Sci/Tech

A framework for identifying the most vulnerable marine species will boost global conservation and policy efforts against anthropogenic climate change. University of Queensland researchers and global marine experts developed the framework by reviewing marine biology literature and categorising a wide range of threats – from climate change, to pollution, to fishing – faced by more […]

Getting vaccinated for COVID-19 measurably improved the psychological well-being of participants in the Understanding Coronavirus in America study, a large longitudinal look at the impact of the pandemic on individuals in the United States. Vaccination was associated with declines in distress and perceived risks of infection, hospitalization, and death. The study, appearing in the American Journal of […]

RENO, Nevada – University-led research has developed a new method that allows gene editing in ticks at the embryo stage, a protocol previously thought impossible for ticks. This ground-breaking discovery, published in iScience Journal, could decrease the ability of ticks to be a vector for disease causing pathogens. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, […]

NASA, NOAA, USGS, and other U.S. government agencies project that the rise in ocean height in the next 30 years could equal the total rise seen over the past 100 years. Coastal flooding will increase significantly over the next 30 years because of sea level rise, according to a new report by an interagency sea […]

Researchers have announced that a 17.6 meter rogue wave – the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded – has been measured in the waters off of Ucluelet, B.C. The rogue wave, which measures as high as a four-story building, was recorded in November 2020 by Victoria, B.C.-based MarineLabs Data Systems (MarineLabs). It is the subject of a scientific report […]

Sea-level rise is arguably one of the most serious consequences of the climate crisis. While using satellite data to monitor how the height of the sea is changing provides critical evidence for decision-making, satellites are also essential to measuring the individual components, such as seawater temperature and glacier melt, that contribute to the overall rise. […]

Seed dispersal in plants takes on countless forms, yet most dispersal mechanisms fall within the categories of gravity, wind, water, and animal dispersal. Let’s dive into these mechanisms in more detail. Next time you’re out walking, see if you can spot them in action. Wind The common dandelion is perhaps the most iconic, and well-known […]

Sometime in the next few weeks, during late summer in the Southern Hemisphere, the area covered by sea ice around Antarctica will reach its annual minimum. According to UCLA climate scientist Marilyn Raphael, the measurement could set a new record low, just five years after the last record was established. That’s because current conditions in […]

A frame from A Trip to the Moon. wikipedia David Rothery, The Open University It’s not often that the sudden appearance of a new impact crater on the Moon can be predicted, but it’s going to happen on March 4, when a derelict SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will crash into it. The rocket launched in […]

MUNICH, January 28, 2022 — The Labrador Sea between Canada and Greenland is often referred to as a ‘lung of the deep ocean’ because it is one of only a handful of locations worldwide where oxygen from the atmosphere can enter the deepest layers of the ocean. The ability to sustain animal life in the […]

January 27, 2022 – A Rutgers study has detected tiny airborne particles containing RNA from the SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19, both inside and outside of the rooms in which infected people were self-isolating at home. This finding suggests that airborne transmission beyond the isolation rooms in homes may pose a risk of infection to other […]

Caltech researchers used the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to determine that surface water left salt minerals behind as recently as 2 billion years ago. Mars once rippled with rivers and ponds billions of years ago, providing a potential habitat for microbial life. As the planet’s atmosphere thinned over time, that water evaporated, leaving the frozen desert […]

Common air pollutants from both urban and rural environments may be reducing the pollinating abilities of insects by preventing them from sniffing out the crops and wildflowers that depend on them, new research has shown. Scientists from the University of Reading, the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, and the University of Birmingham found that […]

January 19, 2022 – More than 1.2 million people – and potentially millions more – died in 2019 as a direct result of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, according to the most comprehensive estimate to date of the global impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The analysis of 204 countries and territories, published in The Lancet, reveals that AMR […]

The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano near Tonga in the South Pacific erupted with such force on 15 January that it is thought to be the biggest eruption recorded anywhere on the planet in 30 years. Sending tsunami waves across the Pacific, the effects of this underwater eruption were felt as far away as the United States and […]

Two new studies led by North Carolina State University researchers offer a preview of what electricity consumers on the West Coast could experience under two different future scenarios: one where excessive heat due to climate change strains power supplies, and one where the grid shifts toward renewable energy while the climate follows historic trends. In […]

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 19, 2022 — A team of University of California, Irvine researchers has discovered a possible reason why L-dopa, the front-line drug for treating Parkinson’s disease, loses efficacy and causes dyskinesia – involuntary, erratic muscle movements of the patient’s face, arms, legs and torso – as treatment progresses. “Paradoxically, the exact therapy that improved […]

The study, led by the University of Exeter and funded by Animal Free Research UK, used a newly adapted test which can detect whether the virus was potentially still active. It was applied to samples from 176 people in Exeter who had tested positive on standard PCR tests. The study, published in the  international Journal of […]

Earth’s global average surface temperature in 2021 tied with 2018 as the sixth warmest on record, according to independent analyses done by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Continuing the planet’s long-term warming trend, global temperatures in 2021 were 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.85 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA’s baseline period, […]

January 12, 2022 – Economic growth goes down when the number of wet days and days with extreme rainfall go up, a team of Potsdam scientists finds. Rich countries are most severely affected and herein the manufacturing and service sectors, according to their study now published as cover story in the renowned science journal Nature. […]