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Categories: Biology: Botany, Physics: Quantum Computing
Published Trees in areas prone to hurricanes have strong ability to survive even after severe damage



The island of Dominica took a direct hit from Category 5 Hurricane Maria. Nine months afterward, researchers found that while 89% percent of trees located in nine previously documented forest stands were damaged, but only 10 percent had immediately died. The most common damage was stem snapping and major branch damage. The damage with the highest rates of mortality were uprooting and being crushed by a neighboring tree. Large individual trees and species with lower wood density were susceptible to snapping, uprooting and mortality. Those on steeper slopes were more prone to being crushed by neighboring trees.
Published Early crop plants were more easily 'tamed'



Borrowing a page from what we know about animal behavior, archaeologists say that we should reassess our understanding of the process of plant domestication.
Published Rooting out how plants control nitrogen use



Nitrogen is such a crucial nutrient for plants that vast quantities of nitrogen-containing fertilizers are spread on farmlands worldwide. However, excess nitrogen in the soil and in drainage run-off into lakes and rivers causes serious ecological imbalances. A recent study has uncovered the regulatory mechanisms at work when plants utilize nitrogenous fertilizers in their roots, a positive step in the quest to generate crops that require less fertilizer while still producing the yields needed to feed the world.
Published Engineered plants produce sex perfume to trick pests and replace pesticides



Tobacco plants have been engineered to manufacture an alluring perfume of insect sex pheromones, which could be used to confuse would-be pests looking for love and reduce the need for harmful pesticides.
Published In Florida study, nonnative leaf-litter ants are replacing native ants



A new look at decades of data from museum collections and surveys of leaf-litter ants in Florida reveals a steady decline in native ants and simultaneous increase in nonnative ants -- even in protected natural areas of the state, researchers report.
Published US forests face an unclear future with climate change



Climate change might compromise how permanently forests are able to store carbon and keep it out of the air. In a new study, researchers found that the regions most at risk to lose forest carbon through fire, climate stress or insect damage are those regions where many forest carbon offset projects have been set up. The authors assert that there's an urgent need to update these carbon offsets protocols and policies.
Published DMI allows magnon-magnon coupling in hybrid perovskites



An international group of researchers has created a mixed magnon state in an organic hybrid perovskite material by utilizing the Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya-Interaction (DMI). The resulting material has potential for processing and storing quantum computing information.
Published Absolute zero in the quantum computer



Absolute zero cannot be reached -- unless you have an infinite amount of energy or an infinite amount of time. Scientists in Vienna (Austria) studying the connection between thermodynamics and quantum physics have now found out that there is a third option: Infinite complexity. It turns out that reaching absolute zero is in a way equivalent to perfectly erasing information in a quantum computer, for which an infinetly complex quantum computer would be required.
Published Researchers assemble pathogen 'tree of life'



Researchers provide open-access tool to capture new data on a global plant destroyer, Phytophthora.
Published DELLA proteins could hold key to the next Green Revolution



A family of 'promiscuous' proteins found in all land plants is responsible for many different plant functions, despite remaining relatively unchanged for over 450 million years.
Published Ants took over the world by following flowering plants out of prehistoric forests


Today, ants are pretty much everywhere. To learn more about how these insects conquered the world, scientists used a combination of fossils, DNA, and data on the habitat preferences of modern species to piece together how ants and plants have been evolving together over the past 60 million years. They found that when flowering plants spread out from forests, the ants followed, kicking off the evolution of the thousands of ant species alive today.
Published Scientists analyze sounds emitted by plants


Researchers have recorded and analyzed sounds distinctly emitted by plants. The click-like sounds, similar to the popping of popcorn, are emitted at a volume similar to human speech, but at high frequencies, beyond the hearing range of the human ear.
Published How plants cope with the cold light of day -- and why it matters for future crops


New research has discovered a cold 'coping' mechanism that is under the control of the plant biological clock and could offer solutions to breeding more resilience into crops less suited to cold climates.
Published Moths are more efficient pollinators than bees, shows new research


Moths are more efficient pollinators at night than day-flying pollinators such as bees, finds new research.
Published Can a solid be a superfluid? Engineering a novel supersolid state from layered 2D materials



Physicists predict that layered electronic 2D semiconductors can host a curious quantum phase of matter called the supersolid. This counterintuitive quantum material simultaneously forms a rigid crystal, and yet at the same time allows particles to flow without friction, with all the particles belong to the same single quantum state.
Published Highly charged ions melt nano gold nuggets



Shooting ions is very different from shooting a gun: By firing highly charged ions onto tiny gold structures, these structures can be modified in technologically interesting ways. Surprisingly, the key is not the force of impact, but the electric charge of the projectiles.
Published Nanophysics: The right twist


Stacked layers of ultrathin semiconductor materials feature phenomena that can be exploited for novel applications. Physicists have studied effects that emerge by giving two layers a slight twist.
Published Earth's first plants likely to have been branched


A new discovery changes ideas about the origin of branching in plants.
Published Researchers find clue to help plants grow with low phosphorus levels


Phosphorus is a natural mineral found in fertilizer that is essential for plant growth and development, and Earth's agricultural-grade phosphorus reserves are expected to be depleted in 50 to 100 years. A new discovery is changing their understanding of iron toxicity in plants caused by low phosphorus levels.
Published New type of entanglement lets scientists 'see' inside nuclei


Nuclear physicists have found a new way to see inside nuclei by tracking interactions between particles of light and gluons. The method relies on harnessing a new type of quantum interference between two dissimilar particles. Tracking how these entangled particles emerge from the interactions lets scientists map out the arrangement of gluons. This approach is unusual for making use of entanglement between dissimilar particles -- something rare in quantum studies.