178 articles from WEDNESDAY 3.11.2021

Quillwort genome highlights divergences in aquatic CAM photosynthesis

The humble quillworts are an ancient group of about 250 small, aquatic plants that have largely been ignored by modern botanists. A group of researchers, led by Boyce Thompson Institute's Fay-Wei Li, have sequenced the first quillwort genome and uncovered some secrets of the plant's unique method of photosynthesis—secrets that could eventually lead to the engineering of crops with more efficient...

Hackers are stealing data today so quantum computers can crack it in a decade

While they wrestle with the immediate danger posed by hackers today, US government officials are preparing for another, longer-term threat: attackers who are collecting sensitive, encrypted data now in the hope that they’ll be able to unlock it at some point in the future.  The threat comes from quantum computers, which work very differently from the classical computers we use today....

University of Sydney’s Edward Holmes wins PM’s science prize for work on coronavirus genome

Holmes honoured for ‘transformative role’ in Covid response, while Prof Anthony Weiss takes innovation prize for work on biomaterials to assist wound healing Prof Edward Holmes of the University of Sydney has won the prime minister’s prize for science, for his “transformative role in the scientific response to Covid-19”.Holmes, an expert on the evolution of viral diseases, publicly...

Ecosystems worldwide are disrupted by lack of large wild herbivores—except in Africa

Biological research has repeatedly demonstrated that the relationship between the producer and the consumer is governed by a scaling law. An international research team has now looked into whether this law of nature can be reproduced in the relationship between the production of plants in an area and the number of large herbivores that graze on them. The study reveals that Africa is the only...

What deadline length is best for avoiding procrastination and completing tasks?

Deadlines often help motivate people to perform tasks that they've been procrastinating over, but different deadline lengths may have different effects. For example, while increasing the deadline length gives a person more time to complete a task, it also means that the task could be postponed until later and possibly forgotten. A recent study in Economic Inquiry found that people often respond...

Terrawatch: Earth’s ‘boring’ plate tectonics period

Curious report suggests calm thousand millennia of ‘Boring Billion’ was more lively than thoughtToday our planet is a lively place: the climate swings from greenhouse to icehouse and back again, while earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain ranges and ocean trenches are all signs of its restless surface. But if you go back far enough, you reach a period where Earth was a very dull place. Nicknamed...

Cop26: have we just saved our forests? – podcast

The Science Weekly podcast is in Glasgow where we will be bringing listeners daily episodes from Cop26. Each morning you will hear from one of the Guardian’s award-winning environment team. Today, host Madeleine Finlay, talks to Jon Watts about a significant announcement made by global leaders on forest and land use, and we hear from an indigenous leader in Guyana about why it might not be...

Lung capacity tests found to be accurate precursor of co-morbidities

One of the largest studies to investigate whether Preserved Ratio Impaired Spirometry (PRISm), an understudied low lung function state, is an early predictor of co-morbidities has found it is strongly associated with an increased risk of death. The analysis evaluated results of lung spirometry tests in over 350,000 UK adults and followed them up over 12 years.

Prostate cancer urine test identifies good prognosis patients

Researchers have shown that a prostate cancer urine test can identify men at 'intermediate risk' who can safely avoid immediate treatment and benefit from 'active surveillance' instead. Previously, the team's Prostate Urine Risk (PUR) test could identify men with high and low risk cancers. But thanks to some fine-tuning, it can now help men with intermediate-risk disease - for whom treatment...