A pioneering study reveals how archaeologists' satellite tools can be repurposed to tackle climate change. By using AI and satellite LiDAR imagery from NASA and ESA, researchers have found a faster, more accurate way to map forest biomass critical for tracking carbon. This innovative fusion of space tech and machine...
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Africa’s pangolin crisis: The delicacy that’s driving a species to the brink
Study suggests that appetite for bushmeat -- rather than black market for scales to use in traditional Chinese medicine -- is driving West Africa's illegal hunting of one of the world's most threatened mammals. Interviews with hundreds of hunters show pangolins overwhelmingly caught for food, with majority of scales thrown...
Toxic tides: Centuries-old mercury is flooding the arctic food chain
Despite falling global mercury emissions, mercury levels in Arctic wildlife continue to rise. A new study reveals that ocean currents are delivering legacy mercury pollution from distant regions like China to the Arctic, where it accumulates in animals and ecosystems.
Invisible ID: How a single breath could reveal your health—and your identity
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...
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.
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...
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.