ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

Scientists using climate models and satellite data reveal for the first time how protecting tropical forests can yield climate benefits that enhance carbon storage in nearby areas.

After water, sand is the most exploited natural resource on the planet. However, its extraction from seas, rivers, beaches and quarries has an impact on the environment and surrounding communities. A new study has found that a step-change in mineral processing could drastically reduce mineral waste -- the world's largest waste stream -- while creating a sustainable source of sand. Coined 'ore-sand' this material has the potential to address two global sustainability challenges simultaneously.

Given enough time and energy, the body will heal, but when doctors or engineers intervene, the processes do not always proceed as planned because chemicals that control and facilitate the healing process are missing. Now, an international team of engineers is bioprinting bone along with two growth factor encoding genes that help incorporate the cells and heal defects in the skulls of rats.

Drawing on 70 years of historic wind and solar-power data, researchers built an AI model to predict the probability of a network-scale 'drought,' when daily production of renewables fell below a target threshold. Under a threshold set at the 30th percentile, when roughly a third of all days are low-production days, the researchers found that Texas could face a daily energy drought for up to four months straight. Batteries would be unable to compensate for a drought of this length, and if the system relied on solar energy alone, the drought could be expected to last twice as long -- for eight months.

A research team lrevives surface adhesion in proteins by adding cysteine-rich protein of mussels. Adding cysteine-rich protein to conventional underwater adhesives will increase their adhesion.

Travel to nature-based destinations to socialize -- to celebrate anniversaries, honeymoons or to spend time with family for a holiday -- is a growing trend in tourism, and it was a significant motivator for travel to Antarctica before the pandemic, researchers found in recent study.

A new study finds that the nation's existing and planned marshaling ports, the assembly areas critical to building and deploying offshore wind turbines, will be insufficient by 2023 to meet commitments and will fail to meet projected demand through 2050.

Researchers have found that Zika virus can mutate to become more infective -- and potentially break through pre-existing immunity.

Scientists report a method to study smaller magnetospheres, sometimes just millimeters thick, in the laboratory. The new experimental platform combines the magnetic field of the Large Plasma Device with a fast laser-driven plasma and a current-driven dipole magnet. The LAPD magnetic field provides a model of the solar system's interplanetary magnetic field, while the laser-driven plasma models the solar wind and the dipole magnet provides a model for the Earth's inherent magnetic field. Motorized probes allow system scans in three dimensions by combining data from tens of thousands of laser shots.

New research breakthrough bridges a complexity gap between chemistry and biology and provides a new methodology that uses designed mixtures to engineer adaptive properties that are normally only associated with living systems.

Modern methods of creating plant-based meat can yield high optical similarities and targeted molecular-sensory methods, but on a molecular scale, it appears completely different from the food it tries to mimic. Scientists investigate the molecular function and effects of vegetable proteins of different origins to identify sensory weak points in plant-based substitutes, employing rheology and tribology and bringing greater insight than pure sensory analyses. They said muscle proteins emulsify fats and oils in a very different way while lending to a different biting behavior.

Scientists have solved one of nature's biggest criminal cases, an egg forgery scandal two million years in the making. Their findings suggest that the victims of this fraud may now be gaining the upper hand.

Rhesus macaques are able to perceive their own heartbeats, according to a new study. The research creates a first-of-its-kind animal model of interoception, the ability to sense the internal state of one's body. The findings provide an important model for future psychiatric and neuropsychiatric research as dysfunctions in interoception are associated with anxiety, depression, and Alzheimer's disease.

A new study combining records of climate change during the last 3.5 million years with fossil evidence of mammals in Africa reveals that times of erratic climate change are not followed by major upheavals in evolution.