Category: Science

Save twice the ice by limiting global warming

Save twice the ice by limiting global warming

A new study finds that if global warming exceeds the Paris Climate Agreement targets, the non-polar glacier mass will diminish significantly. However, if warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, at least 54 per cent could be preserved — more than twice as much ice as in a 2.7 C scenario. …read more

Birds nested in Arctic alongside dinosaurs

Birds nested in Arctic alongside dinosaurs

Spring in the Arctic brings forth a plethora of peeps and downy hatchlings as millions of birds gather to raise their young. The same was true 73 million years ago, according to a new article. The paper documents the earliest-known example of birds nesting in the polar regions. …read more

Birds nested in Arctic alongside dinosaurs

Birds nested in Arctic alongside dinosaurs

Spring in the Arctic brings forth a plethora of peeps and downy hatchlings as millions of birds gather to raise their young. The same was true 73 million years ago, according to a new article. The paper documents the earliest-known example of birds nesting in the polar regions. …read more

Leprosy existed in America long before arrival of Europeans

Leprosy existed in America long before arrival of Europeans

Long considered a disease brought to the Americas by European colonizers, leprosy may actually have a much older history on the American continent. Scientists reveal that a recently identified second species of bacteria responsible for leprosy, Mycobacterium lepromatosis, has been infecting humans in the Americas for at least 1,000 years, several centuries before the Europeans arrived. …read more

Leprosy existed in America long before arrival of Europeans

Leprosy existed in America long before arrival of Europeans

Long considered a disease brought to the Americas by European colonizers, leprosy may actually have a much older history on the American continent. Scientists reveal that a recently identified second species of bacteria responsible for leprosy, Mycobacterium lepromatosis, has been infecting humans in the Americas for at least 1,000 years, several centuries before the Europeans arrived. …read more

Kinetic coupling — breakthrough in understanding biochemical networks

Kinetic coupling — breakthrough in understanding biochemical networks

A new concept of kinetic modules in biochemical networks could revolutionize the understanding of how these networks function. Scientists succeeded in linking the structure and dynamics of biochemical networks via kinetic modules, thus clarifying a systems biology question that has been open for longtime. …read more

Mid-air transformation helps flying, rolling robot to transition smoothly

Mid-air transformation helps flying, rolling robot to transition smoothly

Engineers have developed a real-life Transformer that has the ‘brains’ to morph in midair, allowing the drone-like robot to smoothly roll away and begin its ground operations without pause. The increased agility and robustness of such robots could be particularly useful for commercial delivery systems and robotic explorers. …read more

Zika virus uses cells’ ‘self-care’ system to turn against host

Zika virus uses cells’ ‘self-care’ system to turn against host

A new study reveals the biological secret to the Zika virus’s infectious success: Zika uses host cells’ own ‘self-care’ system of clearing away useless molecules to suppress the host proteins that the virus has employed to get into those cells in the first place. …read more

Megalodon: The broad diet of the megatooth shark

Megalodon: The broad diet of the megatooth shark

Contrary to widespread assumptions, the largest shark that ever lived — Otodus megalodon — fed on marine creatures at various levels of the food pyramid and not just the top. Scientists analyzed the zinc content of a large sample of fossilized megalodon teeth, which had been unearthed above all in Sigmaringen and Passau, and compared them with fossil teeth found elsewhere and the teeth of animals that inhabit our planet today. …read more

Flowers unfold with surprising precision, despite unruly genes

Flowers unfold with surprising precision, despite unruly genes

Flowers grow stems, leaves and petals in a perfect pattern again and again. A new study shows that even in this precise, patterned formation in plants, gene activity inside individual cells is far more chaotic than it appears. …read more