Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Fungal spores from 250-year-old collections given new lease of life      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The biological and historical diversity in museum collections is staggering, with specimens collected across centuries by some of the most famous scientists in history. In a new study, researchers successfully revived museal fungal specimens that were more than 250 years old and used the live cultures for whole genome sequencing and physiological experiments.

Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Ways to tackle water security challenges in world's drylands      (via sciencedaily.com) 

To counter the effects of climate change on drylands, a new study suggests that global access to water should be managed in a more integrated way.

Computer Science: Encryption
Published

New twist on DNA data storage lets users preview stored files      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have turned a longstanding challenge in DNA data storage into a tool, using it to offer users previews of stored data files -- such as thumbnail versions of image files.

Computer Science: Encryption
Published

'PrivacyMic': For a smart speaker that doesn't eavesdrop      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Microphones are perhaps the most common electronic sensor in the world, with an estimated 320 million listening for our commands in the world's smart speakers. The trouble is that they're capable of hearing everything else, too.

Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

New insights into survival of ancient Western Desert peoples      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have used more than two decades of satellite-derived environmental data to form hypotheses about the possible foraging habitats of pre-contact Aboriginal peoples living in Australia's Western Desert.

Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Sick bats also employ 'social distancing' which prevents the outbreak of epidemics, study suggests      (via sciencedaily.com) 

In a new study, researchers demonstrate that sick bats, just like ill humans, prefer to stay away from their communities, probably as a means for recovery, and possibly also as a measure for protecting others.

Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Using fossil plant molecules to track down the Green Sahara      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have developed a new concept to explain the phenomenon known as Green Sahara. They demonstrate that a permanent vegetation cover in the Sahara was only possible under two overlapping rainy seasons.

Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Does cold wildfire smoke contribute to water repellent soils in burned areas?      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

After a wildfire, soils in burned areas often become water repellent, leading to increased erosion and flooding after rainfall events - a phenomenon that many scientists have attributed to smoke and heat-induced changes in soil chemistry. But this post-fire water repellency may also be caused by wildfire smoke in the absence of heat, according to a new article.

Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Road verges provide opportunity for wildflowers, bees and trees      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Road verges cover 1.2% of land in Great Britain - an area the size of Dorset - and could be managed to help wildlife, new research shows.

Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Prehistoric horses, bison shared diet      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers found that a broader diversity of plants in the Arctic 40,000 years ago supported both more -- and more diverse -- big animals like horses, bison and ground sloths. The research could inform conservation of wood bison in Alaska.

Environmental: Ecosystems Geoscience: Landslides
Published

Nature has enormous potential to fight climate change and biodiversity loss in the UK      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new report details how nature can be a powerful ally in responding to the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change.

Computer Science: Encryption
Published

Graphene key for novel hardware security      (via sciencedaily.com) 

As more private data is stored and shared digitally, researchers are exploring new ways to protect data against attacks from bad actors. Current silicon technology exploits microscopic differences between computing components to create secure keys, but artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can be used to predict these keys and gain access to data. Now, researchers have designed a way to make the encrypted keys harder to crack.

Computer Science: Encryption
Published

An uncrackable combination of invisible ink and artificial intelligence      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Coded messages in invisible ink sound like something only found in espionage books, but in real life, they can have important security purposes. Yet, they can be cracked if their encryption is predictable. Now, researchers have printed complexly encoded data with normal ink and a carbon nanoparticle-based invisible ink, requiring both UV light and a computer that has been taught the code to reveal the correct messages.

Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Cryptic sense of orientation of bats localized: the sixth sense of mammals lies in the eye      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Mammals see with their eyes, hear with their ears and smell with their nose. But which sense or organ allows them to orient themselves on their migrations, which sometimes go far beyond their local foraging areas and therefore require an extended ability to navigate? Scientific experiments now show that the cornea of the eyes is the location of such an important sense in migrating bats.

Computer Science: Encryption Mathematics: Puzzles
Published

Algorithms improve how we protect our data      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists have developed algorithms that more efficiently measure how difficult it would be for an attacker to guess secret keys for cryptographic systems. The approach could reduce the computational complexity needed to validate encryption security.

Computer Science: Encryption
Published

Computer scientists discover new vulnerability affecting computers globally      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A team o computer science researchers has uncovered a line of attack that breaks all Spectre defenses, meaning that billions of computers and other devices across the globe are just as vulnerable today as they were when Spectre was first announced.

Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Cave deposits reveal Pleistocene permafrost thaw, absent predicted levels of CO2 release      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Expanding the study of prehistoric permafrost thawing to North America, researchers found evidence in mineral deposits from caves in Canada that permafrost thawing took place as recently as 400,000 years ago, in temperatures not much warmer than today. But they did not find evidence the thawing caused the release of predicted levels of carbon dioxide stored in the frozen terrain.

Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Spring forest flowers likely key to bumblebee survival      (via sciencedaily.com) 

For more than a decade, ecologists have been warning of a downward trend in bumble bee populations across North America, with habitat destruction a primary culprit in those losses. While efforts to preserve wild bees in the Midwest often focus on restoring native flowers to prairies, a new study finds evidence of a steady decline in the availability of springtime flowers in wooded landscapes.

Computer Science: Encryption
Published

Materials advances are key to development of quantum hardware      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new article argues that the ability to move forward on developing useful quantum computers requires new major advances in materials science, engineering and fabrication. The authors call for new approaches from broad areas of science and engineering.

Computer Science: Encryption
Published

Transforming circles into squares      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed a method to change a cellular material's fundamental topology at the microscale.