Новости за 08.12.2021

It's elemental—scientists agree that the periodic table is incomplete.

Microscopic algae are responsible for half of the global atmospheric carbon fixed from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, and may be used as a sustainable bioenergy source.

American democracy is in crisis—a majority of scholars and the public agree. Allegations of unfair voting practices, such as voter suppression and gerrymandering, abuses of executive power, and mounting concerns about the legitimacy of elections have become regular occurrence in the United States, rather than isolated events.

New research by CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, has for the first time quantified the contribution Australian beef makes to the protein supply for human nutrition, paving the way to better understand efficiencies across production of other proteins.

The task of training an effective cadre of biodiversity scientists has grown more challenging in recent years, as foundational skills and knowledge in organismal biology have increasingly required complementary data skills and knowledge. Writing in BioScience, Dr. Anna K. Monfils, of Central Michigan University, and colleagues identify one way to address this training conundrum: biodiversity collections. Biodiversity collections operate at the nexus of foundational biological practice and contemporary data science... Читать дальше...

According to a study recently published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, exposure to chronic, environmentally relevant concentrations of pesticides registered for use in forest management had adverse effects on the soft-shell clam Mya arenaria.

Human wastewater poses a global threat to seafood safety and the financial stability of the aquaculture industry. A recent study by researchers at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the University of South Alabama, in collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, tested multiple indicators of wastewater contamination to identify potential sources of contamination to local shellfish farms and aid management efforts.

A computational analysis of billions of phrases found in tweets has uncovered new insights into the timelines of the many major stories that surrounded Donald Trump, former President of the United States, from 2016 to 2021. Peter Dodds of the University of Vermont, Burlington, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on December 8, 2021.

When the next major earthquake hits the Pacific Northwest, a system launched last spring should give some advance warning, as emergency alerts go out and cell phones buzz. But how well the system functions might depend on whether that quake is the so-called "really big one," and where it starts.

Faced with the prospect that climate change will drive ever deadlier heat waves, rising seas and crop failures that will menace the global food system, countries, corporations and cities appear to have come up with a plan: net zero.

As a professor of geophysics, I have spent 36 years training young geologists destined to work in the fossil fuel industry how to look for oil and gas. But now I believe it's time to stop fossil-fuel exploration and halt the development of all new oil and gas fields. We cannot safely set fire to all the fuel we've already found, so why look for more?

Researchers at the University of Zurich have investigated a unique leather scale armor found in the tomb of a horse rider in Northwest China. Design and construction details of the armor indicate that it originated in the Neo-Assyrian Empire between the 6th and 8th century BCE before being brought to China.

Ethylene is one of the most important building blocks in chemical synthesis. Traditional thermocatalytic hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene (HAE) requires high temperatures and high pressure, leading to excessive energy consumption. Additionally, large amount of H2 consumption makes this process even more costly.

Prokaryotic viruses (phages) existing in activated sludge (AS), a biological treatment process widely used in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), act to regulate the composition of microbial community in the activated sludge. Phages are major bacterial predators, through virus-host interactions with key bacterial populations in AS systems, they can influence the removal efficiency of pollutants. Phages of high specificity could be used to curb undesired bacteria, e.g., the undesired foaming-associated... Читать дальше...

In November, the world's first global citizens' assembly—made up of 100 people chosen by lottery from around the world—declared its recommended responses to the climate crisis at the UN climate conference COP26. Among these recommendations was that causing severe environmental destruction, or "ecocide," should become a crime.

The warning signs were there.

Today The Governance Lab at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering released an interactive report entitled "What Americans Want from Reform." The report by Paul C. Light, Paulette Goddard Professor at the NYU Wagner School of Public Service and Senior Fellow at the GovLab, analyzes six key indicators about American attitudes toward government.

Not to pile on, but winter is coming and the COVID-19 pandemic is about to get worse. Not necessarily because of omicron—scientists are still working that one out—but because there's more evidence than ever that COVID-19 is a seasonal disease.

When Vimal Selvaraj's uncle first imported Holstein semen to start his dairy farm in India in the early 1990s, he was hailed as a revolutionary on the cutting edge of agriculture. His first generation of cattle crosses between Holsteins and Sahiwals, a native Indian breed, seemed to carry the best traits of both: the Holsteins' high milk production, and the Sahiwals' disease resistance and extreme weather tolerance.

Methane, which produces more warming than other greenhouse gasses and is the subject of newly announced U.S. emission restrictions, is hard to break down and keep out of the atmosphere.

I think we should ban all fossil fuel advertisements, plain and simple. I know it sounds extreme, but it's imperative for the future of our planet.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been touted, again and again, as one of the critical technologies that could help Australia reach its climate targets, and features heavily in the federal government's plan for net-zero emissions by 2050.

One of the surprises to come out of COP26 was the U.S.-China joint declaration on enhancing climate action through the 2020s. Although the declaration lacked details, it offers a positive sign of progress toward curbing global greenhouse gas emissions, in part because China and the United States are the world's two largest emitters of greenhouse gases.

An international team of scientists, including a Western University researcher, have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that facilitates more personalized treatments for depression and improves patient outcomes.

As the new space race continues, a team of top researchers says one thing needs to be cleared up—what exactly is a planet?