News
The microscopic ocean species doing roughly five percent of the planet's photosynthesis wasn't even described in textbooks until the late 1980s, and the carbon budgets attributed to it have been quietly rewritten ever since
1+ hour, 30+ min ago (87+ words) Marine researchers are rewriting how plankton drive ocean carbon storage, with implications that reach from textbook taxonomy to climate models still relying on outdated assumptions about who does the work....
Hydrogen sulfide detected in distant gas giant exoplanets for the first time
2+ mon, 6+ day ago (528+ words) But astronomers have also identified brown dwarfs smaller than 13 Jupiter masses. Xuan and colleagues at UCSD have now found some answers in four enormous gas giant planets that orbit a star called HR 8799, located approximately 133 light-years away in the constellation…...
Hydrogen bond design advances solar water oxidation efficiency
2+ mon, 3+ week ago (93+ words) Space Daily Hydrogen bond design advances solar water oxidation efficiency Under operating conditions, the researchers observed that the hydrogen bonded system significantly increased the population of useful surface holes, which are the active oxidizing agents in water splitting. After charge…...
Soil microbe turns carbon dioxide into acetate using electricity
2+ mon, 3+ week ago (478+ words) Space Daily Soil microbe turns carbon dioxide into acetate using electricity The team isolated F. terrae from paddy soil and found that it performs bidirectional extracellular electron transfer, moving electrons across the cell boundary in both directions. While most organisms rely…...
Engineered biochar harnesses sunlight to speed pollutant breakdown
3+ mon, 2+ day ago (350+ words) Space Daily Engineered biochar harnesses sunlight to speed pollutant breakdown The study, published in the journal Biochar, introduces a co-engineering strategy that integrates biochar with artificial humic substances produced via a controlled hydrothermal process using pine sawdust. By tuning the…...
Some early life forms may have breathed oxygen well before it filled the atmosphere
3+ mon, 2+ day ago (659+ words) A new study by MIT researchers suggests some early forms of life may have evolved the ability to use oxygen hundreds of millions of years before the GOE. The findings may represent some of the earliest evidence of aerobic respiration…...
Salt solvent unlocks lignin for next generation biofuel plants
3+ mon, 6+ day ago (964+ words) Space Daily Salt solvent unlocks lignin for next generation biofuel plants The project, led by postdoctoral research associate Tirath Raj and Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory Executive Director Vijay Singh, focused on the critical preprocessing stage that separates plant cell wall…...
Lab made cosmic dust experiment reveals paths to life chemistry
3+ mon, 6+ day ago (576+ words) Space Daily Lab made cosmic dust experiment reveals paths to life chemistry Losurdo and her supervisor, Professor David Mc Kenzie, filled evacuated glass tubes with nitrogen, carbon dioxide and acetylene before applying around 10, 000 volts of electrical potential for about an…...
Engineered microbes use light to build new molecules
3+ mon, 1+ week ago (93+ words) Space Daily Engineered microbes use light to build new molecules Biomanufacturing relies on microorganisms that naturally excel at synthesizing complex molecules, using enzymes to promote specific reactions in a highly selective way. Because enzymes have strong preferences for particular shapes…...
Ancient nitrogen enzyme study illuminates early Earth conditions and life detection
3+ mon, 2+ week ago (375+ words) The team focused on nitrogenase, an enzyme central to the biological process that converts atmospheric nitrogen into forms that living organisms can use. Study leader Betul Kacar describes nitrogenase as an enzyme that helped set the tone for life on…...