3,290 articles from FEBRUARY 2022

The UN’s climate report highlights the dangers of natural solutions

A variety of researchers have highlighted the potential to leverage nature to combat climate change, by planting trees or growing crops to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. But a bleak new report from the UN’s climate panel stresses that relying heavily on these approaches could present real risks as well. The nearly 4,000-page analysis, released on Monday, warns that more than 3...

New optical tweezers put on the pressure to change color

Scientists demonstrate an optical trapping technique using nanotextured black silicon that can efficiently trap polymer chains. By adjusting the laser intensity, these 'optical tweezers' can control the florescence color emitted through a local concentration of a perylene-modified polymer solution. From a low intensity blue to high intensity orange, this reversible and fully remote technology can...

Researchers establish first-of-its-kind framework to diagnose 3D-printing errors

Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, can create custom parts for electromagnetic devices on-demand and at a low cost. These devices are highly sensitive, and each component requires precise fabrication. Until recently, though, the only way to diagnose printing errors was to make, measure and test a device or to use in-line simulation, both of which are computationally expensive and inefficient....

Bullying in school may hamper skill development, healthy adulthood

Kids who experience bullying are victims of injury or discomfort from peer teasing, harassment, and physical abuse. While some costs of bullying—school absenteeism, suicidal thoughts and actions—have been documented, little research has been done on the two-way relationship between bullying and skill accumulation in children.

Scaling laws in enzymes may help predict life 'as we don't know it'

The only references we have for "life" are the forms we know on Earth. Astrobiologists suspect that the search for alien life, and even for the origins of life on Earth, may require a broader scope. A NASA-funded team of researchers is developing tools to predict the features of life as we don't know it. In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team...

Scientists discover a new molecular pathway shared by two neurodegenerative disorders

Researchers from two independent research teams have discovered how the mislocalization of a protein, known as TDP-43, alters the genetic instructions for UNC13A, providing a possible therapeutic target that could also have implications in treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and other forms of dementia. ALS and FTD are two neurodegenerative disorders in...

Why Russia (Probably) Won’t Crash the Space Station

Ukraine is not the only theater of conflict in the current war between Russia and the former Soviet republic. The 30 nations of NATO are coordinating sanctions, sending supplies, and moving troops and weaponry into position to defend the alliance from a wider war. All 193 member countries of the United Nations are involved too, as the U.N. scheduled an emergency meeting of the General...

Under pressure: A new theory lets us predict when soft materials will fail

Researchers recently announced a major theoretical and experimental breakthrough that allows scientists to predict, with an unprecedented precision, when a soft material will crack and fail. The findings have immediate implications for the engineering and manufacture of a wide range of polymers. They also provide insights into how natural soft materials -- such as the connective tissues in our...

Chemical link between wildfire smoke and ozone depletion

Atmospheric chemists have found that the smoke from Australia's 'Black Summer' wildfires set off chemical reactions in the stratosphere that contributed to the destruction of ozone. The study is the first to establish a chemical link between wildfire smoke and ozone depletion.

Under pressure: A new theory helps predict when soft materials will fail

Researchers led by a team from the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced a major theoretical and experimental breakthrough that allows scientists to predict, with an unprecedented precision, when a soft material will crack and fail. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have immediate implications for the engineering and manufacture of a...

Physicists report on 'quantum boomerang' effect in disordered systems

Physicists at UC Santa Barbara have become the first to experimentally observe a quirky behavior of the quantum world: a "quantum boomerang" effect that occurs when particles in a disordered system are kicked out of their locations. Instead of landing elsewhere as one might expect, they turn around and come back to where they started and stop there.

Study reveals chemical link between wildfire smoke and ozone depletion

The Australian wildfires in 2019 and 2020 were historic for how far and fast they spread, and for how long and powerfully they burned. All told, the devastating "Black Summer" fires blazed across more than 43 million acres of land, and extinguished or displaced nearly 3 billion animals. The fires also injected over 1 million tons of smoke particles into the atmosphere, reaching up to 35 kilometers...

Indian Ocean warming could weaken summer monsoon rainfall in South Asia

The South Asian monsoon, also known as Indian summer monsoon (ISM), is crucial for the food security and socioeconomic well-being of 40% of the world's population. From a historical perspective, fluctuations in monsoon rainfall have been linked to the rise and fall of civilizations in the Indian subcontinent. Now researchers are increasingly concerned that global warming may threaten the stability...

Researchers map wildlife and infrastructure to maximize tourism in Costa Rica

With lush green jungles brimming with wildlife, Costa Rica has become a global tourism hotspot—and government leaders would like to keep it that way. They worked with researchers from the Stanford Natural Capital Project to understand how nature supports the country's most visited and valuable tourist destinations. The team found that tourists flock to areas where roads and hotels make it easy...

Climate change: A threat to human wellbeing and health of the planet

Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks. People and ecosystems least able to cope are being hardest hit, said scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

Big data arrives on the farm

A new analysis by Glenn Stone, professor of anthropology and of environmental studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, examines how digital technologies are beginning to make inroads into agriculture in lower-income countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.