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Categories: Biology: Evolutionary, Geoscience: Environmental Issues

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Health professionals have long praised the benefits of insoluble fiber for bowel regularity and overall health. New research suggests even more reasons we should be prioritizing fiber in our regular diets. Researchers found that each plant source of insoluble fiber contains unique bioactives -- compounds that have been linked to lower incidence of cardiovascular disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes -- offering potential health benefits beyond those of the fiber itself. 

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A team has identified several factors to help answer a fundamental ecological question: why is there a ridiculous abundance of species some places on earth and a scarcity in others? What factors, exactly, drive animal diversity? They discovered that what an animal eats (and how that interacts with climate) shapes Earth's diversity.

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An international coalition of climate scientists says that the Earth's vital signs have worsened beyond anything humans have yet seen, to the point that life on the planet is imperiled.

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Next-generation solar materials are cheaper and more sustainable to produce than traditional silicon solar cells, but hurdles remain in making the devices durable enough to withstand real-world conditions. A new technique could simplify the development of efficient and stable perovskite solar cells, named for their unique crystalline structure that excels at absorbing visible light.

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Scientists studied the genomes of 30 kingfisher species to try to identify the genes that allow kingfishers to dive headfirst into water without huring their brains. The researchers found that the diving birds have unusual mutations to the genes that produce tau: a protein that helps stabilize tiny structures in the brain, but which can build up in humans with traumatic brain injuries or Alzheimer's disease. The researchers suspect that these variations in the kingfishers' tau proteins might protect their brains when they dive.

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Researchers have discovered a link between certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and an increased risk for thyroid cancer.

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Harnessing new advances in genomic surveillance technology could help detect the rise of deadly 'superbugs'.

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As climate change warms the Earth, higher-latitude regions will be at greater risk for toxins produced by algal blooms, according to new research. The findings identify water temperatures of 20 to 25 degrees Celsius (68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit) as being at the greatest risk for developing dangerous levels of a common algae-produced toxin called microcystin.

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A team of researchers has developed a software tool that provides a way for the safer design of genome editing in all organisms with a transcriptome. For about a decade, researchers have used the CRISPR technology for genome editing. However, there are some challenges in the use of CRISPR. The new analysis system overcomes these challenges and allows researchers to perform safer on- and off-target assessments without a reference genome. It holds the potential for applications in medicine, agriculture, and biological research.

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The West Antarctic Ice Sheet will continue to increase its rate of melting over the rest of the century, no matter how much we reduce fossil fuel use, according to new research. A substantial acceleration in ice melting likely cannot now be avoided, which implies that Antarctica's contribution to sea level rise could increase rapidly over the coming decades.

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Urban environments have become hotspots for understanding how rapid evolution occurs in response to extreme environmental changes. These habitats exert selective pressures on resident organisms that impact their evolutionary trajectories. Recently, researchers investigated how the creeping woodsorrel plant might adapt in response to elevated temperatures that result from urbanization. Understanding these effects can help predict evolutionary traits to manage plant evolution in the face of shifting climatic conditions.

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Doubling food production, saving water, and increasing carbon storage capacity -- this may sound paradoxical, but would be theoretically feasible considering the biophysical potential of the Earth. Reaching this goal, however, would require a radical spatial reorganization of land use.

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A huge step forward in the evolution of perovskite solar cells will have significant implications for renewable energy development.

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The focus of new research was to determine how deep, how much and how frequently water in the stratosphere was being increased by thunderstorms.

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Two recent scientific studies provide new insights into Earth's climate dynamics, with a particular focus on the El Niño phenomenon. The results show how El Niño responds to natural factors over extended periods, while highlighting the increasing role of human activities in shaping this climatic phenomenon in the modern era.

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A plant geneticist and computational biologist teamed up to decipher the unpredictability of natural and engineered mutations in tomatoes. They discovered some combinations of mutations behave as expected while others are more erratic. Their work may help scientists find some order in the chaos of evolution and genome editing.

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Whether a mouse is a good or bad parent can be traced back to imprinted genes in key neurons in the 'parenting hub' in the brain, according to a new study.

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Scientists have discovered the deepest known evidence of coral reef bleaching, more than 90 metres below the surface of the Indian Ocean. Identified during a research cruise, the damage to the deeper reefs in the Central Indian Ocean has been attributed to significant changes in the region's ocean temperature caused by the Indian Ocean Dipole. The researchers have also warned such incidences are only likely to increase as a result of present and future climate change.

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A research team has discovered that parasites manipulate their hosts using stolen genes that they likely acquired through a phenomenon called horizontal gene transfer.

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New research by climate scientists indicates that there have been great changes to Atlantic hurricanes in just the past 50 years, with storms developing and strengthening faster.