Total Energies’ $10-billion Tilenga project involves drilling more than 400 oil wells in western Uganda, many of them in Murchison Falls Nature Park, a biodiversity reserve and the country’s largest national park. Production has yet to begin, but TotalEnergies’ controversial East African oil project is already taking a dire environmental toll in Uganda’s largest national … Read more
General overview of the controlled, template-independent enzymatic RNA oligonucleotide synthesis process. Credit: Daniel J. Wiegand et al While the COVID-19 vaccines introduced many people to RNA-based medicines, RNA oligonucleotides have already been on the market for years to treat diseases like Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and amyloidosis. RNA therapies offer many advantages over traditional small molecule … Read more
Severely burned forest landscape in Yellowstone National Park, WY, U.S. Credit: Ann Olsson Forests have been embraced as a natural climate solution, due to their ability to soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow, locking it up in their trunks, branches, leaves, and roots. But a new study confirms widespread doubts about … Read more
Side view of the whole system, worn as a backpack. Credit: Karen Morales Astronauts on spacewalks famously have to relieve themselves inside their spacesuits. Not only is this uncomfortable for the wearer and unhygienic, it is also wasteful, as—unlike wastewater on board the International Space Station (ISS)—the water in urine from spacewalks is not recycled. … Read more
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Planetary scientists are proposing a new definition of a planet to replace one that many researchers view as sun-centric and outdated. The current definition—established in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the organization that officially names objects in space—specifies that to qualify as a planet, a celestial body must orbit … Read more
These images show the hyphae and spores of the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome (in green) invading the lab grown skin cells of little brown bats. Credit: Klein Lab/University of Wisconsin–Madison An invasive fungus that colonizes the skin of hibernating bats with deadly consequences is a stealthy invader that uses multiple strategies to slip into … Read more
An artist’s impression showing bi-polar jets of gas originating from a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. Credit: ESA/Hubble, L. Calçada (ESO) Galaxies avoid an early death because they have a “heart and lungs” which effectively regulate their “breathing” and prevent them from growing out of control, a new study suggests. If … Read more
Eric Lechner preparing electropolished niobium samples used in secondary ion mass spectrometry measurements. Credit: Jefferson Lab/Aileen Devlin Particle accelerators are pricey, but their cost comes with good reason: These one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art machines are intricately designed and constructed to help us solve mysteries about what makes up our universe. Still, the scientists and engineers building these … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain RIKEN chemists have developed a molecule that enhances the performance of organic electronic devices and is also more stable than previous alternatives, raising the chances that it could be used in industrial manufacturing processes. The study is published in Advanced Materials. Conventional electronic devices are made from hard semiconductors such as … Read more
Charlotte Lozier, one of the first female doctors in the U.S. Credit: Women’s History Blog via Wikimedia Commons Gender discrimination doesn’t always end after a woman dies. Newspapers have long treated women differently in the number, wording and presentation of obituaries. Since the 18th century, newspapers have published short death notices with basic facts—announcements often … Read more
