Marine animals are notoriously difficult to track, creating big gaps in how scientists understand their behavior and migration patterns - key insights for helping conserve important habitats. Researchers in Australia, using satellite tags and a decades-old satellite photographic database, published a paper in Frontiers in Marine Science that suggests a migratory species like the reef manta ray is somewhat of a homebody.
For all its vast emptiness, the universe is humming with activity in the form of gravitational waves. Produced by extreme astrophysical phenomena, these reverberations ripple forth and shake the fabric of space-time, like the clang of a cosmic bell.
Now researchers have detected a signal from what may be the most massive black hole merger yet observed in gravitational waves. The product of the merger is the first clear detection of an “intermediate-mass” black hole, with a mass between 100 and 1,000 times that of the sun.
Your genetic code determines that you will grow two arms and two legs. The same fate is true for all mammals. Similarly, the number of fins a fish has and the number of legs and wings an insect has are embedded in their genetic code. Sea anemones, however, defy this rule and have a variable number of tentacle arms.
An international research collaboration including Northwestern University astronomers has witnessed the birth of an "intermediate-mass" black hole. This is the first conclusive discovery of an intermediate-mass black hole, an object which has long eluded astronomers. The cosmic event, its energy detected on Earth in the form of gravitational waves, is the most massive black hole merger yet observed in gravitational waves.
Scientists observed what appears to be a bulked-up black hole tangling with a more ordinary one. The research team, which includes physicists from the University of Maryland, detected two black holes merging, but one of the black holes was 1 1/2 times more massive than any ever observed in a black hole collision. The researchers believe the heavier black hole in the pair may be the result of a previous merger between two black holes.
The gravitational wave (1) detectors LIGO and Virgo have just chalked up their biggest catch yet, a black hole 142 times the mass of the Sun, resulting from the merger of two black holes of 85 and 65 solar masses. The remnant black hole is the most massive ever observed with gravitational waves, and it could give us some clues about the formation of the supermassive black holes that sit at the centres of some galaxies.
The populations of common animals are just as likely to rise or fall in number in a time of accelerating global change as those of rare species, a study suggests.
A study of more than 2,000 species reveals animal populations around the world - from the very common to endangered species - are going up and down as global change alters land, sea and freshwater ecosystems.
The findings highlight a need to look beyond only rare species in order to improve efforts to conserve global biodiversity, scientists say.
Rice is the most consumed staple food in the world. It is especially common in Asia, where hunger concerns are prevalent.
Rice is classified as an annual plant, which means it completes its life cycle within one growing season then dies. However, in some tropical areas, rice can continue to grow year after year when taken care of properly.
Just as grass grows back in a lawn after it is mowed, rice can be cut after it is harvested, and the plant will regrow. The farming practice of cutting the rice above ground and allowing it to regrow is called ratooning.
The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has announced that a research team led by Dr. Joong-Kee Lee of the Center for Energy Storage Research had developed a next-generation secondary battery that uses zinc metal as an electrode without any risk of explosion or fire. This battery is safe enough to be worn on the body and can be manufactured in the form of fiber shape, which means it may potentially be applied as a power source for wearable devices in the future.
One year after the diagnosis of low-grade malignant brain tumor, a University of Gothenburg study shows, just under three people in ten were in full-time employment. Another year later, the proportion remained below half. For this young patient group, returning to work is a key health factor.
Every year, some 100 people in Sweden are diagnosed with low-grade brain tumor (also known as low-grade glioma). This type of tumor is incurable but grows slowly and, thanks to modern treatments, survival expectancy has successively increased.