Measuring Methane From Coal and Gas in Pennsylvania Informative

While methane pollution caused by natural gas production in Pennsylvania is underestimated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, natural gas still has half the carbon footprint of underground coal mining, according to an international team of researchers.

May 24, 2019 10:45 AM EDT

Oldest Meteorite Collection on Earth Found in One of the Driest Places

Boulder, Colo., USA: Earth is bombarded every year by rocky debris, but the rate of incoming meteorites can change over time. Finding enough meteorites scattered on the planet's surface can be challenging, especially if you are interested in reconstructing how frequently they land. Now, researchers have uncovered a wealth of well-preserved meteorites that allowed them to reconstruct the rate of falling meteorites over the past two million years.

May 23, 2019 02:16 PM EDT

Intensive Silviculture Accelerates Atlantic Rainforest Biodiversity Regeneration

An experiment conducted in Brazil in an area of Atlantic Rainforest suggests that intensive silviculture, including the use of herbicide and substantial amounts of fertilizer, is a more effective approach to promoting the regeneration of tropical forest and biomass gain than the traditional method based on manual weeding and less fertilizer.

May 18, 2019 11:35 AM EDT

Galaxy Blazes with New stars Born From Close Encounter

The irregular galaxy NGC 4485 shows all the signs of having been involved in a hit-and-run accident with a bypassing galaxy. Rather than destroying the galaxy, the chance encounter is spawning a new generation of stars, and presumably planets.

May 17, 2019 10:19 AM EDT

Small, Hardy Planets Most Likely to Survive Death of Their Stars

Small, hardy planets packed with dense elements have the best chance of avoiding being crushed and swallowed up when their host star dies, new research from the University of Warwick has found.

May 15, 2019 12:31 PM EDT

Iceland Volcano Eruption in 1783-84 Did Not Spawn Extreme Heat Wave

An enormous volcanic eruption on Iceland in 1783-84 did not cause an extreme summer heat wave in Europe. But, as Benjamin Franklin speculated, the eruption triggered an unusually cold winter, according to a Rutgers-led study.

May 15, 2019 12:00 PM EDT

The Moon is Quaking as It Shrinks

A 2010 analysis of imagery from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) found that the moon shriveled like a raisin as its interior cooled, leaving behind thousands of cliffs called thrust faults on the moon's surface.

May 13, 2019 04:56 PM EDT

Searching for Lost WWII-era Uranium Cubes from Germany

WASHINGTON, D.C. May 1, 2019 - Back in 2013, Timothy Koeth, an associate research professor at the University of Maryland, received a rather extraordinary birthday gift: a little cloth lunch pouch containing a small object wrapped in brown paper towels.

May 01, 2019 11:17 AM EDT

Scientists Develop Low-cost Energy-efficient Materials

An international team of scientists from the National University of Science and Technology "MISIS" (NUST MISIS), Tianjin University (China), as well as from Japan and the United States has developed new energy-efficient iron-based alloys which combine high mechanical and magnetic properties with low cost and open up new opportunities for industry.

Apr 24, 2019 10:19 AM EDT

A Closer Look at Mercury's Spin and Gravity Reveals the Planet's Inner Solid Core

How do you explore the interior of a planet without ever touching down on it? Start by watching the way the planet spins, then measure how your spacecraft orbits it -- very, very carefully. This is exactly what NASA planetary scientists did, using data from the agency's former mission to Mercury.

Apr 18, 2019 08:59 PM EDT

Western bias in human genetic studies is 'both scientifically damaging and unfair'

Despite efforts to include more diversity in research, people of European ancestry continue to be vastly overrepresented and ethnically diverse populations largely excluded from human genomics research, according to the authors of a commentary published March 21 in a special issue of the journal Cell on human genetics.

Mar 22, 2019 07:59 AM EDT

Our genes affect where fat is stored in our bodies

A recent study from Uppsala University has found that whether you store your fat around the trunk or in other parts of your body is highly influenced by genetic factors and that this effect is present predominantly in women and to a much lower extent in men.

Jan 21, 2019 10:21 AM EST

3,000-year-old eastern North American quinoa discovered in Ontario

A mass of charred seeds found while clearing a home construction site in Brantford, Ontario, has been identified as ancient, domesticated goosefoot (C. berlandieri spp. jonesianum), a form of quinoa native to Eastern North America.

Jan 19, 2019 10:33 AM EST

How gut bacteria affect the treatment of Parkinson's disease

Patients with Parkinson's disease are treated with levodopa, which is converted into dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain. In a study published on 18 January in the journal Nature Communications, scientists from the University of Groningen show that gut bacteria can metabolize levodopa into dopamine.

Jan 19, 2019 10:31 AM EST

Europe looks to cells for a healthier future

The two largest European research organizations - Germany's Helmholtz Association and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France - are playing a major role in understanding the constant changes within cells and their relationships to one another, thus creating the foundation for the precision medicines of the future.

Jan 17, 2019 08:43 AM EST