Environmental sciences Archives

Earth’s global average surface temperature in 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record, according to an analysis by NASA.

News Plants and animals

Glass frogs use both high-pitched calls and visual signaling to communicate

16th January 202116th January 2021 Ominy science editory team 0 Comments

A UC Berkeley conservation ecologist has discovered that an elusive glass frog species (Sachatamia orejuela) uses both high-pitched calls and visual signaling in the form of hand-waving, foot-waving and head-bobbing to communicate near loud waterfalls.

Plants and animals

Possible explanation for more efficient maize growth

11th January 2021 Ominy science editory team 0 Comments

Plant researchers have investigated the transport of compounds in maize. They focused on the mechanism used to transport the products of photosynthesis for further distribution in the plant through its phloem loading pathways. They describe how this mechanism has potentially created a special evolutionary advantage for maize.

Plants and animals

Bats with white-nose syndrome prefer suboptimal habitats despite the consequences

11th January 2021 Ominy science editory team 0 Comments

Since 2006, a fungal disease called white-nose syndrome has caused sharp declines in bat populations across the eastern United States. The fungus that causes the disease, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, thrives in subterranean habitats where bats hibernate over the winter months.

Ancients and fossils News Plants and animals

Researchers investigate teeth of a small carnivorous mammal that are almost 150 million years old

26th December 202026th December 2020 Ominy science editory team 0 Comments

Paleontologists have succeeded in reconstructing the chewing motion of an early mammal that lived almost 150 million years ago. This showed that its teeth worked extremely precisely and surprisingly efficiently.

Environmental sciences News

Volcanic eruptions directly triggered ocean acidification during Early Cretaceous

24th December 202024th December 2020 Ibezim chukwuemerie 0 Comments

By measuring calcium and strontium isotope abundances in nannoplankton fossils, Northwestern earth scientists have concluded the eruption of the Ontong Java Plateau large igneous province (LIP) directly triggered OAE1a. Roughly the size of Alaska, the Ontong Java LIP erupted for seven million years, making it one of the largest known LIP events ever.

Genetics News Plants and animals

FDA approves genetically engineered pigs

16th December 2020 Ominy science editory team 0 Comments

The Food and Drug Administration has approved genetically engineered pigs for use in food and medical products. The pigs, developed by medical company Revivicor, could be used in the production of drugs, to provide organs and tissues for transplants, and to produce meat that’s safe to eat for people with meat allergies.

Environmental sciences

Wild crops could save our food system — if we don’t destroy them first

16th December 2020 Ominy science editory team 0 Comments

It’s easy to forget how intensely agriculture depends on wilderness. Farmers of the past domesticated all crops and livestock from wild species, just as humans domesticated dogs from wolves. And even today, farmers and plant scientists are constantly looking to wild plants rescue our foods and make farming more sustainable.

Environmental sciences

What happens when the fallout from the nation’s largest industrial disaster goes nuclear?

16th December 2020 Ominy science editory team 0 Comments

In 2009, App Thacker was hired to run a dredge along the Emory River in eastern Tennessee. Picture an industrialized

News Plants and animals

How some ticks protect themselves from deadly bacteria on human skin

12th December 2020 Ominy science editory team 0 Comments

Bacteria that are potentially deadly to the bloodsuckers live on human skin. But a gene from bacteria that ticks incorporated into their genetic code around 40 million years ago helps protect the arachnids from those would-be microbial killers, a new study finds.

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