A new study identifies several keys to sustainably managing the influx of electric vehicle batteries, with an emphasis on battery chemistry, second-life applications and recycling. A new Cornell University-led study identifies several keys to sustainably managing the influx, with an emphasis on battery chemistry, second-life applications and recycling. «What to do with all these retired…

To slow down climate change, societies tend to focus on two solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions: improving energy efficiency and developing and using renewable energy sources. A new study compared every U.S. state’s CO2 emissions with their investment in the two solutions from 2009 to 2016. The authors found no statistically significant difference between…

Researchers have discovered geologic evidence that unusually large earthquakes and tsunamis from the Tokyo region — located near tectonic plate boundaries that are recognized as a seismic hazard source — may be traceable to a previously unconsidered plate boundary. The team’s ground-breaking discovery represents a new and unconsidered seismic risk for Japan with implications for…

Archaeologists have found the first evidence of a religious diet locked inside pottery fragments excavated from the early medieval Jewish community. Keeping kosher is one of the oldest known diets across the world and, for an observant Jew, maintaining these dietary laws (known as Kashruth) is a fundamental part of everyday life. It is a…

The dramatic collapse of Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau volcano in December 2018 resulted from long-term destabilising processes, and was not triggered by any distinct changes in the magmatic system that could have been detected by current monitoring techniques, new research has found. The volcano had been erupting for around six months prior to the collapse, which…

Short growing seasons limited the possible size of hunter-gatherer societies by forcing people to rely on meat, according to a recent study. After looking at population size for the roughly 300 hunter-gatherer societies which existed until quite recently, the researchers found that many of these groups were much smaller than might have been expected from…

Researchers have discovered that the ancestors of legionella bacteria infected eukaryotic cells as early as two billion years ago. It happened soon after eukaryotes began to feed on bacteria. These results are also relevant to the chicken-or-egg debate about whether mitochondria or phagocytosis came first. «Our study can help us understand how harmful bacteria arise…

Scientists have created plants whose cells and tissues ‘blush’ with beetroot pigments when they are colonized by fungi that help them take up nutrients from the soil. This is the first time this vital, 400 million year old process has been visualized in real time in full root systems of living plants. Understanding the dynamics…

A new study found a steep decline in the development of forest and agricultural land from 2000 to 2015 compared to the previous two decades, which resulted in a broad shift towards denser development patterns throughout the U.S. A primary culprit was rising gas prices. Researchers from Oregon State University, Montana State University and the…

The origins of a pretty smile have long been sought in the fearsome jaws of living sharks which have been considered living fossils reflecting the ancestral condition for vertebrate tooth development and inference of its evolution. However, this view ignores real fossils which more accurately reflect the nature of ancient ancestors. New research led by…