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New method reveals marine microbes’ outsized role in carbon cycle

Thirteen researchers from Bigelow Laboratory, University of Vienna, Spanish Institute of Oceanography, and Purdue University co-authored the study that examined marine microbes called prokaryoplankton, a vast group of bacteria and archaea that constitute more than 90 percent of the cells in the ocean. The team found that less than three percent of prokaryoplankton cells accounted …

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In the tropics, nitrogen-fixing trees take a hit from herbivores

By partnering with soil microbes, nitrogen-fixing trees turn atmospheric nitrogen gas into a form of nitrogen that is available to plants. When fixers shed their leaves, they enrich soils with nitrogen, benefitting nearby plants. In nitrogen-poor tropical forests, nitrogen-fixing trees are the main source of new nitrogen to soils. Yet they are also rare. Sarah …

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Coupled computer modeling can help more accurately predict coastal flooding, study demonstrates

This is exactly the sort of weather event Z. George Xue of the LSU Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, or DOCS, believes his novel coupled computer modeling approach can more accurately predict, and thereby assist communities with disaster planning. Xue said as far as he knows, his lab is the only one using this …

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Researchers identify elusive carbon dioxide sensor in plants that controls water loss

But identifying the carbon dioxide sensor and explaining how it operates within plants has remained a longstanding puzzle. Using a mix of tools and research approaches, scientists at the University of California San Diego recently achieved a breakthrough in identifying the long-sought CO2 sensor in Arabidopsis plants and unraveled its functioning parts. UC San Diego …

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Megadrought: How the current Southwestern North American megadrought is affecting Earth’s upper atmosphere

More than 30 years ago, Chester Gardner of UIUC’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Chiao-Yao She of Colorado State University’s Department of Physics teamed up to study Earth’s middle atmosphere. Using sodium resonance laser radar (lidar), Gardner and She developed and demonstrated an important new technique for measuring temperature profiles in the Earth’s …

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Built to last: The perovskite solar cells tough enough to match mighty silicon

By removing the solvent dimethyl-sulfoxide and introducing dimethylammonium chloride as a crystallisation agent, the researchers were able to better control the intermediate phases of the perovskite crystallisation process, leading to thin films of greater quality, with reduced defects and enhanced stability. Large groups of up to 138 sample devices were then subjected to a rigorous …

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Researchers propose new structures to harvest untapped source of freshwater

The study, led by civil and environmental engineering professor and Prairie Research Institute executive director Praveen Kumar, evaluated 14 water-stressed locations across the globe for the feasibility of a hypothetical structure capable of capturing water vapor from above the ocean and condensing it into fresh water — and do so in a manner that will …

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