A recent study published in Nature Climate Change by these researchers found that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and the Southern Meridional overturning Circulation may slow by up to 42% by 2100. The worst-case scenario of the simulations even suggests that the SMOC could completely stop by 2300. “Analysis of the projections from 36 Earth system models over a range of climate scenarios shows that unchecked global warming could lead to a shutdown of the ocean deep circulation,” said co-author J....

Fish, amphibians, and reptiles are animals known as ectotherms, which means they cannot actively control their internal temperature and are regulated by that of the environment. Faced with an increase in temperature caused by climate change, these organisms will experience a rise in their body temperature that will have serious consequences for them. In fact, environmental changes are already altering them, as several studies have shown over the last few years....

The researchers report in the journal Nature Communications December 22 that models tend to factor in too much of the sun’s daily heat, which results in warmer, drier conditions than might actually occur. The researchers found that inaccuracies in accounting for the diurnal, or daily, cloud cycle did not seem to invalidate climate projections, but they did increase the margin of error for a crucial tool scientists use to understand how climate change will affect us....

Although thousands of planets have been discovered in the Milky Way, most reside less than a few thousand light years from Earth. Yet our Galaxy is more than 100,000 light years across, making it difficult to investigate the Galactic distribution of planets. But now, a research team has found a way to overcome this hurdle. In a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers led by Osaka University and NASA have used a combination of observations and modeling to determine how the planet-hosting probability varies with the distance from the Galactic center....

Computer-designed small proteins have now been shown to protect lab-grown human cells from SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The findings were reported on September 9, 2020, in the journal Science In the experiments, the lead antiviral candidate, named LCB1, rivaled the best-known SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies in its protective actions. LCB1 is currently being evaluated in rodents. Coronaviruses are studded with so-called Spike proteins. These latch onto human cells to enable the virus to break in and infect them....

Conspiracists have used the provisional nature of science to paint scientists as malign actors. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy theorists have exploited the conditional nature of science and questioned the trustworthiness and motives of federal agencies and officials to depict scientists and health authorities as malign actors. In a commentary published on November 1, 2021, in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, science communication scholar Kathleen Hall Jamieson analyzes the ways in which conspiracists do this and proposes steps health authorities, journalists, and scientists can take to minimize the likelihood that their work will be used to fuel new conspiracy theories....

Wake Forest researchers suggest nicotine replacement therapies may not be suitable smoking cessation strategies for this population. Researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine have discovered that nicotine promotes the spread of lung cancer cells into the brain, where they can form deadly metastatic tumors. The study, which will be published today (June 4, 2020) in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), suggests that nicotine replacement therapies may not be suitable strategies for lung cancer patients attempting to quit smoking....

Initially, it was thought that this rogue effort of geoengineering was started off by Russ George, a US-based entrepreneur, who had persuaded the Haida Nation Village of Old Massett on the Queen Charlotte Islands to fund the project with the promise that it would be possible to sell these carbon credits for the carbon dioxide taken up by phytoplankton. It turns out that there is much more to the story....

New research led by scientists at the University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa reveals that the species which dominate experimental coral reef communities shift due to climate change, but the total biodiversity does not decline under future ocean conditions of warming and acidification predicted by the end of the century. The study was published on September 20, 2021, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. “Rather than the predicted collapse of biodiversity under ocean warming and acidification, we found significant changes in the relative abundance, but not the occurrence of species, resulting in a shuffling of coral reef community structure,” said Molly Timmers, lead author who conducted this study during her doctoral research at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) at the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST)....

COVID-19 has widened the life expectancy gap across racial groups and between the US and peer countries. U.S. life expectancy decreased by 1.87 years between 2018 and 2020, a drop not seen since World War II, according to new research from Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the Urban Institute. The numbers are even worse for people of color. On average, whereas life expectancy among White Americans decreased by 1....

