Новости за 21.03.2026

New research led by James Cook University (JCU) emphasizes that the success of marine protected areas (MPAs) depends largely on understanding and influencing people's behaviors within their borders. The study demonstrates that effective conservation relies on compliance—a critically underappreciated issue that needs to be systematically and adaptively addressed.

Animals do all sorts of things to attract each other as potential mates. Many birds, for example, produce feathers with elaborate color patterns—from the iridescent plumage of many hummingbirds to the famously brilliant tail of a peacock. Charles Darwin, an early pioneer in the theory of evolution, saw these colors and concluded that they exist because other birds find them attractive.

Across the sciences, researchers are asking why so many scientists leave their fields. A new study from Virginia Tech suggests at least part of the answer may be surprisingly simple. Scientists who feel a stronger sense of belonging in their discipline are more likely to intend to stay. Those who feel they do not belong are more likely to consider leaving. Published recently in Biological Conservation, the study examined ornithologists, people who study birds, and found a clear link between belonging and intentions.

Most of Europe's original natural forests have been transformed for agriculture and managed forests producing energy, paper, and timber. The few remaining "old-growth" natural forests are relics of the past that illustrate how forests would have looked in the absence of human management. They can, therefore, tell us how people have transformed forests.

New research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) reveals that King Harold's legendary 200-mile march to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 never happened. Instead, the journey was made largely by sea. The findings overturn one of the most iconic stories in English history, altering how the Norman Conquest is understood in classrooms, museums, and public memory.

Two University of Victoria (UVic) geologists have integrated field geology with statistical modeling to give scientists a new view of the chemical reactions happening on ocean floors billions of years ago. The revised picture shows that big changes in the carbon cycle were happening earlier than expected, and at the same time as ballooning atmospheric oxygen and global glaciation.

The building blocks of proteins, amino acids, are essential for all living things. Twenty different amino acids build the thousands of proteins that carry out biological tasks. While some are made naturally in our bodies, others are absorbed through the food we eat.

For more than a century, condensed matter physics has grappled with one of its greatest unsolved challenges: how to build superconductors that operate at room temperature and transmit electricity with no loss. Now, in a paper published in Nature, a team of Harvard physicists has reported new insights into why one promising superconductor has yielded mysteriously uneven results.

Chosen families are evolving but remain a cherished—and vital—lifeline for many. Mention "communal living" and the image that may spring to mind is the free-love, back-to-the-earth hippy communes of the 1960s, complete with bandannas and fringed suede vests. But communal living is once again very much part of the zeitgeist—albeit with a very different look.

The high-performance semiconductor devices powering smartphone displays, AI computing, EV batteries and more are increasingly incorporating 2D materials to overcome silicon's scaling limits. To optimize these technologies, a University of Michigan Engineering team developed a precise mathematical framework that accounts for anisotropic—or unevenly spreading—conductivity and device geometry.

When most people think about corals, they imagine a tropical reef with crystal blue water, teeming with colorful fish. But, in the depths of the cold, murky Gulf of Maine, deep-sea corals thrive, feasting on a steady supply of organic matter raining down from the surface ocean.

For half the world's population, the water in their drinking glasses comes from below them. Groundwater also supplies 40% of global irrigation projects. Alarmingly, more than a third of the planet's aquifers, or groundwater basins, are dropping. Declining water tables leave entire regions vulnerable to drought, land subsidence or seawater intrusion while damaging ecosystems and reducing water access. Properly securing this resource is a matter of social, humanitarian and environmental security.

A new Murdoch University study has found that cold-blooded animals (ectotherms) are unable to adjust physiologically to daily temperature fluctuations, a limitation that could leave them increasingly vulnerable as climate change drives even greater temperature variability. Daily temperature variations are a common feature in natural environments, ranging from subtle to extreme depending on the geographic location, season, and local climate patterns.

Climate warming can increase plant growth in permafrost regions by lengthening the growing season, speeding up plant metabolic processes, and allowing deeper root penetration as permafrost thaws. However, the capacity for additional vegetation to offset the carbon released during permafrost thawing depends on nitrogen supply.

Researchers at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed CarGAP, a chemo-optogenetic tool that uses vitamin B₁₂ and green light to precisely control gap junctions, the microscopic channels enabling direct cell-to-cell communication. This innovation allows on-demand closing and opening of these intercellular bridges, providing unprecedented spatiotemporal control over vital molecules and electrical signals. Demonstrated in both mammalian cells and living fruit flies... Читать дальше...

Two deep-sea amphipod species have been found to live in both hemispheres and share features, according to a new study that boosts our understanding of the biodiversity and evolutionary processes shaping deep-sea ecosystems. Dr. Paige Maroni and Professor Alan Jamieson, from The University of Western Australia's School of Biological Sciences, were co-authors of the study published in Marine Biology.

While parts of New York and New Jersey were "building back better" after Superstorm Sandy, residents of flood-prone public housing in Rockaway, Queens, were left without heat or running water for years.