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Trees need a certain number of warm days in their growing seasons to grow properly; otherwise, the cell walls of new growth don't lignify properly, creating blue rings that appear when wood samples are dyed.

Scotland must do more to help hydropower facilities maximize their output and prevent negative impacts on wildlife in the face of the challenges posed by climate change, according to a new report.

A research team led by Dr. Tetsuya Muramoto from the Faculty of Science at Toho University has demonstrated the mechanisms by which periodic chemical signal frequencies in cells regulate gene expression via transcription factors and influence the cell fate determination processes. This discovery was made using optogenetic technology, which facilitates the manipulation of biological phenomena using light.

Although fertilizers are essential for global food production, they also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. The war in Ukraine has caused supply chain disruptions and price increases. How can fertilizer production become more sustainable and resilient to geopolitical crises?

The ISS's orbit is slowly decaying. While it might seem a permanent fixture in the sky, the orbiting space laboratory is only about 400 km above the planet. There might not be a lot of atmosphere at that altitude. However, there is still some, and interacting with that is gradually slowing the orbital speed of the station, decreasing its orbit, and, eventually, pulling it back to Earth. That is, if we didn't do anything to stop it.

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), commonly known as China's "artificial sun," has achieved a remarkable scientific milestone by maintaining steady-state high-confinement plasma operation for an impressive 1,066 seconds. This accomplishment, reached on Monday, sets a new world record and marks a significant breakthrough in the pursuit of fusion power generation.

Two NASA rocket missions are taking to the Alaskan skies in hopes of discovering why some auroras flicker, others pulsate, and still others are riddled with holes. Understanding these peculiar features is part of NASA's goal to understand the space environment around our planet, which can affect both spacecraft and astronauts.

Urbanization is rapidly transforming landscapes worldwide, becoming a key driver of global biodiversity loss. It often impacts biodiversity negatively by creating selective environments that limit species diversity in urban compared to natural habitats. Amidst this challenge, understanding and enhancing urban blue-green infrastructure is critical.

In the United States, the most well-known skin-penetrating parasitic worm, called a nematode, is the hookworm. But globally, it is estimated that over 600 million people are infected with the skin-penetrating threadworm, also known as Strongyloides stercoralis. This species is found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions with poor sanitation infrastructure. Skin-penetrating nematodes are excreted in the feces of an infected host, and then enter the ground to wait for a new host. When they infect a new host, they can cause serious illnesses.

Topological insulators (TIs) are among the hottest topics in condensed matter physics today. They're a bit strange: Their surfaces conduct electricity, yet their interiors do not, instead acting as insulators. Physicists consider TIs the materials of the future because they host fascinating new quantum phases of matter and have promising technological applications in electronics and quantum computing. Scientists are just now beginning to uncover connections between TIs and magnetism that could unlock new uses for these exotic materials.