Follow ScienceDaily - Environment, filter it, and define how you want to receive the news (via Email, RSS, Telegram, WhatsApp etc.) https://follow.it/rss51 Fri, 31 Mar 2023 21:48:32 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKNeqYJvHFUPXcb1naedg1wr Engineering researchers have developed a novel way to capture carbon dioxide from the air and store it in the 'infinite sink' of the ocean. The approach uses an innovative copper-containing polymeric filter and essentially converts CO2 into sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda) that can be released harmlessly into the ocean. This new hybrid material, or filter, is called DeCarbonHIX (i.e., decarbonization through hybrid ion exchange material). The research has demonstrated a 300 percent increase in the amount of carbon captured compared with existing direct air capture methods.]]> Fri, 31 Mar 2023 19:15:14 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKNeqYJvHFUPXcb1naedg1wr https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKNeqYJvHFUPXaCY3L745TL_ In the early 2000s, scientists observed lightning discharge producing X-rays comprising high energy photons -- the same type used for medical imaging. Researchers could recreate this phenomenon in the lab, but they could not fully explain how and why lightning produced X-rays. Now, two decades later, a team has discovered a new physical mechanism explaining naturally occurring X-rays associated with lightning activity in the Earth's atmosphere.]]> Fri, 31 Mar 2023 19:15:01 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKNeqYJvHFUPXaCY3L745TL_ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKNeqYJvHFUPXSlmFkX7M1Jw Today, ants are pretty much everywhere. To learn more about how these insects conquered the world, scientists used a combination of fossils, DNA, and data on the habitat preferences of modern species to piece together how ants and plants have been evolving together over the past 60 million years. They found that when flowering plants spread out from forests, the ants followed, kicking off the evolution of the thousands of ant species alive today.]]> Fri, 31 Mar 2023 18:06:53 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKNeqYJvHFUPXSlmFkX7M1Jw https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKOBaxfuwkLqhl1cWWor9YPv Shigella bacteria can infect humans but not mice. A team can now explain why. Their findings may explain the multifariousness of a key weapon of our immune system.]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2023 23:22:15 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKOBaxfuwkLqhl1cWWor9YPv https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKMJRd8DdlxVp5VjH6qdYdAk Antarctic circulation could slow by more than 40 per cent over the next three decades, with significant implications for the oceans and the climate.]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2023 16:23:27 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKMJRd8DdlxVp5VjH6qdYdAk https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKNxiRdIlQa-o-zdsCmHakzH Scientists often look to the past for clues about how Earth's landscapes might shift under a changing climate, and for insight into the migrations of human communities through time. A new study offers both by providing, for the first time, a reconstruction of prehistoric temperatures for some of the first known North American settlements.]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2023 16:21:41 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKNxiRdIlQa-o-zdsCmHakzH https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKMz4bMBPllwwps0ohxaO6Yr A group of researchers discovered that the rhodopsin -- a protein in the eye that detects light -- of whale sharks has changed to efficiently detect blue light, which penetrates deep-sea water easily. The amino acid substitutions -- one of which is counterintuitively associated with congenital stationary night blindness in humans -- aid in detecting the low levels of light in the deep-sea. Although these changes make the whale shark rhodopsin less thermally stable the deep-sea temperature, allows their rhodopsin to keep working. This suggests that the unique adaptation evolved to function in the low-light low-temperature environment where whale sharks live.]]> Wed, 29 Mar 2023 15:19:33 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKMz4bMBPllwwps0ohxaO6Yr https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKMz4bMBPllwwsb1naedg1wr Even supposedly adaptable mammal species face increased risk of extinction.]]> Tue, 28 Mar 2023 20:54:15 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKMz4bMBPllwwsb1naedg1wr https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKMz4bMBPllwwilmFkX7M1Jw Data from 124 societies shows that dogs' functions predict their treatment, with closer bonds forming in societies where dogs have multiple roles.]]