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51 articles from PhysOrg

The Arctic is burning in a whole new way

"Zombie fires" and burning of fire-resistant vegetation are new features driving Arctic fires—with strong consequences for the global climate—warn international fire scientists in a commentary published in Nature Geoscience.

Biodiversity and plant decomposition should be factored into climate models, study finds

The afterlife of plant matter plays a significant role in ecosystems, as a key processor and provider of key nutrients. The rate of decomposition for leaf litter, among other plant matter, heavily influences the health of animals and plants, and this rate is expected to significantly increase as Earth continues to warm. There is another factor that could hold impact these ecosystems even more than...

Borate-based passivation layers enables reversible calcium batteries

A study published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science has combined experimental and theoretical approaches to study the passivation layers formed on calcium metal electrodes and their influence on the reversible operation of calcium-based batteries. The work is led by researchers from the ICMAB-CSIC, who have collaborated with the ALBA Synchrotron (MIRAS beamline) as well as with other...

New study may revise a 60-year-old theory about flowing viscous liquids

The international collaborative team of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) in Japan, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (IIT Ropar) in India, and Osaka University in Japan has discovered for the first time a topological change of viscous fingering (one of classical interfacial hydrodynamics), which is driven by "a partially miscibility," where the two liquids do not mix...

Artificial intelligence can help protect orchids and other species

Many orchid species are threatened by land conversion and illegal harvesting. However, only a fraction of those species is included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, because assessments require a lot of time, resources and expertise. A new approach, an automated assessment developed under the lead of biodiversity researchers from Central Germany, now shows that almost 30% of all orchid...

The mysterious luminescence phenomena of earthquake lightning

Were you aware that earthquakes are sometimes associated with luminescence, called earthquake lightning? This phenomenon had been documented throughout history, such as between 1965 and 1967, the Matsushiro earthquake swarm caused the surrounding mountain to flicker with light multiple times. In 1993 when an earthquake caused a tsunami off the coast in Southwest Hokkaido which caused 5 boats...

New Mars rover is ready for space lasers

When the Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon, they brought devices with them called retroreflectors, which are essentially small arrays of mirrors. The plan was for scientists on Earth to aim lasers at them and calculate the time it took for the beams to return. This provided exceptionally precise measurements of the Moon's orbit and shape, including how it changed slightly based on Earth's...

Ancient Adelie penguin colony revealed by snowmelt at Cape Irizar, Ross Sea, Antarctica

Researcher Steven Emslie encountered a puzzle at Cape Irizar, a rocky cape located just south of the Drygalski Ice Tongue on the Scott Coast, Ross Sea. He found both ancient and what appeared to be fresh remains of Adelie penguins, mostly of chicks, which frequently die and accumulate at these colonies. However, the "fresh" remains were puzzling, he says, because there are no records of an active...

Understanding oxygen-reducing enzymes

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that plays a central role in the global carbon cycle. At the same time, it is an important energy source for us humans. About half of its annual production is made by microorganisms known as methanogens that decompose organic material such as dead plants. This normally takes place in a habitat without oxygen as this gas is lethal to methanogens. But even in...

Boosting public trust in scientists hangs on communications methods

While debate over COVID-19 guidelines and vaccine development has raised skeptics' eyebrows and undermined confidence, a West Virginia University associate professor says that communication is essential for the science community to gain the American public's trust. According to Geah Pressgrove, scientists and communications professionals need to rethink how they communicate through four distinct...

New study finds novel functions of the pyruvate-sensing protein PdhR in E. coli

Organisms, ranging from bacteria to humans, run on an interconnected series of metabolic pathways—with glycolysis being the essential process that generates energy from sugars (glucose) in food. Pyruvate is the final product of glycolysis: It is an important molecule that acts as a node between different pathways. To better understand how these pathways work, a team of scientists, led by Dr....

Study describes discovery of close binary trans-Neptunian object

A new study authored by Southwest Research Institute scientists Rodrigo Leiva and Marc Buie reveals the binary nature of a trans-Neptunian object (TNO). Leiva and Buie utilized data obtained by the Research and Education Collaborative Occultation Network (RECON), a citizen science research net-work dedicated to observing the outer solar system. The study was published this month in The...

Birds risk starvation if they start breeding early due to climate change, study finds

Surviving on a warming planet can be a matter of timing—but simply shifting lifecycle stages to match the tempo of climate change has hidden dangers for some animals, according to new research from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and Cornell University. The study has uncovered drastic consequences for birds that are breeding earlier in lockstep with earlier starts of spring: chicks...

Neurons in spinal-cord injuries are reconnected in vivo via carbon nanotube sponges

Research conducted by two groups at the Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials CIC biomaGUNE and one at SISSA, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (Italy), have shown that functional materials based on carbon nanotubes facilitate the reconnecting of neuronal networks damaged as a result of spinal cord injuries. The study, published by the scientific journal PNAS (Proceedings...

Modern humans reached westernmost Europe 5,000 years earlier than previously known

Modern humans arrived in the westernmost part of Europe 41,000—38,000 years ago, about 5,000 years earlier than previously known, according to Jonathan Haws, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Louisville, and an international team of researchers. The team has revealed the discovery of stone tools used by modern humans dated to the earlier time...