We humans do better on land than under water -- also when it comes to our hearing. But now a new study shows that we actually have better underwater hearing than previously thought -- at certain frequencies we hear just as well as the seal.
Cystic fibrosis: Restoring airway integrity
Cystic fibrosis is a rare genetic disease which can cause very serious symptoms. In particular, patients suffer from chronic bacterial infections that can lead to respiratory failure. It is caused by mutations in the CFTR gene, which regulates water movement across the cell membrane. Consequently, mucus quality is altered, it...
Reference genomes provide first insights into genetic roots of mustelid physiological and behavioral diversity
Mustelids are the most ecologically and taxonomically diverse family within the order Carnivora. From the tayra in the neotropics to the wolverine in the subarctic, they inhabit a variety of ecological niches and developed corresponding species-specific traits related to their diet, reproductive strategy and morphology. An international team of scientists...
Low-cost gel film can pluck drinking water from desert air
Researchers developed a low-cost gel film made of abundant materials that can pull drinkable water from the air in even the driest climates.
Microbes can degrade the toughest PFAS
Engineers now report selective breakdown of a particularly stubborn class of PFAS called fluorinated carboxylic acids (FCAs) by common microorganisms. Under anaerobic conditions, a carbon-carbon double bond is crucial for the shattering the ultra-strong carbon-fluorine bond by microbial communities. The resulting products could be relayed to other microorganisms for defluorination...
New Tech Aims to Drive Down Costs of Hydrogen Fuel
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for extracting hydrogen gas from liquid carriers which is faster, less expensive and more energy efficient than previous approaches.
Small adaptations, major effect: Researchers study potential of future public transportation
Being mobile individually, at any time -- without owning a car: To facilitate this, public transportation authorities cooperate with service providers for new forms of mobility such as bicycle sharing, car sharing, or ridepooling. Researchers have studied how publicly available mobility options in the Karlsruhe region in the future can...
Air pollution linked to deadly heart rhythm disorder
Life-threatening arrhythmias are more common on days with highly polluted air, according to new research.
Researchers have developed a potential super wheat for salty soils
Researchers have developed several new varieties of wheat that tolerate soils with higher salt concentrations. After having mutated a wheat variety from Bangladesh, they now have a wheat with seeds that weigh three times more and that germinate almost twice as often as the original variety.
Gene-edited tomatoes could be a new source of vitamin D
Tomatoes gene-edited to produce vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, could be a simple and sustainable innovation to address a global health problem.