Australian rodents skulls all correspond to one simple, size-dependent shape that is more than ten million years old but it turns out this lack of change is the secret behind their survivor reputation. A new study, co-led by scientists from Flinders University and The University of Queensland, has revealed that the skulls of rodents resemble…

Previous fires may hold the key to predicting and reducing the severity of future wildfires in the western United States as fire activity continues to increase, according to researchers. «We have a good understanding of how fire used to interact with dry, forested landscapes before we implemented the policy of fire suppression, and how fire…

New research has shed light on how transmission of gut bacteria influences its evolution and functions. This novel research, by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, used genetic sequencing to shed new light on the evolution, colonisation and transmission of gut bacteria, which play a large role in human health. The study, published today (5…

Researchers have developed a continuous seismic monitoring system that could monitor multiple geothermal or carbon storage reservoirs over a relatively large area in real time. A small seismic source generates repeated ‘chirps,’ which can be detected by fiber-optic cables within a radius of 80 km from the source. Field experiments showed that temporal changes in…

Researchers are investigating the science of food drying to design faster, cheaper and better ways to store food. Published in journal PLOS ONE, researchers used QUT’s supercomputing facilities to examine the micromechanical behaviour of plant tissues and how biological cells behave while dehydrated or dried. Lead investigator Dr Charith Rathnayaka is a computational scientist from…

Roughly 35 million years ago, Earth cooled rapidly. At roughly the same time, the Drake Passage formed between South America and the Antarctic, paving the way for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Thanks to these two factors, Antarctica was soon completely covered in ice. This massive glaciation was delayed in at least one region. For climate…

Forest fires have crept higher up mountains over the past few decades, scorching areas previously too wet to burn, according to researchers. As wildfires advance uphill, a staggering 11% of all Western US forests are now at risk. «Climate change and drought conditions in the West are drying out high-elevation forests, making them particularly susceptible…

In humans and other eukaryotes, two principal epigenetic marks are known. A team has discovered a third, novel epigenetic mark — one formerly known only in bacteria — in bdelloid rotifers, small freshwater animals. Epigenetic marks are modifications to DNA bases that don’t change the underlying genetic code, but ‘write’ extra information on top of…

Researchers revealed for the first time growth rates of deep-sea coral communities and the pattern of colonization by various species over time scales of centuries to millennia. Age-dated submarine lava flows helped constrain maximum ages of coral communities. The scientific team used the UH Manoa Hawai’i Undersea Research Laboratory’s submersible and remotely-operated vehicles to examine…

In an oceanic omen for climate change’s intensifying effects, new research shows that seagrass suffers from a lesion-filled wasting disease through large swaths of intertidal meadows in the Pacific Northwest. The grasses’ once-vibrant plant root systems are deteriorating, too. The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. «Not only are we seeing…