Climate change and those whose job it is to talk about current and future climate impacts are often classed as the "harbingers of doom". For the world's biodiversity, the predictions are grim - loss of species, loss of pollination, dying coral reefs. | Continue reading
Biorefineries are picky eaters. They only consume one or two types of plant matter. Researchers processed and experimentally measured ethanol production from five different herbaceous feedstocks. They examined two annuals (corn stover and energy sorghum) along with three perennia … | Continue reading
Since the financial crisis of 2007, productivity growth has been slowing in all the major economies for unknown reasons, and in 2016, labor productivity in the U.S. recorded negative growth for the first time in 30 years. Part of the explanation of this productivity puzzle in adv … | Continue reading
Metabarcoding, a technique of mass DNA sequencing, allows for tracing migratory routes of insects, an understudied subject due to technical limitations. A small DNA fragment of the pollen that insects transport is used as a barcode to identify the plant species they visited previ … | Continue reading
The cellular and molecular mechanisms of magnetic stimulation-based bone regeneration require further understanding at present. To evaluate the phenomenon in the lab, a three-dimensional (3-D) native collagen model was recently developed via plastic compression to produce a cellu … | Continue reading
Food demand is growing as people are getting bigger. Feeding a population of 9 billion in 2050 will require much more food than previously calculated. | Continue reading
An ancient Egyptian papyrus, known as the Cairo Calendar, could be the oldest historical record of a star's brightness, providing a new perspective on the development of the Algol triple star system over thousands of years. | Continue reading
Under the leadership of Petr Cígler from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB Prague) and Martin Hrubý from the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry (IMC), a team of researchers has developed a revolutionary method for the easy and inexpensive production of … | Continue reading
A reflection always reproduces objects as a complete mirror image, rather than just its individual parts or individual parts in a completely different orientation. It's all or nothing, the mirror can't reflect just a little. This illustrates a fundamental symmetry principle in na … | Continue reading
Technology is moving in giant leaps and bounds, and with it, the information with which society operates daily. Nevertheless, the volume of data needs to be organized, analyzed and correlated to predict certain patterns. This is one of the main functions of what is known as Big D … | Continue reading
Scientists from Russia have reported a way to improve crystal structure prediction algorithms, making the discovery of new compounds multiple times faster. The results of the study were published in Computer Physics Communications. | Continue reading
Scientists have discovered a novel method to synthesize furan-2,5-dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) in a high yield from a glucose derivative of non-food plant cellulose, paving the way for replacing petroleum-derived terephthalic acid with biomaterials in plastic bottle applications. | Continue reading
For the first time, physicists present a unified theory explaining two characteristic features of frustrated magnets and why they're often seen together. | Continue reading
A miniaturised model of the Juice spacecraft during electromagnetic tests at ESA's technical heart in the Netherlands. | Continue reading
Two recent studies by ecologists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have shed light on the relationship between the slender pitcher plant and its 'tenant', the crab spider Thomisus nepenthiphilus, providing insights into the little known foraging behaviours of the sp … | Continue reading
A large fruit-eating bat native to Mauritius is the subject of controversy over the announcement of a major cull to protect the Indian island's fruit crops, despite a lack of evidence as to the extent of damage directly attributed to the endangered species. An international team … | Continue reading
As the climate warms up, the belts of current climate conditions move further north, forcing species to follow the climate suited to them. At the same time, environmental transformation by humans is causing problems. Species are experiencing great difficulties in adapting simulta … | Continue reading
We owe such a lot to the humble European honeybee. For an insect that was only brought to Australia in 1822, it has become well-established as one of our most important crop-pollinating insects. | Continue reading
New research by Western Sydney University explores the concerning impact the changing climate and increasing heat are having on Australian schools and childcare centres, as experts predict temperatures will reach extreme heights this summer. | Continue reading
The appearance of dunes and beaches might be changing due to the increase in carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, already a significant factor in the ongoing phenomena of climate change. The findings are the result of a study coordinated by the Institute for the Study of A … | Continue reading
New Delhi's homeless will be given cotton masks to help them survive in the world's most polluted major city, officials said Monday, although experts said the basic coverings would be useless against deadly smog particles. | Continue reading
Ralph, one of NASA's most well-traveled space explorers, has voyaged far and accomplished much: on the New Horizons mission, Ralph obtained stunning flyby images of Jupiter and its moons; this was followed by a visit to Pluto where Ralph took the first high-definition pictures of … | Continue reading
The ExoMars Landing Site Selection Working Group has recommended Oxia Planum as the landing site for the ESA-Roscosmos rover and surface science platform that will launch to the Red Planet in 2020. | Continue reading
At a town hall meeting in Ohio in March 2016, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said: "…I'm the only candidate who has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country. Because we're going to put a lot of c … | Continue reading
Rather than allow power plants and industry to toss carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, incoming Rice University assistant professor Haotian Wang has a plan to convert the greenhouse gas into useful products in a green way. | Continue reading
A new optical modem, capable of sending high-definition quality video significantly faster than standard radio frequency systems, is being developed for NASA's Orion spacecraft. The hardware, offered by LGS Innovations, is expected to deliver near real time footage from the moon … | Continue reading
There is a persistent perception among public high school administrators and staff that working-class immigrant parents are disinterested and uninvolved in their children's education. | Continue reading
Citizens prefer to enjoy natural landscapes that combine nature with built infrastructure, and that are close and accessible. This is apparent from the results of a pioneering study developed by researchers from the Institute of Science and Environmental Technology of the Univers … | Continue reading
From elongated oblongs to near-perfect spheres, vegetables come in almost every size and shape. But what differentiates a fingerling potato from a russet or a Roma tomato from a beefsteak? Researchers at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences … | Continue reading
Exploring the mystery of molecular handedness in nature, scientists have proposed a new experimental scheme to create custom-made mirror molecules for analysis. The technique can make ordinary molecules spin so fast that they lose their normal symmetry and shape and form mirrored … | Continue reading
Tourism has been an economic tool for rural development the world over. In areas where agriculture has declined, tourists can activate local economies and improve livelihoods. However, rural tourism's true impacts on the local environment and communities, and especially on indivi … | Continue reading
For kids growing up in today's cashless society, the piggy bank is going virtual. | Continue reading
China appeared to backtrack on a controversial decision to lift a ban on trading tiger bones and rhinoceros horns, saying it has been postponed, state media reported Monday. | Continue reading
The communities said to be favored to become homes to a pair of big, new East Coast bases for Amazon are both riverfront stretches of major metropolitan areas with ample transportation and space for workers. | Continue reading
The first study to disentangle the effect of forest trails from the presence of humans shows the number of birds, as well as bird species, is lower when trails are used on a more regular basis. This is also the case when trails have been used for many years, suggesting that fores … | Continue reading
As wildfires continued to rage on both ends of California, officials released another grim statistic: six more dead in a swath of Northern California wiped out by fire, raising the death toll there to 29. It matched California's record for deaths in a single fire. | Continue reading
Telecoms giant SoftBank will list shares in its Japanese mobile unit next month in a sale that could raise over $21 billion and be one of the biggest tech IPOs in years. | Continue reading
A $300 bottle of wine sold in the United States and Europe is made in the unlikeliest of places: at the foot of the Himalayas in China, where farmers sing traditional songs while picking grapes. | Continue reading