New research has shown that traveling fires pose a risk to the structures of large open building spaces over 100m2. The lesser-known ‘travelling fires’, which travel within large building compartments rather than engulfing whole rooms at once, can cause at least as much structural damage and potential building collapse as typical fires. They are likely…

In response to environmental changes and nutrient starvation, cells are known to undergo extreme alterations. This includes switching from one type to another (‘differentiation’) and changes in metabolic pathways (‘metabolic switching’). In a new study, a research team showed for the first time how rice blast fungus uses its own cell wall to survive in…

A new study connects the proximity of fracking to higher household concentrations of radon gas, the second leading cause of lung cancer in the US. Measuring and geocoding data from 118,421 homes across all 88 counties in Ohio between 2007 and 2014, scientists found that closer distance to the 1,162 fracking wells is linked to…

A two-volume atlas presents and explains the impact sites of meteorites and asteroids worldwide. The formation of craters by asteroid and comet impact has always been a fundamental process in the solar system, explains Kenkmann. As the planets developed along with their moons, these impacts played an important part in accreting planetary mass, shaping the…

Studying cognition in the wild is a challenge. Field researchers and their study animals face many factors that can easily interfere with their variables of interest and that many say are ‘impossible’ to control for. A novel observational approach for field research can now guide young scholars, who want to study cognition in the field…

Given the sheer number of potential enemies, plants are resistant to most pests, even if they can cause damage to other plants. Researchers describe a newly discovered mechanism that protects a wild tobacco species from plant sap-sucking leafhoppers. By combining different genetic screening methods with the study of chemical changes in tobacco leaves, they identified…

Prokaryotic viruses (phages) existing in activated sludge (AS), a biological treatment process widely used in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), act to regulate the composition of microbial community in the activated sludge. Phages are major bacterial predators, through virus-host interactions with key bacterial populations in AS systems, they can influence the removal efficiency of pollutants. Phages…

A new study found that measuring the time it takes for a radar pulse to travel from a satellite to the sea surface and back again can reveal the thickness of river ice and dates when it is safe to travel on ice roads and bridges in Arctic regions. Many northern communities in Canada rely…

Insights into the oxidation of hydrocarbons at vanadium pentoxide pave the way for a new catalyst design. In the crystal structure of vanadium pentoxide, three different types of oxygen atoms are distinguished by how they link neighbouring vanadium atoms. The vibrational spectra of the oxide measured by Raman spectroscopy differ when the oxygen atoms with…

Researchers have discovered that plants may be able to control the genetics of their intimate root symbionts — the organism with which they live in symbiosis — thereby providing a better understanding of their growth. In addition to having a significant impact on all terrestrial ecosystems, their discovery may lead to improved eco-friendly agricultural applications.…