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Another reason to reduce human-made ozone: To cool a warming planet
Researchers highlight the importance of a new analysis based on Earth system modelling, showing that cleaning up ozone precursors within specific economic sectors can increase the mitigation potential of the land carbon sink by enhancing the ability of vegetation to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. In a News and Views article in…
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Engineers and biologists join forces to reveal how seals evolved to swim
Seals and sea lions are fast swimming ocean predators that use their flippers to literally fly through the water. But not all seals are the same: some swim with their front flippers while others propel themselves with their back feet. Seals and sea lions are fast swimming ocean predators that use their flippers to literally…
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Harvesting baker’s yeast for aging-related therapeutics
Researchers have successfully engineered common baker’s yeast to produce D-lysergic acid (DLA), an ingredient used in medicine for dementia and Parkinson’s Disease. In line with the growing number of seniors, the number of people living with age-related diseases such as dementia, including Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease is also expected to increase exponentially. These age-related…
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Earth’s oldest asteroid strike linked to ‘big thaw’
Scientists have discovered Earth’s oldest asteroid strike occurred at Yarrabubba, in outback Western Australia, and coincided with the end of a global deep freeze known as a Snowball Earth. The research used isotopic analysis of minerals to calculate the precise age of the Yarrabubba crater for the first time, putting it at 2.229 billion years…
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Water found in samples from asteroid Itokawa
Cosmochemists have made the first-ever measurements of water contained in samples from the surface of an asteroid. The team’s findings suggest that impacts early in Earth’s history by similar asteroids could have delivered as much as half of our planet’s ocean water. «We found the samples we examined were enriched in water compared to the…
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Engineered bacterial strains could fertilize crops, reduce waterways pollution
Researchers have engineered strains of the ubiquitous, nitrogen-fixing soil bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii to produce ammonia and excrete it at high concentrations, transferring it into crop plants in lieu of conventional chemical fertilizers. «We presented conclusive evidence that ammonia released is transferred to the rice plants,» said Florence Mus, Ph.D., assistant research professor, Institute of Biological…
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Energy spent avoiding humans associated with smaller home ranges for male pumas
New research shows that fear of humans causes mountain lions to increase their energy expenditures as they move through the landscape, and this can ultimately limit the size of the home ranges they’re able to maintain. «Mountain lions fear us, and that fear has all kinds of impacts on their behavior and ecology, and ultimately,…
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How climate change and fires are shaping the forests of the future
As temperatures rise, the risk of devastating forest fires is increasing. Researchers are using artificial intelligence to estimate the long-term impact that an increased number of forest fires will have on forest ecosystems. Their simulations show how Yellowstone National Park in the USA could change by the end of the century. In many places, fire…
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Switching DNA functions on and off by means of light
Biochemists have developed a new strategy for controlling the biological functions of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) by means of light and therefore provide a tool to investigate processes which take place in cells. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the basis of life on earth. The function of DNA is to store all the genetic information, which an…
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Great apes’ consonant and vowel-like sounds travel over distance without losing meaning
Scientists have shown that orangutan call signals believed to be closest to the precursors to human language, travel through forest over long distances without losing their meaning. This throws into question the accepted mathematical model on the evolution of human speech. The currently accepted model, developed by mathematicians, predicts that human ancestors strung sounds together…