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Categories: Biology: Molecular, Environmental: Water
Published Saving our soil: How to extend US breadbasket fertility for centuries
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The Midwestern United States has lost 57.6 billion tons of topsoil due to farming practices over the past 160 years, and the rate of erosion, even following the U.S. Department of Agriculture's guidelines, is still 25 times higher than the rate at which topsoil forms. Yet, we need not despair: researchers recently reported that no-till farming, which is currently practiced on 40 percent of cropland acres in the Midwest, can extend our current level of soil fertility for the next several centuries. This has implications for everything from food security to climate-change mitigation.
Published How tasty is the food?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A hormone and specialized brain cells regulate feeding behavior in mice.
Published Engineers harvest abundant clean energy from thin air, 24/7
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team of engineers has recently shown that nearly any material can be turned into a device that continuously harvests electricity from humidity in the air. Researchers describe the 'generic Air-gen effect'-- nearly any material can be engineered with nanopores to harvest, cost effective, scalable, interruption-free electricity. The secret lies in being able to pepper the material with nanopores less than 100 nanometers in diameter.
Published New method predicts extreme events more accurately
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study has used global storm-resolving simulations and machine learning to create an algorithm that can deal separately with two different scales of cloud organization: those resolved by a climate model, and those that cannot be resolved as they are too small. This new approach addresses the missing piece of information in traditional climate model parameterizations and provides a way to predict precipitation intensity and variability more precisely.
Published Where do our limbs come from?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have uncovered new clues about the origin of paired appendages -- a major evolutionary step that remains unresolved and highly debated.
Published A look into the heart of cellular waste disposal
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers reveal how a nanomachine takes care of cleaning up inside the cell.
Published 'Sustainable' condenser tumble dryers create hundreds of tons of waterborne microfiber pollution
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study has revealed that drying laundry using a condenser tumble dryer leads to hundreds of tons of potentially harmful microfibers being released into waterways and oceans across the UK and Europe.
Published Simultaneous atmospheric and marine observations directly beneath a violent, Category 5 typhoon in the North-West Pacific
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have successfully conducted a simultaneous marine and atmospheric measurements at multiple locations directly beneath a violent, Category 5, which is the strongest class, typhoon in the North-West Pacific, before it reached land.
Published Engineers create bacteria that can synthesize an unnatural amino acid
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have engineered bacteria to synthesize an amino acid that contains a rare functional group that others have shown to have implications in the regulation of our immune system. The researchers also taught a single bacterial strain to create the amino acid and place it at specific sites within target proteins. These findings provide a foundation for developing unique vaccines and immunotherapies in the future.
Published Researchers examine cooling power plants with brackish groundwater
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Nontraditional water sources can be deployed to help cope with climate-induced water risks and tackle the increasing water demand for decarbonization of fossil fuel-fired power plants, but that could increase the cost of electricity generation by 8 percent to 10 percent.
Published Researchers find new mechanism for sodium salt detoxification in plants
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team of researchers has found a mechanism in thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) which enables plants to provide protection against salt stress for their sensitive stem cells in the meristem at the root tip.
Published How a drought affects trees depends on what's been holding them back
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Droughts can be good for trees. Certain trees, that is. Contrary to expectation, sometimes a record-breaking drought can increase tree growth. Why and where this happens is the subject of a new article.
Published What you count is not necessarily what counts
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Seawater is full of bacteria, hundreds of thousands live in every liter. But the sheer number of bacteria living in the water does not necessarily mean a lot. More important is how active they are and how quickly they duplicate.
Published A multiomics approach provides insights into flu severity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers were able to identify changes in the accessibility (that is, the 'readability') of transposable elements. To do this, the researchers used an approach combining various sets of multiomics data, which characterize and quantify collections of biomolecules in cells or organisms. One was the transcriptome, which consists of all copies of RNA transcribed from DNA in the cell. The other was the epigenome, which is the collection of chemical changes to DNA that modify gene expression. An advantage of this multiomics approach is that they were able to identify families of transposable elements with changes in accessibility, which would have likely been missed by previous approaches.
Published Designing synthetic receptors for precise cell control
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have developed a groundbreaking new technique for engineering biosensors that respond sensitively to specific biomolecules, enhancing cell migration and targeting in cancer treatment. The findings could lead to more precise control over cellular processes for a wide range of therapeutic applications.
Published Earlier snowpack melt in Western US could bring summer water scarcity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Mountain snowpack, typically seen as the water tower of the Western United States and Canada, is in decline, according to a new study. Researchers created the Snow Storage Index to assess snow water storage from 1950-2013 and found that storage has significantly declined in more than 25% of the Mountain West, in part because more snow is melting during winter and spring.
Published Under control to the very end -- how our cells kill themselves
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Every day, millions of cells die in our body. Other than generally assumed, cells do not simply burst at the end of their lives but rather, a specific protein serves as a breaking point for cell membrane rupture. Researchers have now been able to elucidate the exact mechanism at the atomic level.
Published A guide through the genome
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Plants show enormous variety in traits relevant to breeding, such as plant height, yield and resistance to pests. One of the greatest challenges in modern plant research is to identify the differences in genetic information that are responsible for this variation.
Published How plants use sugar to produce roots
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Along with sugar reallocation, a basic molecular mechanism within plants controls the formation of new lateral roots. Botanists have demonstrated that it is based on the activity of a certain factor, the target of rapamycin (TOR) protein. A better understanding of the processes that regulate root branching at the molecular level could contribute to improving plant growth and therefore crop yields, according to the research team leader.
Published Communities should reconsider walking away from curbside recycling, study shows
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers took a deep dive into the economic and environmental value of community recycling efforts and compared it to the value of other climate change mitigation practices, concluding it provides a return on investment.