Wiping out all of Africa’s elephants could accelerate Earth’s climate crisis by allowing 7% more damaging greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, scientists say. But conserving forest elephants may reverse the trend, providing a service worth $43billion in storing carbon, the academics found. The research, published in Nature Geoscience, shows that …
Four scientists who specialized in sweet potatoes were named the winners of this year's World Food Prize on Tuesday for their work to make foods more nutritious. Maria Andrade of Cape Verde, Robert Mwanga of Uganda and American Jan Low, who all are from the Lima, Peru-based International Potato Center, …
An international team of scientists and coral reef experts have, in a letter to the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, urged greater action to protect the iconic Great Barrier Reef — a region that is currently witnessing its worst bleaching event on record. The letter, signed by past and present …
Scientists from a university in Israel reported that they have engineered bacteria that can produce the sugars needed to make a cell from the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). Scientists from Weizmann Institute of Science "reprogrammed" an organism -- that consumes sugar and releases CO2 -- so that it can …
It was the result that most scientists didn’t want. The United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union has plunged it into political and economic uncertainty — and left researchers worried over the future of their funding and collaborations, the UK’s participation in major European research programmes, and the freedom …
European scientists announced today they had discovered antibodies which attack Zika, a step they hope will pave the way for a protective vaccine against the brain-damaging virus. The antibodies—frontline soldiers in the immune system—“efficiently neutralise” Zika in human cells in lab dishes, and are also effective against its cousin virus …
Pink snow was a high-latitude curiosity described by Arctic explorers such as Britain’s John Ross. Upon receiving word of the reddish snow, the London Times speculated in 1818 that the color came from meteoric iron deposits. Biologists know now that the red hue is the result of a chemical reaction …
Adding CO2 instead of water to the cocktail used in fracking, could boost oil and gas extraction and help fight global warming at the same time, scientists said Tuesday. Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking", harvests fossil fuels locked inside shale formations by injecting a mix of water, chemicals and sand at …
Researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered a new way to optimize electron transfer in semi-conductors used in solar fuel solutions. The finding, published today in Nature Chemistry, could have a big impact on devices that convert sunlight into …
Kampala — Ugandan scientists have developed a drug from natural herbs that can cure malaria in about three days. According to a study released by the scientists, the drug, DEI Anti-malaria, can kill malaria-causing parasites within the human body using its natural compounds extracted from plants. The lead-investigator, Dr Patrick …
In a first, an international team of astronomers have found firm evidence of the presence of oxygen in the early universe -- only 700 million years after the Big Bang. Using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile, the team including scientists from Japan, Sweden, Britain and European …
Scientists have come up with a new way to turn plastic waste into liquid fuel. It uses less energy than previous methods, and produces a higher quality end product. The technique breaks down polyethylene - the most abundant plastic in the world, used to make everything from plastic film and …
Incredible scientific discoveries happen all the time when researchers haven't been looking for them, and new nanorods that harvest water from the air are no exception. These unintentionally produced carbon-rich microscopic stalks absorb and release water differently to every other material we know about. They can absorb more water at …
European commission launches world’s first system for classifying and banning endocrine disruptors against a barrage of criticism The European commission has launched the world’s first system for classifying and banning endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), against a barrage of criticism from scientists, NGOs, industry and consumer groups. Endocrines are hormone-altering chemicals common …
What about all the carbon we've already poured into the atmosphere? If only there were a device that could take some of it back out. Researchers at Arizona State University’s Center for Negative Carbon Emissions are working on one. They discovered a commercially available resin that can grab carbon dioxide …
The way climate change and global warming are influencing the world, reports of hotter summers in the years to come doesn't exactly come as a surprise. If the findings of a study are to be believed, people across the world are in for summers that will be the hottest ever …
Astronomers have discovered the largest planet outside our solar system orbiting two stars, at a distance that would make it potentially habitable for people, scientists announced Monday. A team of NASA astronomers that made the discovery using the Kepler space telescope revealed the findings at a meeting of the American …
Japanese scientists who discovered the atomic element 113 plan to name it “nihonium,” the Riken institute said Wednesday. The team of researchers at the Japanese institute on science proposed the name from “Nihon,” which means Japan, and gave the superheavy synthetic element the atomic symbol “Nh,” according to the International …
The mission to demonstrate technologies needed to detect gravitational waves in space has been a stunning success. The Lisa Pathfinder satellite was sent into orbit to test elements of the laser measurement system that would be used on a future observatory. Performance objectives were exceeded on the very first day …
Due to changing climate, Arctic regions of North America are getting greener, with almost a third of the land cover looking more like landscapes found in warmer ecosystems, according to a new Nasa study. With 87,000 images taken from Landsat satellites, converted into data that reflects the amount of healthy …
UK scientists have developed a blood test to help doctors pick the best drug for patients with depression. Medics currently have to rely on trial and error, meaning around half of the time the first type of antidepressant given fails to work. The researchers from King's College London say checking …
