Новости за 21.02.2022

While splashy clickbait headlines touting the power of chocolate to cure everything from acne to cancer are certainly attention grabbers, these articles may not be commonplace in science communication.

Current water quality guidelines aren't protecting freshwater ecosystems from increasing salt pollution due to road de-icing salts, agriculture fertilizers, and mining operations, according to an international study that included researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research shows that freshwater salinization triggers a massive loss of zooplankton and an increase in algae—even when levels are within the lowest thresholds established in Canada... Читать дальше...

Researchers have observed extremely high rates of melting at the bottom of the Greenland Ice Sheet, caused by huge quantities of meltwater falling from the surface to the base. As the meltwater falls, energy is converted into heat in a process like the hydroelectric power generated by large dams.

Studies comparing animal genomes generally focus on the DNA sequence itself. A new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis shows how the three-dimensional scaffolding of chromosomes is related across several species of carnivores, offering a new approach of "comparative scaffotyping" that could be used to identify related genes across species and place them in context. The work, published the week of Feb. 21 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also shows the power... Читать дальше...

Exploding a photo subject in order to take its picture? An international research team at the European XFEL, the world's largest X-ray laser, applied this "extreme" method to take pictures of complex molecules. The scientists used the ultra-bright X-ray flashes generated by the facility to take snapshots of gas-phase iodopyridine molecules at atomic resolution. The X-ray laser caused the molecules to explode, and the image was reconstructed from the pieces. "Thanks to the European XFEL's extremely intense and particularly short X-ray pulses... Читать дальше...

A team of French, American and Turkish paleontologists and geologists led by CNRS researchers1 has discovered the existence of a forgotten continent they have dubbed Balkanatolia, which today covers the present-day Balkans and Anatolia. Formerly inhabited by a highly specific fauna, they believe that it enabled mammals from Asia to colonize Europe 34 million years ago. Their findings are published in the March 2022 volume of Earth Science Reviews.

A new study by researchers at The University of Western Australia has found a critically endangered species of hammerhead shark in Perth metropolitan waters, further south than previously recorded.

Our spatial sense doesn't extend beyond the familiar three dimensions, but that doesn't stop scientists from playing with whatever lies beyond.

Regional economies are routinely subject to the whims of the business cycle that can lead to job losses and lower incomes for residents when a recession hits or an industry declines. But new research co-written by a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign economists finds that counties that also are home to a regional public university are better able to withstand adverse economic shocks than other similar counties.

The humble pine tree is more than just a common sight in North Carolina—it's also a handy tool for monitoring the proliferation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in our state over time.

Whistleblowers are not only helping to disclose immoral or criminal acts but also to deter offenders. Niels Johannesen, an economics professor from the University of Copenhagen and Tim Stolper, a former research associate at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance found clear evidence for this deterrence effect, using the example of data leaks surrounding banking services in tax havens. The economists discovered that following the appearance of the first data leak, which originated from LGT Bank in Liechtenstein... Читать дальше...

Since the onset of the worldwide pandemic, face masks have been widely adopted to control the spread of COVID-19. While masks are critical for mitigating disease contagion, they hide parts of our faces which are used for nonverbal communication to express our emotions and intentions.

The concept of high-temperature electrochemistry has broad ranging applications in multiple fields; however, researchers yet remain to conduct real-time observations to gain in-depth understanding of the evolution in such systems. The primary limits include harsh reaction conditions and multiphysics fields. In a new report now published in Science Advances, Handong Jiao and a team of scientists in advanced structure technology and metallurgy in Beijing, China, addressed the challenge by developing a high-temperature electrolysis facility. Читать дальше...

An international research team consisting of scientists at the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Maryland (UMD), and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has captured experimental evidence which sheds light on the mechanism of high temperature superconductivity in the so-called cuprate (copper oxide) superconductors which were first discovered in 1986. Results were published in Nature on Feb. 16.

If COP26 was about countries making promises to avoid catastrophic climate change, COP27 will be about raising money so developing nations can do their part.

MIT astronomers have obtained the clearest view yet of the perpetual dark side of an exoplanet that is "tidally locked" to its star. Their observations, combined with measurements of the planet's permanent day side, provide the first detailed view of an exoplanet's global atmosphere.

Ice coverage may be nearing its peak throughout the Great Lakes in a season that has trended closer to average than originally forecast, as Lake Michigan's water levels are expected to continue their decline well below the string of monthly record highs reached a few years ago.

Researchers have created new materials that are very stretchable and extremely tough.

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a new radio-labeled molecule capable of selectively reacting with certain high-energy radicals that are characteristic of innate immune activity, which may allow a non-invasive approach to monitor inflammation in real time by positron emission tomography (PET) imaging.

Swinburne scientists are using a football field-sized synchrotron light facility to examine individual grains of rice to help enhance global food security, nutritional value and the food safety of cereal grains.

Researchers led by Sergey Lobanov from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences have developed a new method to measure the density of silicon dioxide (SiO2) glass, one of the most important materials in industry and geology, at pressures of up to 110 gigapascals, 1.1 million times higher than normal atmospheric pressure. Instead of employing highly focused X-rays at a synchrotron facility, they used a white laser beam and a diamond anvil cell. The researchers report on their new and simple... Читать дальше...

A pair of researchers affiliated with both the NOVA School of Science and Technology and Museu da Lourinhã, has found evidence that suggests a group of fossils found 23 years ago in Portugal are the remains of a new species of Spinosaurus—the type of dinosaur featured prominently in the movie Jurassic Park III. They have named it Iberospinus natarioi. In their paper posted on the open-access site PLOS ONE, Octa´vio Mateus and Darı´o Estraviz-Lo´pez, describe the fossils they studied and explain why... Читать дальше...

The discovery of cuprate high-temperature superconductors in 1986 impacted science and technology considerably and continues to fascinate the communities of condensed matter physics and material sciences because they host the highest ambient-pressure superconducting transition temperature and unconventional electronic behavior. However, the underlying mechanism of the superconductivity is yet an unsolved mystery. Searching for the universal links between the superconducting state and its neighboring... Читать дальше...

Evergreen and deciduous species coexist in tropical dry forests and savannas. Previous studies have shown that they exhibit divergent strategies of drought tolerance and hydraulic safety under prolonged seasonal drought. However, the ecological strategies in hydraulic efficiency and mechanical strength (two major functions of the xylems of woody plant species) have not been well characterized for Chinese savanna woody species with contrasting leaf phenology.

Seasonal snow cover plays an important role in the interactions between ground and atmosphere, including energy and hydrological fluxes, thus influencing climatological and hydrological processes.