199 articles from THURSDAY 4.11.2021

Coal product used to create green clean water

Compressed blocks of pulverized coal can be used as the basis of sunlight-powered off-grid water purification. The technology is already being progressed by commercial partners toward pilot-scale production of drinking water.

Young men are disadvantaged when applying to female dominated jobs

It's not always women who lose out when looking for a job. Men experience disadvantages in hiring processes for female dominated occupations in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. The reverse is not the case for women who apply for typical 'male' jobs. No gender discrimination was found in Norway or the United States. These are the findings of a study by the WZB Berlin Social...

Tropospheric temperature affects tropical cyclone peak intensities in distinct ways

As natural weather disasters, tropical cyclones possess enormous destructiveness related to their intensity (maximum speed of tangential winds in the lower troposphere within 50 km of the tropical cyclone center). The long-term variability of tropical cyclone intensity is related to climate change, and it has been found that there has been a considerable increase in the number and proportion of...

The 10 most important new insights on the climate

As compounding impacts from our worsening climate crisis become more visible around the globe, leading scientists have released the 10 most important new insights on the climate. "The 10 New Insights in Climate Science" series is a horizon scan of the most pressing research findings and emerging scientific insights to help inform immediate and equitable transformations across sectors to preserve a...

Gene common in south Asian people doubles risk of Covid death, study finds

Finding could partly explain excess deaths seen in some communities in the UK and in south AsiaScientists have identified a gene that doubles the risks of respiratory failure and death from Covid and could explain why people of south Asian heritage are more vulnerable to the disease.The gene, which changes the way the lungs respond to infection, is the most important genetic risk factor identified...

Study finds fish rubbing up against their predators—sharks

While rubbing up against a shark sounds like a risky move if you're a fish, a collaborative research team led by the University of Miami (UM) Shark Research and Conservation Program at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science found that this behavior is frequent, widespread, and could play a previously unappreciated important ecological role for aquatic animals.

We Can Beat Climate Change If We Do One Thing Fast

Now, finally, much of the world has become convinced, first-hand, that global warming is not only real but heating up more rapidly than we expected, unleashing irreversible impacts. Many people feel despair and helplessness in the face of doomsday predictions already in evidence. And yet, I’m optimistic that we can solve this problem in time to keep our planet livable for future...

Astronomers make most distant detection yet of fluorine in star-forming galaxy

A new discovery is shedding light on how fluorine—an element found in bones and teeth as fluoride—is forged in the universe. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, a team of astronomers have detected this element in a galaxy that is so far away its light has taken over 12 billion years to reach us. This is...

To Find Life on Other Planets, NASA Rocket Team Looks to the Stars

Portal origin URL: To Find Life on Other Planets, NASA Rocket Team Looks to the StarsPortal origin nid: 475151Published: Thursday, November 4, 2021 - 12:00Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: A NASA sounding rocket will look to starlight to better detect signs of life on other planets.Portal image: illustration of exoplanet in front of a...

When is a basin of attraction like an octopus?

In dynamical systems research, a 'basin of attraction' is the set of all the starting points -- usually close to one another -- that arrive at the same final state as the system evolves through time. The researchers describe a simple argument showing why basins in systems with multiple attractors should look like high-dimensional octopi.

Revealing the ramifications of ocean acidification for coralline algae

Researchers have revealed that most coralline algae experience negative effects from ocean acidification. Analysis of previous studies showed that changes in ocean chemistry can lead to declines in calcification rates, abundance, growth, and recruitment of coralline algae, but some species showed greater resilience than others. Ocean acidification was revealed as an important driver of change and...