science

“For the first time, astronomers unveiled the shape of the explosion [ of SN 2024ggi ] at its earliest, fleeting stage. This brief initial phase wouldn’t have been observable a day later and helps address a whole set of questions about how massive stars go supernova.”

The egghells belonged to a long-extinct group of crocodiles known as mekosuchines, who lived in inland waters when Australia was part of Antarctica and South America.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.blahaj.zone/c/goodnewseveryone/p/401693/nature-reserve-uses-bird-protection-film-on-windows

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A new arrangement of graphene sheets exhibits exotic properties arising from the stacking of the sheets at a specific angle. MIT researchers claim that they’ve discovered a new path to possible room temperature superconductivity by tweaking the sheets to join along a “magic angle.”. The source journal article is paywalled here .

Extraordinary footage of a mother squid carrying her eggs

Listen because you won’t get this opportunity often. These are part of the psychiatrical results of the abusive Copenhagen High-Risk Study that was conducted on Denmark.

Big Crunch, here we come! A new study is implying that the universe may actually be slowing down and that the culmination of the decrease in dark energy could spell a reverse big bang.

*A supermassive black hole violently gobbled up an enormous star, producing a gargantuan cosmic outburst, according to a new study.*

Researchers have used nonlocal artificial materials to mimic the effects of wormholes and multiple realities. When light enters one boundary in the artificial material, it experiences an entirely different set of optical effects compared with light entering from another boundary. Surprisingly, each of these optical experiences can occur without any interference between them.

When it comes to preventing Alzheimer’s disease, every step counts. For older people whose brains have begun to show molecular signs of the disease, but who have yet to display any cognitive symptoms, taking as few as 3,000 to 5,000 steps per day can help to stave off mental decline, a study finds.

*A pod of orcas has twice been observed flipping young great white sharks on their backsides to stun them, then slicing their sides open.*

In short:

Abstract Conservation benefits from dietary change are commonly assessed without accounting for different conservation objectives. By representing fine-scale habitat and landscape change within a dynamic land-system model, we assess how a partial or full transition to healthier diets would affect indicators across the ‘Nature for Nature’ and ‘Nature for Society’ conservation value perspectives. We find that most diet-related conservation benefits are already achieved by a partial shift to healthier diets. This is because, particularly in many countries in tropical Africa and Asia, adopting healthier diets would mainly involve substituting staple foods with more varied plant-based foods rather than replacing resource-intensive livestock products. Conservation action in line with the Global Biodiversity Framework, by contrast, most consistently improves outcomes across both value perspectives, even under current demand trends, showing that spatial planning is central for decoupling conservation outcomes from food demand. However, any progress towards healthier diets not only lowers greenhouse gas emissions but also reduces barriers to effective conservation, such as higher food prices and imports.

Their findings, published in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics, go beyond simply suggesting that we’re not living in a simulated world like The Matrix. They prove something far more profound: the universe is built on a type of understanding that exists beyond the reach of any algorithm.

Poised on a humanmade landing platform at the entrance of a cave in northern Germany, an invasive brown rat (*Rattus norvegicus*) lunges at a bat and yanks it out of the air, after which it quickly becomes dinner. The discovery—documented in infrared above and reported this month in Global Ecology and Conservation—marks the first time researchers have captured rats hunting bats by grabbing them from the sky.

Employees at the National Institutes of Health learned in an email on Friday, in the midst of a hiring freeze, that their prestigious environmental health sciences research center has a new director.

Unless publishing gatekeepers adopt drastically more equitable practices and become partners in disseminating knowledge, they will continue to lose ground to open access alternatives, legal or otherwise.

In the digital age, the collaborative and often community-governed effort of scholarly research has gone global and unlocked unprecedented potential to improve our understanding and quality of life. That is, if we let it. Publishers continue to monopolize access to life-saving research and increase the burden on researchers through article processing charges and a pyramid of volunteer labor. This exploitation makes a mockery of open inquiry and the denial of access as a serious human rights issue.

