Chemists have found a new use for the waste product of nuclear power — transforming an unused stockpile into a versatile compound which could be used to create valuable commodity chemicals as well as new energy sources. Depleted uranium (DU) is a radioactive by-product from the process used to create nuclear energy. Many fear the…

The smoke from the extreme forest fires on the US West Coast in September 2020 travelled over many thousands of kilometers to Central Europe, where it continued to affect the atmosphere for days afterwards. A comparison of ground and satellite measurements now shows: The forest fire aerosol disturbed the free troposphere over Leipzig in Germany…

One reason ticks spread Lyme disease so well goes back to a unique evolutionary event. Researchers discovered that an antibacterial enzyme in ticks, Dae2, protects them from bacteria found on human skin, while still allowing them to harbor Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Ticks acquired the gene for this enzyme 40 million…

Seasonally pumped hydropower storage could provide an affordable way to store renewable energy over the long-term, filling a much needed gap to support the transition to renewable energy, according to a new study. «The energy sectors of most countries are undergoing a transition to renewable energy sources, particularly wind and solar generation,» says IIASA postdoc…

The heights of La Soufriere de Guadeloupe volcano can be hellish, sweltering at more than 48 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) and swathed in billows of acidic gas. Researchers would like to monitor gas and steam eruptions at its summit, to learn more about the volcano’s explosive potential, but conventional seismometers are destroyed quickly in…

An elusive whale species in the Southern Ocean could be resilient to near-future ecosystem changes, according to a new study. Gray’s beaked whales living in the deep oceans of the Southern Hemisphere are rarely seen alive and their ecology has remained a mystery to scientists until now. The study used genome sequencing of 22 whales…

During Earth’s last glacial period, temperatures on the planet periodically spiked dramatically and rapidly. A new article suggests that mathematics from information theory could offer a powerful tool for analyzing and understanding these mysterious events. «In many systems, before an extreme event, information dynamics become disordered,» says Joshua Garland, a postdoctoral fellow at the Santa…

In a large study of Chinese cats, genetic detectives highlight the evolutionary uniqueness and premier conservation importance of the elusive Chinese mountain cat (Felis silvestris bieti), found only in the Tibetan plateau of China. In the largest-ever study undertaken of Chinese cats, genetic detectives highlight the evolutionary uniqueness and premier conservation importance of the elusive…

Researchers have published a dataset that was recorded from the visual cortex of monkeys during the resting state. The dataset consists of electrophysiology data that was recorded from the visual cortex (V1 and V4) of two monkeys, from 1024 recording sites simultaneously during the resting state, and it also includes supporting datasets obtained while the…

Hydrogen gas and methanol for fuel cells or as raw materials for the chemicals industry, for example, could be produced more sustainably using sunlight, a new study shows. In this study, researchers have developed a new coating material for semiconductors that may create new opportunities to produce fuels in processes that combine direct sunlight with…