6,170 articles mezi dny 1.8.2020 a 31.8.2020

Bamboozling the bark beetles

The forest is struggling to cope with the largest bark beetle plague in 70 years. While the trees are suffering due to the heat and the drought, the pests are proliferating rampantly in the warm weather: A pair of European spruce bark beetles, for example, can produce up to 30,000 offspring. Starting in 2004 and most recently in the joint project "bioProtect" (2015-2020), Professor Michael...

Study advances research of cycads as an ecotoxin

University of Guam research has revealed that younger cycad seeds pose a greater risk for toxicity when consumed than more mature seeds, bringing the scientific community one step closer to understanding the origins of a neurodegenerative disease prevalent on Guam in World War II and closer to understanding related neurological disorders elsewhere. The research was the cover story of the June 2020...

Hots dogs, chicken wings and city living helped wetland wood storks thrive

Natural wetlands continue to disappear due to city and human development and are being replaced with manmade swales, ponds and canals. This degradation and replacement of natural wetlands suggest that urban areas may be imperative to wetland species, especially when natural conditions are unpredictable. Wetland birds are often seen in and around cities; however, they have been largely ignored in...

How weather affects crawfish harvests

The life cycle of a crawfish can be fairly straight forward. In the summer months, crawfish reproduce in underground mud burrows with a plug of mud on top of the burrow to protect them from predators. In late summer and early fall, rain softens the mud plugs so the crawfish can push their way out of the burrows and enter ponds, where they feed, molt and grow throughout Louisiana's typically mild...

Molecule to store solar energy developed

Researchers have developed a molecule that absorbs energy from sunlight and stores it in chemical bonds. A possible long-term use of the molecule is to capture solar energy efficiently and store it for later consumption.

True holographic movies are within grasp

Holographic movies, like the one R2D2 projected of Princess Leia in "Star Wars: A New Hope," have long been the province of science fiction, but for most of us, the extent of our experience with holograms may be the dime-sized stamps on our passports and credit cards. By using 'metasurface' materials that can manipulate light in ways that natural materials cannot, researchers reckon they have...

Citizen scientists bring surprising insights into cowslip mating system

About half of the individuals of cowslip (Primula veris) have flowers with a short style, while the other half of individuals produce flowers with a long style. Recent discoveries have suggested that the loss and fragmentation of habitats may shake this optimal balance of morphologically different plants. This, in turn, decreases the reproductive success of plants and jeopardizes their future...

Eating your vegetables is easier said than done

"Food systems have the potential to nurture human health and support environmental sustainability; however, they are currently threatening both." This sentence, the opening statement of the EAT-Lancet Report published last year, reflects a growing consensus among global experts on food, nutrition and the environment: Our food system is broken and we need to fix it, fast.

Amid the covid-19 pandemic, shifting business priorities

Remember all those articles you read in January with headlines like “2020 trends to watch in your industry?” You tossed those predictions out long ago. But while everyone knows that the coronavirus pandemic changed everything, none of us is sure how. This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Review’s...

Following African elephant trails to approach conservation differently

Elephant trails may lead the way to better conservation approaches. 'Think of elephants as engineers of the forests. Elephants shape the landscape in many ways that benefit humans. We're talking thousands of miles of trails. If we think about the loss of elephants over time, then we will see the forest structure change and human activities also would shift.'

Warmer, acidifying ocean brings extinction for reef-building corals, renewal for relatives

A new study finds that reef-building corals emerged only when ocean conditions supported the construction of these creatures' stony skeletons, whereas diverse softer corals and sea anemones flourished at other times. Without a significant change to anthropogenic carbon emissions, the new findings present stark implications for the present and future of hard-bodied corals while suggesting a silver...

Prior exposure to powdery mildew makes plants more vulnerable to subsequent disease

A key to surviving in the wild is fighting off infection -- and not just once. For plants, as with humans, one infection may or may not leave a plant with lasting immunity. Biologists conducted a series of elegant experiments that capture how pathogen strains naturally accumulate on plants over a growing season. Their findings reveal the importance of understanding interactions among pathogens...

Insight on how to build a better flu vaccine

Repeated exposure to influenza viruses may undermine the effectiveness of the annual flu vaccine. A team of researchers has developed an approach to assess whether a vaccine activates the kind of immune cells needed for long-lasting immunity against new influenza strains. The findings could aid efforts to design an improved flu vaccine.

Serengeti leopard population densities healthy but vary seasonally, study finds

A study of camera-trap data from Serengeti National Park in Tanzania found that leopard population densities in the 3.7-million-acre park are similar to those in other protected areas but vary between wet and dry seasons. The fluctuations appear to be driven by the abundance of prey and how this affects interactions with other large carnivores like lions, researchers report.