933,932 articles

Should forests have rights? – podcast

A growing movement of ecologists, lawyers and artists is arguing that nature should have legal rights. By recognising the rights of ecosystems and other species, advocates hope that they can gain better protection. Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, about where this movement has come from and why the UK government has dismissed the concept, and...

US and Japan push for ban on nuclear weapons in space with UN security council resolution

UN chief António Guterres says risk of nuclear war has escalated and that ‘humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer’The US and Japan are sponsoring a UN security council resolution calling on all nations not to deploy or develop nuclear weapons in space, the US ambassador has announced.Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a UN security council meeting that “any placement of nuclear weapons...


MONDAY 18. MARCH 2024


NASA’s x-ray telescope faces a long goodbye

The end is nigh for NASA’s nearly 25-year-old Chandra X-ray Observatory. Funding for the space telescope was slashed last week in President Joe Biden’s budget request, which calls for winding the mission down over several years. Astronomers are up in arms over the announcement. They argue that the telescope is as productive as ever and remains a cornerstone of U.S....

Cacao plants' defense against toxic cadmium unveiled

Researchers from the University Grenoble Alpes (UGA), France, together with the ESRF, the European Synchrotron located in Grenoble, France, used ESRF's bright X-rays to unveil how cacao trees protect themselves from toxic metal cadmium. This knowledge is relevant as new EU regulations restrict cadmium concentration in chocolate. Their results are published in Environmental and Experimental Botany.

Domain knowledge drives data-driven artificial intelligence in well logging

Data-driven artificial intelligence, such as deep learning and reinforcement learning, possesses powerful data analysis capabilities. These techniques enable the statistical and probabilistic analysis of data, facilitating the mapping of relationships between inputs and outputs without reliance on predetermined physical assumptions.

Urban greening can lead to an increase of rodent-borne zoonotic pathogens

Wild rodents can host a great diversity of zoonotic pathogens. Rodents that live close to humans increase the likelihood of the transfer of such pathogens. "Changes in the environment, such as urban greening, can increase the presence of rodents and result in a higher human disease risk in urban areas," states Marieke de Cock based on her research. She successfully defended her Ph.D. from...

Tanks of the Triassic: New crocodile ancestor identified

Dinosaurs get all the glory. But aetosaurs, a heavily armored cousin of modern crocodiles, ruled the world before dinosaurs did. These tanks of the Triassic came in a variety of shapes and sizes before going extinct around 200 million years ago. Today, their fossils are found on every continent except Antarctica and Australia.

Backyard insect inspires invisibility devices, next gen tech

Leafhoppers, a common backyard insect, secrete and coat themselves in tiny mysterious particles that could provide both the inspiration and the instructions for next-generation technology, according to a new study. In a first, the team precisely replicated the complex geometry of these particles, called brochosomes, and elucidated a better understanding of how they absorb both visible and...

West Virginia opens the door to teaching intelligent design

In 2005, then–U.S. District Court Judge John Jones ruled that intelligent design (ID)—the idea that life is too complex to have evolved without nudging from supernatural forces—cannot be taught in public school biology courses because it is not a scientific theory. This month, the West Virginia legislature found a workaround, and passed a bill that doesn’t name ID but will...

Over half of global commutes are by car, says study

What is the extent of car dependency around the world? Why should the best places to live be car-free? What are the best public transportation cities? A new study by Rafael Prieto-Curiel, from the Complexity Science Hub, and Juan Pablo Ospina, from EAFIT University, may provide some insights into these questions.

Unlocking clearer views of our world's water: A Landsat legacy

Satellite remote sensing is vital for monitoring marine and freshwater ecosystems, leveraging missions like SeaWiFS, MODIS, MERIS, Landsat, and Sentinel to track water parameters such as chlorophyll, sediment, and temperature. The dynamic nature of water bodies demands high-frequency observations for accuracy, with limitations highlighted by factors like clouds and sunlight.

Tanks of the triassic: New crocodile ancestor identified

Dinosaurs get all the glory. But aetosaurs, a heavily armored cousin of modern crocodiles, ruled the world before dinosaurs did. These tanks of the Triassic came in a variety of shapes and sizes before going extinct around 200 million years ago. Today, their fossils are found on every continent except Antarctica and Australia.

Eyes open and toes out of water: How a giant water bug reached the island of Cyprus

The island of Cyprus, although considered a hotspot for biodiversity in the Mediterranean, is more famous for its beautiful sunny coasts than for its insect fauna. Nevertheless, some visitors of its highly populated beaches, with their observations and curiosity, have provided important information for a species never recorded before on the island: a giant water bug, also known as a toe biter.

Artificial mucus identifies link to tumor formation

During cold and flu season, excess mucus is a common, unpleasant symptom of illness, but the slippery substance is essential to human health. To better understand its many roles, researchers synthesized the major component of mucus, the sugar-coated proteins called mucins, and discovered that changing the mucins of healthy cells to resemble those of cancer cells made healthy cells act more...

Transforming wood waste for sustainable manufacturing

Lignin, a complex organic polymer, is one of the main components of wood, providing structural support and rigidity to make trees strong enough to withstand the elements. When transforming wood into paper, lignin is a key ingredient that must be removed, and it often becomes waste.

Advancements in greenhouse spike detection with deep learning for enhanced phenotypic trait analysis

Accurate extraction of phenotypic traits from image data is essential for cereal crop research, but spike detection in greenhouses is challenging due to the environmental and physical similarities between spikes and leaves. Recent efforts include increasing image resolution and feature dimensionality, and developing neural networks such as SpikeSegNet to improve spike detection. However, these...

The zoo of active galaxies: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher

In 1963, Caltech researcher Maarten Schmidt had a eureka moment. He was looking at the spectrum of a mysterious object named 3C 273, a source that had been found and cataloged with then-novel radio telescopes. It appeared to be a star emitting extremely high amounts of energy. But bizarrely, its spectrum matched no known elementsContinue reading "The zoo of active galaxies: This Week in Astronomy...

Two artificial intelligences talk to each other

Performing a new task based solely on verbal or written instructions, and then describing it to others so that they can reproduce it, is a cornerstone of human communication that still resists artificial intelligence (AI). A team has succeeded in modelling an artificial neural network capable of this cognitive prowess. After learning and performing a series of basic tasks, this AI was able to...

Holographic message encoded in simple plastic

Important data can be stored and concealed quite easily in ordinary plastic using 3D printers and terahertz radiation, scientists show. Holography can be done quite easily: A 3D printer can be used to produce a panel from normal plastic in which a QR code can be stored, for example. The message is read using terahertz rays -- electromagnetic radiation that is invisible to the human eye.

Breathe, don't vent: Turning down the heat is key to managing anger

Venting about a source of anger might feel good in the moment, but it's not effective at reducing the rage, new research suggests. Instead, techniques often used to address stress -- deep breathing, mindfulness, meditation, yoga or even counting to 10 -- have been shown to be more effective at decreasing anger and aggression.