Other Sciences News

This transparent and photoluminescent nanocellulose paper could lead to sustainable, roll-up electronics. Image credit: American Chemical Society.

Researchers Create Glowing Nanocellulose Paper

May 20, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists at Sichuan University in China has developed the first light-emitting, transparent and flexible paper out of environmentally friendly...

Early farmers. Image credit: sjs.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Agriculture, Fall in Mobility Made Humans More ‘Domestic,’ Finds News Study

May 19, 2015 by News Staff

A new study of the bones of hundreds of humans who lived during the past 33,000 years in Europe finds the rise of agriculture and a corresponding fall...

Phytoplankton bloom in the Black Sea. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / Jeff Schmaltz / MODIS Land Rapid Response Team.

Marine Bacteria Can Control Chemistry of Sea Spray Ejected into Atmosphere

May 18, 2015 by News Staff

According to marine biologists led by Dr Kimberly Prather from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a factor that determines the properties of clouds...

Two Hadza men return from a hunt. The Hadza people are one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes left in Africa. Image credit: Andreas Lederer / CC BY 2.0.

New Study Provides Insight into Social Structure of Modern Hunter-Gatherer Tribes

May 15, 2015 by News Staff

According to new research published online today in the journal Science, sex equality in residential decision-making explains the unique social structure...

Bora Bora, the Society Islands of French Polynesia. Image credit: Maria Michelle.

Global Sea Level Rise is Accelerating, Says New Study

May 12, 2015 by News Staff

An analysis of satellite data collected during 1993-2014 has revealed a more accurate picture of global sea level rise, showing that it is happening much...

Kelvin-Helmholtz instability clouds. Image credit: Astronautilus, rodjonesphotography.co.uk / CC BY 2.0.

Kelvin-Helmholtz Waves Perturb Earth’s Magnetosphere, New Study Shows

May 12, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, the underlying physical process that creates ‘breaking wave’ cloud patterns...

Separating europium and yttrium with UV light. Image credit: University of Leuven.

Chemists Develop New Technique for Recovery of Rare Earth Metals from Fluorescent Lamps

May 11, 2015 by News Staff

A group of scientists at the University of Leuven in Belgium has developed a novel method for the recovery and separation of two rare earth elements –...

The study offers new insights into the formation of fat bloom, an unwelcome white layer that occasionally forms on chocolate. Image credit: Alexander Stein.

X-ray Study May Aid in Making Better Chocolate

May 7, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published online in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces provides information that could help chocolatiers prevent a whitish...

Small pollen particles can hold condensation for cloud formation. Image credit: Brin Weins.

Pollen Grains Can Influence Climate, Scientists Say

May 6, 2015 by News Staff

According to a team of researchers led by Prof Allison Steiner of the University of Michigan, tiny pollen particles may make it rain. Small pollen particles...

Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska. Image credit: Maria Michelle.

Fjords Play Crucial Role in Regulation of Earth’s Climate

May 5, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study in the journal Nature Geoscience, fjords absorb approximately 18 million tones of organic carbon each year, equivalent to 11 percent...

An ocean eddy (bottom of the image) as seen from space. Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory.

Scientists Find ‘Dead Zones’ in Atlantic Ocean

Apr 30, 2015 by News Staff

A group of researchers led by Dr Johannes Karstensen of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany has discovered unexpectedly low...

A hydrothermal vent at Brothers volcano, Kermadec arc, New Zealand. Image credit: NOAA.

Hydrothermal Vents Able to Create Simple Organic Molecules, Study Says

Apr 29, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study in the journal Chemical Communications, alkaline hydrothermal vents on the seabed are able to produce simple carbon-based molecules,...

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of valleys west of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, so named because of their extremely low humidity and lack of snow and ice cover. Photosynthetic bacteria have been found living in the relatively moist interior of rocks. Scientists consider the Dry Valleys to be the closest of any terrestrial environment to Mars. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / METI / ERSDAC / JAROS / ASTER Science Team.

Scientists Find Evidence for Salty Groundwater beneath McMurdo Dry Valleys

Apr 28, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers co-led by Dr Slawek Tulaczyk of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Dr Jill Mikucki of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville,...

The experimental setup of the invisible body condition, left panel, and the mannequin condition. The participants were fitted with a set of head-mounted displays that showed the real-time 3-D video feed of a pair of downward-facing cams that were mounted on the wall or on the head of a mannequin. The scientist applied touches to the participants’ body and the corresponding body part of the invisible body/mannequin using a paintbrush. The grayed-out body in the left panel illustrates the discrete portion of empty space that was meant to represent the invisible body. Two sample frames of the actual visual stimuli presented in head-mounted displays are shown below, featuring the brushing procedure and knife threat event for the two conditions, respectively. Image credit: Arvid Guterstam et al.

Neuroscientists Create Illusion of Having Invisible Body

Apr 24, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, the feeling of invisibility changes physical stress response in challenging social...

Lion Geyser and Heart Spring in Yellowstone National Park. Image credit: Brocken Inaglory / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists Discover Gigantic Magma Reservoir beneath Yellowstone Supervolcano

Apr 24, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by Dr Hsin-Hua Huang of California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the University of Utah has discovered a reservoir of...

The artificial photosynthesis system has four general components: (i) harvesting solar energy; (ii) generating reducing equivalents; (iii) reducing carbon dioxide to biosynthetic intermediates, and (iv) producing value-added chemicals.

Scientists Create Artificial Photosynthesis System

Apr 17, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute,...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

Scientists Explain Why Modern Humans Have Chins

Apr 16, 2015 by News Staff

Chins of anatomically modern humans don’t come from mechanical forces such as chewing, but instead result from an evolutionary adaptation involving face...

Permafrost in High Arctic. Image credit: TheBrockenInaGlory / CC BY-SA 3.0

Frozen Soils Could Become Major Source of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Apr 9, 2015 by News Staff

Thawing permafrost in the Artic and sub-Arctic regions will likely produce a gradual and prolonged release of large quantities of greenhouse gases spanning...

Dr Martin Vollmer and his colleagues detected a rapid accumulation of anesthetic gases isoflurane, desflurane, and sevoflurane, in the global atmosphere. Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Anesthetic Gases Contribute to Climate Change, Say Atmospheric Chemists

Apr 9, 2015 by News Staff

Desflurane, isoflurane, sevoflurane and halothane – clinically used inhalation anesthetic agents – are accumulating in the atmosphere of our...