physorg.com:Spotlight stories

High end of climate sensitivity in new climate models seen as less plausible A recent analysis of the latest generation of climate models—known as a CMIP6—provides a cautionary tale on interpreting climate simulations as scientists develop more sensitive and sophisticated projections of how the Earth will respond to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Small-scale fisheries offer strategies for resilience in the face of climate change Coastal communities at the forefront of climate change reveal valuable approaches to foster adaptability and resilience, according to a worldwide analysis of small-scale fisheries by Stanford University researchers.
Camera traps reveal newly discovered biodiversity relationship In one of the first studies of its kind, an analysis of camera-trap data from 15 wildlife preserves in tropical rainforests has revealed a previously unknown relationship between the biodiversity of mammals and the forests in which they live.
Breakthrough greatly enhances ultrafast resolution achievable with X-ray free-electron lasers A large international team of scientists from various research organizations, including the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, has developed a method that dramatically improves the already ultrafast time resolution achievable with X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). It could lead to breakthroughs on how to design new materials and more efficient chemical processes.
Journey of a skull: How a single human cranium wound up alone in a cave in Italy A lone cranium in an Italian cave wound up there after being washed away from its original burial site, according to a study published March 3, 2021 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Maria Giovanna Belcastro of the University of Bologna, Italy and colleagues.
Source of hazardous high-energy particles located in the Sun The source of potentially hazardous solar particles, released from the Sun at high speed during storms in its outer atmosphere, has been located for the first time by researchers at UCL and George Mason University, Virginia, U.S.
Diversity of fish species supply endangered killer whale diet throughout the year Endangered Southern Resident killer whales prey on a diversity of Chinook and other salmon. The stocks come from an enormous geographic range as far north as Alaska and as far south as California's Central Valley, a new analysis in PLOS ONE shows.
Tiny computers reveal how wild bats hunt so efficiently An international research team has taken a seat on the backs of wild bats to experience their world through echoes recorded by 3-gram computers.
Swiss statistical systems enhanced by big data A huge volume of digital data has been harvested, stored and shared in the last few years from sources such as social media, geolocation systems and aerial images from drones and satellites, giving researchers many new ways to study information and decrypt our world. In Switzerland, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) has taken an interest in the big data revolution and the possibilities it offers to generate predictive statistics for the benefit of society.
Color blindness-correcting contact lenses Imagine seeing the world in muted shades—gray sky, gray grass. Some people with color blindness see everything this way, though most can't see specific colors. Tinted glasses can help, but they can't be used to correct blurry vision. And dyed contact lenses currently in development for the condition are potentially harmful and unstable. Now, in ACS Nano, researchers report infusing contact lenses with gold nanoparticles to create a safer way to see colors.
No second chance to make trusting first impression, or is there? In business, as in life, it is important to make a good first impression and according to research at the University of New Hampshire a positive initial trust interaction can be helpful in building a lasting trust relationship. Researchers found that trusting a person early on can have benefits over the life of the relationship, even after a violation of that trust.
Planetary science intern leads study of Martian crust The planet Mars has no global magnetic field, although scientists believe it did have one at some point in the past. Previous studies suggest that when Mars' global magnetic field was present, it was approximately the same strength as Earth's current field. Surprisingly, instruments from past Mars missions, both orbiters and landers, have spotted patches on the planet's surface that are strongly magnetized—a property that could not have been produced by a magnetic field similar to Earth's, assuming the rocks on both planets are similar.
How do you know where volcanic ash will end up? When the Eyjafjallajkull volcano in Iceland erupted in April 2010, air traffic was interrupted for six days and then disrupted until May. Until then, models from the nine Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres (VAACs) around the world, which aimed at predicting when the ash cloud interfered with aircraft routes, were based on the tracking of the clouds in the atmosphere.
New search engine for single cell atlases A new software tool allows researchers to quickly query datasets generated from single-cell sequencing. Users can identify which cell types any combination of genes are active in. Published in Nature Methods on 1st March, the open-access 'scfind' software enables swift analysis of multiple datasets containing millions of cells by a wide range of users, on a standard computer.
Temperature and aridity fluctuations over the past century linked to flower color changes Clemson University scientists have linked climatic fluctuations over the past one and a quarter-century with flower color changes.