News at a glance: China ’s S & T clusters, abundant fairy circles, and Arecibo ’s next chapter

BIOGEOGRAPHY Fairy circles abound in dry regions of many countries Mysterious patches of vegetation called fairy circles are well documented in the drylands of Australia and Namibia. Now, a study that combines machine learning and satellite images that span the continents reports examples in 13 other countries, mainly in Africa . Many of the 263 sites identified—in the Sahara and Madagascar, for example—have never before been recorded by scientists. Fairy circles consist of a ring of tall grass surrounding a patch of bare soil up to 12 meters in diameter. Researchers have attributed them to various causes, including patterns of water runoff and plants whose defensive chemicals ward off other vegetation. This year, a study based on Aboriginal knowledge highlighted the role of termites in Australia . The new investigation, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , shows that fairy circles tend to occur in poor, sandy soil, and confirms that they are restricted to arid landscapes. INNOVATION China leads in number of S&T clusters In another sign of China’s growing research clout, the country now leads in a top 100 ranking of metropolitan areas based on their science and technology productivity. The annual Global Innovation Index, curated by the World Intellectual Property Organization, ranks these S&T clusters based on numbers of patent appli...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research