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A fresh draft deal published at the deadlocked COP29 climate talks shows rich and poor countries still divided. Fierce bargaining at UN climate talks in Azerbaijan dragged into Saturday after a $250 billion a year offer from rich nations was flatly refused by developing countries hardest hit by Earth’s rapid warming. Negotiators from nearly 200 […]
Credit: Queensland Museum Say hello to Strawberry Claws, a large new-to-science species of hermit crab recently described by Queensland Museum scientists. With its distinctive crimson claws, it was only natural the crab was given the scientific name Strigopagurus fragarchela, which is derived from the Latin form “strawberry” (Fragaria), combined with “chela” to highlight the bright […]
A diagram shows one way the curtains could prevent warm seawater from reaching the terminus of the glacier. Credit: Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/d41586-024-00119-3 New studies about the Thwaites Glacier, also called the “Doomsday Glacier,” have sparked a conversation about geoengineering as a climate change solution. One study published in May and led by University of […]
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain In late September, the governor of the state of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, boasted that election officials had removed 453,000 people from the state’s voter rolls since 2021. In a state with only 2.3 million registered voters, it appears that roughly one in six registered voters had been purged. While some of […]
A confrontation between stalk-eyed flies. Image by Gerald Wilkinson. Credit: Gerald Wilkinson In stalk-eyed flies, longer eyestalks attract the ladies. Females prefer males with longer eyestalks, and other males are less likely to fight them for access to females. But some males have a copy of the X chromosome which always causes short eyestalks. Scientists […]
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Think of flood prevention and you might imagine huge concrete dams, levees or the shiny Thames barrier. But some of the most powerful tools for reducing flood risk are far more natural and widely recognizable: woodlands and green spaces. Trees offer much more than beauty and oxygen. Here’s how trees help […]
The phosphorylation reagent with a nitrobenzyl hydrophobic tag allows production of high purity fully chemically synthesized mRNA and transcriptionally synthesized cyclic mRNA. Credit: Reiko Matsushita In an era where viral outbreaks can escalate into global pandemics with alarming speed, the ability to quickly develop new vaccines has become crucial. However, the speed of vaccine production […]
A preliminary reconstruction shows the late antique church of Artaxata. Credit: University of Münster Archaeologists from the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia and the University of Münster have discovered the remains of a previously unknown early Christian church in the ancient city of Artaxata. The find consists of an octagonal building with cruciform extensions. […]