330 articles from WEDNESDAY 16.9.2020
Slow-moving storms that deluge coasts become regular part of Atlantic hurricane season
For Grant Saltz, who runs a barbecue restaurant in Mobile, Alabama, what struck him about Hurricane Sally was its steady, deliberate pace, after the storm rumbled into the U.S. Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a powerful Category 2 hurricane. Sally is not the most powerful storm to batter the U.S. Gulf Coast in recent memory, but its glacial pace is becoming a regular feature of the deadly storms,...
Ancient footprints in Saudi Arabia show how humans left Africa
Around 120,000 years ago in what is now northern Saudi Arabia, a small band of homo sapiens stopped to drink and forage at a shallow lake that was also frequented by camels, buffalo and elephants bigger than any species seen today.
Climate crisis 233m years ago reshaped life on Earth, say scientists
Volcanic eruptions drove global heating, causing mass extinctions and ushering in dinosaur eraA mass extinction event sparked by a sudden shift in climate more than 200m years ago reshaped life on Earth and ushered in the age of the dinosaurs, scientists claim.An international team reviewed geological evidence and the fossil record and found that enormous volcanic eruptions in what is now western...
Database of parliamentarians' tweets opens new research opportunities
Researchers have compiled a new database of tweets from parliament members from 26 European countries and illustrated how this resource could help address challenges in the burgeoning field of Twitter research. Livia van Vliet of the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, and colleagues present the new database and findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on September 16, 2020.
Using chitin, a bioinspired material, to manufacture tools and shelters on Mars
A simple manufacturing technology based on chitin, one of the most ubiquitous organic polymers on Earth, could be used to build tools and shelters on Mars, according to a study published September 16 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Javier Fernandez of Singapore University of Technology and Design, and colleagues.
Diet and prior training show no impact on cognitive decline in aging pet dogs
A new study of older pet dogs found that problem solving, sociability, boldness and dependency decline with age, and reported no associations between an enriched diet, lifelong training experiences, and measures of behavior and cognition after a one-year diet period. A team of researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria, and University of Liverpool, UK present these...
Plastic pollution: Washed clothing's synthetic mountain of 'fluff'
Scientists calculate how many tiny fibres our polyester and nylon garments lose in the...
Plastic pollution: Washed clothing's synthetic mountain of 'fluff'
Scientists calculate how many tiny fibres our polyester and nylon garments lose in the wash.
Most landslides in western Oregon triggered by heavy rainfall, not big earthquakes
Researchers at the University of Washington, Portland State University and the University of Oregon have shown that deep-seated landslides in the central Oregon Coast Range are triggered mostly by rainfall, not by large offshore earthquakes.
Native stinging tree toxins match the pain of spiders and scorpions
The painful toxins wielded by a giant Australian stinging tree are surprisingly similar to the venom found in spiders and cone snails, University of Queensland researchers have found.
Mapping cavefish brains leads to neural origin of behavioral evolution
For more than 1 million years, independent cavefish populations that are geographically and hydrologically isolated from one another have evolved to include about 29 different populations. Among them, the tiny Mexican tetra, Astyanax mexicanus, which comprises river-dwelling surface fish and multiple independently evolved populations of blind cavefish. Many of the behaviors between these cavefish...
Seismic monitoring may improve early warnings for glacial lake outburst floods
Vibrations in the ground may help to improve advanced warnings about sudden floods that result from glacial melting, according to a study published today in Science Advances.
Discovery of a new mass extinction
It's not often a new mass extinction is identified; after all, such events were so devastating they really stand out in the fossil record. In a new paper, published today in Science Advances, an international team has identified a major extinction of life 233 million years ago that triggered the dinosaur takeover of the world. The crisis has been called the Carnian Pluvial Episode.
Synthetic clothing fibers contribute vast amounts of plastic pollution on land
176,500 metric tons of synthetic microfibers—chiefly polyester and nylon—are released every year onto terrestrial environments across the globe, according to a new study in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Jenna Gavigan and colleagues at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The microfibers are shed from clothing during washing, and the amount ending up on land now exceeds the...
People's life goals relate to their personality type
- ScienceDaily
- 20/9/16 19:56
A new study suggests that for the most part, people formulate goals consistent with their personality traits.
The megafires and pandemic expose the lies that frustrate action on climate change | Tim Flannery
If there was a moment of true emergency in the fight to preserve our climate, it is nowThis is part of a series of essays by Australian writers responding to the challenges of 2020I was in Melbourne in late January, watching as more and more people donned face masks to protect themselves against the bushfire smoke that had thickened the air for weeks and that was causing hundreds of deaths....
New data processing module makes deep neural networks smarter
- ScienceDaily
- 20/9/16 19:11
Artificial intelligence researchers have improved the performance of deep neural networks by combining feature normalization and feature attention modules into a single module that they call attentive normalization. The hybrid module improves the accuracy of the system significantly, while using negligible extra computational power.
Epidemics and pandemics can exacerbate xenophobia, bigotry
- ScienceDaily
- 20/9/16 19:11
Instincts developed to protect us from illnesses can generalize into avoidance of healthy individuals who simply look, speak or live differently.
New photoactivation mechanism for polymer production
- ScienceDaily
- 20/9/16 19:10
A team of researchers has demonstrated a way to use low-energy, visible light to produce polymer gel objects from pure monomer solutions. The work not only poses a potential solution to current challenges in producing these materials, it also sheds further light on the ways in which low energy photons can combine to produce high energy excited states.
World's oldest animal sperm found in tiny crustaceans trapped in Myanmar amber
- ScienceDaily
- 20/9/16 19:10
New research has led to the discovery of world's oldest animal sperm inside a tiny crustacean trapped in amber around 100 million years ago in Myanmar.
Reforestation can only partially restore tropical soils
- ScienceDaily
- 20/9/16 19:10
Tropical forest soils play a crucial role in providing vital ecosystem functions. They provide nutrients for plants, store carbon and regulate greenhouse gases, as well as storing and filtering water, and protection against erosion. Scientists have investigated how the properties and ecosystem functions of tropical soils change when forests are cut down, and whether reforestation can reverse such...
Tortoise hatchlings are attracted to faces from birth
- ScienceDaily
- 20/9/16 19:10
Tortoises are born with a natural preference for faces, according to new research.
A ferry protein in the pancreas protects it from the stress induced by a high-fat diet
- ScienceDaily
- 20/9/16 19:10
Scientists have now uncovered a key mechanism by which pancreatic function is maintained in response to a high-fat diet. A protein present in pancreatic insulin-producing cells protects them from damage under the stress induced by a high-fat diet. As the world increases its intake of high-fat foods and as type 2 diabetes incidence rises as a result, this protein could be a novel therapeutic target...
Scientists identify gene family key to unlocking vertebrate evolution
- ScienceDaily
- 20/9/16 19:10
New research finds that the traits that make vertebrates distinct from invertebrates were made possible by the emergence of a new set of genes 500 million years ago, documenting an important episode in evolution where new genes played a significant role in the evolution of novel traits in vertebrates.
A new species of spider
- ScienceDaily
- 20/9/16 19:10
During a research stay in the highlands of Colombia conducted as part of her doctorate, a PhD student has discovered and zoologically described a new species of spider.