106 articles from MONDAY 23.1.2023

Exotic green comet not seen since stone age returns to skies above Earth

Comet C/2022 E3, which orbits the sun every 50,000 years, will be closest to us next Wednesday and ThursdayAn exotic green comet that has not passed Earth since the time of the Neanderthals has reappeared in the sky ready for its closest approach to the planet next week.Discovered last March by astronomers at the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in California, comet C/2022 E3...

Women scientists at famed oceanography institute have half the lab space of men

Women constitute 26% of the scientists at the prestigious Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), but only hold 17% of the space, according to an unprecedented report released last week. SIO’s 56 women scientists have on average half as much research space and one-third the storage space of their 157 male counterparts,...

Twisting up atoms through space and time

One of the most exciting applications of quantum computers will be to direct their gaze inwards, at the very quantum rules that make them tick. Quantum computers can be used to simulate quantum physics itself, and perhaps even explore realms that don't exist anywhere in nature.

Researchers create a low-cost sensor that detects heavy metals in sweat

Heavy metals such as lead and cadmium are present in batteries, cosmetics, food and other things that are part of everyday life. They are toxic when they accumulate in the human organism, potentially causing several health problems, but detecting them in body fluids requires expensive equipment and a controlled laboratory environment. Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil...

Virus plus microplastics equal double whammy for fish health

Microplastics—tiny particles generated as plastics weather and fragment—pose a growing threat to ecosystem and human health. A new laboratory study shows these threats extend beyond direct physical or chemical impacts, revealing that the presence of microplastics increases the severity of an important viral fish disease.

DNA detector exposes hidden Antarctic krill

Like forensic investigators, scientists can use molecular techniques to detect evidence of Antarctic krill in seawater samples collected in the Southern Ocean. The revolutionary technology can identify Antarctic krill DNA within the alphabet soup of DNA molecules shed by numerous other marine creatures, including bacteria, other krill species, and whales.

How a 3-centimeter glass sphere could help scientists understand space weather

Solar flares and other types of space weather can wreak havoc with spaceflight and with telecommunications and other types of satellites orbiting Earth. But to date, scientists' ability to research ways to overcome that challenge has been severely limited. That's because experiments they conduct in laboratories here on Earth are affected by gravity in ways that are quite different from conditions...

Virus plus microplastics equal double whammy for fish health

Microplastics -- tiny particles generated as plastics weather and fragment -- pose a growing threat to ecosystem and human health. A new laboratory study shows these threats extend beyond direct physical or chemical impacts, revealing that the presence of microplastics increases the severity of an important viral fish disease.

Click beetle-inspired robots jump using elastic energy

Researchers have made a significant leap forward in developing insect-sized jumping robots capable of performing tasks in the small spaces often found in mechanical, agricultural and search-and-rescue settings. A new study demonstrates a series of click beetle-sized robots small enough to fit into tight spaces, powerful enough to maneuver over obstacles and fast enough to match an insect's rapid...

Can elephants save the planet?

Researchers report that elephants play a key role in creating forests which store more atmospheric carbon and maintaining the biodiversity of forests in Africa. If the already critically endangered elephants become extinct, rainforest of central and west Africa, the second largest rainforest on earth, would lose between six and nine percent of their ability to capture atmospheric carbon,...

When deer disappear off the menu, hungry wolves turn to sea otters

Although wolves in Alaska will eat just about anything that moves, their typical main course consists of deer, deer, and more deer. But when wolves on one island off the state’s coast finished off nearly all the deer around them, they turned to a surprising substitution: sea otters. That’s the conclusion of a new study that records a rare instance of a wolf population...

Researchers discover elephant extinction could have major impact on atmospheric carbon levels

In findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Saint Louis University researchers and colleagues report that elephants play a key role in creating forests which store more atmospheric carbon and maintaining the biodiversity of forests in Africa. If the already critically endangered elephants become extinct, rainforest of central and west Africa, the second largest...

Sharks, spatial data, and a conservation success story

It's hard out there for a shark. A critical barometer to the health of ocean ecosystems, shark and ray populations have faced significant global declines from overfishing, habitat loss, and environment degradation. Add to the mix a slow reproductive cycle—female great white sharks take approximately 30 years to reach sexual maturity, for instance—and the broader logistical challenges of trying...

Microbes could be used by farmers as natural fertilizer for poor soil

A study published in The ISME Journal identified 522 genomes of archaea and bacteria associated with the roots and soil of two plant species native to the Brazilian montane savanna ecoregion known as campos rupestres ("rocky meadows"). Hundreds of microorganisms hitherto unknown to science were identified, showing that the ecoregion is a biodiversity hotspot and that many new organisms have yet to...

Work ability is influenced by physical fitness, social life and cognitive functions: Study

Due to demographic change, it is becoming increasingly important to maintain the working capacity of aging workforces. In a recent study, researchers from the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environments and Human Factors in Dortmund (IfADo) therefore investigated the relationship between changing lifestyle factors, cognitive functions and their influence on work ability. The results show that...

Study finds that choosing a lucky CEO means bad luck for the hiring company

Seneca, the Roman stoic philosopher, wrote that "luck does not exist." Modern managerial studies take the liberty of disagreeing. Luck exists in the form of events that are beyond the control of CEOs and firms alike. Movements in oil prices and the business cycle (e.g., variations in GDP growth, and employment rate) that boost the market value of firms are a couple of examples.

Khanty dialects found to differ more than Slavic languages

Idalia Fedotova, researcher at HSE University and the RAS Ivannikov Institute for System Programming, examined lexical differences across Khanty dialects and found that members of this relatively small ethnic group speak three distinct languages—rather than two, as previously thought. The findings are published in Ural-Altaic Studies.

New moorings deployed to strengthen the South Atlantic observing system

To extend a network of observations in the South Atlantic Ocean, two new scientific, full-depth, instrumented moorings have been deployed off the eastern coast of South America. These tall moorings will measure variations in the Atlantic circulation—a system of ocean currents affecting life in the ocean as well as the weather and economy of coastal nations.

Scientists identify components of the molecular clock that helps some animals shed their skin

Shrimps, flies and other animals shed their outer body covering at specific times of the year or at specific points in their life cycles through a process called molting. Working with worms, FMI researchers identified the mechanisms underlying a molecular "molting clock"—as well as several of the clock's components. The findings may help to throw light on skin development and regeneration in...