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Environment
Dry fuel emerges as a key factor in exacerbating recent Canadian wildfires
Spatial patterns of burn severity days and anomalies in 2023. Credit: Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.ado1006 A team of forest management experts from various agencies across Canada has found that fuel dryness has been the most influential factor in burn severity in Canadian wildfires over the past several decades. In a paper published in the journal Science, the group describes how…
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Other Sciences
Seeing the ‘big picture’: researchers discover storytelling could be the key to a meaningful life
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain One study found a direct link between storytelling ability and a sense of meaning and quality of life. The study, conducted in Israel and the United States, found that people who were good storytellers lived more fulfilling lives, had a clearer sense of purpose, and had the ability to see the “big picture.” Researchers assessed participants’…
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Biology
Scientists uncover insights into neuron function by measuring two key signals simultaneously in living animals
When triggered by odor, C. elegans olfactory neurons undergo rapid changes in membrane potential and intracellular calcium ion levels, leading to fluctuations in the fluorescence intensity of membrane potential sensors and calcium ion sensors. Researchers at Kyushu University measured these changes simultaneously using high-speed capture under a microscope and subsequent image processing, showing that the two signals encode different information…
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Science
Historians say the Midwest played a key role in black liberation movements around the world
The Midwest played an important role in the growth of the 20th century black freedom movement and the expansion of political activist Marcus Garvey’s ideas. Eric S. McDuffie, professor of African American studies and history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, writes in his new book, “The Second Battle for Africa: Garveyism, America’s Heartland, and Black Freedom Around the…
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Space & Cosmos
Switchbacks: solar jets could hold the key to understanding complete reversals of magnetic fields
Simulation domains and magnetic topology. Top left: 3D volume of the domain of the simulation containing the root block of the grid. Bottom left: 2D cross section at constant angle Ï• = 0° of the velocity collar at t = 5500 s. This snapshot highlights the spatial distribution of velocity. Grid block boundaries are indicated by gray lines. Each block…
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Biology
Researchers say collaboration is key to determining the ultimate genotypes of plants and livestock
Use of synthetic biology. An alternative approach to constructing ultimate genotypes is to first clone ultimate haplotypes into yeast or mammalian artificial chromosomes (MACs) before inserting these haplotypes into the target genome using Cas9 guide RNA. . The animal silhouettes were created with Vecteezy. SCNT, somatic cell nuclear transfer; Credit: Nature Genetics (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-024-01942-0 In their search for the…
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Physics
Kinetic Alfvén waves may be the key to the mystery of solar coronal heating
Geometry of obliquely propagating Alfvén waves. This schematic diagram shows the fitted geometry of a KAW in a circular cross-section solar flux tube loop of height h and radius a. Credit: Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-77975-6 Saeed Ayaz, a researcher at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), published a paper in Scientific Reports based on a first-of-its-kind study examining…
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Biology
Key molecules in wound healing identified through mapping of long non-coding RNA molecules
LncRNA expression profiling and functional screening in human skin wound healing. Credit: Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52783-8 A new study by the Karolinska Institutet and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences has identified an RNA molecule important for skin wound healing. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, could have implications for the treatment of hard-to-heal wounds. This research…
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Physics
Niobium-tin magnets could be the key to unlocking the potential of heavy-ion accelerators
Cross-sectional view of the 28 GHz ECRIS superconducting magnet. Credit: Berkeley Lab Researchers in Berkeley Lab’s Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics (ATAP) department are collaborating with colleagues at Michigan State University’s Rare Isotope Beam Facility (FRIB), the world’s most powerful heavy ion accelerator, to We have developed a new superconducting magnet based on Tin (Nb3Sn) technology. The first-of-its-kind magnet has…
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Nanotechnology
Researchers have solved a key problem with sodium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and grid energy storage
Artistic rendering of the important discovery that lowering the heating rate during the fabrication of cathodes in sodium-ion batteries eliminates the problem of distortion and cracking in core-shell particles with concentration gradients. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory. Lithium-ion batteries have long dominated the market as the go-to power source for electric vehicles. Consideration is also underway to store renewable energy for…
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