128 articles from MONDAY 26.9.2022
What keeps plant roots growing toward gravity? Study identifies four genes
What happens belowground in a corn field is easy to overlook, but corn root architecture can play an important role in water and nutrient acquisition, affecting drought tolerance, water use efficiency, and sustainability. If breeders could encourage corn roots to grow down at a steeper angle, the crop could potentially access important resources deeper in the soil.
New study shows transmission of epigenetic memory across multiple generations
Without altering the genetic code in the DNA, epigenetic modifications can change how genes are expressed, affecting an organism's health and development. The once radical idea that such changes in gene expression can be inherited now has a growing body of evidence behind it, but the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood.
Bank closures across the UK drive people to the Post Office to handle cash
The rise in local banking branches closing across the UK has increased the demand for access to cash deposit services at Post Offices, new research has found.
Discovery of the largest natural carbon onions on Earth
Recently, a study led by Dr. Yilin Chen, Prof. Yong Qin, Dr. Jiuqing Li, Associate Prof. Zhuangfu Li, Tianyu Yang (China University of Mining and Technology) and Dr. Ergang Lian (Tongji University) was published in Science China Earth Sciences. The research team identified natural carbon onions (onion-like fullerenes) in intrusion-affected coal samples collected from Permian coal-bearing strata in...
Review of noble-gas spin amplification via spin-exchange collisions
This study was led by Prof. Xinhua Peng and Prof. Min Jiang who have been devoted to developing spin-based quantum technologies for the detection of weak magnetic fields for many years.
Examining the role of α-ketoglutaric acid (AKG) and its receptor OXGR1 in male sperm maturation
Infertility is a global public health problem caused by genetic defects, lifestyle, nutrition, and factors affecting the local metabolism and microenvironment of the reproductive system. Sperm from the testis must enter the epididymis to undergo a series of structural, biochemical and functional changes before they can gain maturity and become capable of fertilization. The influence of the...
Fermi's ground-breaking figure: How the radial wave function transformed physics
One way to better understand an atom is to shoot a particle at it and infer the atom's properties based on how the particle bounces off it. In the mid-1930s, the physicist Enrico Fermi showed that one measurable number—the scattering length—illuminated everything that could be known about an electron scattering off an atom, or a neutron scattering off a nucleus.
Audio Postcard: Real-time farming
This episode, we’re doing something a little bit different. Join us as we take a trip to a Californian vineyard to learn about how it’s deploying sensors and other forms of AI.
We meet:
Dirk Heuvel, vice president of vineyard operations, McManis Family Vineyards
Credits:
This episode was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Anthony Green and Emma Cillekens. It was...
Impact of sea-level fluctuations on redox-sensitive trace-element enrichment patterns in marine sediments
A recent study, published in Science China Earth Sciences, was led by Dr. Junwen Peng (Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin). Based on thousands of high-resolution elemental composition datasets, Dr. Junwen Peng found that the overall variation ranges of RSTE (especially Mo and U) concentrations largely overlap among sediments deposited from...
Correcting peers is key in small-group learning
Collaborative group work is increasingly prioritized across higher education, particularly in the life sciences and STEM-related fields. But how students communicate within these smaller groups is key to their success.
Measuring the temperature inside cells
Organelles inside cells constantly serve specific functions in the same way that individual departments handle certain tasks in an organization. Cellular processes alter the amount of heat organelles generate, but it is not easy to monitor these changes in cells, which are too small to see with the naked eye. Recently, however, a joint research team from Korea and Japan has found a way to...
Molecular-level design strategy could hold the key to boosting commercial hydrogen production
Our excessive consumption of fossil fuels is responsible for some of the major societal challenges we are facing, from climate change to pollution. Hydrogen is considered a green alternative to fossil fuels, and alkaline water electrolysis is proving an attractive technology for large-scale commercialization of hydrogen production.
Invasive stink bug habitat could expand greatly with climate change
A foul-smelling, voracious, wide-spread pest could become even more ubiquitous with climate change.
Hurricane forces NASA's moon rocket to delay launch and roll back to shelter
Hurricane Ian is prompting NASA to move its moon rocket off the launch pad and into shelter, adding weeks of delay to the lunar-orbiting test...
Can’t get tune out of your head? Try this | Letter
Pianist Susan Tomes passes on advice that she received from a psychotherapist to chase away dreaded earworms Tim Harrison asks for tips on how to get rid of certain music playing on an endless loop in his brain (Letters, 25 September). I once developed a bad case of music-looping after recording an album of jolly 1920s syncopated piano music. The resulting sleeplessness got so bad that I consulted...
Struggling to make friends as an adult? Why you should try looking to older generations
While loneliness can strike at many points throughout our lives, there are times when it is especially acute. Big transitions like leaving university, changing jobs or moving cities can make us feel isolated and socially excluded from the people around us.
Why Nasa is crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid – and how to watch it
The Dart mission’s ‘planetary defense’ experiment hopes to test whether an Armageddon-style impact could be avertedAn unprecedented and long-awaited deep-space venture will take place almost 7m miles from Earth on Monday night when a Nasa spacecraft will be deliberately crashed into an asteroid in an attempt to show humanity can avert an Armageddon-style impact to Earth.Here’s what’s...
Chickensplash! Exploring the health concerns of washing raw chicken
Health experts recommend against washing chicken before cooking it because that can spread harmful bacteria. But if you're among the nearly 70% of people who do, according to a survey of U.S. grocery shoppers, there are ways to make it safer.
Ancient footprints on UK beach record demise of biodiversity hotspot
A team of archaeologists and geographers from The University of Manchester have discovered that hundreds of ancient animal and human footprints found on a beach in Merseyside record a major decline in large animal diversity in Ancient Britain.
Scientists find decreased summer rainfall over Tibetan Plateau after large tropical volcanic eruptions
Tropical volcanic eruptions inject sulfur gases high into the atmosphere, which then convert to sulfate aerosols, spread globally and block the incoming sunlight like a parasol. This can exert significant impacts on the global hydroclimate.
Layering, not liquid: Astronomers explain Mars' watery reflections
There is water in many places on Mars, including most of both polar ice caps—all in the frozen form.
Nasa to crash spacecraft into asteroid in planetary defense test
Experiment aims to determine if intentionally crashing spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its courseA multimillion-dollar spacecraft will collide head-on with an asteroid the size of a football stadium in an unprecedented full-scale planetary defense test by the US space agency Nasa on Monday evening.The 570kg (1257lb) spacecraft named Dart – short for Double Asteroid...