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62 articles from PhysOrg

Research reveals function of genetic pathway for reproductive fitness in flowering plants

Small RNAs are key regulators involved in plant growth and development. Two groups of small RNAs are abundant during development of pollen in the anthers—a critical process for reproductive success. A research collaboration has demonstrated the function of a genetic pathway for anther development, with this pathway proven in 2019 work to be present widely in the flowering plants that evolved...

Study: News reports of education 'achievement gaps' may perpetuate stereotypes of Black Americans

Scholars have warned that the framing of racial "achievement gaps" in tests scores, grades, and other education outcomes may perpetuate racial stereotypes and encourage people to explain the gaps as the failure of students and their families rather than as resulting from structural racism. A new study finds that TV news reporting about racial achievement gaps led viewers to report exaggerated...

Utah's arches continue to whisper their secrets

Two new studies from University of Utah researchers show what can be learned from a short seismic checkup of natural rock arches and how erosion sculpts some arches—like the iconic Delicate Arch—into shapes that lend added strength.

Soil biology research can help create a more sustainable future

Soils are home to more than 25 percent of the earth's total biodiversity, supporting life on land and water, nutrient cycling and retention, food production, pollution remediation and climate regulation. Scientists have found increasing evidence that when soil organisms are put front and center, numerous global sustainability goals can be enhanced. This is because the activity and interactions of...

Simulations reveal interplay between scent marking and disease spread

In a new mathematical model that bridges animal movement and disease spread, territorial behaviors decreased the severity of potential disease outbreaks—but at the cost of increased disease persistence. Lauren White of the University of Maryland's National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, Annapolis, MD, and colleagues present these findings in PLOS Computational Biology.

Smallest cavity for light realized by graphene plasmons

Miniaturization has enabled technology like smartphones, health watches, medical probes and nano-satellites, all unthinkable a couple decades ago. Just imagine that in the course of 60 years, the transistor has shrunk from the size of your palm to 14 nanometers in dimension, 1000 times smaller than the diameter of a hair.

Tiny pump builds polyrotaxanes with precision

Northwestern University researchers have developed the most precise way to build polyrotaxanes, a mechanically locked polymer for slide-ring gels, battery electrode materials and drug-delivery platforms.

Scientists detect unexpected widespread structures near Earth's core

University of Maryland geophysicists analyzed thousands of recordings of seismic waves, sound waves traveling through the Earth, to identify echoes from the boundary between Earth's molten core and the solid mantle layer above it. The echoes revealed more widespread, heterogenous structures—areas of unusually dense, hot rock—at the core-mantle boundary than previously known.

Recovery of sea otter populations yields more benefits than costs

Since their reintroduction to the Pacific coast in the 1970s, the sea otters' rapid recovery and voracious appetite for tasty shellfish such as urchins, clams and crabs has brought them into conflict with coastal communities and fishers, who rely on the same valuable fisheries for food and income.

More than 1000 tons of plastic rains into western US protected lands annually

Utah State University Assistant Professor Janice Brahney and her team used high-resolution atmospheric deposition data and identified samples of microplastics and other particulates collected over 14 months in 11 national parks and wilderness areas. The researchers identified plastic and polymers' composition to identify sources of plastic emitted into the atmosphere and track its movement and...

Plastic in the deep sea: Virtually unaltered after a quarter of a century

Plastic products are durable. On one hand this is a great advantage, but on the other hand, if the plastic enters the environment, this advantage turns into a problem. According to current knowledge, natural degradation, as with organic matter, does not take place. It can only be estimated, how long plastic debris actually remains in the environment. Corresponding long-term experiments are...

The disease pyramid: Environment, pathogen, individual and microbiome

Researchers from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), the Université de Toulouse and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) show how the microbial colonization of the organism influences the interactions between living organisms, the environment and pathogens, using amphibians like frogs as examples. This is basic research for health prophylaxis.

Dopamine signaling allows neural circuits to generate coordinated behaviors

For a nematode worm, a big lawn of the bacteria that it eats is a great place for it to disperse its eggs so that each hatchling can emerge into a nutritive environment. That's why when a worm speedily roams about a food patch it methodically lays its eggs as it goes. A new study by neuroscientists at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory investigates this example of action...

Global air pollution maps now available

A new online platform that allows for the tracking of air pollution worldwide is now available to the public. The maps, which use data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, show the averaged nitrogen dioxide concentrations using a 14-day moving average. The maps not only show changes over time on a global scale, but also provide the possibility for users to zoom in to areas of interest, for...

Novel noncovalent bond blocks repulsive odor of isocyanides

Isocyanides are an important class of organic compounds owing to a wide range of chemical transformations they can undergo. These molecules are employed for the synthesis of various pharmaceuticals, polymers, catalysts, and luminophores. Widespread use of isocyanides in chemistry and chemical industry is, however, hampered by their extremely foul odor, described by some researchers as...

Tropical disease in medieval Europe revises the history of a pathogen related to syphilis

Mass burials are common remnants of the many plague outbreaks that ravaged Medieval Europe. A number of these graveyards are well documented in historical sources, but the locations of most, and the victims they contain, have been lost to the pages of time. In Vilnius, Lithuania, one such cemetery was found in a typical way: Accidental discovery during a routine city construction project.