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Phys.org / Beaver reintroduction improves peatland water storage and drought resilience
A study led by a doctoral researcher at the University of Liverpool has found that beavers may help restore degraded peatlands by keeping landscapes wetter and making them more resilient to drought.
Tech Xplore / Oversight Board blasts 'inadequate' Meta safeguards for AI deepfakes
Meta on Thursday moved to remove AI-generated videos targeting two women, including a British politician, after the tech giant's Oversight Board blasted its "fundamentally inadequate" safeguards against proliferating deepfakes.
Phys.org / Two spike 'keys' work together to let SARS-CoV-2 enter cells, study reveals
To enter cells, the COVID-19 virus fuses its surrounding membrane with the membrane of the target cell. This is where the fusion peptides of the spike protein come into play. These regions function as molecular keys that ...
Phys.org / Endurance running or endurance diving—which came first?
A new study combines paleoanthropology and diving physiology to address a fundamental question in human evolution: Why did humans evolve their exceptional aerobic endurance? Did our ancestors begin endurance running to exhaust ...
Phys.org / Handheld scanner delivers lab-quality chemical composition maps using infrared light
Researchers have developed a compact, handheld mid-infrared imaging spectrometer that can produce high-resolution chemical maps of a sample without using stains or labels. With further development, the handheld device might ...
Phys.org / Early heat waves hit wheat yields hardest but boost resilience to subsequent heat waves
New research published in the Journal of Experimental Botany reveals that wheat crops are more sensitive to grain yield losses from heat waves that occur before reaching their flowering stage than those occurring later. However, ...
Medical Xpress / Scientists map brain's mysterious 'blue place' and discover longest neuron ever measured in a mouse
Deep in the brainstem sits a small but important cluster of neurons known as the locus coeruleus (LC), Latin for "blue place." It makes up a tiny fraction of the brain's cells but plays an important role by releasing the ...
Phys.org / Threatened bumblebee populations in England and Wales face severe genetic declines
A new study reveals that an important pollinator is rapidly losing genetic diversity in Britain. Moss carder bumblebees were once widespread across the UK, living in flower-rich meadows, marshes and heathlands, where they ...
Phys.org / Earth's atmosphere is getting less dusty: That could be adding to global warming
Atmospheric desert dust has long swirled around the globe, but a new UCLA study presents the strongest evidence yet that global dust is mysteriously decreasing. Because atmospheric dust has a slight overall cooling effect ...
Medical Xpress / A gut's complex architecture, recreated on a microscope slide–sized chip
Gut instinct, gut feeling or gutting it out—what exactly is the human gut? It's the workhorse of the digestive system and home to a vast, dynamic community of microorganisms that influence human health. In fact, the human ...
Medical Xpress / The body's warmth sensor is secretly a pain switch—blocking it may ease arthritis
Chronic pain, including arthritis pain, affects more than one-third of U.K. adults. Current painkillers such as methotrexate and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) work by damping down the immune system, which ...
Tech Xplore / Harvesting hot electrons could break solar panel barrier
Physics predicts that no more than 33% of the solar energy that falls on a solar panel can be converted into electricity. However, experiments and simulations by scientists at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands ...
