~cosmos-magazine | Bookmarks (554)

Your cup of Joe’s genome sequenced About 60% of coffee products worldwide come from the species Coffea arabica. It is thought to be the first species of coffee ever cultivated. An international team has now sequenced Arabica’s entire genome, which could help us breed new coffees that can grow better in a wider range of […]

On 16 September 2023, a mega-tsunami ripped through eastern Greenland. The waters reached 200 metres high in some places and damaged an empty military base. The remote location meant that no-one was hurt, but nor was it easy to figure out the cause. A team of German seismologists has found the source of the mysterious […]

Scientists have come up with a theoretical proposal to warm Mars to thicken the Red Planet’s atmosphere, melt its glaciers and provide water to sustain life. And all of that can be done, the researchers claim, with metal nanorods made from elements found in the Martian soil itself. The far-fetched plan is detailed in a […]

The phase of the Moon influences the sex of new-born fish, according to a new study. The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, finds that sixbar wrasse are more likely to develop as male if spawned at the new moon. Sixbar wrasse (Thalassoma hardwicke) are small fish that live on […]

A star has been spotted which suggests a stage of star growth exists which astronomers weren’t aware of. Stars’ fuel is the elements in their cores. Lighter elements – like hydrogen, helium and lithium – undergo nuclear fusion to create heavier elements like carbon and oxygen. This process releases huge amounts of energy in the […]

Scientists have built a device that can harness ambient radiofrequency signals, like Wi-fi and Bluetooth, for energy. The invention, say the researchers, could help to improve the energy efficiency of devices and allow small sensors to operate without batteries. The international team of researchers has published its findings in Nature Electronics. Electromagnetic waves are used […]

While studying how marine algae produce their toxins, scientists discovered the largest protein. The protein, named PKZILLA-1, is 25% larger than the previous record holder titin. Titin is found in human muscles and can reach 1 micron (or 1 micrometre which is one-thousandth of a millimetre) in length. PKZILLA-1 and another super-sized protein PKZILLA-2 are […]

By Michelle O’Shea, Western Sydney University and Gabrielle Weidemann, Western Sydney University Olympian Tom Daley is the most decorated diver in Britain’s history. He is also an avid knitter. At the Paris 2024 Olympics Daley added a fifth medal to his collection – and caught the world’s attention knitting a bright blue “Paris 24” jumper […]

The upper intestine epithelium (inner lining) plays a crucial role in activating the immune system in coeliac disease, according to new research. Coeliac disease is a chronic autoimmune disorder that affects about 1% of people. Its symptoms, which vary considerably, are triggered by exposure to gluten – proteins found in certain cereal grains like wheat, […]

Classical music can improve the mood of people with treatment-resistant depression because of the way it synchronises 2 parts of the brain, according to new research. The study, done by Chinese researchers, is published in Cell Reports. “Our research integrates the fields of neuroscience, psychiatry, and neurosurgery, providing a foundation for any research targeting the […]

Microwave ovens harbour a thriving bacterial community adapted to surviving the extreme conditions, according to a new study in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology. The microbiomes in some microwaves are similar to those found on solar panelsThe authors propose this is due to constant thermal shock, electromagnetic radiation, and desiccation (extreme drying) selecting for highly […]

Children and young people around the world have increased their sugary drink consumption by 23% in the last 3 decades, according to a new study. The study by US and Canadian researchers, is published in The BMJ. The researchers found that, from 1990 to 2018, people aged between 3-19 increased their sugar-sweetened beverage intake from […]

Researchers at Melbourne’s RMIT University have put the aerodynamics of kestrels to the test in the hope of gaining useful insight in the development of safer small aircraft design. The research is published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Kestrels are a small bird of prey with a unique hunting method. They hover almost completely […]

Below the Earth’s crust is our planet’s thickest layer, the mantle, which influences many processes – such as volcanism, crust formation, and its magnetic field. It is so deep, 6km to 70km below the surface, that accessing mantle rock is extremely difficult. As a result, scientists know little about it. In 2023, scientists drilled more […]

It’s estimated that between 8,000–12,000 lions and other big cats, including tigers, are bred and kept in captivity in more than 350 private, commercial facilities across South Africa. A new Nature Conservation paper is urging the South African government to shut down this controversial captive lion industry. Researchers from the animal welfare organisation World Animal […]

Scientists have found 11 previously unidentified marine species – by coming up with a better way to describe them. The research, published in the Biodiversity Data Journal, aims to tackle the fact that it can take decades before species are named and described. Meanwhile, species are going extinct at record rates due to increased pressures […]

New research in India has found fishing impacts the fish that live to tell the tale, not just the ones that get caught. Male squaretail groupers (Plectropomus areolatus) are being scared away from their territories off the Lakshadweep archipelago, located north of the Maldives, by humans deliberately targeting spawning sites for fishing. The resulting behavioural […]

The Great Barrier Reef is warmer than it’s been in at least 400 years, according to a new analysis. The temperatures recorded on the reef in early 2024, which brought a mass bleaching event, are the hottest it’s been since 1618 by a wide margin. The next 5 hottest extremes on the reef have all […]

The International Space Station (ISS) has been orbiting above our heads for nearly 26 years. There are plans to decommission it in 2031, which has sparked a race for scientists understand the “microsociety” aboard the ISS before it is lost forever. The International Space Station Archaeological Project (ISAAP) is the first archaeological study outside of […]

Australian researchers have equipped sea lions with underwater cameras to map previously unexplored areas of the ocean floor. In Australia – and the world – ocean seabeds and the surrounding benthic habitats remain shrouded in mystery. Remotely operated robots can gather ocean floor data, but they are expensive, require certain weather conditions and are difficult […]

Researchers have designed a new kind of transmitter-receiver which could send entangled photons over an optical fibre. The concept could see a future “quantum internet” merged with current telecommunications technologies. Quantum internet could see the strange effect of quantum entanglement be used to make uncrackable encryption. Not even quantum computers – themselves still in the […]

Dogs are prone to small brain behaviour – it’s a phenomenon documented extensively, and hilariously, on social media. Domestic dogs’ (Canis familiaris) brains are physically more than 24% smaller than their ancestor the grey wolf (Canis lupis). It’s long been thought that the comforts of a cushy life of domestication led to exceptionally dramatic reductions […]

An extremely rare ancient human fossil has been found on the Indonesian island of Flores which could change our understanding of hominin evolution in Southeast Asia. The 700,000-year-old bone is from an adult. But its total length would have been only a little more than 20 centimetres long and has the smallest minimum circumference of […]

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has provided the first direct measurement of electron- and muon-neutrino interaction rates. The interactions have the highest neutrino energy ever detected from a human-generated source and could help answer fundamental questions about the universe including why there is more matter than antimatter. The results are published in Physical Review Letters. […]