Новости за 05.11.2021

New research, published in Scientific Reports by Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) postdoctoral fellow Karina Chavarria and colleagues, shows that bacterial communities in streams adjacent to young secondary forests recover to resemble those of mature forest streams in as little as a decade after cattle has been removed from the land, and that these communities are robust throughout the year.

High air pollution and living far away from blue or green spaces negatively influence health-related quality of life for people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a recent study from researchers with the University of Alberta and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).

In October, the major employment indicators for people with disabilities reached their highest recorded levels since September 2008, when reporting for this cohort was begun by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), according to today's National Trends in Disability Employment—Monthly Update (nTIDE), issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire's Institute on Disability (UNH-IOD). Substantial gains were reflected in year-to-year comparisons, as well as for month-to-month data.

Jewelers, geologists, and microscopists agree: diamonds are forever. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are using microscopic nanodiamonds to calibrate and assess the performance of high-powered microscopes. Their longevity and durability make the tiny "first-aid kits" more than up to the task.

Princeton researchers have solved a 54-year-old puzzle about why certain fluids strangely slow down under pressure when flowing through porous materials, such as soils and sedimentary rocks. The findings could help improve many important processes in energy, environmental and industrial sectors, from oil recovery to groundwater remediation.

With the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, the world is focused on the consequences of a climate crisis and how we can still change course. Yet while climate-driven migration has been deemed a major threat in public discourse and academic research, comprehensive studies that take into account both environmental and social factors globally have been scarce. Now, with the help of machine learning, a research team led by Aalto University has drawn a clearer picture of the factors involved in migration for 178 countries.

When listening closely, the melodies of human languages and animal vocalizations are very similar. However, it is not yet fully resolved if similar patterns in languages and animal vocalizations also have similar meanings. Researchers of the University of Vienna present a new method to decode the meaning of animal vocalizations: the comparison of their melodies with human languages. The proposal was published in the journal Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society B.

A new article co-authored by King's academic Professor Andrew Blick argues that—while there is no doubt that the circumstances of the pandemic called for exceptional safeguarding measures—established contingencies legislation would have served as a better framework.

Ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) have very low luminosities, comparatively few stars, and little star-formation activity as compared with normal galaxies of similar sizes. Commonly found in galaxy clusters, UDGs come in a wide range of sizes and shapes, many of them being round and smooth like dwarf elliptical galaxies, others showing distorted shapes from having experienced tidal disruptions; some having total masses of as much as one hundred billion solar-masses. In addition to being interesting in their own right... Читать дальше...

Recently, researchers developed high-performance solar thermal copper sulfide photothermal ink and photothermal film, marking big progress in the field of Plasmonic Solar photothermal Materials.

As forests age, differences in species functional traits become more important and reliable in predicting forest productivity, according to an international study led by Prof. Ma Keping at the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS).

Treating diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's is a challenge because drugs have to be able to cross the blood–brain barrier. As a result, the doses administered must be high and only a small fraction reaches the brain, which can lead to significant systemic side effects.  To solve this issue, the postdoctoral researcher Jean-Michel Rabanel, under the supervison of Professor Charles Ramassamy, at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (NRS), is optimizing polymer-coated nanoparticles... Читать дальше...

Keen to do your bit for the environment? Cut back on sweets, pastries, fried foods and processed meat. According to a new study published this month, reducing these foods in our diet is not only better for our health but also the planet.

Pseudobulbs, which are somewhat enlarged or thickened succulent stems, are common in epiphytic orchids. Nitrogen can be transported from old to young pseudobulbs and between leaves and pseudobulbs.

If fulfilled, climate pledges made in the last six years have a much better chance of reaching globally agreed temperature goals.

Research by scientists from UCLA and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory strengthens the case that climate change has been the main cause of the growing amount of land in the western U.S. that has been destroyed by large wildfires over the past two decades.

Eighty-seven percent of all researchers have a (very) positive attitude about open science. Young scientists are even more enthusiastic with a percentage of 94 percent. But researchers are still coming across obstacles when it comes to practical implementation. This has emerged from a poll commissioned by NWO among researchers from all disciplines.

Carbon-supported single-atom catalysts (SACs) are promising in heterogeneous catalysis due to their high atomic utilization efficiency and unique catalytic performances.

While Rolf Landauer was working at IBM in the early 1960s, he had a startling insight about how heat, entropy, and information were connected. Landauer realized that manipulating information releases heat and increases entropy, or the disorder of the environment. He used this to calculate a theoretical lower limit for heat released from a computation, such as erasing a bit. At room temperature, the limit is about 10-21, or one billionth of a trillionth of a joule. (A joule is about the energy required... Читать дальше...

Metallic glasses are being developed for a broad range of applications. The relatively new material is stronger than even the best metals, but with the pliability of plastic.

As nations gather for the latest round of climate talks in Glasgow, a new U.N. report calls for urgent efforts to increase the financing and implementation of actions designed to adapt to the growing impacts of climate change.

The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey (Astro2020) of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences has published its report and the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) received high priority for new ground-based observatories to be constructed during the coming decade. The report, in which ngVLA shared second ranking among ground-based projects, was the culmination of a lengthy process aimed at developing a comprehensive research strategy and vision for a decade of transformative science at the frontiers of astronomy and astrophysics.

According to the second law of thermodynamics, the total entropy of a closed process can increase or stay the same, but never decrease. The second law guarantees, for example, that an egg can wobble off a table and leave a mess on the floor but that such a mess will never spontaneously form an egg and leap back on the table. Or that air will escape a balloon but never, on its own accord, inflate it. Since at least the 19th century, physicists have been investigating the role of entropy in information... Читать дальше...

Primary schools have played a vital role in supporting children through the significant mental health challenges caused by COVID-19, according to a report from Cardiff University.

A combined team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences reports that a certain fungus uses chemicals to trick male flies into mating with infected dead females. They have written a paper describing their findings and have posted it on the bioXiv preprint server.