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Categories: Environmental: Water, Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published Fossil site is 'Rosetta Stone' for understanding early life
(via sciencedaily.com) Leading edge technology has uncovered secrets about a world-renowned fossil hoard that could offer vital clues about early life on Earth. Researchers who analyzed the 400 million-year-old cache, found in rural north-east Scotland, say their findings reveal better preservation of the fossils at a molecular level than was previously anticipated.
Published Electronic skin as flexible as crocodile skin
(via sciencedaily.com) A research team has developed a crocodile-skin-inspired omnidirectionally stretchable pressure sensor.
Published New approach to harvesting aerial humidity with organic crystals
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have reported a novel method of harvesting water from naturally occurring sources such as fog and dew.
Published Review of world water resources
(via sciencedaily.com) A recent review study provides an overview of the planet's freshwater supplies and strategies for sustainably managing them.
Published Where did Earth's water come from? Not melted meteorites, according to scientists
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study brings scientists one step closer to answering the question of where Earth's water came from.
Published Recovering tropical forests offset just one quarter of carbon emissions from new tropical deforestation and forest degradation
(via sciencedaily.com) A pioneering global study has found deforestation and forests lost or damaged due to human and environmental change, such as fire and logging, are fast outstripping current rates of forest regrowth.
Published Designing more useful bacteria
(via sciencedaily.com) In a step forward for genetic engineering and synthetic biology, researchers have modified a strain of Escherichia coli bacteria to be immune to natural viral infections while also minimizing the potential for the bacteria or their modified genes to escape into the wild.
Published Air pollution impairs successful mating of flies
(via sciencedaily.com) A research team demonstrates that increased levels of ozone resulting from anthropogenic air pollution can degrade insect sex pheromones, which are crucial mating signals, and thus prevent successful reproduction. The oxidizing effect of ozone causes the carbon-carbon double bonds found in the molecules of many insect pheromones to break down. Therefore, the specific chemical mating signal is rendered dysfunctional. The researchers show this effect in the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster and nine other species of the genus Drosophila. Most remarkably, the disrupted sexual communication also led to male flies exhibiting unusual mating behavior towards ozonated males of their own species.
Published New model provides improved air-quality predictions in fire-prone areas
(via sciencedaily.com) Globally, wildfires are becoming more frequent and destructive, generating a significant amount of smoke that can be transported thousands of miles, driving the need for more accurate air pollution forecasts. Researchers have now developed a deep learning model that provides improved predictions of air quality in wildfire-prone areas and can differentiate between wildfires and non-wildfires.
Published Mirror-image molecules can modify signaling in neurons
(via sciencedaily.com) With the aid of some sea slugs, chemists have discovered that one of the smallest conceivable tweaks to a biomolecule can elicit one of the grandest conceivable consequences: directing the activation of neurons. The team has shown that the orientation of a single amino acid -- in this case, one of dozens found in the neuropeptide of a sea slug -- can dictate the likelihood that the peptide activates one neuron receptor versus another. Because different types of receptors are responsible for different neuronal activities, the finding points to another means by which a brain or nervous system can regulate the labyrinthine, life-sustaining communication among its cells.
Published The 'Rapunzel' virus: an evolutionary oddity
(via sciencedaily.com) Extremely long tail provides structural window into how bacteria-infecting viruses called phages assemble.
Published Cleaning up the atmosphere with quantum computing
(via sciencedaily.com) Practical carbon capture technologies are still in the early stages of development, with the most promising involving a class of compounds called amines that can chemically bind with carbon dioxide. Researchers now deploy an algorithm to study amine reactions through quantum computing. An existing quantum computer cab run the algorithm to find useful amine compounds for carbon capture more quickly, analyzing larger molecules and more complex reactions than a traditional computer can.
Published Microneedle-based drug delivery technique for plants
(via sciencedaily.com) The agriculture industry is under pressure to adopt sustainable and precise agricultural practices that enable more efficient use of resources due to worsening environmental conditions resulting from climate change, an ever-expanding human population, limited resources, and a shortage of arable land. As a result, developing delivery systems that efficiently distribute micronutrients, pesticides, and antibiotics in crops is crucial to ensuring high productivity and high-quality produce while minimising resource waste. However, current and standard practices for agrochemical application in plants are inefficient. These practices cause significant detrimental environmental side effects, such as water and soil contamination, biodiversity loss and degraded ecosystems; and public health concerns, such as respiratory problems, chemical exposure and food contamination.
Published Tech could help BC farmers reach customers, mitigate climate change impacts
(via sciencedaily.com) Technology exists that the BC government could leverage to help small farmers connect directly with consumers and also mitigate climate change impacts, say new findings.
Published Climate change alters a human-raptor relationship
(via sciencedaily.com) Bald Eagles and dairy farmers exist in a mutually beneficial relationship in parts of northwestern Washington State. According to a new study, this 'win-win' relationship has been a more recent development, driven by the impact of climate change on eagles' traditional winter diet of salmon carcasses, as well as by increased eagle abundance following decades of conservation efforts.
Published Switching to hydrogen fuel could prolong the methane problem
(via sciencedaily.com) Hydrogen is often heralded as the clean fuel of the future, but new research suggests that leaky hydrogen infrastructure could end up increasing atmospheric methane levels, which would cause decades-long climate consequences.
Published Researchers find decaying biomass in Arctic rivers fuels more carbon export than previously thought
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study found that plants and small organisms in Arctic rivers could be responsible for more than half the particulate organic matter flowing to the Arctic Ocean. That's a significantly greater proportion than previously estimated, and it has implications for how much carbon gets sequestered in the ocean and how much moves into the atmosphere.
Published Minke whales are as small as a lunge-feeding baleen whale can be
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study of Antarctic minke whales reveals a minimum size limit for whales employing the highly efficient 'lunge-feeding' strategy that enabled the blue whale to become the largest animal on Earth.
Published Changing landscapes alter disease-scapes
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study has?highlighted?how and when?changes to the environment result in?animal-borne disease?thresholds?being breeched, allowing for?a?better understanding and?increased?capacity to?predict?the?risk of?transmissions.
Published Arctic climate modelling too conservative
(via sciencedaily.com) Climate models used by the UN's IPCC and others to project climate change are not accurately reflecting what the Arctic's future will be, experts say.