Earth

Restricting the amount of inshore potting for crab and lobster within marine protected areas (MPAs) can generate a "win-win" for both fishermen and the marine environment, according to the first major study exploring the issue.

The study showed that crab caught in areas of low potting levels were of greater average weight, meaning that there was a potential incentive for fishermen to fish less.

However, in areas consistently exposed to medium and high levels of potting, the crab weighed less than those caught in areas with low potting and unfished control areas.

If China takes strong measures to reduce its ozone pollution now, it could save hundreds of thousands of lives in the long run, according to a new study led by researchers at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

"Air pollution is a major problem in China right now," said lead author Daniel Westervelt, an associate research scientist at Lamont-Doherty. "It's a very serious health risk. So it's important to think about what changes can be made to make progress on this problem."

When it comes to mating displays, a little persistence can go a long way, at least for the greater sage grouse. In "Hidden Markov Models Reveal Tactical Adjustment of Temporally Clustered Courtship Displays in Response to the Behaviors of a Robotic Female," published in The American Naturalist, Anna C. Perry and her colleagues at the University of California in Davis (USA), the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig (Germany) and the University of Florida (USA) use a custom-built statistical model to understand an underexplored dimension of greater sage grouse mating display behavior.

Since the emergence of molecular genetics more than fifty years ago, scientists have tried to isolate haploid mammalian cells, that is, cells with half the number of chromosomes contained in somatic cells. Haploid cells are a powerful genetic tool to analyse gene function. In the past decade, a number of researchers finally succeeded in developing haploid cell line cultures. However, these cell lines are unstable and have a tendency for diploidisation.

A study led by the University of Birmingham has painted a shaming picture of neglect and discrimination shown towards the homeless when accessing UK health services.

Researchers interviewed 22 homeless people aged over 18 at three Midland homeless shelters in order to gauge their experience of accessing NHS services following anecdotal reports that the homeless were being denied access and faced negative experiences.

Researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have developed a new method to spot rare immune cells that are reactive against cancer cells, from within a patient's own immune system.

The patented 'RAGE-seq' method enables scientists to track how immune cells evolve inside tumour tissue for the first time, revealing unprecedented insight into how to better arm the immune system to target cancer. The technique can be likened to a barcode tracker, able to scan detailed information from thousands of immune cells at a time.

Around the world, more than three billion people - nearly half the world's population - cook their food using solid fuels like firewood and charcoal on open fires or traditional stoves. This produces a lot of smoke, creating indoor air pollution, which, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), annually kills millions of people. This type of pollution is of particular concern in India, where women and their young children, who typically stay close to their mothers while they are cooking, bear the brunt of the health problems caused by indoor pollution.