Smallpox was once one of humanity's most devastating diseases, but its origin is shrouded in mystery. For years, scientific estimates of when the smallpox virus first emerged have been at odds with historical records. Now, a new study reveals that the virus dates back 2,000 years further than scientists have...
Air quality improvements lead to more sulfur fertilizer use
As the atmospheric deposition of sulfur has decreased, the use of sulfur fertilizer in Midwestern U.S. agriculture has increased between 1985 and 2015.
Chemical researchers discover catalyst to make renewable paints, coatings, and diapers
Researchers have invented a groundbreaking new catalyst technology that converts renewable materials like trees and corn to the key chemicals, acrylic acid, and acrylates used in paints, coatings, and superabsorbent polymers.
Turning plastic waste into a valuable soil additive
Chemical and environmental engineers detailed a method to convert plastic waste into a highly porous form of charcoal that has a whopping surface area of about 400 square meters per gram of mass. It could potentially be added to soil to improve water retention and aeration of farmlands.
Solar-powered system converts plastic and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels
Researchers have developed a system that can transform plastic waste and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels and other valuable products -- using just the energy from the Sun.
AI developed to monitor changes to the globally important Thwaites Glacier
Scientists have developed artificial intelligence techniques to track the development of crevasses -- or fractures -- on the Thwaites Glacier Ice Tongue in west Antarctica. A team of scientists has adapted an AI algorithm originally developed to identify cells in microscope images to spot crevasses forming in the ice from...
Organelles grow in random bursts
New experiments that show that eukaryotic cells can robustly control average fluctuations in organelle size. By demonstrating that organelle sizes obey a universal scaling relationship that scientists can predict theoretically, a new framework suggests that organelles grow in random bursts from a limiting pool of building blocks.
Nanoplastics unexpectedly produce reactive oxidizing species when exposed to light
Energy, environmental and chemical engineers found that nanoplastics facilitate formation of manganese oxide on polystyrene nanoparticles.
New discovery of sunscreen-like chemicals in fossil plants reveals UV radiation played a part in mass extinction events
New research has uncovered that pollen preserved in 250 million year old rocks contain compounds that function like sunscreen, these are produced by plants to protect them from harmful ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation. The findings suggests that a pulse of UV-B played an important part in the end Permian mass extinction...
Study reveals average age at conception for men versus women over past 250,000 years
Using a new method based upon comparing DNA mutation rates between parents and offspring, evolutionary biologists have revealed the average age of mothers versus fathers over the past 250,000 years, including the discovery that the age gap is shrinking, with women's average age at conception increasing from 23.2 years to...