An ambitious new Mersey barrage concept shows how tidal energy projects can offer many benefits to society in addition to clean renewable energy.
When designed holistically, tidal barrage schemes can provide additional transport links for commuters, become tourism destinations, mitigate wildlife habitat loss, as well as provide opportunities to boost people's health and wellbeing with additional options for cycling and walking, say researchers from Lancaster University and the University of Liverpool.
You mightn't think that the life of a dung beetle, a creature who eats poop every day of its short life, could get any worse, but you'd be wrong. Dung beetles, also known as rollers, pretty much live in manure. They can be found in a variety of environments-deserts, prairies, forests-and they subsist on poop. Dung beetles provide a highly useful service to the environment and to us. How?
Emissions of volatile organic pollutants in West Africa are 100 to 150 times higher than current estimates for the region, according to a study by researchers from the CNRS and Université Clermont-Auvergne[1], in collaboration with the Institut Mines Télécom Lille-Douai and Université Felix Houphouët-Boigny (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire).
From raindrops rolling off the waxy surface of a waterlily leaf, to the efficiency of desalination membranes, interactions between water molecules and water-repellent "hydrophobic" surfaces are all around us. The interplay becomes even more intriguing when a thin water layer becomes sandwiched between two hydrophobic surfaces, KAUST researchers have shown.
Using state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques, Vaidehi Natu at Stanford University in California, along with her colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, provide striking results that suggest the brains of children likely do not thin as much as expected. Rather, it seems there is an increase of myelin, which is the fatty sheath insulating nerve fibers.
Conventional wisdom indicates that market discipline and transparency ensures that financial data of public firms are more reliable for potential investors than financial reports from private companies. Contrary to this widely-held belief, new research from the NYU Stern School of Business, University of Bolzano and Bocconi University finds that when comparing European public firms against private firms with similar organizational structures, private firms provide a higher "earnings quality" or EQ, which is a measure of the reliability of financial statements.
Scientists have seen for the first time how corals collaborate with other microscopic life to build and grow.
A study led by The University of Queensland and James Cook University reveals at the DNA level how coral interacts with partners like algae and bacteria to share resources and build healthy, resilient coral.
UQ's Dr Steven Robbins said the research may aid in the revival of the world's embattled coral reefs.
"Symbiotic relationships are incredibly important for thriving corals," Dr Robbins said.
Molluscan shells consist of a variety of complex mineral-organic composite ultrastructures. Surprisingly, in some cases, shells from distantly related species contain similar morphological motifs on many different length scales, from the nano- to the micro-scale. During the last few decades, significant progress has been made in understanding the key biochemical mechanisms responsible for biogenic mineral formation.
An algorithm developed by faculty at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) can help physicians outside of major stroke treatment centers assess whether a patient suffering from ischemic stroke would benefit from an endovascular procedure to remove a clot blocking an artery.
Results of their clinical study using the algorithm were published online today in the journal Stroke.
Washington State University scientists have developed a way to triple the shelf life of ready-to-eat macaroni and cheese, a development that could have benefits for everything from space travel to military use.
If human beings go to Mars, they need food. Food that won't spoil during the long travel between planets, and while they're on the surface.