Biotech fit for the Red Planet: New method for growing cyanobacteria under Mars-like conditions

NASA, in collaboration with other leading space agencies, aims to send its first human missions to Mars in the early 2030s, while companies like SpaceX may do so even earlier. Astronauts on Mars will need oxygen, water, food, and other consumables. These will need to be sourced from Mars, because importing them from Earth would be impractical in the long term. In Frontiers in Microbiology, scientists show for the first time that Anabaena cyanobacteria can be grown with only local gases, water, and other nutrients and at low pressure. This makes it much easier to develop sustainable biological life support systems.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-biotech-red-planet-method-cyanobacteria.html

Earth just had its 7th-warmest January on record

True to trend, Mother Earth kicked off 2021 with a balmy January that ranked 7th-warmest in the temperature record, according to scientists with NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-earth-7th-warmest-january.html

Water is a probable vector for mammalian virus transmission

Water is a necessity for all life but its availability can be limited. In geographical areas experiencing dry seasons, animals congregate near the few freshwater sources, often reaching large densities. At these sites many animals from different species come to the same spots to drink, potentially operating as key locations for pathogen transmission within and between species. An international team of scientists lead by the German Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) suggests that viruses can use restricted freshwater sources as a vector to be spread among animals. The key prediction of this idea is that animal viruses remain stable and infectious in water. The team tested this idea by sampling water holes in ecosystems of Africa and Mongolia with pronounced dry seasons and growing viruses in such water. The scientific results demonstrated that this was indeed possible and are published in Science of the Total Environment.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-probable-vector-mammalian-virus-transmission.html

Method for temporal monitoring of microplastic sedimentation

The effects of microplastics on our health and the environment are being rigorously studied all across the world. Researchers are identifying microplastic sources and their potential routes to the environment by examining rainwater, wastewater, and soil.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-method-temporal-microplastic-sedimentation.html

China faces substantially hotter summers and winters by 2050

Temperatures in China may increase dramatically within the next three decades as the country begins to feel the effects of global greenhouse gas emissions, new research has shown.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-china-substantially-hotter-summers-winters.html

American plant could have huge benefits for UK diet and the environment

Scientists have found that a plant native to America has potential to be grown in the UK, bringing with it huge benefits for a balanced, sustainable diet.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-american-huge-benefits-uk-diet.html

CSIRO identifies plants most at risk after Black Summer megafires

Australia's 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires severely impacted hundreds of plant species. While the prospects of recovery for most appear to be good, some species remain vulnerable, according to research published by Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, and the Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-csiro-black-summer-megafires.html

The keys to a major boost for hybrid wheat breeding

A new study, led by researchers from The University of Western Australia and scientists and expert plant breeders from Limagrain is set to revolutionize the future of wheat production, with three genes identified that will enable the breeding of hybrid wheat crops that promise higher yields and better disease and environmental tolerance.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-keys-major-boost-hybrid-wheat.html

Image: At the rim of a crater

This image features the southeast wall of a small crater located a few hundred kilometers to the north of the giant Hellas impact basin on Mars. The complete crater itself is about 12 km in diameter; this image shows a 5 x 10 km area.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-image-rim-crater.html

Enormous ancient fish fossil discovered in search of pterodactyl remains

Fossilised remains of a fish that grew as big as a great white shark and the largest of its type ever found have been discovered by accident.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-enormous-ancient-fish-fossil-pterodactyl.html

Harnessing socially distant molecular interactions for future computing

Could long-distance interactions between individual molecules forge a new way to compute?

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-harnessing-socially-distant-molecular-interactions.html

New physics rules tested on quantum computer

Aalto researchers have used an IBM quantum computer to explore an overlooked area of physics, and have challenged 100-year-old notions about information at the quantum level.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-physics-quantum.html

Membrane building blocks play decisive role in controlling cell growth

Lipids are the building blocks of the cell membrane. In addition to their structural function, some lipids also play a regulatory role and decisively influence cell growth. This has been investigated in a new study by scientists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). The impact of the lipids depends on how they are distributed over the plasma membrane. The study was published in The Plant Cell.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-membrane-blocks-decisive-role-cell.html

Neanderthals and Homo sapiens used identical Nubian technology

Long held in a private collection, the newly analyzed tooth of an approximately nine-year-old Neanderthal child marks the hominin's southernmost known range. Analysis of the associated archaeological assemblage suggests Neanderthals used Nubian Levallois technology, previously thought to be restricted to Homo sapiens.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-neanderthals-homo-sapiens-identical-nubian.html

Invasive flies prefer untouched territory when laying eggs

A recent study finds that the invasive spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) prefers to lay its eggs in places that no other spotted wing flies have visited. The finding raises questions about how the flies can tell whether a piece of fruit is virgin territory—and what that might mean for pest control.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-invasive-flies-untouched-territory-eggs.html

Comet or asteroid: What killed the dinosaurs and where did it come from?

It forever changed history when it crashed into Earth about 66 million years ago.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-comet-asteroid-dinosaurs.html

Managing crab and lobster catches could offer long-term benefits

The UK's commercial fishing industry is currently experiencing a number of serious challenges.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-crab-lobster-long-term-benefits.html

A machine-learning approach to finding treatment options for COVID-19

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, doctors and researchers rushed to find effective treatments. There was little time to spare. "Making new drugs takes forever," says Caroline Uhler, a computational biologist in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Institute for Data, Systems and Society, and an associate member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. "Really, the only expedient option is to repurpose existing drugs."

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-machine-learning-approach-treatment-options-covid-.html

Russian cargo ship launched to International Space Station

An unmanned Russian cargo ship launched successfully Monday with a load of supplies for the International Space Station.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-russian-cargo-ship-international-space.html

Red Sea coral reefs 'under threat' from Israel-UAE oil deal

Israeli environmentalists are warning that a UAE-Israeli oil pipeline deal threatens unique Red Sea coral reefs and could lead to "the next ecological disaster".

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-red-sea-coral-reefs-threat.html

Nissan says not in talks with Apple on self-driving cars

Japanese auto maker Nissan said Monday it is not in talks with Apple to develop self-driving cars, a week after Hyundai also denied reports it was discussing the top-secret project with the US tech giant.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-nissan-apple-self-driving-cars.html

Major Australian media company strikes Google news pay deal

Seven West Media has become the largest Australian news media business to strike a deal with Google to pay for journalism in a partnership announced Monday before the nation's Parliament considers draft laws to force digital giants to pay for news.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-major-australian-media-company-google.html

Strange creatures accidentally discovered beneath Antarctica's ice shelves

Far underneath the ice shelves of the Antarctic, there's more life than expected, finds a recent study in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-strange-creatures-accidentally-beneath-antarctica.html

Capuchin monkey genome reveals clues to its long life and large brain

An international team of scientists has sequenced the genome of a capuchin monkey for the first time, uncovering new genetic clues about the evolution of their long lifespan and large brains.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-capuchin-monkey-genome-reveals-clues.html