Phosphorus is one of the most important nutrients for plants. Among other functions, it is needed to create substances for the plant’s immune system, for the healthy development of seeds and for root growth. Researchers have now demonstrated how a root symbiosis with fungi is driven at the molecular level by the plant’s phosphate status.…

New research demonstrates that a decline in the concentration of atmospheric CO2 played a major role in driving Earth’s climate from a warm greenhouse into a cold icehouse world around 34 million years ago. This transition could be partly reversed in the next centuries due to the anthropogenic rise in CO2. Between 40 and 34…

Statisticians are sharing strategies to identify ‘super trees’ for urban areas that help mitigate pollution, flooding and heat. A new study by collaborators at Rice University, the Houston Health Department’s environmental division and Houston Wilderness establishes live oaks and American sycamores as champions among 17 «super trees» that will help make the city more livable…

A new study shows that extremely low winter temperatures high in the atmosphere over the Arctic are becoming more frequent and more extreme because of climate patterns associated with global warming. The study also shows that those extreme low temperatures are causing reactions among chemicals humans pumped into the air decades ago, leading to greater…

Anthropologists, geographers and earth scientists look to the past to assess how different cultures have — and will — adapt to global warming. Yes, say an international team of anthropologists, geographers and earth scientists in Canada, the U.S. and France led by Universite de Montreal anthropologist Ariane Burke. In a paper published today in the…

Termite fishing by chimpanzees was thought to occur in only two forms with one or multiple tools, from either above-ground or underground termite nests. By carefully observing the techniques required to termite fish at ten different sites, researchers have created a catalog of behaviors for each chimpanzee in the study. Prior to this study, termite…

A new study reports the oldest mitochondrial genome of a Neanderthal from Central-Eastern Europe. The mitochondrial genome of the tooth, discovered at the site of Stajnia Cave in Poland, is closer to a Neanderthal specimen from the Caucasus than to the contemporaneous Neanderthals of Western Europe. Stone tools found at the site are also analogous…

Ruby-throated hummingbirds use the same energy-conserving strategy to survive overnight fasts and build the fat stores they need to fuel long migrations, shows a new study. The findings help prove a long-held suspicion among scientists who study hummingbirds. They also provide new insights on the rules the birds use to determine whether to conserve energy…

Geologists have improved upon methods to map seabed rocks, helping us better understand underwater earthquakes and the tsunamis they can cause. The researchers hope that their clearer view of the rocks around these fault lines — whose movements can trigger earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis — will help them better understand why such events happen. Lead…

In the Middle Bronze Age (about 3600 years ago or roughly 1650 BCE), the city of Tall el-Hammam was ascendant. Located on high ground in the southern Jordan Valley, northeast of the Dead Sea, the settlement in its time had become the largest continuously occupied Bronze Age city in the southern Levant, having hosted early…