Новости за 23.04.2021

Corals and sponges are important foundations in ocean ecosystems providing structure and habitats that shelter a high number of species like fish, crabs and other creatures, particularly in the seamounts and canyons of the deep sea. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have discovered that when it comes to climate change not all deep-sea corals and sponges are affected the same and some could be threatened if average ocean temperatures continue to increase in the deep sea of the Northwest Atlantic.

In solar cells, about two third of the energy of sunlight is lost. Half of this loss is due to a process called 'hot carrier cooling' where high energy photons lose their excess energy in the form of heat before being converted to electricity. Scientists at AMOLF have found a way to manipulate the speed of this process in perovskites by applying pressure to the material. This paves the way for making perovskites more versatile, not only for use in solar cells but also in a variety of other applications, from lasers to thermoelectric devices. Читать дальше...

The Transportation Department announced Thursday it was withdrawing part of a Trump-era rule that blocked states from setting their own tough car pollution standards, reversing actions by the Trump administration that weakened California's ability to fight climate change.

Over the last 60 years, scientists have been able to observe how and when genetic information was replicated, determining the existence a "replication timing program," a process that controls when and in what order segments of DNA replicate. However, scientists still cannot explain why such a specific timing sequence exists. In a study published today in Science, Dr. David Gilbert and his team have answered this 60-year-old question.

World leaders joined President Joe Biden at the virtual climate summit Friday to share their stories how nations can break free of climate-damaging fossil fuels—from Kenyans leapfrogging from kerosene lamps to geothermal power and Israeli start-ups scrambling to improve battery storage.

Crew members who took part in the Mars500 experiment showed significant changes in their gut microbiota from their 520 days in confinement, according to a new study by scientists at Université de Montreal and McGill University.

Stars greater than about eight solar-masses end their lives spectacularly as supernovae. These single-star supernovae are called core collapse supernovae because their dense cores, composed primarily of iron at this late stage of their lives, are no longer able to withstand the inward pressure of gravity and they collapse before exploding. Core collapse supernovae that display strong atomic hydrogen emission lines are thought to result from the explosions of red supergiant stars, massive stars that... Читать дальше...

Since the beginning of civilization, humans have exploited new materials to improve their lives, from the prehistoric Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age to the modern Silicon Age. With each period came technological breakthroughs that transformed the way we live. Consider the 1961 invention of the silicon chip, which paved the way for the digital revolution. Without this tiny electronic component, we'd have no laptops or cell phones.

Planet Earth is surrounded by a system of magnetic fields known as the magnetosphere. This vast, comet-shaped system deflects charged particles coming from the sun, shielding our planet from harmful particle radiation and preventing solar wind (i.e., a stream of charged particles released from the sun's upper atmosphere) from eroding the atmosphere.

A pair of environmental scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has found that up to 20% of all the groundwater wells in the world are at risk of going dry in the near future. In their paper published in the journal Science, Scott Jasechko and Debra Perrone describe their analysis of groundwater well construction data from millions of wells around the world. James Famiglietti and Grant Ferguson with the University of Saskatchewan, have published a Perspectives piece in the same... Читать дальше...

A team of researchers from China, the Netherland and Saudi Arabia has used a new kind of electron microscopy to measure weak van der Waals interactions. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes creating what they describe as a molecular compass to measure weak van der Waals interactions using a new type of electron microscopy developed in the Netherlands.

A new species of deep-sea dwelling dumbo octopus called Grimpoteuthis imperator sp. nov. has been described using a combination of MRI, micro-CT and minimally invasive gene analysis rather than traditional dissection methods. The findings are presented in the open access journal BMC Biology.