Crystal clear: Lepidopterans have many ways of being transparent
Butterflies and moths have beautiful wings: The bright flare of an orange monarch, the vivid stripes of a swallowtail, the luminous green of a Luna moth. But some butterflies flutter on even more dramatic wings: Parts of their wing, or sometimes the entire wing itself, are actually transparent.
US drilling approvals increase despite Biden climate pledge
Approvals for companies to drill for oil and gas on U.S. public lands are on pace this year to reach their highest level since George W. Bush was president, underscoring President Joe Biden's reluctance to more forcefully curb petroleum production in the face of industry and Republican resistance.
Sweet success: First precision breeding of sugarcane with CRISPR-Cas9
Sugarcane is one of the most productive plants on Earth, providing 80 percent of the sugar and 30 percent of the bioethanol produced worldwide. Its size and efficient use of water and light give it tremendous potential for the production of renewable value-added bioproducts and biofuels.
Symbionts sans frontieres: Bacterial partners travel the world
This pandemic year has restricted international travel for humans. Not so for some microscopic bacteria in the ocean: They partner up with clams living in the sand beneath the shimmering waters of coastal habitats throughout the globe. According to research by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen and the University of Vienna now published in PNAS, the...
New research suggests explosive volcanic activity on Venus
Traces of the gas phosphine point to volcanic activity on Venus, according to new research from Cornell University.
Researchers map how sea-level rise adaptation strategies impact economies and floodwaters
Communities trying to fight sea-level rise could inadvertently make flooding worse for their neighbors, according to a new study from the Stanford Natural Capital Project.
A common ancestor for cells involved in hearing and touch
The sensory cells in the inner ear and the touch receptors in the skin actually have a lot in common, according to a new study from the USC Stem Cell laboratory of Neil Segil published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Quantum phase transition discovered in a quasi-2D system consisting purely of spins
Pure quantum systems can undergo phase transitions analogous to the classical phase transition between the liquid and gaseous states of water. At the quantum level, however, the particle spins in states that emerge from phase transitions display collective entangled behavior. This unexpected observation offers a new avenue for the production of materials with topological properties that are useful...
Surface of Jupiter's moon Europa churned by small impacts
Jupiter's moon Europa and its global ocean may currently have conditions suitable for life. Scientists are studying processes on the icy surface as they prepare to explore.
New technique reduces nicotine levels, harmful compounds simultaneously in tobacco
North Carolina State University researchers have developed a new technique that can alter plant metabolism. Tested in tobacco plants, the technique showed that it could reduce harmful chemical compounds, including some that are carcinogenic. The findings could be used to improve the health benefits of crops.
WHO details steps to ensure human gene editing is safe, ethical
The World Health Organization published a slew of recommendations Monday on how to ensure gene editing research is used for the public good and does not get out of hand.
Video: How chemistry makes carbon dioxide removal possible
Over the last couple hundred years, the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere has skyrocketed.
Despite less rain, the torrentiality of Mediterranean watercourses has increased
Ana Camarasa, professor of physical geography at the University of Valencia, has compared the rainfall registered in the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation between 1989 and 2018. By analyzing more than 800 rainfalls and more than 140 floods in four Valencian boulevards (including the ravines of Poyo and Carraixet, at the south and north of València) the expert concludes that in the final part of...
Study highlights media's important role in debunking COVID-19 misinformation
A study by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has found that as the type of COVID-19 misinformation rectified by Singapore's mainstream news media evolved over the course of the pandemic, the role played by the media in debunking those myths became increasingly important to citizens in the nation's fight to manage the outbreak.
Mapping extreme snowmelt and its potential dangers
Snowmelt—the surface runoff from melting snow—is an essential water resource for communities and ecosystems. But extreme snow melt, which occurs when snow melts too rapidly over a short amount of time, can be destructive and deadly, causing floods, landslides and dam failures.
Electric delivery vehicles: When, where, how they're charged has big impact on greenhouse gas production
The transportation sector is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and a lot of attention has been devoted to electric passenger vehicles and their potential to help reduce those emissions.
Improving data-independent acquisition proteomics
Proteomics produces enormous amounts of data, which can be very complex to analyze and interpret. The free software platform MaxQuant has proven to be invaluable for data analysis of shotgun proteomics over the past decade. Now, Jürgen Cox, group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, and his team present the new version 2.0. It provides an improved computational workflow for...
Researchers on quest to understand how different sexes first evolved
For 30 years, University of Tokyo Associate Professor Hisayoshi Nozaki has traveled an hour west of Tokyo to visit the Sagami River and collect algal samples to understand how living things evolved different sexes. Through new analysis of samples collected in 2007 and 2013 from dam lakes along the river, Lake Sagami and Lake Tsukui, researchers identified a species of freshwater algae that evolved...
Human environmental genome recovered in the absence of skeletal remains
Ancient sediments from caves have already been proven to preserve DNA for thousands of years. The amount of recovered sequences from environmental sediments, however, is generally low, which confounds the analyses performed with these sequences. A study led by Ron Pinhasi and Pere Gelabert of the University of Vienna and published in Current Biology successfully retrieved three mammalian...
Sea-level rise may worsen existing Bay Area inequities
Rather than waiting for certainty in sea-level rise projections, policymakers can plan now for future coastal flooding by addressing existing inequities among the most vulnerable communities in flood zones, according to Stanford research.
Training helps teachers anticipate how students with learning disabilities might solve problems
North Carolina State University researchers found that a four-week training course made a substantial difference in helping special education teachers anticipate different ways students with learning disabilities might solve math problems. The findings suggest that the training would help instructors more quickly identify and respond to a student's needs.
How the impact of El Niño on Asian-Western Pacific climate would change under global warming
The impact of El Niño on East Asian climate under a warmer climate will be dominated by the change in El Niño decaying pace, according to a new paper published by a research team based in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.
2021 broke the Florida record for manatee deaths in a year in just 6 months
The death of seagrass caused the death of Florida manatees at a record rate in 2021, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.
Chinese achieve new milestone with 56 qubit computer
A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in China, working at the University of Science and Technology of China, has achieved another milestone in the development of a usable quantum computer. The group has written a paper describing its latest efforts and have uploaded it to the arXiv preprint server.
The ocean is full of tiny plastic particles – we found a way to track them with satellites
Plastic is the most common type of debris floating in the world's oceans. Waves and sunlight break much of it down into smaller particles called microplastics—fragments less than 5 millimeters across, roughly the size of a sesame seed.