Новости за 16.12.2021

"Some say the world will end in fire," wrote Robert Frost a century ago. The poet described one popular take on the world's end before shifting to its apocalyptic opposite, writing, "some say in ice."

In recent years, soybean fields and other crops and trees across the Midwest have been experiencing more damage from drift of herbicides, particularly those plants grown from seeds that have not been genetically modified to be herbicide-tolerant. The drift onto unintended plants causes leaves to curl and shrivel and may permanently damage a crop.

Dietary shifts towards eating more meat causes 75,000 premature deaths a year in China through air pollution, a study shows.

Scientists have completed the sequences for the coast redwood and giant sequoia genomes. The research, officially published this week in the journal G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, helps to better explain the genetic basis for these species' ability to adapt to their changing environments. The research indicates that the coast redwood genome evolved from a single ancestral species.

Chemists have come to a deeper understanding of how photosynthetic bacteria convert light into chemical energy and discovered why one step in the process may be more robust than previously realized, according to a new study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

With over a million known species, insects are by far the most diverse group of organisms on Earth, with conservative estimates indicating there are millions more waiting to be found. But extinction due to human pressures may be outpacing the rate of discovery, with species disappearing before researchers even knew they existed.

Researchers at QuTech—a collaboration between the TU Delft and TNO—have reached a milestone in quantum error correction. They have integrated high-fidelity operations on encoded quantum data with a scalable scheme for repeated data stabilization. The researchers report their findings in the December issue of Nature Physics.

New research published in Nature Materials from Associate Professor Tanja Cuk and colleagues sheds light on a fundamental chemical reaction—the breaking apart of water to produce a molecular fuel such as hydrogen. Cuk is faculty in the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Chemistry and the Materials Science and Engineering Program (MSE) and is a Fellow in the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI).

New research shows that when it comes to colonizing plants, microorganisms from seeds have more staying power than microorganisms from the soil.

Since the first sequencing of the human genome more than 20 years ago, the study of human genomes has relied almost exclusively on a single reference genome to which others are compared to identify genetic variations. Scientists have long recognized that a single reference genome cannot represent human diversity and that using it introduces a pervasive bias into these studies. Now, they finally have a practical alternative.

To paint a clearer picture of how global climate change will affect Earth's ecosystems, a team of 80 international research scientists set out to complete an unparalleled experiment: forcing the world's only enclosed rainforest—housed in the University of Arizona's Biosphere 2—through a four-month-long controlled drought and recovery.

In 2021, researchers at the California Academy of Sciences added 70 new plant and animal species to the tree of life, enriching our understanding of Earth's complex web of life and strengthening our ability to make informed conservation decisions. The new species include 14 beetles, 12 sea slugs, nine ants, seven fish, six scorpions, five sea stars, five flowering plants, four sharks, three spiders, two sea pens, one moss, one pygmy pipehorse, and one caecilian. More than a dozen Academy scientists—along... Читать дальше...

In the run-up to Christmas, supermarkets and their supply chains will be top-of-mind for many consumers. A new report from the Food Research Collaboration, based on analysis by Professor Lisa Jack from the University of Portsmouth, shows that the supermarkets' business model is surprisingly fragile.

Bat box designs vary widely, but many commercial varieties remain untested and risk cooking the animals they're designed to shelter. Often small and painted dark colors, these boxes may rise to dangerous temperatures on sunny days in summer, putting mom and pup in harm's way.

The COVID-19 global pandemic—unexpectedly—has shown humanity a new way to reduce climate change: Scrap in-person meetings and conventions.

Gathering near Las Vegas recently, dozens of astronomers spread throughout the region, pointed their telescopes at the sky and waited for the moment on Oct. 20 that the light from a faraway star blinked out.

Some marine species can help protect others from climate change by shielding them from heat, according to a new study by a Texas A&M University at Galveston professor.

When a student obtains a university qualification, they are deemed to have acquired with a set of skills, abilities and knowledge learned throughout the courses and years. But what exactly do they know? What competencies lie behind that qualification? To what degree have they acquired them? The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) is taking a leap forward in competency-based assessment by launching GRAF, a system that shows students' progress graphically.

Women's homelessness occurs at a far greater scale than is recognized and systemic failures leave many in a "state of survival," new study reveals.

How might human-driven climate change trigger food shortages, water scarcity, armed conflict or future pandemics? Conversely, could a changing environment strengthen bonds of community in some places?

Limpets are among the most abundant and familiar features of the world's coastlines.

A transition to silvopastoral systems (SPS), when implemented in a participatory way where farmers can decide how the system is adopted in their farms and make commitments to conserve remnant forests, could help Colombia meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets for 2030 and protect the country's Amazonian forests.

Global lightning activity dropped almost 8% during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, according to new research being presented at the AGU Fall Meeting 2021 in New Orleans. The cause of the drop appears to be a connection between lightning and air pollution.

Unlike our Sun, most stars live with a companion. Sometimes, two come so close that one engulfs the other—with far-reaching consequences. When a team of astronomers led by Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, used the telescope Alma to study 15 unusual stars, they were surprised to find that they all recently underwent this phase. The discovery promises new insight on the sky's most dramatic phenomena—and on life, death and rebirth among the stars.

A new meteorological phenomenon has been identified drifting slowly over the western Indian Ocean. Dubbed "atmospheric lakes," these compact pools of moisture originate over the Indo-Pacific and bring water to dry lowlands along East Africa's coastline.