Tag: Science

A new study led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) shows how firms in the United States behave differently depending on the political party in charge—even if they do not change policies.

Nestlé has been criticized for adding sugar and honey to infant milk and cereal products sold in many poorer countries. The Swiss food giant controls 20% of the baby-food market, valued at nearly US$70 billion.

Diosgenin, a secondary metabolite isolated from the Dioscorea spp. plant family, is an irreplaceable and ideal starting material for the synthesis of steroid hormone drugs. Dioscorea zingiberensis is the world's most desirable and important plant source of steroid hormone drugs.

A research team has completed a high-quality chromosome-scale assembly of the Chuanhonghua 1 safflower genome. This work sheds light on the genetic underpinnings of crucial traits like linoleic acid (LA) and hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA) production. It sets a new precedent for crop improvement and functional genomics studies.

Scientists have found oysters could be very useful in gobbling up nutrient pollution from tropical waterways, including the Great Barrier Reef.

The frequency and intensity of plant stresses have increased in recent years due to climate change. Among them, low temperature is an unavoidable environmental factor limiting agricultural productivity.

The genus Musa, encompassing approximately 70 herbaceous species, is predominantly found in the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Oceania. This genus is renowned for being one of the most important food crops globally and popular ornamental plants in the markets.

In perennial woody plants, bud endodormancy is crucial for survival under adverse environmental conditions in winter, such as low temperature (LT) and dehydration stress. To break bud dormancy is essential for the resumption of bud growth and flowering. Tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa Andr.), belonging to the section Moutan of the genus Paeonia and family Paeoniaceae, is famous for high ornamental and medicinal value and is also known as a newly cultivated oil plant.

Ultrashort pulses play a significant role in spectroscopic applications. Their broad spectral bandwidth enables simultaneous characterization of the sample at various frequencies, eliminating the need for repeated measurements or laser tuning. Moreover, their extreme temporal confinement allows for temporal isolation of the sample's response from the main excitation pulse.

Grafting is a traditional and significant strategy to suppress soil-borne diseases, such as the crown gall disease caused by tumorigenic Agrobacterium and Rhizobium. Root exudates and the rhizosphere microbiome play critical roles in controlling crown gall disease, but their roles in suppressing crown gall disease in grafted plants remain unclear.

It is in three core approaches to delivering value to readers that I find a definition of ‘academic journalism’.

Wild Seasons will look at how seasonal events are changing amid the climate crisis.

As a partner on the International Public Policy Observatory, The Conversation is making an impact.

We receive many thousands of pitches every year – most would be improved by reading these tips.

Professor Sir Eric Thomas was a former VC of the University of Bristol and a patron and key supporter of The Conversation UK.

Register now for our live event on Thursday, 30 November at Waterstones - Tottenham Court Road in London.

With its IPPO partners, The Conversation is addressing some of the biggest policy challenges.

Women’s Health Matters is a comprehensive resource designed to empower women and provide them with the information they need to make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing.

The Conversation has been following the trials and tribulations of semaglutide (Wegovy) as it made its way from lizard venom to blockbuster drug.

We’ve put together a mini-series on birth and early motherhood, an area many of our readers felt they wanted more evidence-based information on.

In February, the NASA research center laid off more than 500 people, citing congressional budget uncertainties over the controversial Mars Sample Return mission. What is its path forward?

In regions where natural resources are scarce or economies depend on producing certain wines, adapting and diversifying grape crops is easier said than done.

Permafrost thaw might cause Arctic riverbanks to erode more quickly. But a new study shows why these erosion rates aren’t as dramatic as some scientists feared.

Researchers weigh in on the meaning and aftermath of the decision to reject designating “Anthropocene” as an official geological epoch.

Information from igneous zircon molecules gives researchers new insight into the workings of inner Earth.

The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. It is widely reported that the Chinese province of Guangdong is suffering a period of extreme rainfall, driving widespread flooding. Thousands of people have been evacuated and there is widespread damage. Less […]

Lakes are facing a slew of health issues that may become chronic. Can human health care strategies help?

“Forever chemicals” enter the air as sea spray aerosols, polluting coastlines and beyond.

Un núcleo de hielo que tiene registro más de 2 milenios, sugiere que la minería y la metalurgia aumentaron y disminuyeron con acontecimientos como las guerras y las epidemias.

A new textbook for undergraduates explores different types of natural hazards and disasters through foundational scientific knowledge, engaging case studies, and mitigation strategies.

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére Sosou Market gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough food has become a worrying

On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a "bump" for our ask. This week features "The difference between weather and climate". More will follow in the upcoming weeks. Please follow the Further Reading link at the bottom to read the full rebuttal and to join the discussion in the comment thread there. At a glance How do you go about weather forecasting by yourself? Study

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Spengeman People wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that arrives earlier to wait for a smoother, cooler ride in a new model. This has fed a new problem: overcrowding. Fortunately, more new buses

A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic publication: Here we use recent empirical findings from more than 1,600 regions worldwide over the past 40 years to project sub-national damages from temperature and precipitation, including daily variability and extremes

Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. This year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) started on Monday April 15 both on premise in Vienna and online as a fully hybrid conference. This year, I decided to join virtually for the whole week, picking and chosing sessions I was interested in. At the time of publication this blog post was still an evolving compilation - a kind of personal diary - of the happenings from my perspective. As this post will get fairly large, you can jump to the different days, via these links (bolded days have been added

Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications: Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control subsea permafrost distribution and thickness, yet no permafrost model has accounted for glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), which deviates lo

This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blog In 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something we don’t understand is happening — in other words, we’ve broken the climate.

On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a "bump" for our ask. This week features "Is the science settled?". More will follow in the upcoming weeks. Please follow the Further Reading link at the bottom to read the full rebuttal and to join the discussion in the comment thread there. At a glance Science, in all of its aspects, is an ongoing matter. It

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the 10th-most populated country with the 15th-largest economy and is also the 11th-most climate-polluting country in the world. In international surveys conducted in 2022 and 2023, Mexico had one of the highest percentages of citizens worried about human-caused climate change at 92%, compared to just 63% of Americans.*

A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 7, 2024 thru Sat, April 13, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week is about adults in the room setting terms and conditions of good behavior. Here it's not parents telling children what to do but instead the widely adopted, mutually agreed system of coercive behavior modification we call "rule of law." Legislators providing courts of justice with laws to apply are how we formalize overcoming widely harmful selfish actions— or negligent inactions. These are our proxy adults telling us what we can't do or must do— our aspirations for better nature given teeth. We could wish that we were all so perfect as to never need grownup guidance of a kind leading t