Dating of rock formation in New Mexico casts doubt on theory that species was already in decline

Relatively new arXiv preprint that got featured on Nature News, I slightly adjusted the title to be less technical. The discovery was done using aggregated online Q&A… one of the funnier sources being 2000 popular questions from r/AmITheAsshole that were rated YTA by the most upvoted response. Study seems robust, and they even did several-hundred participants trials with real humans.

Creat

Statement on Superintelligence taken from https://superintelligence-statement.org/

“Efforts to study the female reproductive system have long been set back by societal stigma—but also by the problematic fact that most laboratory animals don’t menstruate. Now, researchers have engineered mice that get a period in response to certain drugs, according to a preprint posted to bioRxiv this month.”

Long-term exposure to high levels of inorganic arsenic can cause cardiovascular disease and cancers of the bladder and lungs. But now, scientists from Denmark have developed a new treatment that turns arsenic-rich groundwater waste into useful raw materials.

Here’s a nice explanation from /u/gameryamen on reddit:

Abstract Many countries have recently announced the ambition to reach net-zero emissions targets. Here we explore the climate and energy transition impacts of the following strategies using the IMAGE integrated assessment model: 1) implementing the pledged 2030 targets and net-zero targets, 2) aligning the 2030 emission targets with the net-zero targets, 3) broadening the coalition of net-zero countries, and 4) strengthening the net-zero pledges by bringing them forward in time. The results illustrate that each step could accelerate the low-carbon transition by building on existing elements in international climate policy. Our study shows that the gap between a continuation of current emission trends and a Paris-aligned 1.5 °C target can be reduced by about 90% by 2100. This provides a pathway to bring the Paris Agreement climate goals within reach.

Fyi – neither the Nature link or the DOI link work.

*If Douglas Troutman is confirmed, the top four toxics office at the environmental agency will be held by ex-lobbyists*

Messenger RNA vaccines proved effective during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ways to further optimize the encoded proteins have remained an ongoing pursuit. Protein nanoparticle immunogens, which can display multiple antigen copies in precise arrays, amplify antibody responses by clustering B cell receptors. Integrating these two approaches could yield vaccines that trigger both strong antibody and T cell immunity while retaining the speed and scalability of mRNA production.

In a recent study, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute have discovered what may be causing this. Low-salinity water in the upper ocean has typically helped to trap carbon in the deep ocean, which in turn has slowed its release into the atmosphere—until now, that is, because climate change is increasingly altering the Southern Ocean and its function as a carbon sink. The study is published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Scientists say it could help solve one of the universe’s deepest mysteries

Success rates for Europe’s leading research grants are declining — some to single percentage points — as a surge in applications far outweighs the funds available. Data gathered by Nature show that researchers, especially those at the start of their academic journeys, are facing increasingly fierce competition to pursue research careers (see Funding competition).

A new study published in Scientific Reports indicates that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multiple sclerosis (MS) have an extremely high geographic association, even after controlling for race, gender, wealth, latitude, and access to neurological health care.

Abstract Climate projections by the fossil fuel industry have never been assessed. On the basis of company records, we quantitatively evaluated all available global warming projections documented by—and in many cases modeled by—Exxon and ExxonMobil Corp scientists between 1977 and 2003. We find that most of their projections accurately forecast warming that is consistent with subsequent observations. Their projections were also consistent with, and at least as skillful as, those of independent academic and government models. Exxon and ExxonMobil Corp also correctly rejected the prospect of a coming ice age, accurately predicted when human-caused global warming would first be detected, and reasonably estimated the “carbon budget” for holding warming below 2°C. On each of these points, however, the company’s public statements about climate science contradicted its own scientific data.

