Using a new method to track groundwater levels and greenhouse gas emissions, researchers uncover the climate impact of Southeast Asia's peatlands. In Indonesia, Malaysia, and other parts of Southeast Asia, vast areas spanning up to 300,000 square kilometers have emerged over thousands of years as plants grow and thrive in dense tropical peat swamp forests, then die and slowly decompose in waterlogged, low-oxygen conditions. [...]
Dr. Leonardos Gkouvelis, researcher at LMU's University Observatory Munich and member of the ORIGINS Excellence Cluster, has solved a fundamental mathematical problem that had obstructed the interpretation of exoplanet atmospheres for decades. In a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, Gkouvelis presents the first closed-form analytical theory of transmission spectroscopy that accounts for how atmospheric opacity varies with pressure—an effect that is crucial in the scientific exploration of real atmospheres but had until now been considered mathematically intractable. [...]
Using data collected by NASA's Parker Solar Probe during its closest approach to the sun, a University of Arizona-led research team has measured the dynamics and ever-changing "shell" of hot gas from where the solar wind originates. [...]
As the sun rises over the Kalahari Desert, meerkat groups emerge from their burrows and gather closely, turning their bodies toward the warmth of the early light. These quiet morning moments are more than a way to warm up; they offer a revealing glimpse into the social lives of these highly cooperative mammals. [...]
A large share of medicines developed today may never reach patients for a surprisingly simple reason: they cannot dissolve well enough in water. For most treatments, the oral route remains the gold standard because it is convenient and familiar. However, for a pill to work, its active ingredients must first dissolve in the fluids of the gastrointestinal tract before they can be absorbed into the bloodstream. [...]
Time-dependent driving has become a powerful tool for creating novel nonequilibrium phases such as discrete time crystals and Floquet topological phases, which do not exist in static systems. Breaking continuous time-translation symmetry typically leads to the outcome that driven quantum systems absorb energy and eventually heat up toward a featureless infinite-temperature state, where coherent structure is lost. [...]
Astronomers at Texas A&M University have discovered a rare, tightly packed collision of galaxies in the early universe, suggesting that galaxies were interacting and shaping their surroundings far earlier than scientists had predicted. Using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the researchers identified an ongoing merger event of at least five galaxies about 800 million years after the Big Bang, along with evidence that the collision was redistributing heavy elements beyond the galaxies themselves. [...]
A comprehensive new review paper reveals the staggering loss of biodiversity among island land snails globally. Lead author Robert Cowie of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) and co-authors note that "devastation" is not a hyperbolic term, pointing out that extinction rates on high volcanic islands commonly range from 30% to as high as 80%. [...]
New research conducted by paleontologists from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the CNRS (France) documents the earliest occurrence of a fossilized regurgitation produced by a strictly terrestrial predator from the early Permian Bromacker locality. Led by MfN doctoral researcher Arnaud Rebillard, the international team identified the bone content preserved within the regurgitation and discovered remains belonging to three animals of different species and body sizes. [...]
A group of ocean bacteria long considered perfectly adapted to life in nutrient-poor waters may be more vulnerable to environmental change than scientists realized. The bacteria, known as SAR11, dominate surface seawater worldwide and can make up as much as 40% of marine bacterial cells. [...]
In the realm of marine biogeography, there is a widely held scientific principle: the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific oceans are worlds apart. If you dive in Brazil and then in Okinawa, you expect to see entirely different groups of fish and coral. But according to a new global study published in Frontiers of Biogeography, one group of colorful hexacorals, anemone-like creatures—known as zoantharians—is breaking all the rules. [...]
When partners work from home, constant digital interruptions increase after-work frustration, strain couples' relationships, and place a heavier psychological burden on women, UNSW research has found. [...]
Public housing high-rises, common in the late 20th century, often siloed residents from surrounding communities. "You had these big towers that were in the middle of large courtyards, spaced far away from other residents," said Matthew Staiger, a research scientist with Harvard's Opportunity Insights. "It was extremely obvious where the public housing started and ended." [...]
