For centuries, lake sturgeon have moved quietly through the rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes region, growing slowly and aging in a way that has been difficult to measure. Their lives can stretch far beyond those of most freshwater fish, but just how far has remained uncertain. New research now suggests that some may…
What happened to the reindeer on St. Matthew Island is a classic story of wildlife boom and bust. In 1944, the US Coast Guard corralled 29 Nunivak Island reindeer on a barge and floated the animals north to the island, more than 200 miles away to one of the most remote places in Alaska. While…
Representative Image of an apple orchard with solar panels providing shade while generating electricity (AI-generated image) In 2022, researchers running a field experiment in southern France found that moving solar panels installed above an apple orchard sharply reduced sunburn damage on the fruit. The system, known as a dynamic agrivoltaic setup, tilts photovoltaic panels through…
In a vineyard in Italy’s Puglia region, rows of grapevines grew beneath something more usually associated with power stations than agriculture: photovoltaic panels. The arrangement changed the amount of sunlight reaching the vines, but it also altered what was happening much closer to the ground. Soil stayed wetter, temperatures were less extreme and the air…
A $12 million research project at Penn State is trying to give drones a new way of making decisions, drawing inspiration from the small brains of insects and other animals. Funded by the US Army’s Army Research Laboratory, the project aims to develop an onboard sensing system that can pick out useful information without sending…
PC: 3M Young Scientist Lab Dry air is not completely without water. There is moisture suspended in the atmosphere even when rainfall is scarce, and 13-year-old Aniket Sarkar wanted to find out whether some of it could be recovered for agriculture. His idea led to a low-cost atmospheric water capture system built with ordinary materials,…
Harmful algal blooms can turn freshwater ecosystems into dangerous environments, but researchers at Florida Atlantic University are developing a novel way to tackle one of the nutrients that helps drive them, excess phosphorus. Rather than removing algae after a bloom has already formed, the team is developing 3D-printed adsorbent structures designed to capture phosphate directly…
The prototype ‘laundry gun’ in action during a fabric treatment test. Astronauts heading on long missions to Mars could face a surprisingly ordinary problem: how to keep their clothes clean without wasting precious water. Scientists at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, working with NASA‘s Marshall Space Flight Center, have developed a small device that…
Overview of Hibernophis breithaupti (UW11120 on two blocks), showing holotype (UW-11120-A) and paratype (UW-11120-B) specimens as exposed on the surface. Image Credit: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society A snake fossil discovery in Wyoming has given palaeontologists an unusually close look at the lives of these ancient reptiles. Four complete skeletons belonging to a newly…
Representative preflight, in-flight, and post-flight hand radiographs. Radiographs of the hand were acquired (A) preflight by a crew member, (B) in-flight on day 1 after launch (L+1) by a crew member, and (C) post-flight by a non-crew operator using the same imaging protocol. Image Credit: Radiological Society of North America(RSNA) The first X-rays taken in…