COVID-19 patients can suffer long-term lung and heart damage but, for many, this tends to improve over time, according to the first, prospective follow-up of patients infected with the coronavirus, presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress.[1] Researchers in the COVID-19 ‘hot spot’ in the Tyrolean region of Austria recruited consecutive coronavirus patients to their study, who were hospitalized at the University Clinic of Internal Medicine in Innsbruck, the St Vinzenz Hospital in Zams or the cardio-pulmonary rehabilitation center in Münster, Austria....

A new study led by the University of California, Los Angeles suggests that current methods for evaluating the genetic connections between traits often overlook the influence of mating patterns, leading to inflated estimates of the strength of the genetic link between traits and diseases. Scientists have been using powerful genome sequencing technology to try to uncover the genetic connections between traits and disease risk in recent years, hoping that this knowledge could lead to new disease treatments....

Bats hunt at night using echolocation. The technique, which is also known as biological sonar, first evolved around 65 million years ago and enables bats to search for and find prey putting huge predation pressure on nocturnal insects. One defense that many nocturnal insects evolved is the ability to hear the ultrasonic calls of bats, which allows them to actively evade approaching bats. Many moth species, however, cannot hear. The team of researchers from the University of Bristol wanted to investigate the alternative defenses against bats that some species of deaf moths might have evolved....

But, as new research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows, marine heat waves also happen deep underwater. In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications on March 13, a team led by NOAA researchers used a combination of observations and computer models to generate the first broad assessment of bottom marine heat waves in the productive continental shelf waters surrounding North America. “Researchers have been investigating marine heat waves at the sea surface for over a decade now,” said lead author Dillon Amaya, a research scientist with NOAA’s Physical Science Laboratory....

One of the reasons why logging is bad for the climate is that when the trees are felled, they release the carbon that they are storing into the atmosphere, where it will mingle with greenhouse gases from other sources. This effect contributes to global warming and preventing deforestation would help decrease emissions as much as increasing fuel efficiency and reducing automobile usage does. 32 million acres of tropical rainforest were cut down each year between 2000 and 2009, and the pace of deforestation continues to accelerate....

Consuming highly refined fiber, however, may raise the risk of liver cancer in certain people, especially those with a silent vascular deformity, according to a recent study from The University of Toledo. The finding, which is described in a report published in the journal Gastroenterology, adds to UToledo’s expanding body of knowledge about the undervalued role that our gut plays in the origin of disease. “We have worked for a long time on this idea that all diseases start from the gut,” said Dr....

The problem is that what’s true of magnets is not at all true of romance. As I explain in my book, “Great Myths of Intimate Relationships: Dating, Sex, and Marriage,” people tend to be attracted to those who are similar – not opposite – to themselves. I love how you’re just like me Whether people really find opposites more attractive has been the subject of many scientific studies. Researchers have investigated what combination makes for better romantic partners – those who are similar, different, or opposite?...

Dr. Katalin Karikó is the recipient of the 2022 Vilcek Prize for Excellence in Biotechnology recognizing her scientific contributions that directly led to the development of the mRNA vac.cines to combat COVID-19. The Vilcek Prize for Excellence is awarded to immigrants to the United States who have had a significant impact on both American society and world culture, and to individuals who are dedicated champions of immigrant causes. The award was introduced in 2019 as part of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes program to honor outstanding individuals whose work exemplifies the Vilcek Foundation’s mission....

Due to its affordability and environmental friendliness, hydrogen is a feasible alternative to fossil fuels for energy applications. However, due to its low density, hydrogen is difficult to transport efficiently, and many on-board hydrogen generation methods are slow and energy intensive. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing and Tsinghua University, Beijing investigate real-time, on-demand hydrogen generation for use in fuel cells, which are a quiet and clean form of energy....

Due to their scarcity and high demand, REEs can be quite costly. For instance, a kilogram of neodymium oxide currently has a price of around €200 (~$214), while terbium oxide is even more expensive at approximately €3,800 (~$4,073) for the same amount. Currently, China holds a dominant position in the mining of REEs, with near-monopolistic control over the industry. However, a recent discovery of promising new REE deposits, estimated at over one million metric tons, was made in Kiruna, Sweden and made headlines in January 2023....