Новости за 23.12.2021

Latin American forests—one of the world's greatest assets in the fight against climate change—will likely continue to shrink in size and economic clout, but not necessarily in their ability to help fight global warming, according to new research from Georgia Tech's School of Public Policy (SPP).

In collaboration with an international team of researchers, Michigan State University (MSU) has helped create the world's lightest version—or isotope—of magnesium to date.

The two-meter skull of a newly discovered species of giant ichthyosaur, the earliest known, is shedding new light on the marine reptiles' rapid growth into behemoths of the Dinosaurian oceans, and helping us better understand the journey of modern cetaceans (whales and dolphins) to becoming the largest animals to ever inhabit the Earth.

An international team of researchers have used a unique tool inserted into an electron microscope to create a transistor that's 25,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

A tiny region at the root tip has been found to be responsible for orchestrating the growth and development of the complex network of vascular tissues that transport sugars through plant roots.

Serpentinite, formed by low-temperature hydrothermal alteration of mantle peridotite, is distributed in the lithospheric mantle at the bottom of the subduction slab (slab-serpentinite) and forearc mantle wedge above the subduction slab (mantle wedge serpentinite) in the subduction zone.

Scientists do not need to travel light-years away to chart the atmospheres of exoplanets, thanks to research happening in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering with scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Although consumers were slightly more optimistic about economic conditions in the December survey, nearly all the data were collected prior to the rapid spread of Omicron in the U.S., according to the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.

With the development of various types of fixed marine observation equipment, satellite remote sensing technology, and computer simulation technology, modern marine scientific research has entered the era of big data.

Dr. Huo Zhipeng and his student Zhao Sheng from the Hefei Institutes of physical science (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently developed a lead-free neutron and gamma ray composite shielding material that has high shielding properties and is environmentally friendly. Their results were published in Nuclear Materials and Energy.

Some microbes can form thin films called biofilms. These biofilms give them an advantage over other microbes by protecting them from stresses such as a lack of nutrients or the presence of harmful substances in the environment. Researchers often focus on the biofilms that pathogens use to resist antibiotics. However, some biofilms can be helpful to plants and other host organisms. In previous work, researchers found that Pantoea sp. YR343, a bacterium that promotes plant growth, forms robust biofilms along the root surface of Populus... Читать дальше...

The genus Fagaropsis Mildbr. ex Siebenl. belongs to the Rutaceae family. It consists of four accepted species: F. hildebrandtii, F. angolensis, F. glabra, and F. velutina. The plants of this genus are trees and shrubs found in Africa and Madagascar. Fagaropsis species have been used in folkloric medicine for the treatment and management of various diseases, such as malaria, cancer and chronic joint pain.

Bacterial communities in soil play a key role in carbon (C) and nutrient cycling. It is not clear how geographic divergence in bacterial community composition depends on soil depth, which processes underlie community assembly, and which are the main factors.

Ensuring appropriate access to water is a key concern for farmers. Crops can underperform, or even die, in the presence of too little or too much water. But soil's ability to retain water is a complex process that depends on variations in soil composition, surface morphology, and local temperature, humidity, and wind, among other factors.

The largest-ever flying animal acted like a giant heron, plucking prey from the water and launching itself into the air.

Forces profound and alarming are reshaping the upper reaches of the North Pacific and Arctic oceans, breaking the food chain that supports billions of creatures and one of the world's most important fisheries.

Hundreds of miles south of Chicago, decomposing algae in the Gulf of Mexico makes life so perilous for fish they swim away—or die.

Earth's atmosphere is full of various gasses. Besides nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide in the troposphere, it also contains other molecules or trace gasses that can be neutral, beneficial, or harmful to our health. Whence do they come? There are many sources of these volatile species, biogenic such as plants and anthropogenic such as vehicular emissions. Under environmental conditions like UV light and the presence of other molecules or solid particles, they can undergo degradation or transformation into entirely different molecules. Читать дальше...

Earth and Mars were formed from material that largely originated in the inner solar system; only a few percent of the building blocks of these two planets originated beyond Jupiter's orbit. A group of researchers led by the University of Münster (Germany) report these findings today in the journal Science Advances. They present the most comprehensive comparison to date of the isotopic composition of Earth, Mars and pristine building material from the inner and outer solar system. Some of this material... Читать дальше...

The change between singlet and triplet states of electron pairs in charge-separated states plays an important role in nature. Presumably, the compass of migratory birds can also be explained by the influence of the earth's magnetic field on the magnetic interplay between these two spin states.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have increased significantly over the last 50 years, resulting in higher global temperatures and abrupt changes to Earth's climate. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the new technologies that scientists hope will play an important role in tackling the climate crisis. It involves the capture of CO2 from emissions from industrial processes, or from the burning of fossil fuels in power generation, which is then stored underground in geological formations. Читать дальше...

A magnetic field can be used to switch nanolasers on and off, shows new research from Aalto University. The physics underlying this discovery paves the way for the development of optical signals that cannot be disturbed by external disruptions, leading to unprecedented robustness in signal processing.

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a powerful new tool that monitors the electrical activity inside heart cells, using tiny "pop-up" sensors that poke into cells without damaging them. The device directly measures the movement and speed of electrical signals traveling within a single heart cell—a first—as well as between multiple heart cells. It is also the first to measure these signals inside the cells of 3D tissues.

An international research team succeeded in identifying global factors that explain the diversity of form and function in plants. Led by the University of Zurich, the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena and the University of Leipzig, the researchers collected and analyzed plant data from around the world. For the first time, they showed for characteristics such as plant size, structure, and life span how strongly these are determined by climate and soil properties. Insights derived from... Читать дальше...

Since its beginning in 1989, the Nebraska On-Farm Research Network has helped producers, in partnership with Nebraska Extension, analyze experiments suited to the specific conditions of their fields. This collaboration has boosted agronomic understanding as well as producer profits. On-Farm Experimentation, or "OFE" is a growing phenomenon worldwide, and a new journal article co-authored by a Nebraska Extension specialist explains that global dimension and the opportunities to better coordinate conventional... Читать дальше...