Climate change has contributed to droughts since 1900, and is likely to get worse, says tree-ring study
Using studies of tree rings going back centuries, scientists have unearthed clear evidence that the rise of human-generated greenhouse gases was having an effect on global drought conditions as early as 1900. A new, first-of-its-kind study by scientists at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, largely confirms what climate models have shown. In the absence of strong historic data on precipitation, those computer models forecast not only future scenarios, but shed light on historical trends. The dovetailing of the tree-ring studies, which correlate to soil moisture, with climate models gives scientists the assurance that the computer models are, in fact, correct, they say. Marvel said that the results, while not unexpected, are nonetheless gratifying.
Reclaiming lost calories: Tweaking photosynthesis boosts crop yields
What if your ability to feed yourself was dependent on a process that made a mistake 20 percent of the time? We face this situation every day. That’s because the plants that produce the food we eat evolved to solve a chemistry problem that arose billions of years ago. Plants evolved to use carbon dioxide to make our food and the oxygen we breathe – a process called photosynthesis. But they grew so well and produced so much oxygen that this gas began to dominate the atmosphere. To plants, carbon dioxide and oxygen look very similar, and sometimes, plants use an oxygen instead of carbon dioxide.
About Clinician Reviews
Clinician Reviews is written for NPs and PAs, by PAs and NPs, covering topics of vital interest to health care practitioners. Clinician Reviews reaches more than 125,000 PAs and NPs online and in print and has been serving our audience for more than 25 years. In 2019, Clinician Reviews won a silver award in the Best Use of Infographics category for our Third Annual Job Satisfaction Survey. This highly regarded honor from the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors signals excellence in competition with the very best that the health care sector offers.
Circumcision: Social, Sexual, Psychological Realities
We continue examining myths about circumcision, including traditions, social and sexual relations. NOTE: Primary author is Lillian Dell'Aquila Cannon (see her blog), with assistance from Dan Bollinger Part 3 article continues after advertisement Myth: You have to circumcise the baby so that he will match his dad.
Fake science on fake fish from James Cook Uni?
Third World Science with First World Funding Is James Cook University a grants machine or a research institute? James Cook University reviews ex-student’s ‘fishy’ findings, by Graham Lloyd, The Australian Oona Lönnstedt has been prolific, writing alarming papers on microplastics, acidification, and reef degradation. But her work looks like a trainwreck.
Electronic Nose Analyses Breath to Diagnose Disease
In Brief Researchers are building an electronic nose that can accurately detect and distinguish chemicals in your breath, which could lead to earlier diagnosis of diseases and eventually replace blood tests. Beta testing is targeted early in 2018. A Breath Test In Place of Blood Test
Plastic leachates impair growth and oxygen production in Prochlorococcus , the ocean’s most abundant photosynthetic bacteria
Plastic leachates negatively affect Prochlorococcus growth Leachates of common plastic items (HDPE shopping bags and PVC matting) were made using a base of sterile artificial seawater. Exponential phase cultures of Prochlorococcus were inoculated into media containing a range of leachate dilutions (generated by volume/volume dilutions in AMP1 media of 50, 25, 12.5, 6.25 and 3.125% for HDPE; 10, 2, 1, 0.5 and 0.25% for PVC) alongside equivalent controls (AMP1 media with no leachate addition).
Watch a single cell become a complete organism in six pulsing minutes of timelapse
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Enhancing implementation science by applying best principles of systems science
This review is grounded in the ongoing experiences of the authors to devise and implement interventions to promote health equity, including for older adults. Because the aforementioned interventions are both multilevel and dynamic, the scientific approaches employed evolved from utilising ecological models for thinking through pathways whereby determinants at the societal, community and interpersonal levels affect population and individual health and well-being [1–4], to embracing a portfolio of systems science models that usefully inform related research, practice, policy and education initiatives [5–7]. Forrester, the founder of system dynamics, famously explained that a manager’s verbal description of a corporate organisation constitutes a model [8].
Octopuses May Go Blind As Climate Change Sucks Oxygen Out of the Ocean
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 11:20 a.m. E.D.T. on Friday, May 17 Turning light particles into visual information is hard work, and your body relies on oxygen to get the job done. This is true whether you walk the land on two limbs or swim through the sea with eight. In fact, according to a recent study in the Journal of Experimental Biology, the amount of oxygen available to marine invertebrates like squids, crabs and octopuses may be far more important to their vision than previously thought. In the study, published online April 24, researchers saw a significant drop in retinal activity in four species of marine larvae (two crabs, an octopus and a squid) when the animals were exposed to reduced-oxygen environments for as little as 30 minutes. [8 Crazy Facts About Octopuses]
One of the most wondrous markers of the end of the day is a murmuration of starlings
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Scientists Successfully Turn Breast Cancer Cells Into Fat to Stop Them From Spreading
Researchers have been able to coax human breast cancer cells to turn into fat cells in a new proof-of-concept study in mice. To achieve this feat, the team exploited a weird pathway that metastasising cancer cells have; their results are just a first step, but it's a truly promising approach. When you cut your finger, or when a foetus grows organs, the epithelium cells begin to look less like themselves, and more 'fluid' – changing into a type of stem cell called a mesenchyme and then reforming into whatever cells the body needs. This process is called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and it's been known for a while that cancer can use both this one and the opposite pathway called MET (mesenchymal‐to‐epithelial transition), to spread throughout the body and metastasise.
