175 articles from TUESDAY 25.10.2022

This obscure shopping app is now America’s most downloaded

China Report is MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about what’s happening in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. Welcome back to China Report.  Take a deep breath. The Chinese Communist Party Congress news cycle is (basically) over.  There are many significant things from the high-level political assembly to talk about, mostly around understanding…

Cosmic rays drive galaxy's winds

VLA observations revealed that cosmic rays can play an important role in driving winds that rob galaxies of the gas needed to form new stars. This mechanism may be an important factor in galactic evolution, particularly at earlier times in the history of the universe.

Tracking raindrops, one molecule at a time

New research refines our understanding of the chemical traces that act as the rain's fingerprint. The work is crucial for understanding the Earth's water cycle, especially as it undergoes rapid change due to global warming, deforestation and other environmental catastrophes.

Methane 'super-emitters' mapped by NASA's new Earth space mission

NASA's Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) mission is mapping the prevalence of key minerals in the planet's dust-producing deserts—information that will advance our understanding of airborne dust's effects on climate. But EMIT has demonstrated another crucial capability: detecting the presence of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Tracking the deuterium in raindrops, one molecule at a time

New research led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst refines our understanding of the chemical traces that act as the rain's fingerprint. The work, which appeared recently in Global Biogeochemical Cycles, is crucial for understanding Earth's water cycle, especially as it undergoes rapid change due to global warming, deforestation and other environmental catastrophes.

Emperor penguins granted protections under Endangered Species Act

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced that emperor penguins have been listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) based on evidence that the animal's sea ice habitat is shrinking and is likely to continue to do so over the next several decades. This listing comes more than one year after a USFWS proposal to list the species, and confirms that the...

Their mission: Warning future humanity about buried nuclear waste

A landmark with black spikes? A genetically modified blue forest? Or a document in an archive that somebody stumbles across? How can we warn humanity and other living organisms in 100,000 years of dangerous nuclear waste? These are questions that research colleagues Anna Storm and Thomas Keating at Linköping University are going to try and answer in their unique mission of writing warning texts...

Major push to save Australia's koalas

Koalas—designated an endangered species in NSW, ACT and Queensland—are abundant in some parts of South Australia and Victoria, with Flinders University researchers now assessing whether their success in southern Australia can help save the species.

Scientists pinpoint druggable target in aggressive breast cancer

Researchers have set their sights on a new therapeutic target for an aggressive form of breast cancer with limited treatment options. Through a comprehensive and cutting-edge genomic screening method known as CRISPR/CAS9 screening, scientists were able to identify a specific enzyme called UBA1 that revealed itself as an ideal therapeutic target. Using a novel UBA-inhibiting drug called TAK-243,...

Climate change is closing daily temperature gap, clouds could be the cause

New research has found that the difference between the daily high temperature and the daily low temperature -- known as the diurnal temperature range -- will continue to shrink in parts of the world as climate changes because of a projected increase in daytime cloud cover. The diurnal temperature range has a significant effect on growing seasons, crop yields, residential energy consumption and...

Climate change is closing daily temperature gap: Clouds could be the cause

Climate change is shrinking the difference between the daily high temperature and the daily low in many parts of the world. The gap between the two, known as the diurnal temperature range (DTR), has a significant effect on growing seasons, crop yields, residential energy consumption and human health issues related to heat stress. But why and where the DTR shrinks with climate change has been...

Case study discovers ecological impact of water-soluble polymers

Water-soluble synthetic polymers (WSSPs) are found in many everyday products. What the consequences are when these plastics enter rivers, lakes and oceans is still largely unexplored. A team from the University of Bayreuth has now systematically investigated the effects on water fleas of the species Daphnia magna for the first time.