Tech
In recent years -- and 2020 is no exception -- parts of the Pacific Northwest that are typically too wet to burn are experiencing more frequent, severe and larger wildfires due to changes in climate. New research from Portland State University found that while the increased wildfire activity is causing widespread changes in the structure and composition of these mid-to-high elevation forests, the new landscapes are also likely more resilient to projected upward trends in future fire activity and climate conditions.
The Greenland ice sheet owes its existence to the growth of an arc of islands in Southeast Asia -- stretching from Sumatra to New Guinea -- over the last 15 million years, a new study claims.
New international research led by Curtin University has found approximately a quarter of carnivorous plant species across the world may be at risk of extinction due to global climate change, illegal poaching, and the clearing of land for agriculture, mining and development.
Carbon, one of the main building blocks for all life on Earth, cycles among living organisms and the environment. This cycle, and how it works in one of the driest places on Earth, is the subject of a new study recently published in the journal Plant and Soil with lead author and Arizona State University (ASU) scientist, Heather Throop.
DALLAS, September 24, 2020 -- A digital clock that sounds alarms signaling each step of acute stroke care at the hospital is a low cost tool that helped doctors in Germany streamline and accelerate the time-sensitive process, according to new research published today in Stroke, a journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association.
Upcoming 5G wireless networks that will provide faster cell phone service may lead to inaccurate weather forecasts, according to a Rutgers study on a controversial issue that has created anxiety among meteorologists.
Researchers have discovered significant variations in the ability of different UK butterfly species to maintain a suitable body temperature. Species that rely most on finding a suitably shady location to keep cool are at the greatest risk of population decline. The results predict how climate change might impact butterfly communities, and will inform conservation strategies to protect them.
DALLAS (September 23, 2020) - Researchers at Center for BrainHealth, part of The University of Texas at Dallas, collaborated with scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to examine whether the Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Training (SMART) program affects people's abilities to make informed decisions about their medical treatment options. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis, in particular, are often reluctant to take antirheumatic drugs because of perceptions about the drugs' risks and benefits.
Amazonia is closer to a catastrophic ecological tipping point than any time in the last 100,000 years, and human activity is the cause.
In a new paper published today in the Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Florida Tech biology professor Mark Bush describes how the vast Amazonian rainforest could be replaced by savanna, which is a grassland with few trees, within our lifetime.
Various plants and their products are known to contain "bioactive" ingredients that can alleviate human diseases. These "phytocompounds" often contain restorative biological properties such as anti-cancerous, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects. Thus, understanding how they interact with the body can lead to potential treatment strategies against major immune disorders.
Considering a patient's genetics could inform clinicians which medications would be most effective in controlling cravings and treating alcohol use disorder.
Twenty million Americans currently struggle with an alcohol use disorder. Of those who seek treatment, only 20% receive medications, either alone or in addition to counseling.
In the September issue of the journal Nature, scientists from Texas A&M University, Hewlett Packard Labs and Stanford University have described a new nanodevice that acts almost identically to a brain cell. Furthermore, they have shown that these synthetic brain cells can be joined together to form intricate networks that can then solve problems in a brain-like manner.
Current practices of the poultry industry have raised ethical and ecological concerns: ethical concerns include the culling of day-old male chicks of egg-laying breeds; ecological concerns include the import of large quantities of soybeans for feedstuff. Now a research team at the University of Göttingen has investigated alternatives such as using a regional protein crop like broad beans (also known as faba or fava beans), and dual-purpose chicken breeds (ie suitable for both meat and egg-laying).
Most of the wind available on land is too gentle to push commercial wind turbine blades, but now researchers in China have designed a kind of "tiny wind turbine" that can scavenge wind energy from breezes as little as those created by a brisk walk. The method, presented September 23 in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, is a low-cost and efficient way of collecting light breezes as a micro-energy source.
A new ultra-affordable and accessible hearing aid made from open-source electronics could soon be available worldwide, according to a study published September 23, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Soham Sinha from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia, US, and colleagues.