Новости за 15.07.2022

To spur decarbonization, public investments must go beyond government support of research and development and expand into the manufacturing and deployment of new technology. To do this, governments must move beyond the myths surrounding public investment in clean energy that discourage use of public funds, a newly published Yale School of the Environment-led commentary in Nature Energy explains.

A tiny piece of rural Washington state—and some of its "inhabitants"— blasted off into space from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, July 14.

A team of scientists in the Physical Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have combined robotics with biology by equipping E. coli bacteria with artificial components to construct biohybrid microrobots. First, as can be seen in Figure 1, the team attached several nanoliposomes to each bacterium. On their outer circle, these spherical-shaped carriers enclose a material (ICG, green particles) that melts when illuminated by near infrared light. Further towards the middle... Читать дальше...

Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists report they have probed the atomic structure of proteins to add to evidence that the wobbles, shakes and quivers of proteins play a critical role in their ability to function. The findings of the research may help scientists design new drugs that can modify or disrupt the intricate "dances" of proteins to alter their functions.

Talin is a protein that controls cellular attachment and movement, but its malfunctioning also allows cancer cells to spread. DCL1 is a tumor-suppressing protein. But scientists don't fully understand how either protein works—or what happens when they don't work the way they should.

Raman spectroscopy, an optical microscopy technique, is a non-destructive chemical analysis technique that provides rich molecular fingerprint information about chemical structure, phase, crystallinity, and molecular interactions. The technique relies on the interaction of light with chemical bonds within a material. However, since light is a wave, optical microscopes are unable to resolve distances less than half the wavelength of the light incident on the sample. This is known as the "diffraction... Читать дальше...

The whole-site management of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) can increase the total abundance of reef species within its borders by up to 95%, according to new research.

A novel, quantum-based vacuum gauge system invented by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has passed its first test to be a true primary standard—that is, intrinsically accurate without the need for calibration.

New University of Bristol-led research has highlighted several potential welfare concerns relating to how snakes are kept in private homes including issues with enclosure size, temperature and humidity.

Increased demand for water will be the No. 1 threat to food security in the next 20 years, followed closely by heat waves, droughts, income inequality and political instability, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder-led study which calls for increased collaboration to build a more resilient global food supply.

Harmful fungi cause enormous agricultural losses. Conventional techniques for combating them involve the use of poisonous fungicides. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), working with partners from Germany, France, and Switzerland on the DialogProTec project, have developed environmentally safe alternatives that trick the pathogens' chemical communication with plants. Now that the research has been completed, the new technology is ready for use.

Astronomers from the University of Warwick reveal a new phenomenon dubbed the "rocking shadow" effect that describes how disks in forming planetary systems are oriented, and how they move around their host star. The effect also gives clues as to how they might evolve with time. Dr. Rebecca Nealon presented the new work this week at the 2022 National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Warwick.

Factory farming for meat production is harmful to the environment. In addition to its direct emissions of methane, its use of liquid manure releases climate-damaging nitrogen compounds such as ammonia and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere and pollutes the groundwater with nitrates. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have analyzed how the liquid manure produced by livestock farming, which is often used as fertilizer, affects its nitrogen footprint. They showed that the nitrogen... Читать дальше...

The first images from NASA's new space telescope unveiled this week include a new look at the universe, expanding our view of the galaxy as we know it. The images include a high resolution "window" to millions of stars through the Milky Way's dust, a new look at galaxies lightyears away for the first time in 30 years. LSU Astrophysicists share their reactions to the photos and how the Webb telescope impacts future research and discovery.

Numerous studies focused on developing safe and long-term cycling Li-metal batteries (LMBs) have been reported. However, transferring these high-performing LMBs from lab-scale to industrial-scale production remains challenging. Most studies on LMBs are limited to solving the issue of Li dendrite formation via an in situ or ex situ formed layer on the Li anode, while the formation and evolution of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), through imitating the practical production process of LMBs, are rarely considered.

Urbanization is a primary threat to biodiversity. However, scientists know little about how urbanization affects biodiversity and ecosystem services in tropical regions of the Global South. An international research team led by the Universities of Göttingen and Hohenheim in Germany, in collaboration with the University of Agricultural Sciences of Bangalore in India, investigated the effects of urbanization on bee communities in smallholder farms in and around Bangalore—a South Indian city with more than 13 million inhabitants. Читать дальше...

Snakes and lizards have distinct body movement patterns. Lizards bend from side to side as they retract their legs to walk or run. Snakes, on the other hand, slither and undulate, like a wave that travels down the body. However, there are species of lizards that have long, snakelike bodies, and limbs so tiny even scientists have wondered about their purpose. Understanding how these hybrid-looking lizards move could provide insight into why an evolutionary transition from lizardlike to snakelike motion occurred.

Sometimes, our dogs do strange things. Besides biting their dirty paws or rolling around in puddles, dogs occasionally drink from toilets or lick their butts.

The first year of the Perseverance rover mission on Mars captured the imaginations of scientists and the public alike with an interplanetary helicopter flight and the first chance to hear the sounds of the red planet.

The beloved Asian elephant Tricia died at Perth Zoo this month at the ripe old age of 65, making her one of the world's oldest elephants.

Dr. Jordi Mazon is professor of meteorology at the Department of physics in the Technical University of Catalonia (BarcelonaTech) and teaches higher-level physics in the international baccalaureate in Aula higher school in Barcelona. In addition, he is currently Deputy Mayor of energy transition, mobility, and city cleaning management in Viladecans, a municipality of the metropolitan area of Barcelona. His research is focused on several topics of atmospheric physics, the numerical simulation of coastal fronts, and severe meteorological events. Читать дальше...

A team of scientists from the IUF—Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Düsseldorf developed and validated a computational webserver that allows scientists to genotype mutations using nanopore sequencing. The results of this study were published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.

Life in the Arctic is harsh. Arctic temperatures are punishing, making life difficult for many animals to survive. Yet lots of insects, including mosquitoes, manage to thrive in the frozen region. So why don't they freeze themselves?

A team of researchers from Colorado State University, the Smithsonian Conservative Biology Institute and the Save the Elephants program in Kenya reports that social support by members of elephant herds in African savanna elephants reduces stress levels of orphaned youngsters. In their paper published in the journal Communications Biology, the group describes their study of stress levels in orphaned wild elephants and their ability to rebound from a great loss.

Researchers at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found that the increased use of videoconferencing platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a higher level of fatigue, as reported by workers.