Earth
Curtin research has recorded the first known appearance of Pseudoanthidium (Immanthidium) repetitum, the African carder bee, in Western Australia and has highlighted the need to closely monitor the impacts of such introduced species on the ecosystem.
Published in Pacific Conservation Biology, the research documented the first WA sightings of the bee, which was first recorded in Australia in 2000 in Queensland, before rapidly spreading down the east coast and by 2015 becoming a common inhabitant of urban gardens in Victoria.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Plucky, beautiful and declining in numbers at about a 2% annual rate, the rufous hummingbird makes its long annual migration in different timing and route patterns based the birds' age and sex, new research by Oregon State University shows.
They've been used as an educational toy for hundreds of years and are thought to develop skills such as hand-eye coordination and problem solving.
But little has been known about how children learn to do jigsaw puzzles.
Now, new research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) has put jigsaw puzzles to the test - and found that children only learn to do them once they have reached a certain stage of development.
Studies and simulations of global land precipitation and summer hemispheric precipitation have received much scientific and societal attention due to the impacts on economic development. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate and improve the simulation capability of precipitation for models.
JULY 27, 2020, NEW YORK -- A Ludwig Cancer Research study has identified a new instance in which the simultaneous mutation of two nonessential genes--neither of which is on its own vital to cell survival--can cause cancer cell death.
When used correctly, the symptomatic case fatality ratio (sCFR) and the infection fatality ratio (IFR) are better measures by which to monitor COVID-19 epidemics than the commonly reported case fatality ratio (CFR), according to a new study published this week in PLOS Medicine by Anthony Hauser of the University of Bern, Switzerland, and colleagues.
KINGSTON, R.I., -- July 28, 2020 -- For decades, scientists have gathered ancient sediment samples from below the seafloor to better understand past climates, plate tectonics and the deep marine ecosystem. In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers reveal that given the right food in the right laboratory conditions, microbes collected from sediment as old as 100 million years can revive and multiply, even after laying dormant since large dinosaurs prowled the planet.
Ammonia has been widely used for agricultural fertilizers and industrial productions. Additionally, NH3 is expected to serve as next-generation green energy carriers due to its high energy density, low liquefying pressure, small air-fuel ratio and no carbon dioxide emission. At present, NH3 is mainly manufactured through the conventional Haber-Bosch process, which is energy-intensive and releases ~1.5% of global CO2 into the atmosphere.
To elucidate the timing, location and geodynamic models of the India-Asia collision, Yuan and colleagues conducted paleomagnetic and rock magnetic analyses on two key successions that were deposited on the distal northern part of the Indian passive margin (Tethyan Himalaya terrane), where Upper Cretaceous oceanic red beds (CORBs) of the Chuangde Formation are exposed in the Cailangba A and B sections of the Gyangze area, and Upper Cretaceous to Paleocene red siliceous shales of the lower Sangdanlin Formation are exposed in the Sangdanlin and Mubala sections of the Saga area.
In an aging society, various studies are being conducted to explore the relationship between active oxygen and aging-related diseases such as cancer, chronic inflammatory diseases, and metabolic syndrome.
Nowadays, life in the soil must contend with several problems at once. The biomass of small animals that decompose plants in the soil and thus maintain its fertility is declining both as a result of climate change and over-intensive cultivation. To their surprise, however, scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig have discovered that this effect occurs in two different ways: while the changing climate reduces the body size of the organisms, cultivation reduces their frequency.
Two decades or more before symptoms arise, plaques of a sticky protein called amyloid begin forming in the brains of people later diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that levels of a specific protein in the blood rise as amyloid plaques form in the brain. This protein can be detected in the blood of people who have yet to show signs of forgetfulness or confusion, making it a promising blood test to diagnose Alzheimer's before symptoms appear.
ITHACA, N.Y. - To remove carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere in an effort to slow climate change, scientists must get their hands dirty and peek underground.
In an article published July 27 in Nature Geoscience, Cornell University's Johannes Lehmann and others wrote that scientists should develop new models that more accurately reflect the carbon-storage processes beneath our feet, in order to effectively draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide.
They are used by 150 million women worldwide and have been around for over 60 years. Oral contraceptives - like birth control pills - are part of many women's lives, often starting during puberty and early adolescence. Do they have any impact on brain health? A uOttawa team of researchers has been investigating the question. We sat down with senior author Nafissa Ismail, Associate Professor at the uOttawa School of Psychology and University Research Chair in Stress and Mental Health, to learn more.
The large-scale loss of eelgrass in a major California estuary -- Morro Bay -- may be causing widespread erosion, according to a new study from California Polytechnic State University.
In recent years, Morro Bay's iconic eelgrass beds, which provide the estuary's primary living habitat, experienced a massive die-off, declining more than 90 percent since 2007. Efforts to restore the eelgrass have had mixed success in many parts of the bay, and this seagrass is now only found close to the mouth of the bay and sporadically in other regions.