Climate change is giving old trees a growth spurt

A new study of growth rings from Dahurian larch in China's northern forests finds the hardy trees grew more from 2005 to 2014 than in the preceding 40 years..

Paper wasps capable of behavior that resembles logical reasoning

For millennia, transitive inference was considered a hallmark of human deductive powers, a form of logical reasoning used to make inferences: If A is greater than B, and B is greater than C, then A is greater than C. But in recent decades, vertebrate animals including monkeys, birds and fish

Climate change responsible for severe infectious disease in UK frogs: Compelling research reveals fatal spread of Ranavirus will increase if carbon emissions are not reduced

Historic trends in mass-mortality events attributed to the disease were found to match the pattern of increased temperatures recorded over recent decades, with disease outbreaks predicted to become more severe, more widespread and occurring over a greater proportion of the year within the next few decades, if carbon emissions continue

Gravitational forces in protoplanetary disks may push super-Earths close to their stars

Now, researchers may have a better understanding how such planets formed.

Great chocolate is a complex mix of science, physicists reveal

Scientists have uncovered the physics behind the process -- known as conching -- which is responsible for creating chocolate's distinctive smooth texture..

Meditation needs more research: Study finds 25 percent suffer unpleasant experiences

The research, published in PLOS ONE, also found those who had attended a meditation retreat, those who only practiced deconstructive types of meditation, such as Vipassana (insight) and Koan practice (used in Zen Buddhism), and those with higher levels of repetitive negative thinking, were more likely to report a 'particularly

Birds outside their comfort zone are more vulnerable to deforestation

Predicting a species' sensitivity to environmental changes, such as deforestation or climate change, is crucial for designing conservation strategies..

An electric tongue can handle more spicy foods than you can

In a new paper in the Journal of Food Science, recent WSU graduate student Courtney Schlossareck and her advisor, Carolyn Ross, found that the e-tongue is very accurate at telling the difference of spiciness between samples of the same food. Thousands of new spicy products hit supermarket shelves every year.

A new filter to better map the dark universe: New method cuts through galaxies' messy emissions, provides clearer window into dark matter, dark energy

Distortions in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), caused by a phenomenon known as lensing, can further illuminate the structure of the universe and can even tell us things about the mysterious, unseen universe -- including dark energy, which makes up about 68 percent of the universe and accounts for its

Dexterous herring gulls learn new tricks to adapt their feeding habits

The gulls (Larus argentatus) of Dún Laoghaire Marina at Dublin in Ireland have found a novel way of disposing of the tightly fixed outer layer of sea squirts -- an organism which they have learnt to pluck from the underside of pontoons by diving or floating on the water.

Just one-third of the world's longest rivers remain free-flowing

A team of 34 international researchers from McGill University, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and other institutions assessed the connectivity status of 12 million kilometers (~7.5 million miles) of rivers worldwide, providing the first-ever global assessment of the location and extent of the planet's remaining free-flowing rivers. Among other findings,

Discovery may lead to new materials for next-generation data storage

A team of researchers led by Cornell University and the University of California Berkeley made a discovery that opens up a plethora of materials systems and physical phenomena that can now be explored. The scientists observed what's known as chirality for the first time in polar skyrmions in an exquisitely

Explosions of universe's first stars spewed powerful jets

These first stars were likely immense, short-lived fireballs, and scientists have assumed that they exploded as similarly spherical supernovae.

Oldest known trees in eastern North America documented

David Stahle, Distinguished Professor of geosciences, along with colleagues from the university's Ancient Bald Cypress Consortium and other conservation groups, discovered the trees in 2017 in a forested wetland preserve along the Black River south of Raleigh, North Carolina. Stahle documented the age of the trees using dendrochronology, the study

Antarctic biodiversity hotspots exist wherever penguins and seals poop

Researchers braved the wicked cold of the Antarctic and maneuvered through fields of animal waste and groups of clamoring elephant seals, gentoo, chinstrap, and Adélie penguins to examine the soils and plants surrounding these colonies. "What we see is that the poo produced by seals and penguins partly evaporates