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Categories: Geoscience: Geochemistry, Space: Astronomy
Published Nature favors creatures in largest and smallest sizes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Surveying the body sizes of Earth's living organisms, researchers found that the planet's biomass -- the material that makes up all living organisms -- is concentrated in organisms at either end of the size spectrum.
Published How life and geology worked together to forge Earth's nutrient rich crust
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Around 500 million years ago life in the oceans rapidly diversified. In the blink of an eye -- at least in geological terms -- life transformed from simple, soft-bodied creatures to complex multicellular organisms with shells and skeletons. Now, research has shown that the diversification of life at this time also led to a drastic change in the chemistry of Earth's crust -- the uppermost layer we walk on and, crucially, the layer which provides many of the nutrients essential to life.
Published Unlocking the power of photosynthesis for clean energy production
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers are embarking on a groundbreaking project to mimic the natural process of photosynthesis using bacteria to deliver electrons to a nanocrystal semiconductor photocatalyst. By leveraging the unique properties of microorganisms and nanomaterials, the system has the potential to replace current approaches that derive hydrogen from fossil fuels, revolutionizing the way hydrogen fuel is produced and unlocking a powerful source of renewable energy.
Published Researchers measure the light emitted by a sub-Neptune planet's atmosphere
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers observed exoplanet GJ 1214b's atmosphere by measuring the heat it emits while orbiting its host star. Astronomers directly detected the light emitted by a sub-Neptune exoplanet -- a category of planets that are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune.
Published Researchers discovered that various species share a similar mechanism of molecular response to nanoparticles
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Living organisms are exposed to nanoparticles through different products and air pollution every day. After examining hundreds of exposures, researchers revealed how various species share a specific epigenetic molecular response to particulate matter. They have now explained the mechanism through which cells and organisms adapt to long-term exposures to nano-sized materials.
Published Can a city store as much carbon as a forest?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new tool helps show how growing cities can remain carbon neutral.
Published Exploring the underground connections between trees
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Fungal networks interconnecting trees in a forest is a key factor that determines the nature of forests and their response to climate change. These networks have also been viewed as a means for trees to help their offspring and other tree-friends, according to the increasingly popular 'mother-tree hypothesis'. An international group of researchers re-examined the evidence for and against this hypothesis in a new study.
Published How 1,000 undergraduates helped solve an enduring mystery about the sun
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source For three years at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of students spent an estimated 56,000 hours analyzing the behavior of hundreds of solar flares. Their results could help astrophysicists understand how the sun's corona reaches temperatures of millions of degrees Fahrenheit.
Published Viruses could reshuffle the carbon cycle in a warming world
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The roles microbes play in ecosystems are changing with global warming. Microbes are also affected by infection by viruses, but scientists know relatively little about how these viral infections could change how microbes react to warming. In this study, scientists describe different ways that increasing temperatures could affect viruses and their microbial hosts. Their preliminary models show that viruses could alter carbon balance, causing some ecosystems to switch from net carbon sources to net carbon sinks.
Published Atmospheric research provides clear evidence of human-caused climate change signal associated with CO2 increases
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research provides clear evidence of a human 'fingerprint' on climate change and shows that specific signals from human activities have altered the temperature structure of Earth's atmosphere.
Published Galactic bubbles are more complex than imagined
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have revealed new evidence about the properties of the giant bubbles of high-energy gas that extend far above and below the Milky Way galaxy's center.
Published Pollen production could impact climate change by helping clouds form
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source For millions of people with seasonal allergies, springtime means runny noses, excessive sneezes and itchy eyes. And, as with many things, climate change appears to be making allergy season even worse. Researchers have now shown that common allergen-producing plants ryegrass and ragweed emit more smaller, 'subpollen particles' (SPPs) than once thought, yet climate would likely be most affected by their intact pollen grains, which can boost cloud formation.
Published Webb looks for Fomalhaut's asteroid belt and finds much more
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to image the warm dust around a nearby young star, Fomalhaut, in order to study the first asteroid belt ever seen outside of our solar system in infrared light. But to their surprise, the dusty structures are much more complex than the asteroid and Kuiper dust belts of our solar system. Overall, there are three nested belts extending out to 14 billion miles (23 billion kilometers) from the star; that's 150 times the distance of Earth from the Sun. The scale of the outermost belt is roughly twice the scale of our solar system's Kuiper Belt of small bodies and cold dust beyond Neptune. The inner belts -- which had never been seen before -- were revealed by Webb for the first time.
Published Air pollution from oil and gas production responsible for $77 billion in annual US health damages, contributes to thousands of early deaths, childhood asthma cases nationwide
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study found that air pollution from the oil and gas sector in the United States has substantial adverse impacts on air quality, human health, and health costs. The findings show that the pollutants nitrogen oxide (NO2), fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) from U.S. oil and gas production contributed to 7,500 excess deaths, 410,000 asthma attacks, and 2,200 new cases of childhood asthma across the U.S. in 2016.
Published Tiny microbes could brew big benefits for green biomanufacturing
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists find new route in bacteria to decarbonize industry. The discovery could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing of fuels, drugs, and chemicals. A research team has engineered bacteria to produce new-to-nature carbon products that could provide a powerful route to sustainable biochemicals.
Published Archaea in a warming climate become less diverse, more predictable
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using a long-term multifactor experimental field site researchers showed that experimental warming of a tallgrass prairie ecosystem significantly altered the community structure of soil archaea and reduced their taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity.
Published AI could run a million microbial experiments per year
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Automation uncovers combinations of amino acids that feed two bacterial species and could tell us much more about the 90% of bacteria that humans have hardly studied. An artificial intelligence system enables robots to conduct autonomous scientific experiments -- as many as 10,000 per day -- potentially driving a drastic leap forward in the pace of discovery in areas from medicine to agriculture to environmental science.
Published Scientists begin to unravel global role of atmospheric dust in nourishing oceans
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research begins to unravel the role dust plays in nourishing global ocean ecosystems while helping regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
Published Hubble follows shadow play around planet-forming disk
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The young star TW Hydrae is playing 'shadow puppets' with scientists observing it with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. In 2017, astronomers reported discovering a shadow sweeping across the face of a vast pancake-shaped gas-and-dust disk surrounding the red dwarf star. The shadow isn't from a planet, but from an inner disk slightly inclined relative to the much larger outer disk -- causing it to cast a shadow. One explanation is that an unseen planet's gravity is pulling dust and gas into the planet's inclined orbit. The young star TW Hydrae is playing 'shadow puppets' with scientists observing it with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Now, a second shadow -- playing a game of peek-a-boo -- has emerged in just a few years between observations stored in Hubble's MAST archive. This could be from yet another disk nestled inside the system. The two disks are likely evidence of a pair of planets under construction.
Published New catalyst transforms carbon dioxide into sustainable byproduct
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source -Electrocatalyst achieves record-breaking selectivity toward desired product, a key step in expanding production -Acetic acid, found in vinegar, is traditionally extracted from fossil fuels for use in paint and other product feedstock.