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A new focus article in the May issue of Geology summarizes research on plastic waste in marine and sedimentary environments.

The Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is critically endangered, with fewer than 100 individuals surviving in Indonesia on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. To ensure survival of the threatened species, accurate censusing is necessary to determine the genetic diversity of remaining populations for conservation and management plans. A new study characterized 29 novel polymorphic microsatellite markers -- repetitive DNA sequences -- that serve as a reliable censusing method for wild Sumatran rhinos.

The importance of pollinators to ensure successful harvests and thus global food security is widely acknowledged. However, the specific pollinators for even major crops - such as cocoa - haven't yet been identified. Now an international research team led by the University of Göttingen has found that in fact ants and flies - but not ceratopogonid midges - appear to have a crucial role to play. The research was published in Biological Conservation.

A study of a rare and common desert plant indicates solar development in the desert may impact rare species more. It also demonstrates the importance of taking the time to understand the ever-changing desert ecosystem before irrevocably changing it.

The authors of a new commentary from Mayo Clinic suggest that more extensive use of minimally invasive non-endoscopic tests for Barrett's esophagus (BE) screening could impact early detection and prevention of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), a particularly deadly form of cancer. This is important because BE, the only known precursor to esophageal cancer, is often asymptomatic. Their commentary is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Stanford scientists simulated the local risk of damaging or nuisance-level shaking caused by hydraulic fracturing across the Eagle Ford shale formation in Texas. The results could inform a new approach to managing human-caused earthquakes.

The lab of Peng Bai has developed a stable, anode-free sodium ion battery that is highly efficient, will be less expensive and is significantly smaller than a traditional lithium ion battery.

Businesses sometimes align themselves with important values such as a clean environment, feminism, or racial justice, thinking it's a win-win: the value gets boosted along with the company's bottom line. But be careful, warns new research from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.Using these values primarily for self-interested purposes such as profit or reputation can ultimately undermine their special status and erode people's commitment to them.

An abnormal build up of carbohydrates -- sugars and starches -- in the kernels and leaves of a mutant line of corn can be traced to one misregulated gene, and that discovery offers clues about how the plant deals with stress.

University of New Mexico Researchers Create Open Source Computational Tool to Rapidly Screen Molecules For COVID-Fighting Properties.

With more than a quarter of the world infected with the soil-transmitted helminth (STH), one method is showing particular promise when it comes to reducing infant mortality and low birth weight caused by STH infection.

Black and Latino neighborhoods in the 30 most populous U.S. cities had fewer pharmacies than white or diverse neighborhoods in 2007-2015, USC research shows, suggesting that 'pharmacy deserts'- like so-called food deserts-may be an overlooked contributor to persistent racial and ethnic health disparities.

Ensuring that veterans have stable housing not only reduces homelessness but also slashes the cost of providing them with publicly funded health care, according to a national study led by University of Utah Health scientists.

An international team of scientists using a Sandia National Laboratories supercomputer in the largest reconstruction ever attempted of prehistoric travel has mapped the probable "superhighways" that led to the first peopling of Australia.

A new study found overlooked tsunami hazards related to undersea, near-shore strike-slip faults, especially for coastal cities adjacent to faults that traverse inland bays. Several areas around the world may fall into this category, including the San Francisco Bay area, Izmit Bay in Turkey and the Gulf of Al-Aqaba in Egypt.

To better understand respiratory diseases and develop new drugs faster, investigators designed a 3D "lung-on-a-chip" model of the distal lung and alveolar structures, the tiny air sacs that take in oxygen as you breathe.

Researchers from NYU Abu Dhabi's Center for Genomics and Systems Biology have successfully sequenced the genome of previously extinct date palm varieties that lived more than 2,000 years ago.

EPFL scientists are beginning to understand why corals in the Gulf of Aqaba, along with their symbiotic algae and bacteria, resist higher temperatures particularly well.

Mullerian inhibiting substance, a reproductive hormone, keeps follicles dormant in the ovaries until they are ready to be activated, grow, and release eggs during ovulation. Understanding the mechanism of follicle development by this hormone could allow scientists, for the first time, to identify novel therapeutic targets to preserve follicles and eggs lost to aging or chemotherapy, to improve the harvesting of eggs during IVF, and to create a new hormonal contraceptive.

An influenza vaccine that is made of nanoparticles and administered through the nose enhances the body's immune response to influenza virus infection and offers broad protection against different viral strains, according to researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University.