Mindfully Curated
Pollinators — such as bees, butterflies and birds — are essential for agricultural production. However, natural pollination can also fail or be insufficient, which can lead to lower yields and poorer quality. This means alternative solutions are need…
Researchers have found that coating soybean plant leaves with cellulose nanofiber (CNF) gives protection against an aggressive fungal disease. The CNF coating changed leaf surfaces from water repellent to water absorbent, and suppressed pathogen gene e…
Inclusionary zoning policies that increase the supply of affordable housing may be good for the heart, according to new research. The study notes that such zoning programs were associated with lower rates of heart disease.
Protons in aqueous solution can usually migrate very quickly — much faster compared to other ions. However, this only applies when they are in a space greater than two nanometers, as a new study shows. In confined spaces the so-called Grotthuss mechan…
Some electronics can bend, twist and stretch in wearable displays, biomedical applications and soft robots. While these devices’ circuits have become increasingly pliable, the batteries and supercapacitors that power them are still rigid. Now, research…
When stretched or deformed, shape memory polymers return to their original shapes after heat or light is applied. These materials show great promise for soft robotics, smart biomedical devices and deployable space structures, but until now they haven’t…
Palaeontologists have uncovered the remains of a huge new fossil species, an estimated length of half a meter, belonging to an extinct animal group, in the half-a-billion-year-old Cambrian rocks from Kootenay National Park in Canada.
Migrating birds choose routes with the best wind and uplift conditions, helping them to fly nonstop for hundreds of kilometers over the sea.
The use of insects as food for humans and animals has both the potential to reduce European consumers’ carbon footprint and contribute to reducing incentives for continued soybean cultivation in the Amazon rainforest. However, when compared to feeding …