The two-thousand-year-old mystery of the havoc-wreaking worm
(University of Massachusetts Amherst) Humans have known for over two thousand years that shipworms, a worm-like mollusk, are responsible for damage to wooden boats, docks, dikes and piers. Yet new research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst published in Frontiers in Microbiology reveals that we still don't know the most basic thing about them: how they eat. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 13, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
5D imaging of ultrafast phenomena
(SPIE--International Society for Optics and Photonics) An international team of researchers recently developed and experimentally demonstrated a spectral-volumetric (SV) CUP system that can simultaneously capture 5D information with a single snapshot measurement. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 13, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Researchers roll out new process for lighter, more efficient solar power technology
(University of Arizona College of Engineering) Imagine a television so thin that it could be rolled up like a newspaper, or a thin film that could coat an entire building and generate solar power. Perovskites could make this possible. Adam Printz of the University of Arizona is leading a team developing a more efficient perovskite printing process. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 13, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Decoding crop genetics with artificial intelligence
(Michigan State University) Armed with a $1.4 million grant from NSF, Michigan State University plant and computer science experts will develop artificial intelligence tools to " decode " plant genetics. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 13, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
The promise of inclusive sustainability
(American Institute of Biological Sciences) In this episode of BioScience Talks (https://bioscience-talks.aibs.org/episodes/blackologists-and-the-promise-of-inclusive-sustainability), Yitbarek, Bailey, and Harris join us to discuss this model of inclusive sustainability and the ways in which it can be brought to bear in service of ecosystems and the humans who inhabit them. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 12, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Sweet success: CABBI demonstrates first precision breeding of sugarcane with CRISPR-Cas9
(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment) Two recently published innovations by University of Florida researchers at the Department of Energy's Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) demonstrated the first successful precision breeding of sugarcane by using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing.The work gives researchers a targeted and efficient way to develop new sugarcane varieties with higher productivity, herbicide resistance, or more oil production - key to CABBI's goals to produce fuels and chemicals from plants instead of petroleum. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 12, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Genome editing for food: how do people react?
(University of G ö ttingen) A research team from the University of G ö ttingen and the University of British Columbia (Canada) has investigated how people in five different countries react to various usages of genome editing in agriculture. The researchers looked at which uses are accepted and how the risks and benefits of the new breeding technologies are rated by people. The results show only minor differences between the countries studied - Germany, Italy, Canada, Austria and the USA. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 12, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Using genomics to save the bees
(University of G ö ttingen) The international Illumina Agricultural Greater Good Grant recognizes research proposals that will increase the sustainability, productivity, and nutritional density of agriculturally important crop and livestock species. Professor Bertram Brenig, from Goettingen University is the 2021 winner for his research proposal about the Western Honey Bee. Despite being one of the most important pollinators, honey bees currently face multiple challenges and population decline. This research will use genomics to understand vulnerabilities impacting the Western Honey Bee. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 12, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
When a single tree makes a difference
(American University) A single tree along a city street or in a backyard can provide measurable cooling benefits, according to a new study from American University. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 12, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Emotions and culture are most important for acceptance of carnivore management strategies
(Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW)) Emotions towards and cultural importance of large carnivores are better predictors of the acceptance of management strategies by local communities than the extent of livestock depredation. This is the result of an interdisciplinary investigation led by Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. They conducted 100 questionnaires with Maasai pastoralists in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, focusing on three large carnivore species (spotted hyenas, lions and leopards) and three management strategies (no action, relocation and lethal control). (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 12, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Phasecraft reveals a more efficient method for modelling electrons in materials
(Phasecraft) The new compact representation of fermions outperforms all previous representations improving memory use and algorithm size each by at least 25% - a significant step towards realising practical scientific applications on near-term quantum computers. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 12, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Study shows forests play greater role in depositing toxic mercury across the globe
(University of Massachusetts Lowell) Researchers led by a UMass Lowell environmental science professor say mercury measurements in a Massachusetts forest indicate the toxic element is deposited in forests across the globe in much greater quantities than previously understood. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 12, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Getting to the bottom of all life: Visualizing a protein key to enabling
(Okayama University) Photosynthesis is at the core of all life. But what lies at the crux of photosynthesis?Scientists have long known of the specific components of the cell where photosynthesisoccurs, but the precise mechanisms by which these components are maintained remainunknown. Now, the possibility of unprecedented high?resolution visualization using cryoelectronmicroscopy has allowed a team of scientists to reveal how the structural integrityof the site of one half of the photosynthesis process is maintained. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 12, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Human environmental genome recovered in the absence of skeletal remains
(University of Vienna) Ancient sediments from caves have already proven to preserve DNA for thousands of years. The amount of recovered sequences from environmental sediments, however, is generally low, which difficults the analyses to be performed with these sequences. A study led by Ron Pinhasi and Pere Gelabert of the University of Vienna and published in Current Biology successfully retrieved three mammalian environmental genomes from a single soil sample of 25,000 years bp obtained from the cave of Satsurblia in the Caucasus (Georgia). (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 12, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
HKU ecologists develop a novel forensic tool for detecting laundering of critically endangered cockatoos
(The University of Hong Kong) Ecologists at the University of Hong Kong have applied stable isotope techniques to determine whether birds in the pet trade are captive or wild-caught, a key piece of evidence required in many cases to determine whether a trade is legal or not. They have applied this technique to the yellow-crested cockatoo, a critically endangered species from Indonesia/Timor-Leste with a global population of fewer than 2,500, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - July 12, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
