Sci/Tech

What if you were told there was a completely natural way to stop your body from aging? The trick: You’d have to hibernate from September to May each year. That’s what a team of UCLA biologists and colleagues studying yellow-bellied marmots discovered. These large ground squirrels are able to virtually halt the aging process during […]

Global weather fluctuations called El Niño events are likely to become more frequent by 2040, a new study shows. El Niño – the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean –affects climate, ecosystems and societies worldwide. The study examined four possible scenarios for future carbon emissions, and found increased risk of […]

Microplastics can deposit and linger in riverbeds for as long as seven years before washing into the ocean, a new study has found. The research was supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Because rivers are in near-constant motion, researchers previously assumed that lightweight microplastics quickly flowed through rivers, rarely interacting with riverbed sediments.  […]

HOUSTON, (Feb. 28, 2022) – Newly published research by Rice University environmental engineers suggests flaring of natural gas from oil and gas fields in the United States, primarily in North Dakota and Texas, contributed to dozens of premature deaths in 2019. Satellite observations and computer models can link gas flares to air pollution and health, […]

For all its massive popularity, Minecraft — the highest-selling video game of all time — is not highly regarded among the gaming world’s snob class. The graphics are blocky, and there isn’t much of a point to it. It’s for kids. But according to many millions of users, including some Concordia faculty and students, Minecraft’s malleability is its strength. Free […]

A team led by Rao Kotamarthi at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) is using supercomputers at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to study how aerosol viral particles are distributed in a ventilated classroom. Using ORNL’s Summit, the nation’s fastest supercomputer, the team simulated the spread of aerosols through a model elementary school classroom layout […]

WASHINGTON, February 22, 2022 — Offshore wind farms can interfere with navigational radar used by ships and smaller vessels to avoid collisions, posing challenges for safe maritime navigation, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The maritime community has expressed concern that wind turbine generators could interfere with radar, […]

White-tailed deer are one of the few wild species that scientists have found to be infected with the coronavirus – at least so far. Andrew C/WikimediaCommons, CC BY Sue VandeWoude, Colorado State University; Angela Bosco-Lauth, Colorado State University, and Christie Mayo, Colorado State University eaIn April 2020, tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo made […]

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 […]