Phys.org

From front-line emergency service workers to policy professionals, teachers, and nurses, the public sector is filled with everyday heroes. But how motivated is your friendly neighborhood public servant? Findings from a new study conducted across Australia and New Zealand have discovered that the answer is in their work environment. The findings are published in the journal Review of Public Personnel Administration.

When NASA's Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean April 10, completing a successful Artemis II mission milestone, a critical piece of the spacecraft's safe return traced back to research at Rice University.

A method developed by the University of Córdoba (UCO) predicts the fatty acid, phenol, and volatile compound profile of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) quickly, easily, and accurately by using the olives directly. Virgin olive oil is one of the cornerstones of the Mediterranean diet, and—according to scientific evidence—a source of health benefits. Three chemical families ensure the quality of olive oil: fatty acids, phenols, and volatile compounds responsible for the oil's health benefits, organoleptic properties (such as its fruity aroma)... Читать дальше...

Researchers at the University of New England have identified two fly species as promising pollinators for berry crops, offering a vital alternative to European honey bees in protected cropping systems. The results of their study are published in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment.

Australia's animal sectors now have a comprehensive framework to help strengthen the industry's response to antimicrobial resistance. The Animal Antimicrobial Stewardship Framework helps animal sectors improve and verify day-to-day stewardship practices. The work was co-designed by veterinarians and animal managers based on the study led by CSIRO, Australia's national science agency. The corresponding paper is published in the journal Cambridge Prisms: Antimicrobial Resistance.

Among dog breeds, Nova Scotia duck tolling retrievers (tollers) have an unusually high rate of Addison's disease, a condition in which the adrenal glands do not produce enough hormones, notably cortisol and aldosterone. In humans, Addison's disease is thought to occur when the body's immune system attacks the adrenal glands, making it a type of autoimmune disease. Affected tollers typically develop Addison's disease at a young age and the condition appears to be inherited. Now scientists have identified a gene variant in tollers... Читать дальше...

New research from the UBC-based Mother Tree Project is shedding light on how forests respond to harvesting and climate stress, including practices aimed at reducing wildfire risk. The work is published in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research. Dr. Suzanne Simard, a forest ecologist who leads the project, has spent more than a decade studying how Douglas fir forests recover after disturbance. The Mother Tree Project has produced multiple peer-reviewed studies, with more findings to come as the long-term research continues.

Scientists have found that young stellar cousins of our sun are calming down and dimming more quickly in their X-ray output than previously thought, according to a new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. A paper describing the results is published in The Astrophysical Journal. Unlike in the new movie "Project Hail Mary," this quieting of young stars is a benefit for the prospects for life on orbiting planets around these stars, not a threat.

In a new study, appearing in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, scientists selectively bred Japanese quails into two groups: laying either relatively large or small eggs. As the quails don't do much "parenting" after eggs hatch, mothers' main contribution is the resources they transfer to their eggs (chicks from larger eggs are more likely to survive).

Oceans absorb roughly 25% to 30% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that is released into the atmosphere. When this CO2 dissolves in seawater, it forms carbonic acid, making the water more acidic and altering its chemistry. Elevated levels of acidity are harmful to marine life like corals, oysters, and certain plankton that rely on calcium carbonate to build shells and skeletons.

A new study by Hashem Akbari, a professor in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, offers a simplified way of calculating the degree to which surface reflectivity, known as albedo, can offset carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. The method, which builds on previous research, makes it easier to calculate these effects at regional and national scales using widely available weather data.

Research on graphene has made great strides in recent years. However, to fully harness its potential in applications such as desalination membranes, sensors, and energy storage and conversion, a deeper understanding of the interaction between graphene and water is required.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) rank among the most powerful explosions in the universe, releasing immense energy in intense flashes of gamma rays. The most distant GRBs originate from the era when the first stars and galaxies formed. Detecting them allows astronomers to probe the early universe and understand how the first heavy elements formed and how the earliest stellar populations lived and died. Missions like HiZ-GUNDAM, a satellite planned for launch in the 2030s by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)... Читать дальше...

Microplastics and nanoplastics are tiny plastic particles that result from the breakdown of larger plastic products due to sunlight, waves, and other environmental conditions. In recent years, these particles have been increasingly detected in aquatic environments, raising concerns about their potential harmful effects on aquatic life and ecosystems. Even though awareness of this issue is growing, there is still no safe, practical, and established method to filter these particles from polluted water.

Research on ancient DNA is surging, but how can scientists ensure that human remains of irreplaceable significance are preserved? This is the question investigated by an international research team led by the University of Bonn. Their findings have now been published in the journal PLOS One.

Research led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has integrated three types of machine learning models to generate solar magnetic patches with physical properties and used those as a query to find matching patches in real observations. This elevates generative artificial intelligence (AI) from a means to produce artificial data to a novel tool for scientific data interrogation, supporting applicability beyond the heliophysics domain. The paper is published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.

Hidden among the red sandstone escarpments of Mutawintji National Park in western New South Wales lives a rare lizard, long isolated in this arid landscape.

Alena Tensor is a relatively new mathematical approach that allows for arbitrary curving and straightening of analyzed spacetimes. As it turns out, generalizing this model to all known fields and fully describing matter, spontaneously gives rise to the phenomena known from research on dark matter and dark energy.

Rice has historically been a heat-loving plant. In fact, the wild ancestor of cultivated rice once grew primarily on the sweltering, rain-swept Malay and Indochina peninsulas as well as the islands of Southeast Asia. It wasn't until Earth's climate warmed after the last ice age that wild rice substantially spread into central China and South Asia, where it was independently domesticated by humans in two events that arguably rank among the most important in the history of our species.

Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have identified simple rules that explain how complex protein structures assemble correctly and remain functional over time, despite having many theoretically possible configurations. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on bacterioferritin, a bacterial protein complex responsible for safely storing iron. Unlike simpler protein assemblies made of identical parts, many bacterioferritins are built from two different types of subunits... Читать дальше...

The stag beetle Prosopocoilus hachijoensis is the only flightless species of the genus Prosopocoilus in Japan. Researchers at University of Tsukuba investigated the mechanisms underlying the loss of flight by comparing this beetle with closely related species that are capable of flight. Their analyses are published in The Science of Nature.

The University of Wyoming's Lauren Kim has solved a persistent problem in the cutting-edge field of high-entropy alloys, a class of materials with great potential in modern engineering, electronics and energy applications—such as jet engines, nuclear reactors, chemical processing systems, batteries and supercapacitors—along with cryogenics systems.

Models of glacial flow and retreat rely on estimates of glacial ice viscosity, the measure of the ice's resistance to flow. Ice viscosity is dependent on the stress applied to the glacier. Most ice sheet models use a standard equation to model ice flow that includes the variable n, called the stress exponent. A larger value of n means ice viscosity is more sensitive to changes in stress. For decades, glaciologists have, almost exclusively, used an assumed n value of 3 in the models they use to predict ice flow.

At first glance, the world of ants may seem far removed from our everyday lives. Yet, on closer inspection, they often face surprisingly similar challenges. They live in complex societies where the functioning of a colony relies on tightly organized logistical networks. These networks are structured around key resources and must be both efficient and resilient to disturbances. Wood ants (Formica lugubris) are particularly fascinating in this respect, as they operate genuine transport networks in forest ecosystems.

The use of artificial intelligence has enabled researchers at the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) to gain a greater understanding of two-dimensional (2D) materials that can be useful for energy storage, water purification, and advanced electronics.