Новости за 01.02.2022

Microbes may be miniscule, but they have a massive impact on Earth and its habitability. They are uniquely different from animals, plants, and other eukaryotic organisms in that they can gain energy from "breathing" a surprisingly wide range of surfaces and materials. Microbes also drastically reshape their environment as they feast on these energy sources, making microbes major players in the cycling and availability of nutrients on Earth. One especially well-known example was the rise of oxygen... Читать дальше...

Limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels will still be catastrophic for coral reefs, new research suggests.

The worldwide phase out of animal agriculture, combined with a global switch to a plant-based diet, would effectively halt the increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases for 30 years and give humanity more time to end its reliance on fossil fuels, according to a new study by scientists from Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.

New Monterey Bay Aquarium-led research reveals excessively warm ocean temperatures driven by climate change are the new normal. The study, published today by PLOS Climate, establishes that more than half of the ocean surface has exceeded a historical heat extreme threshold on a regular basis since 2014.

Preprinting, the sharing of freely available manuscripts prior to peer-review, has been on the rise in the biosciences since 2013 and experienced a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, expediting the dissemination of timely research. But how do preprints relate to the final peer-reviewed papers? Two new studies publishing in the open access journal PLOS Biology February 1st took different approaches to explore how preprints posted on bioRxiv and medRxiv compare with their published versions.

With the help of a "playground" they created for observing exotic physics, MIT scientists and colleagues have not only found a new way to manipulate magnetism in a material with light but have also realized a rare form of matter. The former could lead to applications including computer memory storage devices that can read or write information in a much faster way, while the latter introduces new physics.

By 2080, around 70% of the world's oceans could be suffocating from a lack of oxygen as a result of climate change, potentially impacting marine ecosystems worldwide, according to a new study. The new models find mid-ocean depths that support many fisheries worldwide are already losing oxygen at unnatural rates and passed a critical threshold of oxygen loss in 2021.

A new study by researchers in the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering's St. Anthony Falls Laboratory found that popular wakesurf boats require a greater distance from the shoreline and other boats compared to more typical recreational boats. This distance is needed to reduce the potential impact of their larger waves.

A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced that they have discovered the genetic linkages governing the formation of flowers. The revelation solves a long-standing mystery—how are there so many different types of flowers in the world?—and shines a bright light into a dark corner of evolution. The research also demonstrates the power of a technique called "forward genetics" in uncovering the mysteries of nature.

In a new report now published on Science Advances, Paulo H. Michels-Brito, and a team of researchers in physics, inorganic chemistry, and physical chemistry in Germany and Norway, showed how bright non-iridescence structural coloration could be easily and rapidly achieved from two-dimensional nanosheets of clay mineral.

A viable molecular explanation for the origin of compact myelin of vertebrates has been a long time coming. While many invertebrates are certainly capable of wrapping their axons with crude glial extensions, none can manage anything like the massive spiral elaborations of crystalline proteolipid membrane found in the oligodendrocytes of the central nervous system and the Schwann cells of the peripheral.

Using the Very Large Telescope (VLT), French astronomers have performed spectroscopic observations of an ultraluminous X-ray source known as NGC 1313 X–1. The observational campaign resulted in the detection of a shocked-ionized bubble, an X-ray photoionized nebula and also two supernova remnants around this source. The findings were published January 23 on arXiv.org.

A groundbreaking study in prehistoric archaeology at Tel Aviv University provides evidence for high cognitive abilities in early humans who lived 170,000 years ago. In a first-of-its kind study, the researchers developed a software-based smoke dispersal simulation model and applied it to a known prehistoric site. They discovered that the early humans who occupied the cave had placed their hearth at the optimal location—enabling maximum utilization of the fire for their activities and needs while exposing them to a minimal amount of smoke.

An international team of researchers from the Sharjah Archaeology Authority/United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Universities of Tübingen and Freiburg as well as Oxford Brookes/England led by Dr. Knut Bretzke from the University of Tübingen and Prof. Dr. Frank Preusser from the Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Freiburg has uncovered startlingly new results that show Paleolithic humans repeatedly occupied the rock shelter site of Jebel Faya in Southern Arabia between... Читать дальше...

Proton therapy is a precise and effective treatment for tumors in sensitive areas of the body, such as the brain or the eyes, with the advantage that it spares healthy tissue. In this procedure, protons (positively charged particles) are strongly accelerated and directed with precision into the tumor tissue, which is destroyed in the process. However, this efficient method of treatment has so far required large accelerators, which is why it is only available in major treatment centers.

The traditional refrigerant Freon is a strong greenhouse gas that leads to serious climate problems. Stimulated by the excellent cooling performance of plastic crystal materials, barocaloric (BC) cooling received much attention recently as a promising green refrigeration technology. However, problems like high driving pressure and low thermal response remain unsolved, hindering practical applications.

Dark matter, a hypothetical material that does not absorb, emit or reflect light, is thought to account for over 80 percent of the matter in the universe. While many studies have indirectly hinted at its existence, so far, physicists have been unable to directly detect dark matter and thus to confidently determine what it consists of.

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.K. and the U.S. has found a possible explanation for the difference in the blue hues of Uranus and Neptune. They have published a paper outlining their findings on the arXiv preprint server.

Planetary scientists from Konkoly Observatory in Budapest have modeled the emergence of salty but liquid water on the surface of Mars. According to the results of Bernadett Pál and Ákos Kereszturi, late night and early morning hours during Martian spring and summer could be ideal times for the process to occur, with conditions being more favorable in the northern hemisphere. They examined how effectively hygroscopic salts, which have an affinity to adsorb or absorb water vapor from the atmosphere, enter solutions to form brines.

Most farm managers in Europe are nearing retirement. There is a need to revitalize rural areas in Europe and crate opportunities for younger people. Social scientists are scrutinizing the problem of rural decline, highlighting success stories and policy actions and tracking paths back to a more prosperous countryside.

One month into 2022 and the debate on cryptocurrency is already heating up, with calls for regulation causing a rift between jurisdictions that are "crypto friendly" and those that aren't. Which will determine the future of the market?

About 3.5 million people have at least temporarily left the U.S. workforce since March 2020. Over one-third of them—1.2 million—are in the leisure and hospitality industry.

You may be familiar with the red toadstool with white spots, which are often the homes of fairies in children's stories. These toadstools are also a small part of grander magical story: they are striking examples of mycorrhizas.

Masks, social distancing and increased ventilation are all necessary pandemic measures in classrooms, but they can make for a difficult listening and hearing environment for students and teachers.

New research conducted as part of the EU-funded LIFT project has shown that ecological practices are the way forward for Europe's farmers. Carried out at LIFT project partner Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), United Kingdom, it suggests that such practices help farmers increase their profits and meet sustainable agricultural goals.