Новости за 24.01.2022

A study conducted by researchers affiliated with São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil shows that large mammals have a major impact on plant diversity, primary productivity and biomass in the understory of Neotropical forests. Species like the lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) and white-lipped peccary (Tayassu peccari) help keep an ecological balance in areas such as the Atlantic Rainforest with different levels of productivity, while also influencing the spatial structure of plant communities. Читать дальше...

Iowa State University scientists have harnessed data analytics to look "under the hood" of the mechanisms that determine how genetics and changing environmental conditions interact during crucial developmental stages of plants.

More than 70 million tons of carbon were prevented from being released into the atmosphere under a deforestation emissions reduction scheme in Indonesia—but researchers point out this is only 3 percent of the total required by Indonesia's Nationally Defined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement.

Quintessential human traits such as large brains first appear in Homo erectus nearly 2 million years ago. This evolutionary transition towards human-like traits is often linked to a major dietary shift involving greater meat consumption. A new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, calls into question the primacy of meat eating in early human evolution. While the archaeological evidence for meat eating increases dramatically after the appearance of Homo erectus... Читать дальше...

The first molecular electronics chip has been developed, realizing a 50-year-old goal of integrating single molecules into circuits to achieve the ultimate scaling limits of Moore's Law. Developed by Roswell Biotechnologies and a multi-disciplinary team of leading academic scientists, the chip uses single molecules as universal sensor elements in a circuit to create a programmable biosensor with real-time, single-molecule sensitivity and unlimited scalability in sensor pixel density. This innovation... Читать дальше...

The James Webb Space Telescope has fired its thrusters and reached its orbital destination around a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from our planet, NASA said Monday, a key milestone on its mission to study cosmic history.

In a natural setting, cows and nursing calves together set the feeding schedule for the calf, and calves wean gradually, completing weaning at varying ages. By contrast, in artificial rearing systems with minimal cow-calf contact, the weaning schedule may be strictly determined, with reductions of milk intake based solely on the calf's age. But how well do different calves thrive under different feeding and weaning systems? The majority of research on calf personality and feeding behaviors has been performed with single-purpose dairy breeds... Читать дальше...

A study of overweight dogs fed a reduced calorie, high-protein, high-fiber diet for 24 weeks found that the dogs' body composition and inflammatory markers changed over time in ways that parallel the positive changes seen in humans on similar diets. The dogs achieved a healthier weight without losing too much muscle mass, and their serum triglycerides, insulin and inflammatory markers all decreased with weight loss.

Between 2010 and 2011, two research expeditions sponsored by the Spanish government exploring the biodiversity of benthic organisms—those living on the ocean floor—on Central America's Pacific and Caribbean coasts, came across a new shark species. The Squatina mapama n. sp., collected off the Caribbean coast of Panama became the first record of an angel shark from the Central American Caribbean. A new paper co-authored by Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute staff scientist, D. Ross Robertson, described and named it.

A recent study from North Carolina State University finds a technique that uses dried spots of blood to measure health indicators in elephants is comparable to techniques that use larger blood samples and require immediate cold storage—technology that is not always available when monitoring animals in the wild.

Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have demonstrated a new way to control the quantum state through the loss of particles—a process that is usually avoided in the quantum device, offering a new way towards the realization of unprecedented quantum states.

Chilly temperatures are rekindling a manatee die-off in Central Florida's Indian River.

Researchers at the University of Southampton have explored how the pandemic has impacted the shopping habits and attitudes of consumers aged 65+ living and shopping in rural communities in the South of England.

On Monday, Jan. 24, engineers plan to instruct NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to complete a final correction burn that will place it into its desired orbit, nearly 1 million miles away from the Earth at what is called the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, or "L2" for short.

Britain's towns and cities have the potential to support an urban agricultural revolution that would help meet the dietary needs of a growing population, boost the nation's health and wellbeing, as well as reduce reliance on imports, a new study reveals.

The discontinuation of the Biden administration's monthly payments of the child tax credit could leave millions of American families without enough food on the table, according to our new study in JAMA Network Open. The first missed payment on Jan. 15, 2022, left families that had come to rely on them wondering how they would make ends meet, according to many news reports.

I was first introduced to natural wines in Paris about 20 years ago. My initial tasting experience did little to convince me this approach to winemaking would survive. Many showed faults reflecting oxidation or yeast- or bacterial-derived odours that smelled "off".

Data traffic is rapidly growing and can soon overload the current internet infrastructure. The key to solve this overload problem is to improve the data transmission over optical fibers. Vinicius Oliari defended his Ph.D. on new, more accurate mathematical tools to better understand how light propagates through optical fibers the high power, nonlinear regime. These tools are an important step to the development of new transceiver structures that will improve transmission in optical fibers.

Extrusion is a process widely used in the polymer processing industry. It involves pushing material through a die with a specific cross-sectional shape, resulting in products like profiles, thin sheets, films and tubes. However, the shape of the final product (the so-called extrudate) is highly influenced by a phenomenon called swell. Ph.D. candidate Michelle Spanjaards has developed a numerical model that reduces this problem. She will defend her thesis at the department of Mechanical Engineering on Friday 21 of January.

New research shows that with special radar satellite technology, it's possible to detect warning signs and pinpoint exact locations where sinkhole activity is happening.

Its name sounds legendary, but the newly discovered insect Neuroterus (noo-ROH'-teh-rus) valhalla doesn't look or act the part. It's barely a millimeter long and spends 11 months of the year locked in a crypt.

So far, 2022 may feel like a mixed bag—however, if you're an astronomer this year has already been exciting. That's because December 25, 2021 brought a highly anticipated gift, two decades in the making, with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

One factor that influences the use of the labels "soft science" or "hard science" is gender bias, according to recent research my colleagues and I conducted.

Hippopotamuses are rather vocal animals. Their "wheeze honk" calls can be heard over long distances, leading researchers to suspect the calls play an important role in maintaining social groups. Now, a study in the journal Current Biology on January 24 shows that hippos recognize each other's voices. They also respond less aggressively to the calls of a neighbor compared to those of a stranger.

Chimpanzees don't automatically know what to do when they come across nuts and stones. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now used field experiments to show that chimpanzees thus do not simply invent nut cracking with tools, but need to learn such complex cultural behaviors from others. Their culture is therefore more similar to human culture than often assumed.