Algae and plants form the basis of nearly all natural food webs and ecosystems

A research project conducted at the University of Cologne’s Zoological Institute reveals important findings on the interaction between nutrient availability and the diversity of consumer species in freshwater environments. A better understanding of this interaction will contribute to developing possibilities to maintain biodiversity in all kinds of ecosystems. In the past decades, we have seen a dramatic decline in biodiversity around the world. Every day, species are irrecoverably lost on an unprecedented scale. This also has an impact on the stability and productivity of ecosystems. Hence it is indispensable to understand the mechanisms that impact biodiversity, particularly in the case of primary producers such as algae and plants that form the basis of nearly all natural food webs and ecosystems.

The common frog (Rana temporaria)

Researchers at Lancaster University have found a way to detect subtle early warning signs that reveal a frog population is at risk from pollution. Worldwide, amphibian populations are declining due to habitat loss, disease and pollution which is cited as a major threat to their survival. Scientists publishing in Scientific Report, have found evidence of stress in tadpoles taken from ponds most impacted by pollution caused by nutrients and pesticides. They say the technique they used to spot these changes could offer an early warning system for populations at risk.

In Austria alone, two or three people a day die as a result of passive smoking.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that every year 600,000 deaths are caused by passive smoking worldwide and, in Austria alone, two or three people a day die as a result of passive smoking. In a study recently published in "Scientific Reports", researchers from MedUni Vienna and the Messerli Research Institute have, for the first time, identified the organic compound acrolein (acrylic aldehyde) as one of the main causes of failure of the immune defence to tumours due to passive smoking.

Heat map showing density of marks drawn by visitors: blue areas are rarely marked; red areas are most frequently marked). Painting: Jean-Baptiste Wicar, The judgment of Solomon. Oil on canvas, 96 × 150 cm, 1785. Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille. Courtesy of Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille / RMN / Julien Wylleman / Ikonikat

The Louvre-Lens museum and its partner, the CNRS, are conducting a novel research project during the museum’s Le Nain exhibit: The Le Nain mystery. In all, 600 museum visitors will be using tablets to highlight what most captivates their attention in seven works on display.  This tablet input collected throughout the exhibit’s duration—from 22 March to 26 June 2017—will be recorded and processed using Ikonikat software. Researchers will use it to determine whether visitors focus on the same details that professionals find most noteworthy. The findings will help the museum redefine how artwork is presented to visitors.

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute scientists and their collaborators at the University of Cambridge have created a new technique that simplifies the production of human brain and muscle cells - allowing millions of functional cells to be generated in just a few days. The results published today (23 March) in Stem Cell Reports open the door to producing a diversity of new cell types that could not be made before in order to study disease. Human pluripotent stem cells offer the ability to create any tissue, including those which are typically hard to access, such as brain cells. They hold huge potential for studying human development and the impact of diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis, and heart disease.

Marcus Schmitt-Egenolf is a researcher at the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine at Umeå University and senior author of the study.

The fact that men are overrepresented in psoriasis registers and consume more psoriasis care have long led researchers to believe that the common skin disease disproportionally affects men. A unique study with 5,438 Swedish psoriasis patients now reveals that women have a statistically significant lower incidence of severe psoriasis compared to men. The study, conducted by researchers at Umeå University and Karolinska Institutet, is published in the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology. “Our results tell us that the well-established gender differences in the utilization of psoriasis care can at least partially be explained by a higher prevalence of more severe disease in men,” says Marcus Schmitt-Egenolf, who is researcher at the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine at Umeå University and senior author of the study.

NASA e IKI progettano i prossimi passi di Venera D, la missione spaziale deputata all'esplorazione ddi Venere, pronta a volare nel 2026. L'obiettivo sarà studiare il suo clima grazie all'uso di un orbiter, un lander e un veicolo che plani nell'atmosfera.

Washington e Mosca fanno rotta su Venere. L’Agenzia spaziale americana e la IKI - Russian Academy of Sciences’ Space Research Institute – sono a lavoro per stilare l’agenda dei prossimi appuntamenti con lo spazio: il primo obiettivo condiviso sarà definire i prossimi passi per lo sviluppo della missione Venera D – la prima sonda con destinazione Venere progettata per essere lanciata nel 2026 dalla Russia ed erede della generazione delle Venera, spedite dalla vecchia Unione Sovietica.

Magetic field model/Magnetic anomaly (ESA)

Satellites have been mapping the upper part of the Earth magnetic field by collecting data for three years and found some amazing features about the Earth’s crust. The result is the release of highest resolution map of this field seen from space to date. This ‘lithospheric magnetic field’ is very weak and therefore difficult to detect and map from space. But with the Swarm satellites it has been possible. “By combining Swarm measurements with historical data from the German CHAMP satellite, and using a new modelling technique, it was possible to extract the tiny magnetic signals of crustal magnetization with unprecedented accuracy,” said professor Nils Olsen from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), one of the team of scientists behind the new map that has just been released at a Swarm Science Meeting in Banff, Canada.

I cambiamenti climatici, con le ondate di calore e l’aumento delle temperature, gli eventi meteorologici estremi come alluvioni e siccità aumentano i rischi per la salute e il benessere umano. Oltre ai danni diretti, gli impatti influenzano l’alimentazione, l’approvvigionamento di acqua ma anche la diffusione di malattie, tramite vettori come le zecche e la zanzara tigre asiatica che aumentano il rischio di insorgenza di patologie quali la malattia di Lyme, l’encefalite da zecche, la dengue e la febbre del Nilo occidentale. Secondo l’OMS tra il 2030 e il 2050 il cambiamento climatico potrebbe causare circa 250.000 ulteriori morti l’anno per malnutrizione, malaria, diarrea e stress da calore. A livello globale, il numero di disastri legati al clima è più che triplicato dal 1960. Questi disastri si traducono in oltre 60.000 morti, principalmente nei paesi in via di sviluppo.

Oggi è la Giornata mondiale delle foreste

Sabato 25 marzo alle 20,30 l’Ora della Terra per ricordare a tutti che sul clima dobbiamo agire ora, domani sarà troppo tardi

Acqua, foreste, clima: quella appena iniziata è una settimana importante al livello globale con celebrazioni di temi chiave della salute degli ecosistemi del pianeta. Il 21 e 22 marzo, le due date che l’ONU  ha indetto per celebrare con Giornate globali le Foreste e l’Acqua,  sono in realtà profondamente unite ‘sotto il segno del clima’.

Queste date sono per il WWF un’occasione per riflettere sullo stretto legame che unisce  gli ambienti forestali e le risorse idriche del nostro pianeta. Quando distruggiamo le foreste intacchiamo pesantemente il loro importante ruolo nel ciclo dell’acqua e nei sistemi idrogeologici,  rafforziamo la portata e l’intensità delle alluvioni, dei dissesti idrogeologici, dei processi di desertificazione e dei periodi con forti siccità. E’ come una delicata catena che, se spezzata, produce devastazioni con un effetto domino sia su scala locale (disastri ambientali) sia su scala globale (cambiamento climatico). E sono proprio la deforestazione e la degradazione degli ambienti forestali responsabili globalmente di circa il 20% delle emissioni di gas serra.