Curated News: Featured: SciWire

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Spring snowpack, relied on by ski resorts and water managers throughout the Western United States, may be more vulnerable to a warming climate in coming decades, according to a new University of Utah study.

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Paleobiologist Susannah Porter finds evidence of predation in ancient microbial ecosystems dating back more than 740 million years.

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An international team of scientists, including the University of Kentucky's Renbin Yan, is solving one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in galaxy evolution.

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A symbiotic relationship that has existed since the time of the dinosaurs is at risk of ending, as habitat loss and environmental change mean that a species of Australian crayfish and the tiny worms that depend on them are both at serious risk of extinction.

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With spring now fully sprung, a new study by University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers shows that buds burst earlier in dense urban areas than in their suburban and rural surroundings. This may be music to urban gardeners’ ears, but that tune could be alarming to some native and migratory birds and bugs.

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New U.S. Geological Survey-led research suggests that even though amphibians are severely declining worldwide, there is no smoking gun - and thus no simple solution - to halting or reversing these declines.

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Gestural communication in bonobos and chimpanzees shows turn-taking and clearly distinguishable communication styles.

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Two hundred and fifty million years ago, life on earth was in a tail-spin--climate change, volcanic eruptions, and rising sea levels contributed to a mass extinction that makes the death of the dinosaurs look like child's play. Marine life got hit hardest--96% of all marine species went extinct. For a long time, scientists believed that the early marine reptiles that came about after the mass extinction evolved slowly, but the recent discovery of a strange new fossil brings that view into question.

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Unlike the declining populations of many fish species, the number of cephalopods (octopus, cuttlefish and squid) has increased in the world’s oceans over the past 60 years, a University of Adelaide study has found.

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University of Adelaide environmental researchers have called for a ‘code of best practice’ in using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for wildlife monitoring and protection, and other biological field research.

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A hominin in the same genus as humans and an ape nicknamed “Laia” are among the discoveries identified by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry as the Top 10 New Species for 2016. Also on the list are a giant Galapagos tortoise, a seadragon, an anglerfish, three invertebrates, a carnivorous sundew and a small tree.

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In the Mesozoic, the time of the dinosaurs, from 252 to 66 million years ago, marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs were top predators in the oceans. But their origins and early rise to dominance have been somewhat mysterious.

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Spotting native alligators and crocodiles in Florida is common, but anyone who sees a large reptile may want to take a second look -- man-eaters that can grow to 18 feet long and weigh as much as a small car have been found in the Sunshine State.

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The geologic shape of what were once shorelines through Mars’ northern plains convinces scientists that two large meteorites – hitting the planet millions of years apart – triggered a pair of mega-tsunamis. These gigantic waves forever scarred the Martian landscape and yielded evidence of cold, salty oceans conducive to sustaining life.

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New geologic mapping in the Himalayan mountains of Kashmir between Pakistan and India suggests that the region is ripe for a major earthquake that could endanger the lives of as many as a million people.

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Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have successfully explained how iron-based dyes work on a molecular level in solar cells. The new findings will accelerate the development of inexpensive and environmentally friendly solar cells.

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Mountains aren’t the first thing that hit you when you look at images of Jupiter’s innermost moon, Io. But once you absorb the fact that the moon is slathered in sulfurous lava erupted from 400 active volcanoes, you might turn your attention to scattered bumps and lumps that turn out, on closer inspection, to be Io’s version of mountains.

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“How does it ‘feel’ to interact behaviorally with a machine?” To answer that, scientists created a virtual partner that can elicit emotional responses from its human partner while the pair engages in behavioral coordination in real-time. The virtual partner’s behavior is governed by mathematical models of human-to-human interactions in a way that enables humans to interact with the mathematical description of their social selves. Humans showed greater emotional arousal when they thought the virtual partner was a human and not a machine, although in all cases, they were interacting with a machine.

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Scientists have calculated, for the first time, the extent to which agricultural emissions must be reduced to meet the Paris climate agreement’s plan to limit warming to 2°C in 2100. Scientists estimate that the agriculture sector must reduce non-CO2 emissions by 1 gigaton per year in 2030. The analysis also revealed a major gap between the existing mitigation options for the agriculture sector and the reductions needed: current interventions would only deliver between 21-40% of mitigation required.

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In the study, clearing the beach of flotsam and jetsam increased the number of nests by as much as 200 percent, while leaving the detritus decreased the number by nearly 50 percent.

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As climatologists closely monitor the impact of human activity on the world’s oceans, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found yet another worrying trend impacting the health of the Pacific Ocean.

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The discovery of stone tools alongside mastodon bones in a Florida river shows that humans settled the southeastern United States as much as 1,500 years earlier than scientists previously believed, according to a research team led by a Florida State University professor. This site on the Aucilla River — about 45 minutes from Tallahassee — is now the oldest known site of human life in the southeastern United States. It dates back 14,550 years.

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The discovery of stone tools found in a Florida river show that humans settled the southeastern United States far earlier than previously believed—perhaps by as much as 1,500 years, according to a team of scientists that includes a University of Michigan paleontologist.

