126 articles from TUESDAY 18.10.2022

Odd cave bacterium forms a multicellular ‘body,’ like plants and animals

A newly described bacterium is shaking up what it means to be a complex organism. The bizarre microbe, found by Japanese ecologists seeking biodegradable plastics, starts out as a single cell. But instead of remaining a single cell like most microbes, it then develops an organized body comprised of hundreds of cells. When the time is right, the cellular conglomeration shoots out a new...

Was a study that created a hybrid COVID-19 virus too risky?

This week, Twitter exploded with outrage about a study that seemed to have created a Frankenstein COVID-19 virus: a version of SARS-CoV-2 that combines Omicron, the fast-spreading but relatively mild variant that’s now everywhere, and a deadlier strain from early in the pandemic. The labmade virus killed 80% of mice infected with it, compared with no deaths with the unmodified Omicron...

Bright colors in the animal kingdom: Why some use them to impress and others to intimidate

High up in a tree sits a bright red vermilion flycatcher. The males of this songbird species use their red feathers to attract females. Meanwhile, an Arizona mountain kingsnake slithers among the rocks below. Its vivid red, yellow and black coloring mimics that of the venomous coral snake to keep predators away. But why did these two species evolve similar colors to send completely different...

Hopes for rebuilding giant Arecibo telescope appear dead

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, for decades the home of the world’s largest radio telescope, will be an astronomical observatory no more. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) last week said it intends to transform the facility, which suffered fatal damage to its massive dish in 2020, into a center for education and outreach in science, technology, engineering, and math...

Light rail stations could form the basis of a polycentric Montreal with the right planning, according to new research

As municipal planning and design shifts away from the sprawling, car-centric model that dominated much of the 20th century, developers and local governments can disagree over how to grow cities sustainably. Transit-oriented development (TOD), which prioritizes population density, walkability, land-use diversity and parking around transit nodes, is a long-standing field. However, much of the...

Ancient ocean methane is not an immediate climate change threat

Deep below the ocean's surface, the seafloor contains large quantities of naturally occurring, ice-like deposits made up of water and concentrated methane gas. For decades, climate scientists have wondered if this methane hydrate reservoir might "melt" and release massive amounts of methane to the ocean and the atmosphere as ocean temperatures warm.

Report: Hurricane Ian farm loss could reach $1.56B

Agriculture losses in Florida from Hurricane Ian's high winds and drenching rains could reach $1.56 billion, with citrus, cattle, vegetable and melon operations among the hardest hit, the University of Florida reported Tuesday in a preliminary estimate.

Collaborative team discovers new natural products, to be used as sources of antibiotics, at unprecedented speed

Many of the drugs we utilize in modern medicine are naturally produced by microbes. Penicillin, an antibiotic derived from certain molds, is one of the most notable natural products due to its recognition as one of the biggest advances in medicine and human health. As DNA sequencing has become cheaper and faster, scientists now have access to hundreds of thousands of microbial genomes and the...

NASA Study Finds Evidence That Fuel Regulation Reduced Air Pollution from Shipping

Portal origin URL: NASA Study Finds Evidence That Fuel Regulation Reduced Air Pollution from ShippingPortal origin nid: 483408Published: Tuesday, October 18, 2022 - 15:18Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: A global standard limiting sulfur in ship fuel reduced artificial “ship track” clouds to record-low levels in 2020. Pandemic-related disruptions...

Scientists have grown custom-shaped nanoparticles

Physicists at Ural Federal University (UrFU) and their colleagues from the Institute of Electrophysics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Ion Plasma and Laser Technologies, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan have developed a technology for the growth of nonspherical nanoparticles that are synthesized in the process of ion implantation.

Black Canada lynx photographed for the first time

A black-coated Canada lynx was photographed for the first time by a researcher at the University of Alberta, Canada. Thomas Jung, also employed by the Government of Yukon, recorded the animal in a 30 second video on a cell phone.

Bacterial quorum quenched by bacterial enzyme

Bacteria produce slimy biofilms to coat and protect themselves and make them less susceptible to antimicrobial drugs and chemical cleaning products. The biofilms have implications for health and various industries, as they can cause fouling, corrosion and bacterial contamination.

Climate change could quiet prairie birds’ chirping

A bird sings on the prairie and nobody can hear it. Forget whether it makes a sound—biologists want to know why it went unheard. Drier conditions intensified by climate change might be responsible, a new study finds, because birdsong doesn’t travel as far in dry air. That could have harmful consequences for birds trying to defend their territories or find a mate. The study is...

How scientists predict solar wind speed accurately using multimodality information

As more and more high-tech systems are exposed to the space environment, space weather prediction can provide better protection for these devices. In the solar system, space weather is mainly influenced by solar wind conditions. The solar wind is a stream of supersonic plasma-charged particles which will cause geomagnetic storms, affect short-wave communications, and threaten the safety of...

Scientists compile Cassini's unique observations of Saturn's rings

Southwest Research Institute scientists have compiled 41 solar occultation observations of Saturn's rings from the Cassini mission. The compilation, published recently in the journal Icarus, will inform future investigations of the particle size distribution and composition of Saturn's rings, key elements to understanding their formation and evolution.

NEOWISE: Revealing Changes in the Universe

New time-lapse movies from NASA’s NEOWISE mission give astronomers the opportunity to see objects, like stars and black holes, as they move and change over time. The videos include previously hidden brown dwarfs, a feeding black hole, a dying star, a star-forming region, and a brightening star. They combine more than 10 years of NEOWISE observations and 18 all-sky images, enabling a...

Native predatory fish help control invasive species in Hawaiian fishpond

Jacks and barracuda in Heʻeia fishpond were found to feed on Australian mullet, an invasive species introduced to Oahu waters in the 1950s. This finding, published in Aquaculture, Fish, and Fisheries by researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), and Paepae O Heʻeia suggests that these native predatory fish may provide a form of...

The travails of an alewife: Dams, drought, and climate change

River herring once swam up Connecticut's streams to reproduce by the billion, and then reverse their journey back to sea. In recent years, though, their migration has become increasingly perilous, and their numbers have plummeted. Obstructions like dams have been added to many of the streams and rivers and the population has been drastically overfished.

How the inequality crisis is linked to the sociogenesis of climate change

Research published in Water International develops an approach to the emergence of multiple economies of water in India's capital Delhi, using a neo-Polanyian approach of instituted economic process. Prof Mark Harvey argues that water is an "uncooperative public good" and analyzes the systems of provision, distribution, appropriation and consumption of water, and the formation of scales of these...

Nanoporous intermetallic compounds that boost hydrogen production

Hydrogen, a clean fuel, is incredibly dense in energy -- three times more than diesel or gasoline. Its ability to power a sustainable future has been hindered by a lack of high performing catalysts. Now, a collaborative research group has developed nanoporous molybdenum-based intermetallic compounds that could address this conundrum.