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111 articles from PhysOrg
What ancient underwater food webs can tell us about the future of climate change
What a tangled web we weave. When it comes to the impact of the climate crisis on marine food webs, we apparently have not known the half of it. That's according to a new University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) study, which compared ancient and modern ocean ecosystems in a bid to understand how to make them healthier and more resilient.
Study finds that big rains eventually bring big algae blooms
In the lake-rich regions of the world, algae blooms are a growing problem. Not only are the floating green scums a nuisance for anyone hoping to enjoy the water, they can turn toxic and threaten public health.
Study: Canada geese beat humans in longstanding territory battle
Canada geese collide with aircraft, intimidate unassuming joggers, and leave lawns and sidewalks spattered with prodigious piles of poop. They're widely considered nuisance birds, and municipalities invest considerable time and money harassing geese to relocate the feisty flocks. But new University of Illinois research shows standard goose harassment efforts aren't effective, especially in winter...
NASA's Lunar Flashlight SmallSat readies for launch
When NASA's Lunar Flashlight launches no earlier than Nov. 30, the tiny satellite will begin a three-month journey, with mission navigators guiding the spacecraft far past the moon. It will then be slowly pulled back by gravity from Earth and the sun before settling into a wide science-gathering orbit to hunt for surface water ice inside dark regions on the moon that haven't seen sunlight in...
Image: Hubble glimpses a glittering gathering of stars
This glittering gathering of stars is Pismis 26, a globular star cluster located about 23,000 light-years away. Many thousands of stars gleam brightly against the black backdrop of the image, with some brighter red and blue stars located along the outskirts of the cluster. The Armenian astronomer Paris Pismis first discovered the cluster in 1959 at the Tonantzintla Observatory in Mexico, granting...
Study reveals genomic potential of active soil microbial populations under simulated winter conditions
Scientists estimate that northern peatlands contain one third of the Earth's soil carbon. This makes them important ecosystems for carbon storage, which keeps carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and controls climate change. In northern peatlands, carbon losses from soil during the winter can exceed carbon storage during the warm growing season. This is primarily because of the activity of...
A waste windfall: New process shows promise turning plastic trash into pharmaceuticals
Catalina Island, located 22 miles off the coast of Los Angeles, once collected Hollywood royalty, smugglers and silver miners. Now, it collects trash. Its windward-facing harbor is a collection point of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an enormous spread of microplastics with accumulated larger debris that stretches more 1.6 million square kilometers. It is stark evidence of the impact of...
Hawaii's Mauna Loa erupts, officials warn people to prepare
Waves of orange, glowing lava and smoky ash erupted Monday from the world's largest active volcano and people living on Hawaii's Big Island were warned to be ready should debris threaten communities.
Math approach may make drug discovery more effective, efficient
Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. have devised a computer-based platform for drug discovery that could make the process more effective, more efficient and less costly.
Greta Thunberg sues her native Sweden for failing to take action on climate
A group of children and young adults including Greta Thunberg have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Swedish state for failing to take adequate measures to stop climate change.
Researchers develop programmable optical device for high-speed beam steering
In a scene from "Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope," R2D2 projects a three-dimensional hologram of Princess Leia making a desperate plea for help. That scene, filmed more than 45 years ago, involved a bit of movie magic—even today, we don't have the technology to create such realistic and dynamic holograms.
SpaceX gives Space Coast 52nd launch of the year
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched Saturday from Kennedy Space Center on the 52nd successful flight of the year from the Space Coast.
The task of magnetic classification suddenly looks easier, thanks to machine learning
Knowing the magnetic structure of crystalline materials is critical to many applications, including data storage, high-resolution imaging, spintronics, superconductivity, and quantum computing. Information of this sort, however, is difficult to come by. Although magnetic structures can be obtained from neutron diffraction and scattering studies, the number of machines that can support these...
Researchers reveal how extinct Steller's sea cow shaped kelp forests
For millions of years, the Steller's sea cow, a four-ton marine mammal and relative of the manatee, shaped kelp forests along the Pacific coast of North America by eating massive quantities of kelp fronds from the upper canopies, thus allowing light to spur productivity in the understory.
New analysis finds pandemic didn't dampen deforestation
Despite the massive upheavals in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, deforestation globally proceeded more or less as expected from the trends established over the last 15 years, according to a recent study from researchers at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.
Brexit changes caused 22.9% slump in UK-EU exports into Q1 2022 according to new research
Research by the Centre for Business Prosperity at Aston University has shown that UK exports to the EU fell by an average of 22.9% in the first 15 months after the introduction of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, highlighting the continuing challenges that UK firms are facing.
Calcifying organisms are under threat from a combination of ocean warming and acidification
A new study led by the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC), with colleagues from the British Antarctic Survey, the Institute of Oceanology, the Polish Academy of Sciences and the University of Gdańsk, has revealed that global warming and ocean acidification threaten marine organisms that build their skeletons and shells with calcium carbonate (chalk) such as corals, bryozoans, mollusks, sea...
New study is the first to examine what happens when cyclones and fires collide
As strong winds and torrential rains inundate Australia's south-eastern coast, new research suggests that high intensity bushfires might not be too far behind, with their dual effects extending damage zones and encroaching on previously low-risk residential areas.
Social media can be a lifesaver for new international ventures
The use of social media can be beneficial to international new ventures and help them to survive. A new study from the University of Vaasa, Finland, shows that newly established international firms and start-ups with limited resources can effectively use social media to learn about their new foreign markets and customers in a fast and inexpensive way.
One of Europe's most ancient domestic dogs lived in the Basque Country
A humerus analyzed by the UPV/EHU's Human Evolutionary Biology group belonged to a specimen that lived in the Paleolithic period, 17,000 years ago
New research unearths obscure and contradictory heat transfer behaviors
UCLA researchers and their colleagues have discovered a new physics principle governing how heat transfers through materials, and the finding contradicts the conventional wisdom that heat always moves faster as pressure increases.
What may be the largest source of abiotic methane gas on Earth
Methane (CH4), the chief constituent of natural gas, is one of the most widely used "clean" fuels. Although methane is usually considered to originate from organic matter, recently, more and more evidence shows that methane can be produced by abiotic processes.
Talks kick off on global plastic trash treaty
Despite decades of effort, plastic pollution is only getting worse—a gloomy fact that representatives of almost 200 nations meeting in Uruguay Monday are determined to change.
Examining US policy-making and China's efforts in Southeast Asia
Was there effectively a "Chinese problem" in Southeast Asia in the decades following World War II, with millions of Chinese in the region potentially sympathetic to communist China? American policy-makers seem to have thought so at the start of the Cold War, given China's influence around the region. At a time of immense turmoil and upheaval in Asia, including the Vietnam War, US politicians...
Friendly fire: How conflicts can reduce stress in the workplace
Stress and conflict are unavoidable aspects of life and can be highly destructive forces when left unchecked. A survey conducted by the UK government found that work-related stress led to a loss of 17.9 million working days in 2019, which directly affected the country's economic productivity.