182 articles from TUESDAY 15.10.2019

Last year's extreme snowfall wiped out breeding of Arctic animals and plants

In 2018, vast amounts of snow were spread across most of the Arctic region and did not melt fully until late summer, if at all. Researchers documented the consequences of this extreme weather event at Zackenberg, Northeast Greenland by extensively monitoring all components of the local ecosystem for more than 20 years, allowing them to compare life in the extreme year of 2018 to other, more...

Two new porcelain crab species discovered

Two new symbiotic porcelain crab species have been described. One of them, from the South China Sea of Vietnam, inhabits the compact tube-like shelters built by the polychaete worm with other organisms. The other inhabits the intertidal vermetid snail formations in the Colombian Caribbean.

Artificial intelligence and farmer knowledge boost smallholder maize yields

Farmers in Colombia's maize-growing region of Córdoba had seen it all: too much rain one year, a searing drought the next. Yields were down and their livelihoods hung in the balance. To better deal with climate stress, farmers in Colombia's maize-growing region of Córdoba needed information services that would help them decide what varieties to plant, when they should sow and how they should...

Frailty: The rising global health burden for an aging society

Despite the evidence on risk factors for frailty, and the substantial progress that has been made in frailty awareness, the biological mechanisms underlying its development are still far from understood and translation from research to clinical practice remains a challenge. A new article provides an up-to-date clinical overview on preventing, identifying and managing frailty as well as its global...

Experiment measures velocity in 3D

Many of today's scientific processes are simulated using computer-driven mathematical models. But for a model to accurately predict how air flow behaves at high speeds, for example, scientists need supplemental real life data. Providing validation data, using up-to-date methods, was a key motivating factor for a recent experimental study.

Increasing a woman's testosterone level boosts running capacity finds new study

In the first study of its kind, new European research has found that higher testosterone levels in females have a significant effect on a woman's ability to run for longer. One group applied 10 mg of testosterone cream to the outer thigh each day for ten weeks, the other 10 mg of an inactive (placebo) substance. The women's hormone levels and body composition -- percentage of body fat and lean...

Plantwatch: plan for spaceport raises fears for Scottish peat bog

Satellite launch site would be next to blanket bog that plays vital role in climate fight by storing carbonA new rocket launch site has been proposed in the far north of Scotland to send small satellites into space. The plan is for a £17.3m spaceport on the A’Mhòine peninsula in Sutherland, a site chosen because it is so remote and surrounded by water and open countryside in case a rocket...

The giant geode of Pulpí

The geode of Pulpí is an 11-meter hollow ovoid with crystal-paneled walls. It is like those familiar couplets of stone interiors covered with bright crystallites, but so large that several people can fit inside. The crystals, of up to two meters in size, are so transparent that they look like ice crystals. In this paper for Geology, Juan Manuel García-Ruiz and colleagues reveal the geological...

Experiment measures velocity in 3-D

Many of today's scientific processes are simulated using computer-driven mathematical models. But for a model to accurately predict how air flow behaves at high speeds, for example, scientists need supplemental real life data. Providing validation data, using up-to-date methods, was a key motivating factor for a recent experimental study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at...

Two new porcelain crab species discovered

Two new porcelain crab species have been described in the ZooKeys journal by scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and the Institut fur Tierokologie und Spezielle Zoologie der Justus-Liebig-Universitat Giessen. One of the new species, Polyonyx socialis, was discovered in the South China Sea of Vietnam. The other, Petrolisthes virgilius, has a new identity, after...

Startled fish escape using several distinct neuronal circuits

A fast knee-jerk "ballistic" escape response and a more considered "delayed" escape response are mediated by distinct and parallel neuronal pathways in zebrafish, according to a study published October 15 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Harold Burgess of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and colleagues.

Read to kids in Spanish; it'll help their English

A new study has found that children who had strong early reading skills in their native Spanish language when they entered kindergarten experienced greater growth in their ability to read English from kindergarten through fourth grade.

Targeting deeply held values crucial for inspiring pro-environmental behavior

Given the alarming pace of climate change, it is increasingly important to understand what factors motivate people to take action—or not—on environmental issues. A recent study in Sustainability Science shows that deeply held values, which align closely with political leanings, can predict whether someone takes action to protect the environment. And it suggests people on opposite ends of the...

From ribbon to scroll: Gaining shape control by electrostatics

Northwestern Engineering materials science researchers have uncovered new insights into how electrostatic interactions can be regulated to attain and control scroll-like cochleate structures, which could inform how to capture and release macromolecules in a size-selective manner as part of future drug-delivery strategies.

Piranha fish swap old teeth for new simultaneously

With the help of new technologies, a team has confirmed that piranhas lose and regrow all the teeth on one side of their face multiple times throughout their lives. How they do it may help explain why the fish go to such efforts to replace their teeth.