Abstract The scientific consensus on human-caused global warming has been a topic of intense interest in recent decades. This is in part due to the important role of public perception of expert consensus, which has downstream impacts on public opinion and support for mitigation policies. Numerous studies, using diverse methodologies and measures of climate expertise, have quantified the scientific consensus, finding between 90% and 100% agreement on human-caused global warming with multiple studies converging on 97% agreement. This study revisits the consensus among geoscientists ten years after an initial survey of experts, while exploring different ways to define expertise and the level of agreement among these groups. We sent 10 929 invitations to participate in our survey to a verified email list of geosciences faculty at reporting academic and research institutions and received 2780 responses. In addition to analyzing the raw survey results, we independently quantify how many publications self-identified climate experts published in the field of climate change research and compare that to their survey response on questions about climate change. As well as a binary approach classifying someone as ‘expert’ or ‘non-expert’, we also look at expertise as a scale. We find that agreement on anthropogenic global warming is high (91% to 100%) and generally increases with expertise. Out of a group of 153 independently confirmed climate experts, 98.7% of those scientists indicated that the Earth is getting warmer mostly because of human activity such as burning fossil fuels. Among those with the highest level of expertise (independently confirmed climate experts who each published 20+ peer reviewed papers on climate change between 2015 and 2019) there was 100% agreement that the Earth is warming mostly because of human activity.

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A recent synthesis argues that excessive handwashing and sanitizers can alter skin/gut microbiomes, which in turn influence immune signaling and cognition.

Research comparing Adirondack mountain lakes in New York suggests foot traffic is significant source of pollution

Abstract Driven by the urgent need to mitigate climate change and achieve net-zero emissions, carbon pricing has emerged as a critical policy tool in major economies worldwide. This study compares carbon pricing in the EU, China, Canada, and Singapore, evaluating effectiveness in emission reductions, with the EU ranking first with high carbon prices, road market coverage, and strict penalties, based on carbon price per capita. Conversely, Singapore’s position as fourth in carbon price per capita among these four most mature carbon markets, Singapore has a high GDP per capita and lower carbon prices. Canada’s fragmented provincial policies and China’s limited market coverage, despite being the top global emitter. Our analysis reveals three critical success factors: (1) higher carbon prices per capita are essential for carbon reduction, (2) the necessity of penalties on carbon price per capita from EUR 20–EUR 100, and (3) expanded market coverage maximizes impact. To address global disparities, we propose a Uniform Carbon Pricing Mechanism under the Global Carbon Resilience Framework (GCRF), based on carbon price per capita tiered pricing: EUR 100/t (developed), EUR 30–50 (developing), and EUR 5–15 (least-developed countries). This balanced system supports vulnerable regions while cutting emissions, proving that fair carbon pricing is crucial for climate goals and economic stability.

Amid the ongoing shutdown, the HHS secretary wiped out entire offices that investigate disease outbreaks, manage infectious disease responses and collect data.

Sadly, Nature has chosen to cripple access to the source article on this story - so not linking to it.

UI

…The miniature backpacks were developed by Mark Johnson and Peter Teglberg Madsen at Aarhus University in Denmark. Weighing about 3g, they included instruments that recorded altitude, acceleration and sound. The team placed the backpacks in party balloons to protect them, and used medical glue to stick them to bats, which weigh 40-60g. The bats, which were using roosting boxes that were regularly monitored, had already been fitted with tiny microchips to monitor their comings and goings…

…Developed by Teledyne Marine and Rutgers University–New Brunswick, the Slocum Sentinel Glider – aka “Redwing” – represents a new generation of ocean robotics. Dubbed “the most advanced commercial subsea glider ever built,” it’s designed to travel vast distances while consuming minimal energy.

“The leading suspect,” he concluded, “is a wooden toothpick—an object commonly found in club sandwiches and used for dental hygiene. Toothpick ingestions often go unnoticed, but once identified, they are considered medical emergencies owing to their propensity to cause visceral perforation and vascular injury.”

Liberals and conservatives both oppose censorship of children’s literature – unless the writing offends their own ideology, new Cornell research finds.

https://archive.is/TVxQC