151 articles from MONDAY 3.10.2022

La Niña winters could keep on coming

Forecasters are predicting a 'three-peat La Niña' this year. A recent study of ocean temperature patterns suggests that climate change could, in the short term, be favoring La Niñas. A La Niña winter tends to be cooler and wetter in the Pacific Northwest and hotter and drier in the U.S. Southwest. Other worldwide effects include drier conditions in East Africa, and rainier weather in Australia,...

Scientists discover dual-function messenger RNA

For the very first time, a study led by Julian Chen and his group in Arizona State University's School of Molecular Sciences and the Biodesign Institute's Center for the Mechanism of Evolution, has discovered an unprecedented pathway producing telomerase RNA from a protein-coding messenger RNA (mRNA).

Small eddies play a big role in feeding ocean microbes

Subtropical gyres are enormous rotating ocean currents that generate sustained circulations in the Earth's subtropical regions just to the north and south of the equator. These gyres are slow-moving whirlpools that circulate within massive basins around the world, gathering up nutrients, organisms, and sometimes trash, as the currents rotate from coast to coast.

Mercenaries may have helped ancient Greeks turn the tide of war

Nearly 2500 years ago, two armies clashed outside the walls of Himera, a Greek colony on the northern coast of Sicily. Greek forces from Himera and the neighboring colonies of Agrigento and Syracuse battled their great rivals, the Carthaginians, who hailed from the African coast of the Mediterranean. Fighting raged across the city’s western necropolis, fallen warriors toppling among the...

Researchers fabricate tiny multi-component beam shaper directly onto optical fiber

Researchers have shown that 3D laser printing can be used to fabricate a high-quality, complex polymer optical device directly on the end of an optical fiber. This type of micro-optical device—which has details smaller than the diameter of a human hair—could provide an extremely compact and inexpensive way to tailor light beams for a variety of applications.

Upcycling in the past: Viking beadmakers' secrets revealed

Ribe was an important trading town in the Viking Age. At the beginning of the 8th century, a trading place was established on the north side of the river Ribe, to which traders and craftsmen flocked from far and wide to manufacture and sell goods such as brooches, suit buckles, combs and colored glass beads.