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A plant-fungus partnership is at the origin of terrestrial vegetation
Plants that exist on land today have genes that allow them to exchange valuable lipids with beneficial fungi. This plant-fungus partnership is at the origin of the transition of plants from aquatic life to terrestrial life.
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To sting or not to sting?
Scientists from Konstanz and Innsbruck uncovered how honeybees organise their collective defence in response to predators and used computational modelling to identify potential evolutionary drivers of the behaviour.
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The world's smallest fruit picker controlled by artificial intelligence
Inspired by insects that suck nutrients directly from plant veins, physicists from DTU have studied whether valuable chemical substances can be harvested directly from the cells of plants. Using a harvester measuring only a few microns, they have now achieved a technological breakthrough.
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Geological riddle solved: Roof of the World has gotten higher
There has long been controversy about whether the world's highest region, Tibet, has grown taller during the recent geological past. New results from the University of Copenhagen indicate that the 'Roof of the World' appears to have risen by up to 600 meters and the answer was found in underwater lava. The knowledge sheds new light on Earth's evolution.
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Suppressing meta-holographic artifacts by laser coherence tuning
A metasurface hologram is an ultra-thin surface that is capable of arbitrarily shaping and projecting laser beams to extremely wide angles. However, due to the high coherence of laser light and inevitable defects in the metasurface, holographic images produced by meta-holograms suffer from deleterious artifacts that are extremely difficult to remove. A US-China team developed an efficient method to suppress holographic defects by fine-tuning the spatial coherence of laser illumination with a novel laser.
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New findings on benign adrenal tumors could improve care
New research could enable better healthcare for patients with benign tumours of the adrenal glands. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have identified the levels of cortisol produced by the tumours which are associated with higher mortality rates.
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Base level and lithology affect fluvial geomorphic evolution at a tectonically active area
Previous researches had emphasized tectonic impacts on the fluvial system at the tectonically active areas, while the effects of lithology and local base level change have received relatively rare attention. Newly study at the NE Tibet Plateau shows that base level change and lithology play a crucial role in landscape evolution, even in a tectonically active region. Besides, there exits an autogenic positive feedback in the transition from parallel to dendritic drainage patterns.
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Skeletal muscle loss exacerbated by diabetes improved with oligo DNA
A group of researchers led by Tomohide Takaya of Shinshu University succeeded in improving skeletal muscle differentiation worsened by diabetes with oligo DNA.
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University of Bath research shows how to improve emergency service response to terrorist incident
The Manchester Arena terrorist bomb attack in 2017 exposed flaws in the response of emergency services that could be addressed with a new three-phase approach, research by the University of Bath School of Management shows.
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Aquaculture turns biodiversity into uniformity along the coast of China
Fishery and aquaculture have given rise to an enormous uniformity in the diversity of bivalves along the more than 18,000 kilometer long Chinese coast, biologist He-Bo Peng and colleagues report in this month's issue of Diversity and Distributions.
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Raised buildings may help reduce malaria transmission in Africa
Using four experimental houses, researchers in Africa found that the number of female malaria mosquitoes collected in huts declined with increasing height, decreasing progressively as the hut's floor moved further from the ground.
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Hacking and loss of driving skills are major consumer concerns for self-driving cars
A new study from the University of Kent, Toulouse Business School, ESSCA School of Management (Paris) and ESADE Business School (Spain) has revealed the three primary risks and benefits perceived by consumers towards autonomous vehicles (self-driving cars).
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Otago study aids understanding of invisible but mighty particles
Tiny charged electrons and protons which can damage satellites and alter the ozone have revealed some of their mysteries to University of Otago scientists.
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Dry metastable olivine and slab deformation in a wet subducting slab
Our results suggest that olivine and wadsleyite show dry transformation kinetics even in wet slabs. It is therefore possible that olivine transformation as a cause of deep-focus earthquakes and large slab deformation creating stagnant slabs could occur in the water-undersaturated wet slabs. These processes could be caused jointly by dehydration of hydrous minerals and the subsequent rapid phase transformation when the dehydration starts at lower temperatures than the phase transformation.
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Deciphering structure of a toxic matter that destroys the nerves in the brain
Professor Joon Won Park's research team at POSTECH reveals the structure of a hetero-oligomer nano-aggregate - a substance that causes Parkinson's and dementia - through quadruple force mapping.
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Research uncovers how 'non-professional' cells can trigger immune response
Researchers are finding new details on the complex dynamics involved in how organisms sense an infection from pathogens. The researchers found that worms can sense changes in their metabolism in order to unleash protective defenses, even if they don't directly sense an incursion from pathogens.
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Protein tenascin-C important in retinal blood flow disorders
Many eye diseases are associated with a restricted blood supply, known as ischaemia, which can lead to blindness. The role of the protein tenascin-C, an extracellular matrix component, in retinal ischaemia was investigated in mice by researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB). They showed that tenascin-C plays a crucial role in damaging the cells responsible for vision following ischaemia. The results were published online by the team in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience on 20 May 2021.
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Hidden genes discovered in bovine genome
When researchers at ETH Zurich compared the reference genomes between several breeds of domestic cattle and closely related wild cattle, they discovered genes with previously unknown functions.
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Small modular reactors competitive in Washington's clean energy future
A new report finds small modular reactors could provide competitively priced electricity in Washington state's future electricity market.
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Recent warming weakens global dust storm activity
The frequent and strong dust storms in northern China have attracted wide attentions. Yet the long-term dust storm activities and their responses to natural climatic forcing and/or human activities are not fully understood. Researchers in Tianjin University, China, and colleagues presented histories of annual/decadal dust storm variations of the past few hundred years using high resolution sedimentary grainsize records from Lake Karakul and Lake Daihai, northern China (Fig. 1), and discussed the potential forcing mechanisms.
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