170 articles from WEDNESDAY 11.1.2023

Why do our dogs and cats bring us dead animals?

What do a little penguin, a baby rabbit, a black rat and a Krefft's glider have in common? They've all been presented to me (when dead) by my animal companions. Chances are, if you live with a cat or dog, you've also been brought something similar.

Human actions created the Salton Sea, California's largest lake. Here's how to save its ecosystem

The Salton Sea spreads across a remote valley in California's lower Colorado Desert, 40 miles (65 kilometers) from the Mexican border. For birds migrating along the Pacific coast, it's an avian Grand Central Station. In midwinter tens of thousands of snow geese, ducks, pelicans, gulls and other species forage on and around the lake. Hundreds of other species nest there year-round or use it as a...

Illegal mining has muddied tropical rivers worldwide

A mighty river is an efficient miner. Year after year, its waters erode and sluice rock away from mountains, liberating precious metals and whisking them to lowlands, where they are deposited among sediments in riverbeds and floodplains. No need to move mountains; the mountain moves to you. But the process also draws human miners, especially in the tropics, where homespun...

New website compiles ocean data from landmark 19th-century scientific voyage

The HMS Challenger began a four-year voyage 150 years ago to explore the deep sea and the creatures that lived in it. The scientists aboard the ship discovered thousands of new species and recorded massive amounts of data about the oceans. The treasure trove of information they gathered is now available online in the first comprehensive database of the Challenger findings.

How grasses avoid inbreeding

Corn, rice, wheat, sugar cane—the grass family contains a number of species that are important food sources for humans and have been bred and cultivated for millennia. Wild and farm animals, too, depend heavily on grasses for feed: cows, sheep, horses as well as bison, deer and zebras predominantly eat grass. Almost 70% of Switzerland's agricultural area is grassland.

Final results from the STEREO experiment reject sterile neutrino hypothesis

After several years of operation, the STEREO collaboration published the final results of their antineutrino studies. With their data, the researchers excluded hints for the existence of sterile neutrinos, an additional neutrino state expected in many theories. The result, which appears in the January 11 issue of Nature, has important implications for many areas of fundamental physics.

Antarctic icebergs still exist today where 1700-era sailors spotted and tracked them

A new study comparing observations of large Antarctic icebergs from the 1700s with modern satellite datasets shows the massive icebergs are found in the same areas where they were pinpointed three centuries ago. The study shows that despite their rudimentary tools, the old explorers truly knew their craft, and it confirms that the icebergs have behaved consistently for more than 300 years.

Among less-educated young workers, women and Black men are paid far less

Less-educated U.S. workers often face a lifetime of financial challenges, but some among them are more disadvantaged than others: Young Asian and white men without college education are paid more—sometimes far more—than both Black men and women of all racial groups, according to a new study co-authored at UC Berkeley.

Cis-and trans-regulatory variants affect flower color differentiation between lotus species

Gene expression rewiring often contributes to phenotypic evolution between newly diverged species. Changes in gene expression patterns can be caused by mutations in either cis-regulatory regions (promoter) of the gene itself or trans-acting regulatory genes (transcription factors). However, the effects of cis-and trans-regulatory variants at the whole genome level of gene expression leading to...

Ethical ancient DNA research must involve descendant communities, say researchers

The analysis of ancient DNA allows scientists to trace human evolution and make important discoveries about modern populations. The data revealed by ancient DNA sampling can be valuable, but the human remains that carry this ancient DNA are often those of the ancestors of modern Indigenous groups, and some communities have expressed concerns about the ethics of sampling by outside parties. A group...

Nuclear reactor mystery solved, with no need for new particles

A physics mystery has come to an end, with a resolution about as shocking as “the butler did it.” For a decade, physicists have pondered why nuclear reactors pump out fewer particles called neutrinos than predicted. Some suggested the elusive bits of matter might be morphing into weirder, undetectable “sterile” neutrinos. Instead, new results pin down what other experiments had...