The Pleodendron costaricense is an ancient tree on the verge of extinction. Only nine specimens are known to exist. Found in Costa Rica, in the mountains near the Pacific Ocean and in the Osa Peninsula, the tree is referred to by botanists as a "living fossil" because of its historic lineage.Tony Durst, a professor emeritus with the Departmen...

The migratory monarch butterfly might not be as endangered as previously thought, according to a new study published today in Current Biology. Humans may have artificially inflated the monarch population by making changes to the habitat of Eastern and North America. The numbers we see now may reflect an expanded population from precolonial sizes. "...

 An international research team led by Takuma Izumi, an assistant professor at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, has observed in high resolution (approximately 1 light year) the active galactic nucleus of the Circinus Galaxy - one of the closest major galaxies to the Milky Way. The observation was made possible by the Atacama Lar...

 A world-first system developed by UTS is being used by Westpac Little Ripper Lifesaver to identify sharks, raise alarms and provide greater protection for swimmers and surfers.SharkSpotter, which uses artificial intelligence to protect swimmers and surfers in the ocean, has been credited with saving two lives in its first year of operation. N...

 Despite being one of the highest value areas of crime globally, with links to organised and violent crime, wildlife crime is falling down the list of policing priorities due to lack of data, resource, and expertise, according to research led by Nottingham Trent University (NTU).The study, commissioned by the International Fund for Animal Welf...

 Vanderbilt researchers report that when people who are having their brains scanned by fMRI perform a task, like wiggling their fingers, certain signals increase in white matter throughout the brain, which has long been thought to play a lesser role the more the brain's more energetic gray matter.The human brain is made up of two kinds of matt...

Little satellites. Big science. In the coming year or more, scientists at CU Boulder are scheduled to launch four CubeSats into space. These petite spacecraft are no bigger than a toaster oven but will collect scientific data that far outstrip their size. They include Climatology of Anthropogenic and Natural VLF wave Activity in Space (CANVAS) led ...

 New research is challenging the scientific status quo on the limits of the nuclear chart in hot stellar environments where temperatures reach billions of degrees Celsius.The nuclear chart is a way to map out different kinds of atomic nuclei based on their number of protons and neutrons, and the "drip lines" can be viewed as the boundaries or ...

 A Network of Technological Tools Could Detect Wildfires EarlierTypically, the primary indicator of a burgeoning wildfire in California is a plume of hazy, gray smoke wafting through the air, seen by satellites or cameras. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CalFire, is alerted, and mitigation and containment efforts ...

 A Southern Cross University manual for postharvest processing of small-scale fishery products is now available in eight languages.If you've ever seen a sea cucumber lying on the shallow ocean floor, you'd quickly recognise the marine animal's elongated body and leathery skin.What you may not know is many fishing communities have been harvesti...

 Two KTH students have completed a master's thesis comparing the carbon footprint of electric hydrofoil ferries to that of traditional diesel ferries. The study shows that the hydrofoil ferries emit 97.5% less carbon dioxide during their life cycle than diesel-powered ones.Felix Glaunsinger and Dennis Olsson, who both graduated from KTH this s...

 If there were no strong nuclear force binding atomic particles together, matter as we know it would not exist. However, there are still several unresolved questions in the study of this fundamental interaction.William & Mary's Cristiano Fanelli, assistant professor of data science, is harnessing the power of machine learning and artificia...

 The Pacific oyster has taken over in the Swedish west coast county of Bohuslän. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have found that the invasive species accounts for two-thirds of the biomass of all mussel and oyster species. This is not necessarily a bad thing, except for beachgoers, who can cut themselves easily on the razor-sharp s...

 September is coupled with the arrival of spring, which inspires a flurry of activity in the animal world as breeding season for many different species cranks up a notch.September is also Save The Koala month, which aims to highlight the threats to koalas, including habitat loss, climate change, disease and human activity, contributing to popu...

 Researchers at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) have suggested new ways of thinking which could help people with depression tackle personal problems.A study led by DMU's Dr Saima Noreen considered the way people with depression think when tackling issues within themselves, known as intrapersonal problems.To conduct the research, a team ...

 Johns Hopkins researchers develop a model that uses autonomous decision-making to make the skies safer.Autonomous drone aircraft traffic in uncontrolled airspace below 400 feet altitude is expected to substantially increase in the next few years. Experts anticipate a fleet of nearly 1 million commercial uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) in the ...

 A parabolic dish on the EPFL campus is easily overlooked, resembling a satellite dish or other telecommunications infrastructure. But this dish is special, because it works like an artificial tree. After concentrating solar radiation nearly 1,000 times, a reactor above the dish uses that sunlight to convert water into valuable and renewable h...

 The technology can increase the lifetime and controllability of miniature satellites.A micropropulsion system developed at the George Washington University successfully launched into space at the end of May. The technology could pave the way for controlling inexpensive satellites made out of objects found in your desk drawer or purse.Research...

Physicists have invented a new type of analogue quantum computer that can tackle hard physics problems that the most powerful digital supercomputers cannot solve.New research published in Nature Physics by collaborating scientists from Stanford University in the USA and University College Dublin (UCD) in Ireland has shown that a novel type of highl...

 Dr Lauren McWhinnie from Heriot-Watt's Institute of Life and Earth Sciences contributed to a new study investigating the nature and extent of whale entanglements in Scottish fishing gear.The report identifies potential solutions to avoid and reduce such entanglements in the future.Dr McWhinnie was working with the Scottish Entanglement Allian...