Bacteria that thrive on Earth may not make it in the alien lands of Mars. A potential deterrent is perchlorate, a toxic chlorine-containing chemical discovered in Martian soil during various space missions. [...]
The future of work is being rewritten by artificial intelligence (AI)—but technology competence alone will not be enough to empower the workforce of the future. While AI has massive potential to improve efficiency, accuracy, and productivity in the workplace, it's less clear how it will evolve to foster the person-centered concerns that all businesses face. [...]
A Chinese personal safety app called Are You Dead?—recently rebranded as Demumu—has gone viral in recent weeks, attracting widespread media attention. [...]
Australia has always had heat waves. But this week's heat wave in southeastern Australia is something else. Temperatures in some inland towns in South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria were up to 20°C above average for the time of year, which meteorologists described as "incredibly abnormal." Victoria's heat record toppled after Walpeup and Hopetoun hit 48.9°C. The heat is set to continue until Saturday in some areas. [...]
This week, Victoria recorded its hottest day in nearly six years. On Jan. 27, the northwest towns of Walpeup and Hopetoun reached 48.9°C, and the temperature in parts of Melbourne soared over 45°C. Towns in South Australia also broke heat records. [...]
Filing taxes every year is an important and necessary task in Canada. But for many, tax preparation and filing can be overwhelming. One reason is that tax forms can sometimes be hard to interpret, especially because most people only deal with them once a year. [...]
Far from simply a source of unstructured online content, disaster management in the digital age can be supported by careful analysis of online social-media data, suggests a paper published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS) titled "Social Media for Managing Disasters Triggered by Natural Hazards: A Critical Review of Data Collection Strategies and Actionable Insights." [...]
A U.S.-Indian Earth satellite's ability to see through clouds, revealing insights and characteristics of our planet's surface, is on display in a colorful, newly released image showing the Mississippi River Delta region in southeastern Louisiana. [...]
Babies and very young sauropods—the long-necked, long-tailed plant-eaters that in adulthood were the largest animals to have ever walked on land—were a key food sustaining predators in the Late Jurassic, according to a new study led by a UCL (University College London) researcher. [...]
The Sierra Nevada snowpack, the source of nearly one-third of California's water supply, is looking a little like a New Year's resolution: full of hope and promise at the beginning of January, but now struggling with a bothersome reality check. Starting on Christmas Eve, big storms dumped 7 to 8 feet of new snow across the Lake Tahoe area over a two-week period, ending a dry December and drenching the rest of the state with rain. [...]
New research looks at carbon dioxide removal—where carbon is absorbed from the atmosphere and stored—and finds that large-scale reliance on land-based methods, such as planting forests or bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), can protect biodiversity by avoiding climate impacts, but could also compete with biodiversity protection unless site selection criteria are refined. [...]
With insect farming projected to produce millions of tons of insects in the coming years, Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers offer evidence that the insect farming byproduct called "frass" can improve soil health and reduce insect damage in soybean crops. [...]
Argentina's government on Thursday declared an emergency in Patagonia, where wildfires have ripped through vast tracts of forest since the start of the Southern Hemisphere summer. [...]
With another wave of dangerous cold heading for the U.S. South on Friday, experts say the risk of hypothermia heightens for people in parts of Mississippi and Tennessee who are entering their sixth day trapped at home without power in subfreezing temperatures. [...]
Scientists on a research vessel off the central California coast spotted a waved albatross, marking just the second recorded sighting of the bird north of Central America. [...]
On Jan. 27, California lawmakers took initial steps toward addressing the public safety concerns posed by the state's growing populations of wolves, mountain lions and other predators—issues the state's top environmental official called a crisis. [...]
It's been 54 years since the last Apollo mission, and since then, humans have not ventured beyond low-Earth orbit. But that's all about to change with next week's launch of the Artemis II mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. [...]
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