Scientists have discovered that your breathing pattern is as unique as a fingerprint and it may reveal more than just your identity. Using a 24-hour wearable device, researchers achieved nearly 97% accuracy in identifying people based solely on how they breathe through their nose. Even more intriguingly, these respiratory signatures...
Amazon Trees Under Pressure: New Study Reveals How Forest Giants Handle Light and Heat
In a recent study published in New Phytologist, researchers at Michigan State University have uncovered how Amazon rainforest canopy trees manage the intense sunlight they absorb — revealing resilience to hot and dry conditions in the forest canopy while also offering a way to greatly improve the monitoring of canopy...
Some Plants Make Their Own Pesticide — But at What Cost to the Atmosphere?
A natural alternative to pesticides may be hiding in a misunderstood plant compound — but it could come at an environmental cost.
What’s Really in our Food? A Global Look at Food Composition Databases—and the Gaps We Need to Fix
To build healthier food systems, we need better food data. A new research shows where the gaps are—and how innovations like PTFI are helping to close them.
The 10,000-mile march through fire that made dinosaurs possible
Despite Earth's most devastating mass extinction wiping out over 80% of marine life and half of land species, a group of early reptiles called archosauromorphs not only survived but thrived, venturing across the supposedly lifeless tropics to eventually evolve into the dinosaurs and crocodiles we know today. Armed with a...
New MIT study reveals how biofilms help stop microplastic build-up
Where do microplastics really go after entering the environment? MIT researchers discovered that sticky biofilms naturally produced by bacteria play a surprising role in preventing microplastics from accumulating in riverbeds. Instead of trapping the particles, these biofilms actually keep them loose and exposed, making them easier for flowing water to...
New Study Shows Alligators Aren’t All That’s Lurking in Georgia’s Swamps
Gator research uncovers increased levels of mercury in the state’s swamps.
AI Stirs up the Recipe for Concrete in MIT Study
With demand for cement alternatives rising, an MIT team uses machine learning to hunt for new ingredients across the scientific literature.
Research Shows Rivers Release Ancient Carbon Dioxide Into the Atmosphere, Uncovering a Greater Role for Plants and Soil in the Carbon Cycle
A new study has revealed for the first time that ancient carbon, stored in landscapes for thousands of years or more, can find its way back to the atmosphere as CO₂ released from the surfaces of rivers.
Rivers are exhaling ancient carbon — and climate math just changed
Ancient carbon thought to be safely stored underground for millennia is unexpectedly resurfacing literally. A sweeping international study has found that over half of the carbon gases released by rivers come from long-term, old carbon sources like deep soils and weathered rocks, not just recent organic matter. This surprising discovery...