~cosmos-magazine | Bookmarks (564)

Recent research from the Marine Biological Laboratory at the University of Chicago, has uncovered an unusual form of cell division in one of the most common forms of bacteria – those that live in dental plaque. The researchers observed Corynebacterium matruchotii which produces precipitate calcium phosphate in the mouth, undergo a division process known as […]

A US study has found that vaccination against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) lowers the risk of hospitalisation in people over 60. The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. RSV is a highly infectious disease that usually causes mild illness, but can be serious in young children and older adults. Vaccines […]

Telling tourists on the Great Barrier Reef about climate change doesn’t negatively affect their trip, according to a new study. Instead, finds the research, it could be a good avenue to promote climate action for people who wouldn’t otherwise be engaged. The study, done by a team of Queensland researchers, is published in People and […]

Fragments of the protein collagen have been found preserved in dinosaur fossils 80 million to195 million years old. But this shouldn’t be possible. With a half-life of only about 500 years, the peptide bonds that hold proteins together ought to break down much, much sooner. Now, a new study in ACS Central Science has described the […]

“Imagine a wristwatch that wouldn’t lose a second even if you left it running for billions of years,” says Professor Jun Ye, referring to the first “nuclear clock” which could keep time even more accurately than state-of-the-art atomic clocks. “While we’re not quite there yet, this research brings us closer to that level of precision,” […]

A new species of sauropod – or long-necked dinosaur – has been described from fossils found in Spain. The titanosaur has been named Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra in a paper published in Communications Biology. The dinosaur was discovered at the Lo Hueco fossil site in the central city of Cuenca, about 140km east of Madrid. More than […]

Marmosets do something that only humans, dolphins and elephants have been known to do: give each other names. “Phee-calls” – a specific vocal call – used to identify and communicate between individual marmosets are described in new research published in the journal Science. There are 22 species of marmoset native to South America and occasionally […]

Discovery of how the deadly avian influenza virus spread to the Antarctic has raised concerns about how vulnerable the region will be during seabird breeding season. In October 2023, British researchers confirmed for the first time the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions. The strain detected in remote […]

Researchers have made a cooling device that they say can chill environments with 50% of the energy used by conventional air conditioning. They are using the physics of radiative cooling. The personalised device works by making an extremely cold surface, rather than blowing air about. The Chinese team has published its results in Cell Reports […]

An asteroid 20 times larger than the one that ended the Age of Dinosaurs smashed into Jupiter’s largest moon Ganymede 4 billion years ago. New research suggests the impact shifted the moon’s axis. Ganymede is the solar system’s largest moon. With a diameter more than 5,260km, it is larger than the planet Mercury. It is […]

It really is a shark-eat-shark world. Scientists have reported the first ever case of a porbeagle shark – a 2.2-metre-long pregnant female – being eaten. A marine whodunnit investigation suggests that large sharks are eating each other. Porbeagle sharks are large – reaching up to 3.7 metres and 230 kg. They can live for 65 […]

Researchers at Monash University’s Applied Microfluidics & Bioengineering Lab are researching the environment inside fallopian tubes hoping to shed light on female infertility. Their new Nature Communications study has revealed a previously overlooked contributor to female infertility – the viscosity of fallopian tube fluid. They found a thicker, sticky fluid environment promotes the growth of […]

New research suggests that electricity generated by earthquakes might be the key to the formation of giant gold nuggets. The study by geologists at Melbourne’s Monash University is published in Nature Geoscience today. Humans have prized gold for millennia. It’s shine, hue and relative rarity have turned it into a valuable commodity which has formed […]

A new method could soon produce personalised blood stem cells to improve transplant outcomes for people with blood diseases, such as leukaemia and bone marrow disorders. Researchers from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Australia have developed a way to turn human cells, like hair, skin, or blood cells, into haematopoietic stem cells. Making stem […]

Chemists have developed a simple way to turn a common type of plastic (PET) back into virgin material – using iron and alcohol. Importantly the method is selective, meaning it could recycle the PET in mixtures of plastics and textiles. The Japanese and Malaysian researchers have published their work in Industrial Chemistry and Materials. Polyethylene […]

A team of US scientists has discovered a new species of dragonfish, which is confined to a very small area in Antarctica. The Banded Dragonfish (Akarotaxis gouldae), dwells in the waters off the coast of the western Antarctic Peninsula. The dragonfish is described in a paper in Zootaxa. The researchers found the new species by […]

The window to save the Great Barrier Reef is closing rapidly, according to a the most recent government report. The Outlook report, which is released every 5 years by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), tracks the Reef’s health across 9 different areas, including biodiversity, ecosystem health, commercial use and heritage value. The […]

Countries in the Asia-Pacific region account for 76% of the world’s thermal coal power generation, and many of these plants will need to retire early to meet global emissions targets. But according to a new analysis, it’s possible to phase these coal plants out and transition to renewable energy while investors still make money. The […]

A study has found promising antibiotic candidates inside bacteria harvested from the deep Arctic Sea. The research, by Finnish and Norwegian researchers, is published in Frontiers in Microbiology. Antibiotic discovery has slowed in recent decades, which has exacerbated the risks of antibiotic resistance. Most licensed antibiotics – about 70% – have been derived from a […]

Engineers are looking for better ways of dealing with equipment failures on autonomous spacecraft to make them safer. Autonomous spacecraft, sometimes costing billions of dollars to design and produce, are a now staple of human attempts to explore outer space. These uncrewed vehicles have to traverse millions of kilometres. While they’re up there, there’s very […]

Spiders don’t need a tight-laced corset to achieve their shapely hourglass figures, according to a new PLOS Biology study they’ve got it covered with a single gene. US researchers discovered the gene, which they have named “waist-less”, in the Texas brown tarantula (Aphonopelma hentzi). Waist-less (wsls) is responsible for forming the narrow boundary that separates […]

South of the city of Melbourne, beneath the surface of Port Phillip Bay, lie vast forests of kelp. Just like trees in terrestrial ecosystems, kelp provides shelter and food for a complex living community. And just like our forests on land, the kelp of Port Phillip Bay is struggling with assaults on multiple fronts – […]

A newly discovered doughnut-shaped region thousands of kilometres beneath the surface of the Earth is helping scientists understand the dynamics of our planet’s magnetic field. The discovery, made by Australian National University (ANU) seismologists, is published in the journal Science Advances. Earth, like ogres and onions, is layered. Our planet’s crust – the outer layer […]