Global climate models, such as the Energy Exascale Earth System Model developed by the U.S. Department of Energy, rely on many underlying equations that simulate Earth's natural processes. These include the water cycle, carbon dioxide uptake by land and water, and rates of ice melt.
While there's no regulation in the U.S. for what's in organic shampoos, they tend to contain ingredients perceived as safe or environmentally friendly. However, these "clean" shampoos separate and spoil faster than those made with synthetic stabilizers and preservatives. Now, researchers in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering demonstrate that a simple process—spinning organic shampoo at high speeds—improved the final products' shelf lives and ability to clean hair.
Protected areas have been the cornerstone of efforts to conserve nature for more than a century. Most countries have some form of protected areas, national parks being the best-known examples. A key element of protected areas is that they are dedicated, through legal or other effective means, to long-term conservation of nature.
Swifts need two things. Safe, dry, nest holes high up on walls and lots of flying insects to eat—but both are in decreasing supply.
The rules of legal practice are highly localized. Every country sets rules that determine how lawyers qualify professionally and what they are allowed to do.
Lush underwater forests formed by large brown seaweeds known as kelp are among the most abundant and productive coastal ecosystems in Canada.
Researchers have explained the mechanisms behind a counterintuitive phenomenon: Making a phase transition effective requires less energy if it is initiated by two pulses of light instead of just one. The energy needed to complete the phase transition has been reduced by 6% and could be further optimized. These results have the potential to be transferred to other materials, offering new avenues for precise material control and technological innovation.
Optimizing electrochemical reactions is essential for the transition to renewable energies. In electrochemical reactions, electric currents and potential differences are used to binding and induce reactions. Electrochemistry is a pre-requisite for hydrogen production, and for battery technology, and thus for sustainable chemistry.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biology have produced intriguing evidence of how environmental factors and genetic adaptation can lead to the evolution of novel and aggressive traits and behaviors in nematodes.
Rice has become a big part of Ghanaians' daily diet. The country consumes about 1.45 million tons a year—but produces only 987,000 tons, approximately 68% of that.
The Israeli army used a new artificial intelligence (AI) system to generate lists of tens of thousands of human targets for potential airstrikes in Gaza, according to a report published last week. The report comes from the nonprofit outlet +972 Magazine, which is run by Israeli and Palestinian journalists.
New options for making finely structured soft, flexible and expandable materials called hydrogels have been developed by researchers at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT).
The federal carbon tax increase that has raised gas prices by three cents per liter in most Canadian provinces has been met by nationwide protests, many featuring slurs against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The majority of California's reservoirs are above their historic average levels following the end of two wet winters.
Key backup tubes inside the Glen Canyon Dam might be damaged, potentially threatening the delivery of water to Lake Mead in the future if water levels ever dip too low in Lake Powell, according to a Bureau of Reclamation memo.
An international team of researchers led by groups from the Max Planck Institute in Marburg and the Philipps University in Marburg has stumbled upon the first regular molecular fractal in nature. They discovered a microbial enzyme—citrate synthase from a cyanobacterium—that spontaneously assembles into a pattern known as the Sierpinski triangle. Electron microscopy and evolutionary biochemistry studies indicate that this fractal may represent an evolutionary accident.
EPFL researchers have developed GEMLI, a pioneering tool that could democratize and vastly improve how we study the journey of cells from their embryonic state through to specialized roles in the body, as well as their changes in cancer and other diseases. The advance is reported in Nature Communications.
Life sciences have never been more digital. To learn more about life processes, biologists are collecting massive quantities of data that computer scientists analyze by means of sophisticated computational models that they develop.
A research team at the University of Hohenheim and Technical University of Munich has developed a new transdisciplinary approach to resolve the tradeoff between biodiversity and agricultural production.
A team of experts from the University of Barcelona and the company Sensofar Tech have designed an innovative technology to obtain three-dimensional images of a study sample quickly, accurately and non-invasively. The work has been published in Nature Communications.
Photosynthesis is a complex process, involving many pathways and puzzle pieces working together to keep the organism alive.
As an important subduction component, altered oceanic crust (AOC) is widely distributed on the oceanic subducting slab and may contribute significantly to the chemistry of arc magmas. However, identifying this contribution in arc magmas is challenging because AOC is not as enriched in incompatible elements as sediments, nor does it have as high H2O concentrations as do serpentinites. Therefore, it is necessary to find a sensitive tracer for subducted AOC.
Understanding water behavior in nanopores is crucial for both science and practical applications. Scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) have revealed the remarkable behavior of water and ice under high pressure and temperature, and strong confinement.
Termites are the architects of the natural world. The nests that they build can reach meters of height, with complex and elaborate structures, galleries that ensure efficient communication and that automatically ventilate the nest interior in a way that would make the envy of human engineers. How can thousands or millions of insects coordinate their work to build solid and functional nests for the colony?
Bacterial infections pose significant challenges to agriculture and medicine, especially as cases of antibiotic-resistant bacteria continue to rise. In response, scientists at Texas A&M AgriLife Research are elucidating the ways that bacteria-infecting viruses disarm these pathogens and ushering in the possibility of novel treatment methods.
