Earth

The effects of man-made climate change can hamper scientific projections of how key global weather patterns will act in the future, a new study has revealed.

The pivotal study, carried out by a team of international researchers, has shown that 'multiple' environmental influences can stymie predictions of how mid-latitude storms could behave.

Planting a multi-species mixture of cover crops -- rather than a cover crop monoculture -- between cash crops, provides increased agroecosystem services, or multifunctionality, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

ANN ARBOR--A new molecular gel recipe developed at the University of Michigan is at the core of a prototype for a more accurate lead paint test.

For people who enjoy amusement parks, one of the most thrilling sensations comes at the top of a roller coaster, in the split second between the end of the climb and the rush of the descent. Trying to take a picture at exactly the moment that the roller coaster reaches its zenith can be difficult because the drop happens so suddenly.

With one in two Australian children reported to have tooth decay in their permanent teeth by age 12, researchers from the University of Sydney believe they have identified some nanoscale elements that govern the behaviour of our teeth.

Material and structures engineers worked with dentists and bioengineers to map the exact composition and structure of tooth enamel at the atomic scale.

Oceanographers from MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution report that the northeast Pacific Ocean has absorbed an increasing amount of anthropogenic carbon dioxide over the last decade, at a rate that mirrors the increase of carbon dioxide emissions pumped into the atmosphere.

EUGENE, Ore. - Sept. 7, 2016 -- Word of mouth from nomadic herders led Lucas Silva into Tibetan forests and grasslands. What his team found was startling: Rapid forest growth in tune with what scientists had been expecting from climatic changes triggered by rising levels of carbon dioxide.

Actual scientific findings to date, however, had been turning up declining growths in many forests in the face of climatic changes. Such had also been the case for Silva, who joined the UO's Environmental Studies Program and Department of Geography in August.

Introducing a nationwide local street speed limit of 40km/h will save lives and create more liveable communities, according to Queensland University of Technology researchers.

The case for an Australia wide local street speed is being led by Marina Alexander and Dr Mark King, from QUT's Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q), and will be presented at the 2016 Australasian Road Safety Conference being held in Canberra from September 6-8.

Global fisheries stand to lose approximately $10 billion of their annual revenue by 2050 if climate change continues unchecked, and countries that are most dependent on fisheries for food will be the hardest hit, finds new UBC research.

Neutron crystallography is an important complementary technique to X-ray crystallography since it provides details of the hydrogen atom and proton positions in biological molecules. Furthermore, as neutrons are a non-destructive probe, the resulting structures are free from radiation damage even at room temperature.

"Promising" and "remarkable" are two words U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory scientist Javier Vela uses to describe recent research results on organolead mixed-halide perovskites.

Our intuition tells us that a sample of material compressed uniformly from all sides should reduce its dimensions. Only a few materials subjected to hydrostatic compression exhibit the opposite behaviour, expanding slightly in one or two directions. At the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences a material has been discovered with exceptionally high negative compressibility and a previously unknown mechanism responsible for it.

It turns out being the early bird really does have its advantages. A new study in The Auk: Ornithological Advances shows that migrating birds fly faster and put more effort into staying on course in spring than in fall, racing to arrive to their breeding grounds as soon as possible to get an edge in raising the next generation.

"Survival of the fittest" usually means that animals put their own needs first, but occasionally it pays to work together. A new study in The Auk: Ornithological Advances describes an unusual example of cooperative breeding in an introduced pheasant population in Hawaii, where young males help care for chicks and defend against intruders rather than striking out on their own.

An irregular heartbeat (known as atrial fibrillation) is associated with a wide range of serious events, including heart attacks, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, and sudden cardiac death, finds a large study in The BMJ this week.

The findings show that the risk associated with many of these events is greater than that of stroke - a known risk of atrial fibrillation - prompting the researchers to call for interventions to reduce the risk of non-stroke outcomes in adults with the condition.