Food production-driven land use leads to changes in water-related ecosystem services

With global population growth, accompanied by factors like COVID-19 and natural disasters, increasing food yield has become a major concern worldwide. However, the links between food production and local land-use driven water-related ecosystem services (WESs) changes remain underestimated and unrevealed.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-food-production-driven-water-related-ecosystem.html

Christmas trees can be green because of a photosynthetic short-cut

How can conifers that are used for example as Christmas trees keep their green needles over the boreal winter when most trees shed their leaves? Science has not provided a good answer to this question but now an international team of scientists, including researchers from Umeå University, has deciphered that a short-cut in the photosynthetic machinery allows the needles of pine trees to stay green. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-christmas-trees-green-photosynthetic-short-cut.html

Black hole X-ray binary GRS 1915+105 has a variable magnetic disc wind, study suggests

Using NASA's Chandra spacecraft, astronomers have performed high-resolution X-ray spectroscopic observations of a transient black hole X-ray binary known as GRS 1915+105. They report that the source exhibits a variable magnetic accretion disc wind. The study was detailed in a paper published December 16 on the arXiv pre-print repository.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-black-hole-x-ray-binary-grs.html

Researchers develop layered cobalt oxide with a record-setting thermoelectric figure of merit

Waste heat is a highly promising source of renewable energy; however, the efficiency of using heat to generate energy has historically been much lower than hydroelectric, wind or solar power. While there are a number of materials that can be used for the generation of energy from waste heat, they all suffer from various issues ranging from low stability to low efficiency. Nevertheless, the fact that a large number of industries generate copious amounts of waste heat have driven research into this field.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-layered-cobalt-oxide-record-setting-thermoelectric.html

Researchers develop new way to break reciprocity law

An international research team lead by Aalto University has found a new and simple route to break the reciprocity law in the electromagnetic world, by changing a material's property periodically in time. The breakthrough could help to create efficient nonreciprocal devices, such as compact isolators and circulators, that are needed for the next generation of microwave and optical communications systems.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-reciprocity-law.html

Nanomaterial theory describes strongly correlated electrons in quantum dots

Osaka City University scientists have developed mathematical formulas to describe the current and fluctuations of strongly correlated electrons in quantum dots. Their theoretical predictions could soon be tested experimentally.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-nanomaterial-theory-strongly-electrons-quantum.html

Transporter protein that regulates cell membrane cholesterol likely played an important role in vertebrate evolution

Almost four decades of research have led scientists at Japan's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) to propose that a family of transporter proteins has played an important role in species evolution. One protein in particular, called ABCA1, was likely crucial for vertebrate evolution by helping regulate when signals involved in cell proliferation, differentiation and migration enter a cell. This process was necessary for vertebrates to develop into more complex organisms with sophisticated body structures.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-protein-cell-membrane-cholesterol-important.html

Mechano-responsive hydrogel developed for wound healing

Dr. Wang Rong's team from the Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with the researchers from Sun Yat-sen University and Nanchang University, has developed a mechano-responsive antibacterial hydrogel with controllable drug release behavior for wound healing application. The study was published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.  

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-mechano-responsive-hydrogel-wound.html

Researchers realize half-metallicity in A-type antiferromagnets with ferroelectric control

Recently, Prof. Zheng Xiaohong's research group from the Institute of Solid State Physics (ISSP) of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), in cooperation with Prof. Stefano Sanvito from Trinity College Dublin, demonstrated a novel idea to achieve half-metallicity in A-type van der Waals (vdW) antiferromagnets via ferroelectric control.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-half-metallicity-a-type-antiferromagnets-ferroelectric.html

Image: Space bauble produced by the Multiscale Boiling experiment

Deck the halls with space-based bubbles!

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-image-space-bauble-multiscale.html

Image: Hubble sees a 'molten ring'

The narrow galaxy elegantly curving around its spherical companion in this image is a fantastic example of a truly strange and very rare phenomenon. This image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, depicts GAL-CLUS-022058s, located in the southern hemisphere constellation of Fornax (the Furnace). GAL-CLUS-022058s is the largest and one of the most complete Einstein rings ever discovered in our universe. The object has been nicknamed by astronomers studying this Einstein ring as the "Molten Ring," which alludes to its appearance and host constellation.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-image-hubble-molten.html

Caspian crisis: Sinking sea levels threaten biodiversity, economy and regional stability

Coastal nations are rightly worried about sea level rise, but in the countries around the Caspian Sea, over 100 million people are facing the opposite problem: an enormous drop in sea level. Technically, this sea is a land-locked lake, but it is the largest on the planet (371.000 km2), and quite salty. Since the '90s, the water level has been dropping a few centimeters every year. This drop will accelerate during the upcoming decades, according to scientists from the German universities of Gießen and Bremen, together with Dutch geologist Frank Wesselingh.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-caspian-crisis-sea-threaten-biodiversity.html

Genetic engineering without unwanted side effects helps fight parasites

Modified CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing scissors are enabling researchers at the University of Zurich to make alterations to the genetic material of single-cell organisms that are indistinguishable from natural mutations. This method makes it possible to develop a harmless experimental live vaccine for the widespread parasite Toxoplasma gondii.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-genetic-unwanted-side-effects-parasites.html

Are two phases of quarantine better than one?

New research into this question shows that the second wave of an epidemic is very different if a population has a homogenous distribution of contacts, compared to the scenario of subpopulations with diverse number of contacts.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-phases-quarantine.html

Pandemic sends US single mothers into poverty

When the coronavirus pandemic shuttered restaurants in California, Aleida Ramirez lost her job as a waitress, plunging her—along with many other single mothers—into a vicious cycle of poverty, unpaid bills and reliance on food banks.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-pandemic-mothers-poverty.html

Virus hunters delve into Gabon forest in search for next threat

The scene looks like something out of a science fiction movie, or maybe some dystopian TV series.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-virus-hunters-delve-gabon-forest.html

Japan's renewable energy sector seeks carbon-neutral windfall

Japan needs to boost renewable energy by reforming outdated policies on land use and the national grid if it is to meet a new goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, industry players and experts say.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-japan-renewable-energy-sector-carbon-neutral.html

Musk: Apple CEO didn't take meeting about buying Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he once considered selling the electric car maker to Apple, but the iPhone maker's CEO blew off the meeting.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-musk-apple-ceo-didnt-tesla.html

Lava lake forms as Hawaii volcano erupts after 2-year break

Lava was rising more than 3 feet (1 meter) per hour in the deep crater of a Hawaii volcano that began erupting over the weekend after a two-year break, scientists said Tuesday.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-lava-lake-hawaii-volcano-erupts.html

Delicious and disease-free: scientists attempting new citrus varieties

UC Riverside scientists are betting an ancient solution will solve citrus growers' biggest problem by breeding new fruits with natural resistance to a deadly tree disease.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-delicious-disease-free-scientists-citrus-varieties.html

Highest levels of microplastics found in molluscs, new study says

Mussels, oysters and scallops have the highest levels of microplastic contamination among seafood, a new study reveals.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-highest-microplastics-molluscs.html

Survival of the thickest: Big brains make mammal populations less dense

Mammals with big brains tend to be less abundant in local areas than those with smaller brains, new research has shown.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-survival-thickest-big-brains-mammal.html