Scientists have detailed a lifestyle switch that occurs in marine bacteria, where they change from coexisting with algae hosts in a mutually beneficial interaction to suddenly killing them.
NASA Scientists and Satellites Make Sense of Earth’s Subtle Motions
What can hidden motions underground tell us about earthquakes, eruptions, and even climate change?
The Highest Greenland Temperatures in 1000 Years
Recent high temperatures on the ice sheet in central and northern Greenland lies are unique, when compared to 1000 years of reconstructed climate conditions on the ice sheet.
Traffic pollution impairs brain function
A new study has shown that common levels of traffic pollution can impair human brain function in only a matter of hours. The study was the first to show in a controlled experiment using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that exposure to diesel exhaust disrupts the ability of different areas...
Economics trump environment to save big cats, say ecologists
Rapid economic growth has pushed rare species of big carnivores to the brink of extinction, but ecologists have suggested our appetite to once again live alongside big cats is increasing.
NASA Measures Underground Water Flowing From Sierra to Central Valley
In a recent study, scientists found that a previously unmeasured source – water percolating through soil and fractured rock below California’s Sierra Nevada mountains – delivers an average of 4 million acre feet (5 cubic kilometers) of water to the state’s Central Valley each year.
Reducing steel corrosion vital to combating climate change
Every year, the United States spends nearly a trillion dollars fighting metallic corrosion, an electrochemical reaction that occurs when metals oxidize and begin to rust.
MIT engineers grow “perfect” atom-thin materials on industrial silicon wafers
True to Moore’s Law, the number of transistors on a microchip has doubled every year since the 1960s. But this trajectory is predicted to soon plateau because silicon — the backbone of modern transistors — loses its electrical properties once devices made from this material dip below a certain size.
New mosquito repellents that work better than DEET
In the age-old battle against mosquitoes, DEET has proven effective at keeping this nemesis at bay, but the repellent is smelly and its protection is short-lived. Now, researchers report that they have designed safe alternatives that have some advantages over DEET, including a nice smell and much longer protection from...
Immense diversity and interdependence in high temp deep-sea microorganism communities
A new study finds that microorganisms live in richly diverse and interdependent communities in high-temperature geothermal environments in the deep sea. By constructing genomes of 3,635 Bacteria and Archaea from 40 different rock communities, researchers discovered at least 500 new genera and have evidence for two new phyla. Samples from...