For many people, a monsoon brings to mind images of intense rainfall and high winds in faraway places. Actually, monsoons occur all over the globe, including North America. These seasonal reversals of winds trigger dramatic changes in rainfall and other weather events within a short period of time.
The North American monsoon affects large areas of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. This rainy season brings with it much more than torrential downpours from J
Arizona farmers receive the same yield/acre, use fewer chemical insecticides and maintain insect biodiversity when they plant the biotech cotton known as Bt cotton, according to new research.
The finding comes from the first large-scale study that simultaneously examined how growing Bt cotton affects yield, pesticide use and biodiversity.
It’s good news for the environment.
“What we see is that it’s positive here in Arizona — no doubt about it,” sai
Penn State researchers have developed software that allows databases to “talk to each other” automatically without compromising the security of the data and metadata because the queries, data communicated and other information are encrypted.
The Privacy-preserving Access Control Toolkit (PACT) acts like a filter but is resilient to eavesdropping or other attacks because of the encryption.
“The software automatically regulates access to data, so some information can be exchan
A new study of side-blotched lizards in California has revealed the genetic underpinnings of altruistic behavior in this common lizard species, providing new insights into the long-standing puzzle of how cooperation and altruism can evolve. The study, led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, offers the first evidence in vertebrates of an important theoretical concept in evolutionary biology known as “greenbeard” altruism.
“This reflects a major breakthrough in ou
Anthrax vaccine administered in combination with a short course of antibiotics completely protected nonhuman primates from inhalational anthrax, the most lethal form of the disease, according to scientists at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).
In a collaborative study involving USAMRIID and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), investigators demonstrated that postexposure vaccination can shorten the durati
Estimates of increased plant respiration in response to higher global temperatures may be somewhat overstated as they have not taken into account plants’ ability to adjust to changing conditions, according to researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
In a Perspectives paper published April 28 by Science, a team led by Tony King cites ORNL findings suggesting that about 9 percent more carbon will be stored in plants and soil with the acclimation of plants included in
Young children who live near a major road are significantly more likely to have asthma than children who live only blocks away, according to a study that appears in the May 1 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.
The study found that children living within 75 meters (about 82 yards) of a major road had a 50 percent greater risk of having had asthma symptoms in the past year than were children who lived more than 300 meters (about 328 yards) away. Higher traffic volumes o
One of the largest and most anticipated U.S. science construction projects of the past several decades has passed its most significant performance test. The Department of Energy’s Spallation Neutron Source, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has generated its first neutrons.
Research conducted at the SNS will lay the groundwork for the next generation of materials research. Scientists believe that the greatly improved ability to understand the structure of materials
This technology should help solve the puzzles of cancer, Alzheimer’s, atherosclerosis and infectious diseases.
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have developed a new biotechnology that enables scientists to identify and engineer protease substrates, giving them the means of crafting pharmaceuticals to outsmart disease. Their work, authored by Patrick Daugherty, an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering, and Kevin Boulware, a PhD candidate, are published online today in the Pro
Earth’s wetlands are vital to the water cycle and havens for wildlife, but they are under threat. GlobWetland, an ESA-led initiative in collaboration with the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, has been addressing this issue by using satellite imagery to provide detailed wide-area views of individual wetlands to aid national and local conservation efforts.
Because the success of wetland conservation ultimately comes down to individual wetland managers, the GlobWetland products and services
A European research project has developed a prototype infrared-camera system that substantially enhances human visual perception in poor visibility conditions such as fog, heavy rain and at night.
The system doubled airline pilots’ ability to detect obstacles in tests simulating poor visibility, and in road tests it boosted automobile drivers’ vision up to 400 per cent. It could eventually be used aboard commercial airliners and in cars to improve safety.
MTT Agrifood Research Finland researchers have identified the birth mechanism of an infertility problem afflicting Finnish Yorkshire pigs. A retroposon, or “jumping gene”, was found to be behind the hereditary defect giving rise to the immotile short-tail sperm defect (ISTS) in boars, by producing a mutation in the KPL2-gene in pigs.
The ISTS defect, causing sterility, was detected in Finnish Yorkshire boars for the first time in 1987. Spermatozoa of boars suffering from the def
The University of Reading has developed a laser laboratory that is capable of showing some of the fastest physical processes known. The Ultrafast Laser Laboratory (ULL) can generate high energy laser light pulses with durations less than one tenth of a millionth of a millionth of a second long. The pulses can be tailored to have a particular shape and their properties can be measured.
The Department of Physics and the School of Systems Engineering at the University received funding from t
What do pizzas, spaghetti Bolognese and chilli con carne have in common? They all contain a vital ingredient that could help in the fight against cardiovascular disease – cooked tomatoes.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one the UK’s biggest killers, accounting for one in three deaths in the country every year. Now scientists from Liverpool John Moores University’s Nutraceutical Research Group (NRG) have been awarded over €420,000 by the European Union to investigate the health gi
An international collaboration including researchers from Amsterdam, Paris, Baton Rouge (USA) and Lund University, (Sweden), has made a breakthrough which moves some of the mathematics of quantum mechanics off of the blackboard and into the laboratory – from theory to reality. Using extremely short pulses of light, new knowledge about the wave-like nature of matter can be obtained.
The Lund group presently holds the world record for producing short laser pulses. In the High-power laser faci
A unique 3-dimensional microscope that works in a new way is giving unprecedented insight into microscopic internal structure and chemical composition. It is revealing how materials are affected, over time, by changes in temperature, humidity, weight load and other conditions.
The device could lead to advances in a range of areas, such as healthcare (in furthering, for instance, the understanding of conditions such as osteoporosis), the development of better construction materi
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