Coca leaves on a plant. Credit: Natalia Przelomska/ Molecular Biology and Evolution A new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution indicates that while the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has collected annual data on areas of coca cultivation in South America for decades to monitor the establishment of illegal plantations and associated deforestation, … Read more
by Zhao Weiwei, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences A seed with internal cracks as detected by near-infrared spectroscopy. Credit: Wang Liusan Recently, a team led by Prof. Wang Rujing and Wang Liusan from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed a method to detect internal … Read more
Researchers have discovered that male noctule bats adjust their energy consumption with the seasons, using up to 42% more energy in summer than in spring. Credit: Kamran Safi Researchers from Konstanz have measured the heart rate of bats over several days in the wild, including complete flights—the first time this has been done for a … Read more
Located in the foothills of Mount Elgon near the Kenya-Uganda border, Kakapel Rockshelter is the site where WashU archaeologist Natalie Mueller and her collaborators have uncovered the earliest evidence for plant farming in east Africa. Credit: Steven Goldstein A trove of ancient plant remains excavated in Kenya helps explain the history of plant farming in … Read more
The binding energies per particle for (a) symmetric nuclear matter (SNM) and (b) pure neutron matter (PNM) calculated with (solid lines and full symbols) and without (dotted lines and empty symbols) tensor forces. (c) The symmetry energy difference obtained by performing the RBHF calculations with and without tensor force. Credit: Science China Press Tensor force … Read more
Microscope images of mammary gland tissue taken from a dairy cow infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza are magnified by 200 times on the left and 400 times on the right. On the left, cells infected with influenza are turquoise and flu receptors are magenta. On the right, infections are bright yellow and receptors are … Read more
This artist’s concept depicts an asteroid drifting through space. Many such objects frequency pass Earth. To help prepare for the discovery of one with a chance of impacting our planet, NASA leads regular exercises to figure out how the international community could respond to such a threat. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech The Netflix movie “Don’t … Read more
The Flora Incognita app makes it easy to identify plants with a smartphone. Credit: Flora Incognita Plants are known to respond to seasonal changes by budding, leafing, and flowering. As climate change stands to shift, these so-called phenological stages in the life cycle of plants—with access to data about phenological changes from many different locations … Read more
The presence of clinical missense mutations leads to alterations in the mechanism of action of TviE and TviD. Credit: Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49590-6 Worldwide, 20% of the bacterial strains that cause typhoid fever have genetic variations in their external layer, called Vi capsule, that provide higher virulence, higher infectivity and high antibiotic resistance, Cornell … Read more
Artist’s concept of Smertrios. Credit: NASA. Using the CARMENES spectrograph, astronomers have found evidence of water vapor in the atmosphere of a hot Saturn exoplanet designated HD 149026 b, dubbed Smertrios. The finding, reported in a research paper published on the preprint server arXiv, could be key to a better understanding of the structure and … Read more
