256 articles from TUESDAY 27.10.2020

How Wisconsin’s slowed-down mail could decide the election

If elections are a technology, then the machine consists of an enormous sprawl of moving parts that goes well beyond what most people realize. The system usually has lots of problems, but things have become so unpredictable during the covid-19 pandemic that the failure or success of any one piece of that greater machine could have an outsized impact on the entire election. Consider the US...

Cucurbit downy mildew pathogen has two genetically distinct host-adapted clades

Cucurbit downy mildew is a devastating disease for the United States cucurbit industry, which includes cucumbers, watermelon, squash, and pumpkin. The disease has caused major losses in North Carolina, which has significant cucumber and watermelon acreage. To help growers better manage this disease, a group of plant pathologists at North Carolina State University sought to better understand the...

Hurricanes pack a bigger punch for Florida's west coast

Boulder, Colo., U.S.: Hurricanes, the United States' deadliest and most destructive weather disasters, are notoriously difficult to predict. With the average storm intensity as well as the proportion of storms that reach category 4 or 5 likely to increase, more accurate predictions of future hurricane impacts could help emergency officials and coastal populations better prepare for such...

Will US college students' lives be forever transformed by COVID-19?

A team of researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and New York State Psychiatric Institute have embarked on the largest, most comprehensive longitudinal study of how U.S. college students are being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic—and how they are seizing the moment to redefine their futures.

Post-wildfire hazards: Understanding when and how slope failure may occur

Across the western U.S., severe wildfires fueled by tinder-dry vegetation have already burned more than 3.2 million hectares (8 million acres [as of the time of this press release])—an area the size of Maryland—in 2020, and nearly six times that area burned this year in Australia. And even though neither country's worst-ever fire year is not yet over, concerns are already mounting regarding...

Most migratory birds rely on a greening world, study finds

A new study from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology confirms that most birds—but not all—synchronize their migratory movements with seasonal changes in vegetation greenness. This is the first study of its kind to cover the Western Hemisphere during the year-long life cycle of North American migratory birds that feed on vegetation, seeds, nectar, insects, or meat. The findings were published today...

Record neutron numbers at Sandia Labs' Z machine fusion experiments

A relatively new method to control nuclear fusion that combines a massive jolt of electricity with strong magnetic fields and a powerful laser beam has achieved its own record output of neutrons—a key standard by which fusion efforts are judged—at Sandia National Laboratories' Z pulsed power facility, the most powerful producer of X-rays on Earth.

Greenland's Retreating Glaciers Could Impact Local Ecology

Portal origin URL: Greenland's Retreating Glaciers Could Impact Local EcologyPortal origin nid: 465828Published: Tuesday, October 27, 2020 - 16:37Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: Details about the physical transformation of over 200 of the island’s coastal glaciers are documented in a new study, in which the authors anticipate environmental...

NASA's Perseverance rover is midway to Mars

NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission has logged a lot of flight miles since being lofted skyward on July 30—146.3 million miles (235.4 million kilometers) to be exact. Turns out that is exactly the same distance it has to go before the spacecraft hits the Red Planet's atmosphere like a 11,900 mph (19,000 kph) freight train on Feb. 18, 2021.

Coastal Greenland reshaped as Greenland ice sheet mass loss accelerates

Ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet has accelerated significantly over the past two decades, transforming the shape of the ice sheet edge and therefore coastal Greenland, according to scientific research led by Twila Moon, deputy lead scientist of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. These changes to the ice sheet could have far-reaching impacts on ecosystems and communities, as the flow of...

The sweet spot of flagellar assembly

To build the machinery that enables bacteria to swim the flagellum is assembled piece by piece, ending with the helix called flagellar filament, composed of six different subunits called flagellins. Microbiologists have demonstrated that adding sugar to the flagellins is crucial for the flagellum's assembly and functionality. Among the six flagellins, one is the special one serving a signalling...

Post-wildfire hazards: Toward an understanding of when and how slope failure may occur

Across the western US, severe wildfires fueled by tinder-dry vegetation have already burned more than 3.2 million hectares (8 million acres) -- an area the size of Maryland -- as of the end of October, 2020, and nearly six times that area burned this year in Australia. And even though neither country's worst-ever fire year is not yet over, concerns are already mounting regarding the next hazard...

Surprisingly mature galaxies in the early universe

When the universe was only a tenth of its current age its galaxies experienced a growth spurt. It was this period that the scientists in the ALPINE project focused on when they used ESO's ALMA telescope to carry out the first ever large survey of distant galaxies. To their surprise, these galaxies observed in the early stages of their life were far more mature than expected. Their work is the...

Gulf Coast braces, again, for hurricane as Zeta takes aim

Residents of the storm-pummeled Gulf Coast steeled themselves for yet another tropical weather strike Tuesday after Zeta raked across the Yucatan Peninsula on a track that forecasters said would likely bring it ashore south of New Orleans as a hurricane.