The endangered Hawaiian duck, or koloa, the only endemic duck remaining on the main Hawaiian Islands, is threatened with genetic extinction due to interbreeding with feral mallards. This has led to the creation of hybrid forms of the koloa. But new research has found that the genetic diversity of the koloa is high, and conservation efforts on the island of Kauai have been successful.
There is more to foam than meets the eye. Literally. A study by Princeton scientists has shown that a type of foam long studied by scientists is able to block particular wavelengths of light, a coveted property for next-generation information technology that uses light instead of electricity.
A new wet suit material tested by Flinders marine researchers can help reduce blood loss caused by shark bites, to reduce injuries and prevent the leading cause of death from shark bites.
The study published in PLOS ONE tested two types of protective fabrics that incorporate ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibres (UHMWPE) onto widely used neoprene material in wet suits, and compared their resistance to bites against standard neoprene without protective layers.
Nov. 18, 2019-- The American Thoracic Society, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, European Respiratory Society and the Infectious Diseases Society of America have published an official clinical guideline on the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) in the Nov. 15 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Atmospheric reactive nitrogen (N) deposition has more than doubled over the past century. It is very important to estimate the rates and sources of N deposition because it's considered as a main factor of ecosystem structure changes, such as soil acidification, water eutrophication and biodiversity losses, especially in countries with high N deposition, such as China. However, it is very difficult to obtain monitoring data of atmospheric N deposition because of the complexity of N species and the diversity of deposition forms.
Electrocatalytic reaction, like other heterogenous catalytic reaction, commonly consists of multiple elementary reaction steps. For example, alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) involves: H2O + e- ?Had + OH- (Volmer step) and H2O + Had + e- ? H2 + OH- (Heyrovsky step) or Had + Had ? H2 (Tafel step). Compared with acidic HER, the Volmer step in alkaline electrolyte requires appropriate water molecule adsorption energy and extra energy to dissociate water molecule, leading to much slower kinetics.
Hyoliths are extinct invertebrates with calcareous shells that were common constituents of the Cambrian fauna and formed a minor component of benthic faunas throughout the Palaeozoic until their demise in the end-Permian mass extinction. The biological affinity of hyoliths has long been controversial and the group has been compared with a number of animal phyla, most frequently the Mollusca or the Sipuncula, although other researchers have considered hyoliths as a separate "extinct phylum".
A multidisciplinary group of scientists from the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME) and the Universities of Granada, Cologne, and Lisbon has demonstrated that the traditional careo underground aquifer recharge system used in Sierra Nevada is the oldest in Europe. This finding is the outcome of various research techniques conducted by experts from different fields including archaeology, sedimentology, geophysics, and hydrogeology.
Leipzig. An international research team was able to experimentally show in the laboratory a completely new reaction path for the largest natural sulfur source in the atmosphere. The team from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS), the University of Innsbruck and the University of Oulu are now reporting in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters on the new degradation mechanism for dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which is released mainly by the oceans.
Dr Tony Shien-Ping Feng of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and his team invented a Direct Thermal Charging Cell (DTCC) which can effectively convert heat to electricity, creating a huge potential to reduce greenhouse effects by capturing exhaust heat and cutting down primary energy wastage.