When plants are infected by pathogens, suffer from a lack of water or have to react to other external stimuli, the first thing they do is increase the proton and calcium concentration in the affected cells. The protons and calcium ions then act like messenger substances that trigger further reactions in the cell. The interactions […]
Morning people may have inherited Neanderthal genes People’s predisposition to wake up early may be linked to inherited genetic variants from Neanderthals, who lived at high latitudes in Europe and Asia and evolved to cope with seasonal variation in daylight. Full Story: CNN Lights attract migrating birds into cities at night Light pollution draws migratory […]
Human beings first disturbed moon dust on Sept. 13, 1959, when the USSR’s unmanned spacecraft Luna 2 alighted on the lunar surface. In the following decades, more than a hundred other spacecraft have touched the moon — both crewed and uncrewed, sometimes landing and sometimes crashing. The most famous of these were NASA’s Apollo Lunar […]
Warming waters may release methane “fire-ice” Methane hydrate, or fire-ice, frozen underneath the ocean floor can thaw and release methane into the atmosphere as the climate warms. Researchers used 3D seismic imaging techniques to examine a portion of fire-ice off the coast of Mauritania and discovered that some dislodged methane moved from a hydrate stability […]
The detection, identification, and analysis of macromolecules is needed in many areas of life sciences, including protein research, diagnostics, and analytics. Mass spectrometry is often used as a detection system for proteins – a method that typically separates charged particles (ions) according to their mass-to-charge-ratio and measures the intensity of the signals generated by a […]
Dinosaurs may have influenced evolution of human aging The genetic foundations of the human aging process may have evolved from the pressure that dinosaurs put on mammals 100 million years ago. “While humans are among the longest-living animals, there are many reptiles and other animals that have a much slower aging process and show minimal […]
Hopfions, magnetic spin structures predicted decades ago, have become a hot and challenging research topic in recent years. The first experimental evidence has just been presented in Nature . A deeper understanding of how different components of materials function is important for the development of innovative materials and future technology. The research field of spintronics […]
Army ants use collective decision-making when hunting Ants use relatively sophisticated problem-solving abilities to collectively overcome obstacles when hunting for food. The insects often build a bridge by linking their bodies when they face an obstacle, such as a gap between leaves, suggesting that the insects exercise collective decision-making and weigh the costs and benefits […]
Purple bronze Scientists have discovered a rare phenomenon that could hold the key to creating a ‘perfect switch’ in quantum devices which flips between being an insulator and superconductor. The research found these two opposing electronic states exist within lithium molybdenum purple bronze, a unique one-dimensional metal composed of individual conducting chains of atoms. Tiny […]
Bonobos show pro-social cooperation between groups Bonobos demonstrate cooperation between different social groups such as forming alliances and sharing food, according to a study of wild adult bonobos in the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bonobos show that the ability to maintain peaceful between-group relationships while extending acts of pro-sociality and […]