Astronomers have long debated what kind of chemistry might serve as a bona fide alien biosignature. With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, those ideas may be put to the test.
✍️ Elise Cutts
#knowablemagazine #sciencemastodon #astronomy #jwst
To help birds and insects, cultivate native gardens 🌱
Entomologist Doug Tallamy has this advice for the readers of his book Nature’s Best Hope, geared toward kids:
"Feel empowered. Feel like there are things they can do where they live. If they live in the middle of a city with no land at all, they can get into container gardening. They can become activists. They can volunteer at preserves that are in their city."
Read the Q&A: https://knowmag.org/45QOXOS
#knowablemagazine #sciencemastodon
The ever-tenuous success of plants engineered to kill insect foes 🌱
Bt crops keep many agricultural pests at bay and have drastically reduced the use of pesticides. But scientists warn that these valuable tools are in jeopardy due to overuse and abuse.
Read more in:
🌱 @KnowableMag https://arevie.ws/BTCrops_KM
🐛 Annual Review of Entomology: https://arevie.ws/BTCrops (Open Access)
#knowablemagazine #entomology #agriculture #openaccess
The extraordinary case of the ferocious female moles: Their genital anatomy, musculature and aggressiveness have made them a model for studying the phenomenon of female masculinization — and demonstrate that sometimes, it’s not easy to tell the difference between male and female
Read more in:
👉 @KnowableMag https://arevie.ws/FierceFemales_KM
👉 Knowable en español https://arevie.ws/FierceFemales_KEE
👉 Annual Review of Animal Biosciences https://arevie.ws/FierceFemales
#knowablemagazine #sciencemastodon
Deep underground, robotic teamwork saves the day 🤖
Deploying a motley crew of robots that can roll, walk and fly is a smart strategy for search-and-rescue operations — and so is trusting the machines to make decisions on the ground
Read more:
🤖 @KnowableMag https://arevie.ws/RobotTeamwork
🤖 Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems https://arevie.ws/RobotTeamwork_Review
📷 CREDIT: DARPA
#robotics #darpa #technology #knowablemagazine
Randomized controlled trials are often used to compare medical treatments. Today, researchers are harnessing them to find the best way to encourage patients to book appointments for cancer screens, vaccinations and more. Read more 👉 https://knowmag.org/HealthDelivery_Mastodon
#knowablemagazine #sciencemastodon #Science #healthcare
Charles Henry Turner, who died in 1923, was a zoologist and comparative psychologist who studied the behavior and cognition of insects and other arthropods including spiders, bees, ants and moths. Researchers are rediscovering the forgotten legacy of this pioneering Black scientist.
Read more in:
🕷️ @KnowableMag: https://arevie.ws/3OBAE9X
🐝 The Annual Review of Entomology https://arevie.ws/TurnerBio_EN
#Science #sciencemastodon #entomology #knowablemagazine
Since 2018, thousands of hectares of German spruce forest have succumbed to a severe drought and an accompanying wave of bark beetle outbreaks.
It’s one of many examples of large-scale forest die-offs around the world.
Forests once deemed ironclad are suffering surprising die-off — and to predict the fate of the world’s woods in the face of climate change, researchers need to understand how trees die.
Read more: https://knowmag.org/45wTTIz
#knowablemagazine #sciencemastodon
A major wildfire recently burned through an iconic Joshua tree forest in the Mojave Desert Preserve on the border of California and Nevada.
The same area was hit in the 2020 Dome fire, which burned through more than 40,000 acres.
An estimated 1.3 million Joshua trees were lost.
Read about the recent fire, via CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/02/us/york-fire-california-nevada-wednesday/index.html
Learn more about restoration efforts from the Dome fire in our 2022 video: https://youtu.be/rr0juptrG48
#knowablemagazine #sciencemastodon
Charles Henry Turner was a zoologist and comparative psychologist who studied the behavior and cognition of insects and other arthropods including spiders, bees, ants and moths.
His insights into animal behavior were a century ahead of their time — and long overlooked.
Read more: https://knowmag.org/Turner_MS
#knowablemagazine #sciencemastodon #sciencehistory
Sidewalks without a hint of shade. Heat radiating up from asphalt streets and down from walls.
Depending on the city, environmental scientist Angel Hsu says, its downtown can average 3 to 4 degrees Celsius hotter than the surrounding suburbs and countryside.
This is not just a matter of discomfort. The heat-island effect endangers the health of billions of people.
The good news: Excess urban heat isn’t inevitable.
Read the Q&A: https://knowmag.org/UrbanHeat_Mastodon
#knowablemagazine #sciencemastodon
Ever since neutron stars were discovered, researchers have been using their unusual properties to probe our universe. But to accurately interpret some of the neutron stars’ signals, researchers must first understand what goes on inside them.
✍️ Katie McCormick
🔄 Republished: Scientific American
👉 Read now: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ultracold-gases-can-probe-neutron-star-guts/
#science
#sciencemastodon
#astronomy
#AstronomyMastodon
#KnowableMagazine
#Space
#SpaceMastodon
#NASA
#Science #sciencemastodon #astronomy #astronomymastodon #knowablemagazine #Space #SpaceMastodon #nasa
Our bodies crave more food if we haven’t had enough protein, and this can lead to a vicious cycle — especially if we’re reaching for ultraprocessed instead of high-fiber whole foods. Entomologist and nutrition researcher Stephen Simpson tells @KnowableMag in a Q&A.
👉 Read the Q&A:
https://knowablemagazine.org/action/oidcStart?redirectUri=%2Farticle%2Ffood-environment%2F2023%2Fdo-low-protein-diets-cause-overeating%3Futm_source%3Dannualreviews%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Doriginals
👉 Lea en español https://arevie.ws/SimpsonEntrevista
👉 Read “Nutritional Ecology and Human Health” in the Annual Review of Nutrition:
https://arjournals.annualreviews.org/eprint/pWtU6p9PmSrJGDeSaemW/full/10.1146/annurev-nutr-071715-051118
#Science #nutrition #knowablemagazine
Deploying a motley crew of robots that can roll, walk and fly is a smart strategy for search-and-rescue operations — and so is trusting the machines to make decisions on the ground
✍️ @kgkleiner
🔗 Read more: https://knowmag.org/RescueRobots_MS
📷 DARPA
#robots #robotics #knowablemagazine