-
University of Delaware look at adding silicon to soil to strengthen plant defenses
To help plants better fend off insect pests, researchers are considering arming them with stones.The University of Delaware’s Ivan Hiltpold and researchers from the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University in Australia are examining the addition of silicon to the soil in which plants are grown to help strengthen plants against potential…
-
Study Finds Drought Recoveries Taking Longer
As global temperatures continue to rise, droughts are expected to become more frequent and severe in many regions during this century. A new study with NASA participation finds that land ecosystems took progressively longer to recover from droughts in the 20th century, and incomplete drought recovery may become the new normal in some areas, possibly…
-
Case study suggests new approach to urban water supply
If you live in the developed world, safe water is usually just a faucet-turn away. And yet, global warming, drought conditions, and population growth in coming decades could change that, ushering in an era of uncertain access to water.Now an MIT-based research team has evaluated those potential problems and, based on a case study in…
-
Air pollution linked to cardiovascular disease; air purifiers may lessen impact
Exposure to high levels of air pollution increased stress hormone levels and negative metabolic changes in otherwise healthy, young adults in a recent study conducted in China. Air purifiers appeared to lessen the negative effects, according to new research published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.Researchers focused on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) – a component of air…
-
Monkey Species Not Seen Alive for 80 Years Rediscovered in the Amazon
Scientists have rediscovered a species of monkey in the Brazilian Amazon not seen alive since 1936, according to reporting by Mongabay.The species, the bald-faced Vanzolini saki, was first discovered along the Rio Eiru more than 80 years ago by Alfonzo Olalla, an Ecuadorian naturalist. But scientists had found no other living evidence of the monkey since…
-
Lights, camera, CRISPR: Biologists use gene editing to store movies in DNA
Internet users have a variety of format options in which to store their movies, and biologists have now joined the party. Researchers have used the microbial immune system CRISPR–Cas to encode a movie into the genome of the bacterium Escherichia coli.The technical achievement, reported on 12 July in Nature, is a step towards creating cellular recording systems that are…
-
NASA's Sees a Tightly Wound Typhoon Banyan
Satellite imagery from NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite showed powerful storms tightly would around Typhoon Banyan's center as it moved through the Pacific Ocean.On Aug. 14 at 02:06 UTC (Aug. 13 at 10:06 p.m. EDT) the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible look at Banyan. The visible…
-
Student's idea leads to Antarctic volcano discovery
An Edinburgh student has helped identify what may be the largest volcanic region on Earth.
-
How goldfish make alcohol to survive without oxygen
Scientists at the Universities of Liverpool and Oslo have uncovered the secret behind a goldfish’s remarkable ability to produce alcohol as a way of surviving harsh winters beneath frozen lakes.Humans and most other vertebrate animals die within a few minutes without oxygen. Yet goldfish and their wild relatives, crucian carp, can survive for days, even…
-
Jackdaws flap their wings to save energy
For the first time, researchers have observed that birds that fly actively and flap their wings save energy. Biologists at Lund University in Sweden have now shown that jackdaws minimise their energy consumption when they lift off and fly, because the feathers on their wing tips create several small vortices instead of a single large…