158 articles from MONDAY 1.8.2022

New algorithm helps identify antibody genes

In a study published in the journal Genome Research, investigators in UC San Diego's Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Johns Hopkins University have illuminated the immunoglobulin (antibody) genes in 20 mammalian species, gaining new insights into their targets and evolutionary origins.

Modeling reveals how dwarf planet Ceres powers unexpected geologic activity

For a long time, our view of Ceres was fuzzy, said Scott King, a geoscientist in the Virginia Tech College of Science. A dwarf planet and the largest body found in the asteroid belt—the region between Jupiter and Mars speckled with hundreds of thousands of asteroids—Ceres had no distinguishable surface features in existing telescopic observations from Earth.

Stellar flybys leave a permanent mark on newly forming planetary systems

What do UX Tauri, RW Aurigae, AS 205, Z CMajoris, and FU Orionis have in common? They're young stellar systems with disks where planets could form. It appears those disks were disturbed by stellar flybys or other close encounters in the recent past. Astronomers want to know: did those events disrupt planet formation in the disks? What do they do? Does this happen in other systems? And, did our own...

When stars eat their planets, the carnage can be seen billions of years later

The vast majority of stars have planets. We know that from observations of exoplanetary systems. We also know some stars don't have planets, and perhaps they never had planets. This raises an interesting question. Suppose we see an old star that has no planets. How do we know if ever did? Maybe the star lost its planets during a close approach by another star, or maybe the planets spiraled inward...

Planet 9 is running out of places to hide

We have a pretty good idea of what lurks within our solar system. We know there isn't a Mars-sized planet orbiting between Jupiter and Saturn, nor a brown dwarf nemesis heading our way. Anything large and fairly close to the sun would be easily spotted. But we can't rule out a smaller, more distant world, such as the hypothetical Planet 9 (or Planet 10 if you want to throw down over Pluto). The...

Robots help farmers say goodbye to repetitive tasks

We do not often think about the labor that goes into bringing our favorite fruits and vegetables to our table. For farmers, growing healthy crops involves repetitive tasks such as weeding and spraying while the crop is growing. These tasks are not only repetitive, they are also costly and time-consuming. Robotic technologies can solve these problems by relieving farmers from work that is mundane,...

UK farmers count cost as heatwave kills fruit and vegetable crops

Fears of future threats to food security if more extreme heat caused by climate crisis hits productionThe UK heatwave has caused fruit and vegetables to die on the vine as growers fear the drought and further hot temperatures could ruin harvests this year.Fruit and vegetable suppliers have been counting their losses after record temperatures in July caused crops to fail. Continue...

‘Reality is scary’: climate culture war heats up for UK meteorologists

TV forecasters have been targeted by climate deniers during recent extreme temperaturesDiscussing the weather has long been a harmless British pastime, with forecasters relied on to ruin bank holidays with their predictions of drizzle or give good news of some gentle summer sunshine.But now TV meteorologists have found themselves on the frontline of the climate culture war after extreme...

New study finds global forest area per capita has decreased by over 60%

Over the past 60 years, the global forest area has declined by 81.7 million hectares, a loss that contributed to the more than 60% decline in global forest area per capita. This loss threatens the future of biodiversity and impacts the lives of 1.6 billion people worldwide, according to a new study published today by IOP Publishing in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

As species recover, some threaten others in more dire shape

Concealed behind trees near Lake Michigan, two scientists remotely manipulated a robotic owl on the forest floor. As the intruder flapped its wings and hooted, a merlin guarding its nest in a nearby pine darted overhead, sounding high-pitched, rapid-fire distress calls.