Category: Genetics

Earth’s most famous killer asteroid came from the outer reaches of the solar system, researchers report in the Aug. 16 Science. About 66 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into the sea just off Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, forming the Chicxulub crater. That powerful impact may have triggered a mass extinction event on Earth, killing off…

Access to clean water is a human right — one that half of the world may not have. Out of the roughly 8 billion people on Earth, more than 4.4 billion lack access to safely managed drinking water, researchers report August 15 in Science. The estimate, based on computer simulations of data from low- and…

Long dry spells can give a lethal fungal disease a lift. While California droughts can temporarily keep cases of valley fever — a sometimes deadly illness caused by Coccidioides fungi — relatively low, cases skyrocket when rain clouds move back in, researchers report in the October Lancet Regional Health — Americas. Valley fever is on…

For billions of years, the continents have cruised across Earth’s surface like tectonic vessels, but they have not survived unscathed. Waves in the underlying layer known as the mantle can scour off the keels of continents, buoying their surfaces upward to form prominent landforms far from any active plate boundaries, researchers propose in the Aug.…

In 2023, a new type of apple made its commercial debut at a trade show in Berlin. The Tutti is crisp, juicy and has that perfect blush tinge — a lovely cultivar that took decades to produce. But it has a bigger claim to fame: It is designed to thrive at temperatures as high as…

In its latest global climate report, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that July was the 14th straight month of record-breaking heat. That, in and of itself, is a new record. In the last 175 years, there has been only one other hot streak that comes close in terms of longevity. According to NOAA,…

Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting questions from readers about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? For some, chronic health conditions can add an extra one-two punch when it comes to regulating body temperatures. Not…

Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting questions from readers about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? Bjornerud is exhausted and dizzy. She is dealing with the collapse of her department, the sleep deprivation of early…

Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting questions from readers about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? But sending low-voltage electricity through waterlogged sands can stimulate the formation of minerals that help bind sediments together, Rotta…

Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting questions from readers about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? The extreme heat and rain are scary enough on their own, and it’s getting hotter with climate change. But…