189 articles from TUESDAY 14.6.2022

How plants' threat-detection mechanisms raise the alarm

New work led by Carnegie's Zhiyong Wang untangles a complex cellular signaling process that underpins plants' ability to balance expending energy on growth and defending themselves from pathogens. These findings, published in Nature Plants, show how plants use complex cellular circuits to process information and respond to threats and environmental conditions.

NASA Telescope to Help Untangle Galaxy Growth, Dark Matter Makeup

Portal origin URL: NASA Telescope to Help Untangle Galaxy Growth, Dark Matter MakeupPortal origin nid: 480562Published: Tuesday, June 14, 2022 - 09:00Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will study wispy streams of stars that extend far beyond the edges of many galaxies. Astronomers will use these observations to...

Study shows program improves teaching skills, students' word problem–solving

Students learning to solve math word problems can struggle to combine mathematical and language skills. For English language learners, the fastest-growing minority in U.S. schools, that challenge can be even greater as they attempt to learn math concepts in a second language. Published in the Journal of Learning Disabilities, a new study from the University of Kansas has found that a professional...

Climate-associated genetic switches found in plants

Genetic variants that can act as switches directing structural changes in the RNA molecules that code for proteins in plants have been experimentally validated in plants for the first time. The changes to RNA structure can affect the molecule's stability, how it interacts with other molecules, and how efficiently it can be translated into protein—all of which can impact its function and the...

Atmospheric samples covering pollution particles analyzed using neutrons for the first time

A new approach to studying the behavior of surface films covering particles taken directly from the atmosphere has been developed by scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the University of Birmingham, along with colleagues at Uppsala University, British Antarctic Survey and the Science and Technology Facilities Council's Central Laser Facility and ISIS Neutron and Muon Source,...

Evidence of fire use at ancient campsite in Israel

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in Israel and one in Canada has found evidence of fire use by early hominins (during the Lower Paleolithic) at an ancient camp site in Israel. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes using an AI application to test for flint tool exposure to temperatures associated with fire.

Food giants reap enormous profits during times of crisis

A recent report by Oxfam International has found that 62 new "food billionaires" were created during the pandemic. The report, released ahead of this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, highlights the record profits made by industry titans.

Alignment of quantized levels in valleytronic materials

National University of Singapore researchers have predicted that Landau levels belonging to different valleys in a two-dimensional (2D) valleytronic material, monolayer tungsten diselenide (WSe2), can be aligned at a critical magnetic field.

These scientists want to capture more carbon with CRISPR crops

Plants are the original carbon capture factories—and a new research program aims to make them better ones by using gene editing. The Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), a research group in Berkeley, California, founded by CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna, has announced a new program to use the revolutionary gene-editing tool on plants to boost their aptitude for carbon storage. The initial...

New, highly tunable composite materials—with a twist

Watch for the patterns created as the circles move across each other. Those patterns, created by two sets of lines offset from each other, are called moiré (pronounced mwar-AY) effects. As optical illusions, moiré patterns create neat simulations of movement. But at the atomic scale, when one sheet of atoms arranged in a lattice is slightly offset from another sheet, these moiré patterns can...

Why sounds and smells are as vital to cities as the sights

When David Howes thinks of his home city of Montreal, he thinks of the harmonious tones of carillon bells and the smell of bagels being cooked over wood fires. But when he stopped in at his local tourism office to ask where they recommend that visitors go to smell, taste, and listen to the city, he just received blank stares. “They only know about things to see, not about the city’s other...

Installation of deep-water pipeline gives immediate boost to sea-floor animals

An underwater survey west of Africa, off the Angolan coast, found that both the abundance and types of animals on the deep-sea floor increased significantly in response to the installation of a pipeline. Published in Frontiers in Marine Science, the study also revealed a large increase in the amount of litter on the seafloor, which was trapped against the pipeline.