SciGlow | All Science News In One Place
SciGlow is a newsletter of science stories from the major research labs. Headlines link to in-depth articles and editorials. SciGlow keeps scientists and others up-to-date on current research.
A new study published in Nature Geoscience concludes that Tamu Massif, thought to be the largest volcano in the world, is a different breed of volcanic mountain. The study analyzed magnetic field data over Tamu Massif, finding that magnetic anomalies (perturbations to the field caused by magnetic rocks in the Earth’s crust) are like those … Read more
At altitudes of 12-18 km the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer (ATAL) extends from the Mediterranean to the Western Pacific during the season of the Asian summer monsoon. The origin and properties of the ATAL have been debated actively since its discovery nearly a decade ago. A team of scientists from Europe has now discovered that … Read more
Enzymes are biocatalysts that are crucial for the degradation of seaweed biomass in oceans. For the first time, an international team of 19 scientists recently decoded the complete degradation pathway of the algal polysaccharide Ulvan by biocatalysts from a marine bacterium. The results of their study are presented in Nature Chemical Biology. The study was … Read more
A kaleidoscope is a symbol of the diversity of human knowledge that exists on Earth about our ecosystems and their plant services. Indigenous societies occupy one quarter of terrestrial lands and over 7,097 indigenous languages are spoken on Earth. Just as different indigenous groups inhabit different ecosystems, so it follows that each may have accumulated … Read more
Scientists have pinpointed the “pace” and “shape” of life as the two key elements in animal life cycles that affect how different species get by in the world. Their findings, which come from a detailed assessment of 121 species ranging from humans to sponges, may have important implications for conservation strategies and for predicting which … Read more
In a recent paper in Nature Astronomy, Nicola Tamanini from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute/AEI) in Potsdam and Camilla Danielski from the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Saclay, Paris suggest how the planned space-based gravitational-wave observatory LISA can detect exoplanets orbiting white dwarf binaries everywhere in … Read more
New research has found the record-breaking South American drought of 2013/14 with its succession of heatwaves and long lasting marine heatwave had its origins in a climate event half a world away – over the Indian Ocean. The findings published in Nature Geoscience by an international research team with authors from the Federal University of … Read more
The sophisticated technology that powers face recognition in many modern smartphones someday could receive a high-tech upgrade that sounds – and looks – surprisingly low-tech. This window to the future is none other than a piece of glass. University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have devised a method to create pieces of “smart” glass that can recognize … Read more
A vegetable-picking robot that uses machine learning to identify and harvest a commonplace, but challenging, agricultural crop has been developed by engineers. The ‘Vegebot’, developed by a team at the University of Cambridge, was initially trained to recognise and harvest iceberg lettuce in a lab setting. It has now been successfully tested in a variety … Read more
In a paper released today in Science Advances, UNSW researchers describe the first observation of a native ferroelectric metal. The study represents the first example of a native metal with bistable and electrically switchable spontaneous polarization states – the hallmark of ferroelectricity. “We found coexistence of native metallicity and ferroelectricity in bulk crystalline tungsten ditelluride (WTe2) at … Read more