body's rhythm on a 24-hour basis. | Continue reading
A new study led by scientists at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History identifies five new species of soft-furred hedgehogs from Southeast Asia. | Continue reading