Dust storms are a common occurrence in the deserts of northern China and previous researchers have attempted to locate the most important sources of dust. Dust is important from a variety of environmental and health-related issues and over longer time scales impacts climate change and has accumulated to great thicknesses to form the vast Chinese loess plateau. A better understanding of the potential sources of dust can help plan and mitigate for the next dust storm or identify problem dust sources in the future.
Earth
Why did the lizard cross the forest floor? It's an ecological conundrum that James Cook University researchers Mat Vickers and Professor Lin Schwarzkopf have answered with a novel approach.
Their problem was that scientists didn't know why lizards do what they do. If a lizard moves to a sunny spot, its body will heat up - but is it actually trying to warm up? Maybe it was chasing some tasty morsel of food and had to cross a sunny area to get it? How do you know that what an animal is doing is a deliberate strategy?
A group of scientists from Moscow universities led by Yan Ivanenkov, the head of Laboratory of Medical Chemistry and Bioinformatics in MIPT, has succeeded in synthesizing a set of novel selenohydantoins with anticancer and antioxidant activity. The corresponding paper has been published in the scientific journal Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry.
Shifting winds may explain why long-term fluctuations in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures have no apparent influence on Europe's wintertime temperatures. The findings, published in Nature Communications, could also have implications for how Europe's climate will evolve amid global warming.
Low levels of pesticides can impact the foraging behaviour of bumblebees on wild flowers, changing their floral preferences and hindering their ability to learn the skills needed to extract nectar and pollen, according to a paper in Functional Ecology, which claims it is the first to explore how pesticides may impact the ability of bumblebees to forage from common wild flowers that have complex shapes such as white clover and bird’s foot trefoil.
Rising temperatures worldwide are changing not only weather systems, but -- just as importantly -- the distribution of water around the globe, according to a study published today (March 14, 2016) in the journal, Scientific Reports.
Analysis of more than 40 years of water samples archived at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) in New Hampshire tells a vivid tale of how the sources of precipitation have changed. Over the years, there has been a dramatic increase, especially during the winter, of the amount of water that originated far to the north.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - As the Earth emerged from its last ice age several thousand years ago, atmospheric carbon dioxide increased and further warmed the planet. Scientists have long speculated that the primary source of this CO2 was from the deep ocean around Antarctica, though it has been difficult to prove.
Using some of the largest supercomputers available, physics researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have produced one of the largest simulations ever to help explain one of physics most daunting problems.
Volcanic ash can damage jet engines, and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich volcanologists have developed a new empirical model for assessment of the risk. Their results show that tests using sand do not reflect the behavior of ash in this context.
Ice wedges, a common subsurface feature in permafrost landscapes, appear to be rapidly melting throughout the Arctic, according to a new study published today in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The wedges, which can be the size of a house, gradually formed over hundreds or even thousands of years as water seeped into permafrost cracks. On the ground surface, they form polygon shapes roughly 15-30 meters wide -- a defining characteristic of northern landscapes.
How does the ice on the polar caps change? And which are the geological characteristics of the Earth's crust beneath? What is the structure of the boundary between the Earth's crust and mantle? Geophysicists will be able to answer these questions in the future using gravity field measurements from ESA's GOCE gravity satellite. Geodesists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have prepared the measurement data mathematically in such a way that they can be used to resolve structures deep below the surface.
Senior lecturer Dr. Lex Mauger and PhD student Ali Astokorki of the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Kent have showed that traditional methods of measuring pain in experiments - such as thermal, pressure or electrical stimuli - may be unsuitable for investigating the relationship between exercise and pain. They also found that people who are ready to engage in greater amounts of pain perform better in exercise activities.
Bazinga! University of Cincinnati theoretical physicists are about to report on a controversial discovery that they say contradicts the work of researchers over the decades. The discovery concerns the conventional approach toward bosonization-debosonization. For folks outside the physics lab and the whiteboard, this could affect calculations regarding the future of quantum computers as well as your electronic devices as they become smaller, faster and more advanced.
The American Thoracic Society applauds the collaborative effort of President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada to reduce methane emissions from the oil and natural gas sector. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change. Joint U.S.-Canada commitment to reduce methane emissions by 40-45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025 speaks volumes; it is a serious policy response that shows a willingness to embrace rigorous scientific research in advancing actions to address the human health risk posed by global climate change.
ANN ARBOR--On your car windshield, ice is a nuisance. But on an airplane, a wind turbine, an oil rig or power line, it can be downright dangerous. And removing it with the methods that are available today--usually chemical melting agents or labor-intensive scrapers and hammers--is difficult and expensive work.