Новости за 22.05.2024

Without immediate action to help the world's most vulnerable people adapt to climate change, millions face the prospect of their homes becoming unlivable, with no option but to leave.

Urbanization in China tends to be depicted in terms of towering skyscrapers and multilane highways—the city reaching upwards and outwards. Not much thought is given to the vast, but less eye-catching, urban infrastructure that shapes and is shaped by the everyday lives of its citizens—such as toilets and sewers.

Fast-fashion brand Shein expressed interest last year in listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). But, having met some opposition from US politicians, including Republican Florida senator Marco Rubio, it has now reportedly turned its attention to London.

TikTok, the short-video company with Chinese roots, did the most American thing possible on May 7, 2024: It sued the U.S. government, in the person of Attorney General Merrick Garland, in federal court. The suit claims the federal law that took effect on April 24, 2024, banning TikTok unless it sells itself violates the U.S. Constitution.

Light measurement devices called optical frequency combs have revolutionized metrology, spectroscopy, atomic clocks, and other applications. Yet challenges with developing frequency comb generators at a microchip scale have limited their use in everyday technologies such as handheld electronics.

A study now published in Nature Communications brings remarkable insights into the enigmatic behavior of supercritical fluids, a hybrid state of matter occupying a unique space between liquids and gases, and arising in domains that go from the pharmaceutical industry to planetary science. The obtained results are at the limit of current experimental possibilities and could only be obtained in a high flux neutron source such as the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL).

France's Sophie Adenot and Belgium's Raphael Liegeois will be the first two from a new class of European astronauts to blast off to the International Space Station, the European Space Agency said Wednesday.

The inflorescence architecture of crop plants like barley is predominantly regulated by meristem activity and fate, which play a critical role in determining the number of floral structures for grain production.

In a paper now published in Science, researchers from leading institutions worldwide propose a comprehensive strategy that connects the latest scientific insights to action on the high seas. The team developed a policy pathway for engaging all relevant stakeholders in managing the Southern Ocean. This novel approach ensures a wide range of interests are integrated in a climate-smart marine spatial planning (MSP) process.

According to a study published in Current Biology on May 22, the genetic components of the ancient populations in the western Tibetan Plateau are closest to ancient populations in the southern Tibetan Plateau, and their major genetic components have been maintained over the past 3,500 years. In addition, these ancient populations in the western Tibetan Plateau had complex and frequent interactions with ancient populations inside and outside the plateau.

New research by EMBL scientists shows how different modes of cell division used by animals and fungi might have evolved to support diverse life cycles.

Engineers have modeled a new way to recycle polystyrene that could become the first viable way of making the material reusable. The chemical method identified to tackle hard-to-recycle packaging material, cutting landfill waste

Scientists at Bath, have introduced a breakthrough carbon-based sensor for detecting lactic acid levels in saliva—avoiding the need for an electrical power source.

Researchers from TU Delft and Brown University have engineered string-like resonators capable of vibrating longer at ambient temperature than any previously known solid-state object—approaching what is currently only achievable near absolute zero temperatures. Their study, published in Nature Communications, pushes the edge of nanotechnology and machine learning to make some of the world's most sensitive mechanical sensors.

In the rapidly evolving field of photonics, an advancement has emerged from Korea, redefining the possibilities of structural color manipulation. Scientists have developed a pioneering technology capable of omnidirectional wavelength tuning, which promises to revolutionize a myriad of tunable photonic applications.

Discoveries and progress in materials science often lay the foundation for technological breakthroughs that reshape many industrial and commercial fields, including medicine, consumer electronics, and energy generation, to name a few.

Rising sea levels and urban development are accelerating coastal erosion at an alarming rate in Southern California with significant ripple effects on the region's economy, a USC study reveals.

Nature lovers will know the scene well. A flurry of birdsong, a shake of a tree and out pops a flock of birds flying away in unison together.

The National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) has established a technique for cultivating human mesenchymal stem cells, widely used in regenerative medicine, on the surface of an ionic liquid.

Genetic predispositions guide population-specific song learning in wild birds, shows new research from Stockholm University. By studying adult pied flycatchers that had been translocated as eggs from the Netherlands to Sweden, the researchers found that the songs of translocated birds resembled both their social environment in Sweden as well as their ancestral Dutch population.

Australia lacks fearsome large carnivores like lions and wolves, and the relative lack of fear that marsupials like kangaroos and wallabies show to dogs (and other introduced carnivores) has been attributed to a lack of evolutionary experience with large mammalian predators. This, however, overlooks the 50,000-year-long presence in Australia of the world's most fearsome predator—the human "super predator."

Scientists have uncovered the properties of a rare earth element that was first discovered 80 years ago at the very same laboratory, opening a new pathway for the exploration of elements critical in modern technology, from medicine to space travel.

We've been told, "The eyes are the window to the soul." Well, windows work two ways. Our eyes are also our windows to the world. What we see and how we see it help determine how we move through the world. In other words, our vision helps guide our actions, including social behaviors.

Astronomers at MIT, NASA, and elsewhere have a new way to measure how fast a black hole spins, by using the wobbly aftermath from its stellar feasting.

The sun's surface is a brilliant display of sunspots and flares driven by the solar magnetic field, which is internally generated through a process called dynamo action. Astrophysicists have assumed that the sun's field is generated deep within the star. But an MIT study finds that the sun's activity may be shaped by a much shallower process.