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Nearly 30 years of data collected on painted turtles in the Mississippi River near Clinton, Iowa, show that females suffer a steep dip in fertility before the end of their lives, a finding that flies in the face of what scientists have believed about turtles and aging.

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A faint blue galaxy about 30 million light-years from Earth and located in the constellation Leo Minor has been identified by Indiana University astronomers as possessing qualities that could shed new light on conditions during the Big Bang.

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Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured images of Comet 252P/LINEAR after the comet passed by Earth on March 21. The visit was one of the closest encounters between a comet and our planet. The Hubble images taken on April 4 reveal a narrow, well-defined jet of dust ejected by the comet's icy nucleus. The jet also appears to change direction in the images, which is evidence that the comet's nucleus is spinning.

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Flick a switch on a dark winter day and your office is flooded with bright light, one of many everyday miracles to which we are all usually oblivious.A physicist would probably describe what is happening in terms of the particle nature of light. An atom or molecule in the fluorescent tube that is in an excited state spontaneously decays to a lower energy state, releasing a particle called a photon.

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A new study shows that the Kepler-223 star system is trapped in an orbital configuration that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune may have broken from in the early history of the solar system.

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A doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania has identified a new species of fossil dog. The specimen, found in Maryland, would have roamed the coast of eastern North America approximately 12 million years ago, at a time when massive sharks like megalodon swam in the oceans.

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Northern cardinals and tufted titmice are two abundant bird species in the woods of eastern North America. Many bird and mammal species rely on information from tufted titmice calls to detect and respond to dangerous predators. This causes important information networks to form around tufted titmouse communication. Normally, northern cardinals listen to tufted titmouse predator alarm calls and will typically respond by fleeing or freezing until the danger passes.

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A study using functional-MRI brain scanning reveals certain areas of the brain have higher activity in children who are socially withdrawn or reticent compared to children who are not withdrawn.

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A new study shows the extent of the challenge faced by the upstate New York distribution grid during Super Storm Sandy in October 2012, and suggests what might be done to make the system more resilient against future storms.

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Scientists used clay models to discover how the croc-sized reptile's strange jaw worked.

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A new University of Sussex study has cleared the air on what lies behind hot dust visible in the distant universe.

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The primary threat to vultures is the presence of toxins in the carrion they consume. Losses of vultures can allow other scavengers to flourish. Proliferation of such scavengers could bring bacteria and viruses from carcasses into human cities.

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Researchers have made a giant leap forward in taking snapshots of these ultrafast reactions in a bacterial light sensor. Using the world’s most powerful X-ray laser at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, they were able to see atomic motions as fast as 100 quadrillionths of a second – 1,000 times faster than ever before.

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Astronomers using ALMA have delved remarkably deep into the heart of a nearby elliptical galaxy to study the motion of a disk of cold interstellar gas encircling the supermassive black hole at its center, provide one of the most accurate mass measurements to date for a black hole outside of our Galaxy.

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Long-eared bats are assisted in flight by their ears and body, according to a study by researchers at Lund University in Sweden. The recent findings improve researchers’ understanding of the bats’ flying technique and could be significant for the future development of drones, among other things.

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Framing the issue of climate change collectively is more effective than emphasis on personal responsibility, finds a UC San Diego study. People are willing to donate up to 50 percent more cash to the cause when thinking in collective terms. Thinking about climate change from a personal perspective produced little to no change in behavior.

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Loyola University Chicago researchers are among the co-authors of a groundbreaking study that found humans have a higher metabolism rate than closely related primates, which enabled humans to evolve larger brains. The findings may point toward strategies for combating obesity.

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A physics doctoral student at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has discovered the second-strongest merger shock in clusters of galaxies ever observed.

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The leopard (Panthera pardus), one of the world’s most iconic big cats, has lost as much as 75 percent of its historic range. This study represents the first known attempt to produce a comprehensive analysis of leopards’ status across their entire range and all nine subspecies.

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Global Temperature Report: April 2016

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Earlier this year scientists presented evidence for Planet Nine, a Neptune-mass planet in an elliptical orbit 10 times farther from our Sun than Pluto. Since then theorists have puzzled over how this planet could end up in such a distant orbit.

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Earth could contain nearly 1 trillion species, with only one-thousandth of 1 percent now identified, according to a study from biologists at Indiana University. The estimate, based on the intersection of large datasets and universal scaling laws, appears today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Currently the best place to search for life beyond the solar system.

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Nearly 10 billion years ago in a galaxy known as PKS B1424-418, a dramatic explosion occurred. Light from this blast began arriving at Earth in 2012. Now, an international team of astronomers, led by Prof. Matthias Kadler, professor for astrophysics at the university of Würzburg, and including other scientists from the new research cluster for astronomy and astroparticle physics at the universities of Würzburg and Erlangen-Nürnberg, have shown that a record-breaking neutrino seen around the same time likely was born in the same event. The results are published in Nature Physics.

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Brain sleep appeared early in vertebrate evolution.

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The tiny crystals probably formed in huge impact craters not long after Earth formed, some 4 billion years ago

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Project allows people to get move with a computer-controlled dancer, which “watches” the person and improvises its own moves based on prior experiences. When the human responds, the computerized figure reacts again, creating an impromptu dance couple based on artificial intelligence.