Scientists have determined how the Earth responds as it heats up due to climate change. Their study is the first to find the temperature-carbon dioxide release relationship at the landscape level. Plants that currently take up a quarter to a third of humanity's carbon emissions might not be able to...
What can central Utah’s earthquake ‘swarms’ reveal about the West’s seismicity?
Much of central Utah's seismic activity comes in groups of small earthquakes. A study by seismologists examines 2,300 quakes occurring 40 'swarms' dating back to 1981, opening a window into Earth's crust in a geothermally active area.
Scientists discover new isopod species in the Florida Keys
Scientists have discovered a new species of marine cryptofauna in the Florida Keys. Cryptofauna are the tiny, hidden, organisms that make up the majority of biodiversity in the ocean. The tiny crustaceans are the first new gnathiid isopod to be discovered from the Floridian ecoregion in 100 years and are...
Wormlike animals are first amphibians shown to pass microbes to their offspring
Caecilians are an illusive type of snakelike amphibian that live in aquatic and subterranean environments. In some species, mothers produce a special type of nutrient-rich skin that juveniles consume, similar to the way in which humans breastfeed their children. A new study shows this behavior passes on microbes to juvenile...
AI predicts the work rate of enzymes
Enzymes play a key role in cellular metabolic processes. To enable the quantitative assessment of these processes, researchers need to know the so-called 'turnover number' (for short: kcat) of the enzymes. A team of bioinformaticians now describes a tool for predicting this parameter for various enzymes using AI methods.
Risk of fatal heart attack may double in heat wave and high fine particulate pollution days
An analysis of more than 202,000 heart attack deaths between 2015-2020 in a single Chinese province found that days that had extreme heat, extreme cold or high levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution were significantly associated with the risk of death from a heart attack, especially in women...
How Do Microbes Spread Globally? A Study Clarifies How They Travel From End to End of the World
CEAB-CSIC researchers have published a scientific article that helps to understand the intercontinental dispersion of harmful microorganisms through the atmosphere.
Crews Head Down River, Out to Sea to Prep New SWOT Water Satellite
A lot of hard work goes into ensuring a spacecraft like the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite delivers accurate data.
Colorado River Basin Has Lost Water Equal to Lake Mead Due to Climate Change
From 2000 to 2021, climate change caused the loss of more than 40 trillion liters (10 trillion gallons) of water in the Colorado River Basin — about equal to the entire storage capacity of Lake Mead — according to a new study that modeled humans’ impact on hydrology in the...
Study improves understanding of how bacteria benefit plant growth
Scientists have found that competition between strains of beneficial bacteria in the soil degrades the service that the bacteria provide to their hosts.