146 articles from TUESDAY 9.5.2023

How the ancient messengers cAMP and cGMP deliver their messages

Two highly similar molecules with essential but often contrasting signaling roles in most life forms exert their distinct effects through subtle differences in their bindings to their signaling partners, according to a new study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Researchers switch from helium to hydrogen weather balloons

Hundreds of miles north of the Arctic Circle, Sandia National Laboratories researchers ensure the collection of important weather and climate data. By switching the gas used in their weather balloons, they have reduced their metaphorical footprint on the fragile Arctic ecosystem.

Fake scientific papers are alarmingly common

When neuropsychologist Bernhard Sabel put his new fake-paper detector to work, he was “shocked” by what it found. After screening some 5000 papers, he estimates up to 34% of neuroscience papers published in 2020 were likely made up or plagiarized; in medicine, the figure was 24%. Both numbers, which he and colleagues report in a medRxiv preprint posted on 8 May, are...

Possible meteorite crashes into New Jersey home, no injuries

A metallic object believed to be a meteorite punched a hole in the roof of a central New Jersey home this week, smashing into a hardwood floor and bouncing around a bedroom. The family who owns the home discovered the black, potato-sized rock in a corner—still warm.

Mexico’s ‘salamander of the gods’ edges toward extinction

Mexico City— It’s not yet noon on a Wednesday at Lake Xochimilco, a mosaic of ponds and canals to the south of this sprawling metropolis, but revelers on a brightly colored tourist boat have already broken out the beer and are whooping it up. On another boat, a mariachi band tunes up. Carlos Uriel Sumano Arias, paddling a flat-bottomed chalupa belonging to...

The UAE’s transition to a net-zero future

As the impacts of climate change like desertification, biodiversity loss, pollution, and severe weather persist, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is approaching the green transition and decarbonization with a great sense of urgency. Between its ratification of the 2015 Paris Agreement, its $160 billion investment in renewables over the next 30 years, and its green…

Extending the life of a lithium metal anode using a protective layer made of an extremely tough gel electrolyte

A research team has succeeded in substantially improving the cycling performance of a lithium metal battery by developing a mechanically very strong polymeric gel electrolyte and integrating it into the battery as a layer to protect the lithium metal anode. This achievement may greatly facilitate efforts to put lithium metal anodes -- a potentially very high performance anode material -- into...

French felines found to be less responsive to cat calls with faster attraction to visual cues

Researchers Charlotte de Mouzon and Gérard Leboucher of the Laboratoire Ethologie Cognition Développement, Université Paris Nanterre in France, have examined preferred feline etiquette when faced with an unfamiliar human. In the paper, "Multimodal Communication in the Human–Cat Relationship: A Pilot Study," published in Animals, researchers examined four modes of human interactions—vocal,...

NASA’s Plant Science is Rooted in Earth and Shoots for the Stars

NASA supports USDA plant science research that benefits life on our home planet and beyond! This image shows the USDA Biotechnology Lab at EPCOT, located within Walt Disney World Resort. The two illuminated white squares stacked one over the other above the Biotechnology Lab sign are plant growing chambers developed by NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division at Kennedy Space...