Новости за 11.10.2022

When the research vessel Bold Horizon sailed from Newport, Oregon, in early October, it joined a small armada of planes, drones, and other high-tech craft chasing the ocean's shapeshifting physics.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have engineered duckweed to produce high yields of oil. The team added genes to one of nature's fastest growing aquatic plants to "push" the synthesis of fatty acids, "pull" those fatty acids into oils, and "protect" the oil from degradation. As the scientists explain in a paper published in Plant Biotechnology Journal, such oil-rich duckweed could be easily harvested to produce biofuels or other bioproducts.

The Aldabra giant tortoise is one of only two giant tortoise species left in the world, and it is currently on the threatened list. Conservation efforts are underway, but more and better tools to improve the chance of long-term success are greatly needed. A study published today by an international team of researchers has provided such a tool: they have completed and released an extremely high-quality genome sequence that will help to ensure a future for this vulnerable species.

Direct air capture may be key to saving Earth from the effects of climate change, but there's a catch: It's really hard to do.

The amount of energy used for computing is climbing at an exponential rate. Business intelligence and consulting firm Enerdata reports that information, communication and technology accounts for 5% to 9% of total electricity consumption worldwide.

A group of scientists led by Duke University have engineered a new class of materials capable of producing tunable plasmonic properties while withstanding incredibly high temperatures.

A team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has overcome a major constraint for cutting and editing DNA by CRISPR-Cas enzymes and other technologies. The recent innovation, which is published in Nature Biotechnology, will simplify and expedite molecular cloning approaches and expand their utility.

At 200 times stronger than steel, graphene has been hailed as a super material of the future since its discovery in 2004. The ultrathin carbon material is an incredibly strong electrical and thermal conductor, making it a perfect ingredient to enhance semiconductor chips found in many electrical devices.

Plants are designed to travel. They might not stand up and walk, but many plants produce seeds or other bits that can be carried long distances by wind or animals and start growing. While that might be great news for the plant, escapes like these can disrupt natural ecosystems and be costly to remove.

In the search for life beyond Earth, subsurface bodies of water in our outer solar system are some of the most important targets. That's why NASA is sending the Europa Clipper spacecraft to Jupiter's moon Europa: There is strong evidence that under a thick crust of ice, the moon harbors a global ocean that could potentially be habitable.

The cause-effect sequence or "feedback" between plants and their soil microbial communities plays an important role in structuring plant communities. To predict this synergistic coexistence, researchers conduct short-term, pairwise experiments—measuring growth response of two plant species growing in soil cultivated by each of the species—based on mathematical theory. But does it work?

Sea-level rise and big storms are hammering coastal communities, causing increased flooding and land loss, saltwater intrusion, wetland loss/change, and impacts to local infrastructure.

Recent research by Thorstein Grohsjean (Bocconi University, Milan) and Henning Piezunka (INSEAD) has shown that some collaborations can hurt firm performance but help employees' careers.

Ramping up renewable energy products will require a range of critical metals. One of these elements, tellurium, is gaining in popularity for use in photovoltaics, or solar panels. As global demand for solar panels continues to increase, so does the need for critical metals like tellurium.

Trust that the U.S. Supreme Court is operating in the best interests of the American people has plummeted amid growing perceptions that the justices are partisans just like any other politicians, according to the latest Annenberg Public Policy Center survey, which includes questions tracking the court across more than a decade and a half.

Britain's transition from water power to coal-based steam power set the stage for the 19th century Industrial Revolution, which transformed much of Europe and North America into predominantly urban and industrialized societies. One long-held argument for this move "away from the water" has been that Britain no longer had sufficient water resources to satisfy the increasing power demands of its textile mills.

Just like the old adage says: When it rains, it pours.

A compound that both inhibits the MRSA superbug and renders it more vulnerable to antibiotics has been discovered by scientists at the University of Bath led by Dr. Maisem Laabei and Dr. Ian Blagbrough.

Using a mobile stamen to slap away insect visitors maximizes pollination and minimizes costs to flowers, a study published today in eLife shows.

An analysis of thousands of water and oil wells in the Houston metro area has uncovered significant rates of subsidence, or gradual sinking of the ground, in some of the region's fast-growing suburbs that have not been previously reported.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is both the most important federal climate legislation ever and sadly inadequate to protect the U.S. and the world from the effects of climate change. Where it falls short, states could intervene with tougher regulations—but many won't. That leaves corporations, which can pressure their suppliers to take the actions necessary to prevent global warming's most devastating effects.

There's more bad news for planet Earth if climate change continues unabated. New research published on October 11 in the open access journal PLOS Biology by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, United States reveals that, under a worst-case scenario, half of coral reef ecosystems worldwide will permanently face unsuitable conditions in just a dozen years.

Although the federal government provided an unprecedented level of emergency funding to U.S. public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, this support was insufficient and poorly targeted to offset the cost of recovering student learning loss, according to new research. The study, by Kenneth A. Shores at the University of Delaware and Matthew P. Steinberg at George Mason University, was published today in Educational Researcher.

Chronic wasting disease, the prion disease affecting white-tailed deer and other cervids, is spreading. With documented cases in 29 U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, three Scandinavian countries, and South Korea, free-ranging and captive cervids are under threat. Efforts to conserve endangered deer against this backdrop are understandably fraught.

Researchers have devised a method for combining high-cost platinum and a low-cost rare earth element, lanthanum, as an alloy to serve as a catalyst in the next generation of fuel cells that will improve their performance and slash their cost. The development should make it easier to decarbonize those heavy transport vehicles that are less suitable to the use of batteries.