Environment

Madagascar's mining rush has caused no more deforestation than farming, study finds

If tens of thousands of miners turned up in the middle of a protected rainforest to mine for sapphires, you might expect that to cause lots of deforestation and harm local wildlife.

Molecular & Computational biology

High-resolution images of RSV may expose stubborn virus's weak points

The complex shape of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one hurdle limiting the development of treatments for an infection that leads to hospitalization or worse for hundreds of thousands of people in the United States ...

Scientists explore microbial diversity in sourdough starters

When millions of people went into lockdown during the pandemic, they went in search of new at-home hobbies to help cure their boredom. Among them was making sourdough bread. In addition to being sustainable for its use of ...

Scientists discover planet orbiting closest single star to our sun

Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), astronomers have discovered an exoplanet orbiting Barnard's star, the closest single star to our sun. On this newly discovered exoplanet, which has ...

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Medical Xpress

Tech Xplore

Study shows that wild animals also get accustomed to humans

The tagging of wildlife provides important insights into their movements, physiology, and behavior amid globally changing ecosystems. However, the stress caused by capture, handling, and tagging can have an effect on the ...

Researchers observe hidden deformations in complex light fields

Everyday experience tells us that light reflected from a perfectly flat mirror will give us the correct image without any deformation. Interestingly, this is not the case when the light field itself is structured in a complex ...

Want to solve a complex problem? Applied math can help

You can probably think of a time when you've used math to solve an everyday problem, such as calculating a tip at a restaurant or determining the square footage of a room. But what role does math play in solving complex problems ...

AI model detects impervious surfaces in aerial images

In accordance with the German Sustainability Strategy, new impervious surfaces are to be limited to less than 30 hectares per day nationwide. In order to verify whether this target is met, it must be possible to monitor soil ...

Fighting forest fires more efficiently from the air

Whether in Canada, California or around the Mediterranean—forest fires are becoming more frequent and, above all, more severe around the world. Especially in summer, heat, drought and wind often turn such fires into raging ...

Solar-powered system extracts drinkable water from 'dry' air

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have significantly boosted the output from a system that can extract drinkable water directly from the air even in dry regions, using heat from the sun or another source.

Barren no more: study finds millions of trees dot deserts

At first glance the apparently barren expanses of the Sahel and Sahara deserts feature little greenery, but detailed satellite imagery combined with computer deep learning has revealed a different picture.

Modern humans took detours on their way to Europe

Favorable climatic conditions influenced the sequence of settlement movements of Homo sapiens in the Levant on their way from Africa to Europe. In a first step, modern humans settled along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. ...

Pandemic caused 'unprecedented' emissions drop: study

Pandemic restrictions saw an unprecedented fall in greenhouse gas emissions in the first half of 2020—larger than during the 2008 financial crisis and even World War II—experts said Wednesday.

Airbnb rentals boom across Africa

Rent-a-room giant Airbnb said Tuesday that it had provided accommodation for 1.2 million visitors to Africa over the last year—double the previous year as tourism expands across the continent.

What next for Amazon studio?

As the head of Amazon's entertainment studio since 2014, Roy Price was tasked with shaping the e-retailer into a major player in the film and TV world.

Autonomous cars head for the Big Apple

Autonomous vehicles are already navigating the verdant hills of Pittsburgh and cruising the pitched avenues of San Francisco. They may soon be tested by the chaos of downtown Manhattan, where pedestrians, taxis, buses and ...

Preservation for the (digital) ages

When Deborah Beck was preparing her book, Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic, her publisher suggested she make the database she had started in 2008—a searchable catalogue of features from every speech in the Homeric poems—available ...