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Scientist reveals cause of lost magnetism at meteorite site
A scientist has discovered a method for detecting and better defining meteorite impact sites that have long lost their tell-tale craters. The discovery could further the study of not only Earth’s geology but also that of other bodies in our solar system. The key, according to work by associate research professor Gunther Kletetschka at the…
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Perceptual links between sound and shape may unlock origins of spoken words
Most people around the world agree that the made-up word ‘bouba’ sounds round in shape, and the made-up word ‘kiki’ sounds pointy — a discovery that may help to explain how spoken languages develop, according to a new study. Language scientists have discovered that this effect exists independently of the language that a person speaks…
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Dinosaurs were in decline before the end
The death of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago was caused by the impact of a huge asteroid on the Earth. However, paleontologists have continued to debate whether they were already in decline or not before the impact. Scientists now show that they were already in decline for as much as ten million years before…
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Tsunami signals to measure glacier calving in Greenland
Scientists have employed a new method utilizing tsunami signals to calculate the calving magnitude of an ocean-terminating glacier in northwestern Greenland, uncovering correlations between calving flux and environmental factors such as air temperature, ice speed, and ocean tides. It is, however, difficult to directly measure the volume of calving ice and submarine melting because conducting…
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Extinct megafauna prone to ancient ‘hunger games’
Different combinations of human hunting and climate change caused Australia’s famed ‘giant’ species to go extinct, and now it turns out that for some species, changing food availability made things worse. Sophisticated new modelling has uncovered a previously unrecognised process contributing to the disappearance of ancient megafauna communities across south-eastern Australia tens of thousands of…
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Red Sea is no longer a baby ocean
The Red Sea is a fascinating and still puzzling area of investigation for geoscientists. Controversial questions include its age and whether it represents a special case in ocean basin formation or if it has evolved similarly to other, larger ocean basins. Researchers have now published a new tectonic model that suggests that the Red Sea…
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Dairy cows exposed to heavy metals worsen antibiotic-resistant pathogen crisis
Dairy cows, exposed for a few years to drinking water contaminated with heavy metals, carry more pathogens loaded with antimicrobial-resistance genes able to tolerate and survive various antibiotics. That’s the finding of a team of researchers that conducted a study of two dairy herds in Brazil four years after a dam holding mining waste ruptured,…
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Study evaluates biodiversity impacts of alternative energy strategies
Climate change mitigation efforts have led to shifts from fossil-fuel dependence to large-scale renewable energy. However, renewable energy sources require significant land and could come at a cost to ecosystems. A new study evaluates potential conflicts between alternative energy strategies and biodiversity conservation. The study, published in Biological Conservation, evaluates potential tradeoffs between climate benefits…
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Disasters can affect cervical cancer screening for years
Screening is important for the early detection of cervical cancer, but rates were significantly affected, in some areas for years, following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. «Conflicts and disasters, and the social isolation that often follows, have a major impact on healthcare and lead to delays in the diagnosis and treatment of cancers,»…
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Cover crop mixtures must be ‘farm-tuned’ to provide maximum ecosystem services
Researchers, in a recent study, were surprised to learn that they could take the exact same number of seeds from the same plants, put them in agricultural fields across the Mid-Atlantic region and get profoundly different stands of cover crops a few months later. The study came to be known as «‘farm-tuning’ cover crop mixtures,»…