> Tue, 28 Mar 2023 20:53:43 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKMz4bMBPllwwilmFkX7M1Jw https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKPUANRpJjtRNKCY3L745TL_ Researchers identify the most promising advancements and greatest challenges of artificial mitochondria and chloroplasts. The team describes the components required to construct synthetic mitochondria and chloroplasts and identifies proteins as the most important aspects for molecular rotary machinery, proton transport, and ATP production. The authors believe it is important to create artificial cells with biologically realistic energy-generation methods that mimic natural processes; replicating the entire cell could lead to future biomaterials.]]> Tue, 28 Mar 2023 20:52:22 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKPUANRpJjtRNKCY3L745TL_ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKOO0FCcvoNUosb1naedg1wr Female giant African pouched rats, used for sniffing out landmines and detecting tuberculosis, can undergo astounding reproductive organ transformations, according to a new study.]]> Mon, 27 Mar 2023 22:32:18 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKOO0FCcvoNUosb1naedg1wr https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKOO0FCcvoNUoilmFkX7M1Jw A new study using simulations identified two tipping points for the Greenland Ice Sheet: releasing 1000 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere will cause the southern portion of the ice sheet to melt; about 2500 gigatons of carbon means permanent loss of nearly the entire ice sheet. Having emitted about 500 gigatons of carbon, we're about halfway to the first tipping point.]]> Mon, 27 Mar 2023 22:32:12 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKOO0FCcvoNUoilmFkX7M1Jw https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKOKrSBRUuz2XOzdsCmHakzH A nutrition scientist who has spent his career studying breast milk has demonstrated how beneficial microbes in the gut of infants use nitrogen from human milk to support pediatric nutrition and development.]]> Mon, 27 Mar 2023 22:06:17 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKOKrSBRUuz2XOzdsCmHakzH https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKPmwwc6kKORU5VjH6qdYdAk The cold blast of an air conditioner can be a relief as temperatures soar, but 'A/C' units require large amounts of energy and can leak greenhouse gases. Today, scientists report an eco-friendly alternative -- a plant-based film that cools when exposed to sunlight and comes in many textures and bright, iridescent colors. The material could someday keep buildings, cars and other structures cool without requiring power.]]> Mon, 27 Mar 2023 17:49:20 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKPmwwc6kKORU5VjH6qdYdAk https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKOKENrb1y5Wncb1naedg1wr Squids and octopuses are masters of camouflage. But some aspects of how they become reversibly transparent are still 'unclear,' because researchers can't culture cephalopod skin cells in the lab. Now, researchers have replicated the tunable transparency of squid skin in mammalian cells, which are more easily cultured.]]> Mon, 27 Mar 2023 17:49:05 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKOKENrb1y5Wncb1naedg1wr https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKMgbM6kur7nSOzdsCmHakzH A new discovery changes ideas about the origin of branching in plants.]]> Mon, 27 Mar 2023 17:48:34 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKMgbM6kur7nSOzdsCmHakzH https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKMYhISiFvEzLXn9ye8UNv30 Most climate models do not yet account for a recent discovery: methane traps a great deal of heat in Earth's atmosphere, but also creates cooling clouds that offset 30% of the heat.]]> Mon, 27 Mar 2023 17:48:26 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKMYhISiFvEzLXn9ye8UNv30 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKNG_tXP2ee5cpVjH6qdYdAk Volcanic relics scattered throughout the Australian landscape are a map of the northward movement of the continent over a 'hotspot' inside the Earth, during the last 35 million years.]]> Fri, 24 Mar 2023 15:35:18 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKNG_tXP2ee5cpVjH6qdYdAk https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKN_5GDEAaZdp8b1naedg1wr Researchers have discovered how a South African daisy makes fake lady flies on its petals to trick male flies into pollinating it.]]> Thu, 23 Mar 2023 19:55:24 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKN_5GDEAaZdp8b1naedg1wr https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKM-I7TTMFE15cb1naedg1wr Research has revealed that diversity in genes coding for immunity may have facilitated adaptation to farming lifestyles in prehistoric periods.]]> Thu, 23 Mar 2023 19:55:19 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/dFe7vigFEKM-I7TTMFE15cb1naedg1wr