3,111 articles mezi dny 1.1.2023 a 31.1.2023

Copying nature to help plants resist viruses

For thousands of years, crops have been shaped by domestication processes. Farmers cross-breed and select new varieties, adapted to constantly changing environments. Although efficient, this process is time consuming. Moreover, the desired trait must be present somewhere within the diversity of the species to be improved.

With rapidly increasing heat and drought, can plants adapt?

At a time when climate change is making many areas of the planet hotter and drier, it's sobering to think that deserts are relatively new biomes that have grown considerably over the past 30 million years. Widespread arid regions, like the deserts that today cover much of western North America, began to emerge only within the past 5 to 7 million years.

More than half of cocoa from the world's largest producer cannot be traced to its origin

Published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters, a new study investigates the transparency and traceability of cocoa supply chains in Côte d'Ivoire, the world's largest cocoa producer. The results show that less than 45% of cocoa from Côte d'Ivoire can be traced back to the first buyer. The remaining 55% cannot, either because it is indirectly sourced by traders from intermediaries...

Future space telescopes could be 100 meters across, constructed in space, and bent into a precise shape

It is an exciting time for astronomers and cosmologists. Since the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have been treated to the most vivid and detailed images of the universe ever taken. Webb's powerful infrared imagers, spectrometers, and coronagraphs will allow for even more in the near future, including everything from surveys of the early universe to direct imaging studies of...

NASA has simulated a tiny part of the moon here on Earth

Before going to the moon, the Apollo astronauts trained at various sites on Earth that best approximated the lunar surface, such as the volcanic regions Iceland, Hawaii and the U.S. Southwest. To help prepare for upcoming robotic and human Artemis missions, a newly upgraded "mini-moon" lunar testbed will allow astronauts and robots to test out realistic conditions on the moon including rough...

Scientists examine geological processes of Monad Regio on Neptune's largest moon, Triton

In a recent study published in the journal Icarus, a team of researchers at the International Research School of Planetary Science (IRSPS) located at the D'Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara in Italy conducted a geological analysis of a region on Neptune's largest moon, Triton, known as Monad Regio to ascertain the geological processes responsible for shaping its surface during its history, and...

Scorpius X-1: Astronomers may soon detect extreme objects producing gravitational waves continuously

The cosmic zoo contains objects so bizarre and extreme that they generate gravitational waves. Scorpius X-1 is part of that strange collection. It's actually a binary pair: a neutron star orbiting with a low-mass stellar companion called V818 Scorpii. The pair provides a prime target for scientists hunting for so-called "continuous" gravitational waves. Those waves should exist, although none have...

How non-native tree species affect biodiversity

Non-native forest tree species can reduce native species diversity if they are planted in uniform stands. In contrast, the effects of introduced species on soil properties are small. This was found by an international review study with the participation of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL.

'Snapshots' of translation could help us investigate cellular proteins

Advances in molecular biology have revealed that pep-tRNAs—nascent polypeptides inside the ribosome that are covalently attached to transfer RNA—are involved in myriad cell functions, including gene expression. All proteins exist as pep-tRNAs at some point, and studying these translation intermediates is vital as they possess properties of both RNA and protein, and can help researchers better...

Global survey of attacks by large carnivores reveals distinct patterns in low- and high-income countries

Reports of large carnivore attacks on humans have increased since 1970, but the frequency and context of these attacks depends on socioeconomic and environmental factors, according to a new study of more than 5,000 reports published January 31 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Giulia Bombieri of MUSE Science Museum in Italy, Vincenzo Penteriani of the National Museum of Natural Science...

Some primates are more susceptible to parasites than others, and researchers are using new methods to find out why

Fleas, tapeworms, Giardia, pinworms: Parasites are all around us. But some animals are more susceptible than others. Take the well-studied chimpanzee, for example: it's known to host over 100 parasites. In contrast, species like the indri, a lemur only found on Madagascar, are only known to host about 10 parasites. Many other primates are so poorly studied that only one parasite has ever been...