(Newswise)–In 1870, explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, trekking across the barren and remote ice cap of Greenland, saw something most people wouldn’t expect in such an empty, inhospitable landscape: haze. Nordenskiöld’s record of the haze was among the first evidence that air pollution around the northern hemisphere can travel toward the pole and degrade air quality […]
Worldwide Importance Of Honey Bees For Natural Habitats Captured In New Report
(Newswise)–An unprecedented study integrating data from around the globe has shown that honey bees are the world’s most important single species of pollinator in natural ecosystems and a key contributor to natural ecosystem functions. The first quantitative analysis of its kind, led by biologists at the University of California San Diego, is published Jan. 10 […]
Engineers Program Tiny Robots To Move, Think Like Insects
Ithaca, NY–(Newswise)–While engineers have had success building tiny, insect-like robots, programming them to behave autonomously like real insects continues to present technical challenges. A group of Cornell University engineers has been experimenting with a new type of programming that mimics the way an insect’s brain works, which could soon have people wondering if that fly […]
Researchers Capture Oldest Ice Core Ever Drilled Outside The Polar Regions
NEW ORLEANS–(Newswise)–The oldest ice core ever drilled outside the polar regions may contain ice that formed during the Stone Age—more than 600,000 years ago, long before modern humans appeared. Researchers from the United States and China are now studying the core—nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall—to assemble one of the longest-ever […]
Salt Pond In Antarctica, Among The Saltiest Waters On Earth, Is Fed From Beneath
(Newswise)–At the base of the Transantarctic Mountains lies a geological oddity. Don Juan Pond is one of the saltiest bodies of water on the planet, filled with a dense, syrupy brine rich in calcium chloride that can remain liquid to minus 50 degrees Celsius, far below the freezing point of water. But the source of […]
Wearable Computing Ring Allows Users To Write Words And Numbers With Thumb
(Newswise)–With the whirl of a thumb, Georgia Tech researchers have created technology that allows people to trace letters and numbers on their fingers and see the figures appear on a nearby computer screen. The system is triggered by a thumb ring outfitted with a gyroscope and tiny microphone. As wearers strum their thumb across the […]
If Termites Eat Bait For One Day, They Die Within 90
Gainesville, FL–(Newswise)–Termites that feed on a well-known bait for one day are eventually doomed, which is good news for those who want to protect their property from the destructive pest, a University of Florida entomologist says. Within 30 days of that first day of feeding, the bait significantly weakens termite colonies, said Thomas Chouvenc, a […]
Hubble Sees Nearby Asteroids Photobombing Distant Galaxies
(Newswise)–Like rude relatives who jump in front your vacation snapshots of landscapes, some of our solar system’s asteroids have photobombed deep images of the universe taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. These asteroids reside, on average, only about 160 million miles from Earth-right around the corner in astronomical terms. Yet they’ve horned their way into […]
Aitape Skull Likely Belongs To World’s Oldest Tsunami Victim
(Newswise)–In 1929, Australian geologist Paul Hossfeld stumbled upon a partial human skull in a mangrove outside the coastal town of Aitape in Papua New Guinea. Originally thought to belong to Homo erectus, the skull was subsequently dated to the mid-Holocene period, about 6,000 years ago. Now, new research suggests the bone fragment belongs to the […]
Examining The Lifestyles Of Microbes
(Newswise)–Microbes are everywhere — in humans they protect us from harmful bacteria and help us digest food; in soils, they provide nutrients and encourage growth of plants. Microbes even live in sediments below the seafloor where they play a key role in the underwater ecosystem. Scientists are identifying and characterizing more microbes each year using […]