Science News

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Using marine sediment cores containing isotopes of aluminum and beryllium, a group of international researchers has discovered that East Greenland experienced deep, ongoing glacial erosion over the past 7.5 million years. The research reconstructs ice sheet erosion dynamics in that region during the past 7.5 million years and has potential implications for how much the ice sheet will respond to future interglacial warming.

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Scott Crooker, of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Condensed Matter and Magnet Science group, and William Charles Louis III, of the Laboratory’s Physics Division, have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

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New research opens up the deep history of the Greenland Ice Sheet, looking back millions of years farther than previous techniques allowed—and raises urgent questions about if the giant ice sheet might dramatically accelerate its melt-off in the near future.

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Four teams of UAB researchers have been awarded National Science Foundation grants totaling $5.4 million for basic neuroscience research and new methods of environmental monitoring.

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A team of scientists has mapped out how our brains process visuals we don’t even know we’ve seen, indicating that the neuronal encoding and maintenance of subliminal images is more substantial than previously thought.

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Almeria Analytics adds a capability with ORNL technology; Wireless sensor network provides insight into population density, movement; New ORNL technology quickly detects cracks in walls, roofs; ORNL motor boasts 75 percent power gain over competing designs; New microscopy technique features unprecedented resolution; Livestock feed gets a bioenergy boost

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Freshly harvested data from NASA’s Cassini mission reveals that the ringed planet’s moons may be younger than previously thought.

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The critical zone extends from the top of the tallest tree down through the soil and into the water and rock beneath it. It stops at what’s called the weathering zone — or where soils first begin to develop. This zone allows crops to grow well and supports our buildings. It also allows for animals and microbes to live, and filters our water. A review of recent research is now available.

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The fate of stem cells is determined by series of choices that sequentially narrow their available options until stem cells’ offspring have found their station and purpose in the body. Their decisions are guided in part by TET proteins rewriting the epigenome, the regulatory layer of chemical flags that adorn the genome and influence gene activity, report researchers at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and UC San Diego.

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Soil, an important part of the carbon cycle, might compound the world's carbon dioxide problem, according to a global study involving Kansas State University researchers and Konza Prairie Biological Station. The study, "Quantifying global soil carbon losses in response to warming," recently published in Nature, predicts that soils may release large quantities of carbon dioxide in response to warming, leading to even faster rates of warming globally.

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Resembling the Leidenfrost effect seen in rapidly boiling water droplets, a disk of ice becomes highly mobile due to a levitating layer of water between it and the smooth surface on which it rests and melts. The otherwise random rotation and translation (sliding) of the ice block can be directed by controlling the flow dynamics of the melted ice-turned-water close to the disk surface.

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Water is vital to life on Earth, yet from a scientific point of view, much remains unknown about water and its many solid phases, which display a plethora of unusual properties and so-called anomalies that, while central to water’s chemical and biological importance, are often viewed as controversial. This inspired researchers to pursue a better understanding of water and ice as materials, which has a far-reaching impact on many areas of research.

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Prominent research leader and biomedical scientist Professor Barry Halliwell will help to steer biomedical research efforts in Singapore at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) from 1 January 2017.

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A Queen’s University Belfast expert is leading a €4m international initiative to investigate whether natural toxins and manmade chemicals are creating potentially dangerous mixtures that affect our natural hormones and cause major illnesses such as cancer, obesity, diabetes or infertility.

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Dairy scientists are evaluating integrating sprouted barley grown indoors without soil, known are hydroponic feed, into the diets of dairy heifers and lactating cows.

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Most Americans envision healthy mustangs galloping free on the range when they think about the country's wild horse population. But UC Cooperative Extension rangeland advisor Laura Snell sees another image.

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The National Advisory Committee for the Tulane Nitrogen Reduction Challenge has selected five finalists for its $1 million cash prize, which will be awarded to the team that presents the best solution to combat hypoxia – the deadly deficiency of oxygen that creates annual “dead zones” in the world’s lakes and oceans.

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University of Notre Dame astronomers have identified what they believe to be the second generation of stars, shedding light on the nature of the universe’s first stars.

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Cornell Unviersity researchers have discovered a biological mechanism that helps convert nitrogen-based fertilizer into nitrous oxide, an ozone-depleting greenhouse gas.

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Irvine, Calif., Dec. 6, 2016 — University of California, Irvine engineers have successfully implemented the first power-to-gas hydrogen pipeline injection project in the United States, demonstrating the use of excess clean electricity that would otherwise go to waste.P2G is a technique for converting surplus sustainable energy from solar panels or wind farms into hydrogen, which can be blended with natural gas and utilized in everything from home appliances to power plants.