Secrets of Namibia"s fairy circles demystified: Plants self-organize
Scientists have puzzled over the origin of Namibia's fairy circles for nearly half a century. It boiled down to two main theories: either termites were responsible, or plants were somehow self-organizing. Now, researchers from the University of Gött.....»»
Secrets and lies: Spies of the Stuart era played a dangerous game in the shadows of an unstable Europe
Stuart monarchs were repeatedly challenged by dangerous threats—a gunpowder plot, a civil war and political revolution. As a result, by the restoration of Charles II in 1660, the English government had come to rely on a shadowy trade of secrets for.....»»
Spraying rice with zinc oxide nanoparticles protects yields during heat waves, study finds
A small team of horticulturists in China and the U.S. has found that spraying rice plants with a zinc oxide nanoparticle solution helps them better handle the stress of a heat wave. In their study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of.....»»
Report: Voice of Practitioners 2024 – The True State of Secrets Security
In this study, GitGuardian and CyberArk reveal the stark reality of secrets management across 1,000 organizations. With 79% experiencing secrets leaks and an average remediation time of 27 days, the findings expose critical gaps between security conf.....»»
Open-source software: A first attempt at organization after CRA
The open-source software (OSS) industry is developing the core software for the global infrastructure, to the point that even some proprietary software giants adopt Linux servers for their cloud services. Still, it has never been able to get organize.....»»
Svalbard Global Seed Vault evokes epic imagery and controversy because of the symbolic value of seeds
Two-thirds of the world's food comes today from just nine plants: sugar cane, maize (corn), rice, wheat, potatoes, soybeans, oil-palm fruit, sugar beet and cassava. In the past, farmers grew tens of thousands of crop varieties around the world. This.....»»
The secrets of baseball"s magic mud: Study quantifies its properties to show it"s not simply a superstition
The unique properties of baseball's famed "magic" mud have never been scientifically quantified—until now. In a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applie.....»»
Study reveals effect of slope position on nonstructural carbohydrates in biological soil crusts
Nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) provide energy for metabolic processes in plants and play a key role in plant growth, defense and osmoregulation. However, the regulation of NSC in biological soil crusts across different slope positions remains unc.....»»
Dams have taken half the water from Australia"s second biggest river—and climate change will make it even worse
The largest wetland on Australia's second longest river, the Murrumbidgee in the southern Murray-Darling Basin, is drying up. This is bad news for the plants, animals and people who rely on the vast Lowbidgee Floodplain. So it's important to understa.....»»
Only 3% of South Africans can name all five national animals and plants. Why these symbols matter
Alongside a national flag, anthem and coat of arms, most countries have one or more plant and animal species that they designate as national symbols. The national animal of China, for example, is the giant panda, a nation-wide source of pride and dip.....»»
Whispr: Open-source multi-vault secret injection tool
Whispr is an open-source CLI tool designed to securely inject secrets from secret vaults, such as AWS Secrets Manager and Azure Key Vault, directly into your application’s environment. This enhances secure local software development by seamlessly m.....»»
A 102-year-old shares her simple, science-backed skincare secrets — and they don"t include antiaging creams
A 102-year-old shares her simple, science-backed skincare secrets — and they don"t include antiaging creams.....»»
UN summit approves fund to share benefits of nature"s sequenced genetic data
A UN nature summit agreed in Colombia Saturday on the creation of a fund to share the profits of digitally sequenced genetic data taken from animals and plants with the communities they come from......»»
Deep sea rocks suggest oxygen can be made without photosynthesis, deepening the mystery of life
Oxygen, the molecule that supports intelligent life as we know it, is largely made by plants. Whether underwater or on land, they do this by photosynthesizing carbon dioxide. However, a recent study demonstrates that oxygen may be produced without th.....»»
U.S. regulators raise questions about siting data centers at power plants
U.S. regulators raise questions about siting data centers at power plants.....»»
African Sahara "greening" can alter Northern Hemisphere climate, modeling study finds
Africa's Sahara Desert may be considered a vast expanse of barren sand with limited vegetation, an extreme environment for plants and animals to thrive, but life always finds a way. Indeed, vegetation growth in the desert has waxed and waned over mil.....»»
The reasons flowers wilt could explain how plants spend (and save) their energy
Wilting flowers might not signal poor flower or plant health, but rather the effects of a sophisticated resource management strategy in plants, millions of years in the making......»»
Researchers study effect of phosphorous and irradiance on the invasive plant Chromolaena odorata
Resource competition is an important factor affecting the invasion success of alien plants, and environmental factors influence the competition outcomes between invasive and native plants. Chromolaena odorata has been listed as one of the main invasi.....»»
Pixel phones are getting an actual weather app in 2024, with a bit of AI
Pixel 6 and newer can try out an app that has AI summaries, but no frog. Google's stated mission is to "organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and u.....»»
New Age ritual that send "bad energies" up in smoke may contribute to overharvesting of wild plants
A commercialized New Age ritual is causing not only "unwanted energies" to go up in smoke, but also foreign wild plants. A study by Utrecht University researchers Isabela Pombo Geertsma and Anastasia Stefanaki, alongside colleagues from Wageningen UR.....»»
How life began on Earth: Model suggests ancient Earth had organic-rich atmosphere
The key to unlocking the secrets of distant planets starts right here on Earth. Researchers at Tohoku University, the University of Tokyo, and Hokkaido University have developed a model that considers various atmospheric chemical reactions to estimat.....»»