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Ancient  El Niños And Bunny Booms

Ancient El Niños And Bunny Booms

In the fickle, unpredictable system that is our climate, it looks like El Niño, which was already said to have came and gone with a whimper months ago by climate scientists, may finally be arriving.
When it happens, we may know by bunny breeding.
At times during the past 10,000 years, cottontails and hares surged when the El Niño weather pattern drenched the Pacific Coast with rain, according to an analysis of 3,463 bunny bones. The number of El Niños per century "correlates very strongly with the total rabbit population in Baja California, as well as relative abundance of the moisture-loving species of rabbits," says University of Utah anthropology doctoral student Isaac Hart.

Scary TV's Impact On Kids Overstated

Scary TV's Impact On Kids Overstated

The impact of scary TV on children's wellbeing has been overstated, according to a new paper. While research has shown that a small minority of children can have extreme reactions to a scary program, overall there is very little sign of increased anxiety, fear, sadness or sleep problems. 

AI Does Science: First Model Of Regeneration Discovered By Non-Human Intelligence

AI Does Science: First Model Of Regeneration Discovered By Non-Human Intelligence

An artificial intelligence system has for the first time reverse-engineered the regeneration mechanism of planaria, small worms that can regrow body parts. This is the first model of regeneration discovered by a non-human intelligence and the first comprehensive model of planarian regeneration, which had eluded human scientists for over 100 years. 

Memory Loss Among Elderly Not As Prevalent As Believed

Memory Loss Among Elderly Not As Prevalent As Believed

The capacity to recall specific facts deteriorates with age, but other types of memory do not, according to research conducted by Wilma Koutstaal (University of Minnesota) and Alaitz Aizpurua (UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country), which concludes that the memory of older adults is not as deficient as has been thought until now. Elderly people remember fewer specific details than younger people and, in general, both groups retain concrete information about events experienced better than abstract information. The main difference is to be found in the capacity to remember more distant facts: youngsters remember them better.

Stretchable Ceramics, Made By Flame

Stretchable Ceramics, Made By Flame

Scientists synthesizing nanoscale materials using simple and highly efficient flame technology have been able to “bake” nanostructures using tin oxide, which opens up a wide field of possible new applications. Metal oxides in bulk form are generally brittle, which limits their desired utilizations. Their one-dimensional (1D) structures, such as belt-like nanostructures, exhibit much more application potential because of their high surface to volume ratio. This ratio induces extraordinary physical and chemical properties, including a high degree of bendability.

Common Method Of Lowering Lead Level In Water May Have Opposite Effect

Common Method Of Lowering Lead Level In Water May Have Opposite Effect

New research has shown that pH lowering of municipal water supplies, a common strategy used to control the release of soluble lead from plumbing materials, can affect corrosion of cast iron water mains, resulting in increased levels of both particulate iron and particulate lead in drinking water. The results of intensive laboratory and field testing of samples from a municipal system following consumer complaints of "red water" and the link between iron corrosion and lead leaching are described in an article in Environmental Engineering Science.

Men 50 Percent More Likely To Get Esophageal Cancer Than 30 Years Ago

Men 50 Percent More Likely To Get Esophageal Cancer Than 30 Years Ago

Esophageal cancer rates in men have increased by 50 percent since the early 1980s, with new United Kingdom cases reaching almost 6,000, according to the latest figures which show that the number of men diagnosed with esophageal cancer has rapidly risen from around 2,700 cases three decades ago to 5,740 cases in 2012.Given the changes in population size this equates to a 50 percent increase from 15 to 23 cases per 100,000 people. In women, the increase is much smaller with around 10 percent more now developing the disease compared to the 80s. Now 2,802 women are diagnosed with esophageal cancer.  Esophageal cancer rates in women for 2012 are 9 per 100,000. 

ODIP II: Global Marine Data, Unified And Accessible

ODIP II: Global Marine Data, Unified And Accessible

Currently different data formats between research centers pose a challenge to oceanographic researchers, but a new project is going to make marine data sets more easily accessible to researchers worldwide. The ODIP II project will use NERC’s vocabulary server to ‘translate’ between these different data semantics. ODIP II is a collaboration between the USA, Australia and the EU. By the time it is complete, in May 2018, it aims to have developed a means of seamlessly sharing and managing marine data and coordinating the existing regional marine e-infrastructures.

Next-Generation Illumination Is Here: Quantum Dot-Based White-Blue LED

Next-Generation Illumination Is Here: Quantum Dot-Based White-Blue LED

A Silicon (Si) quantum dot (QD)-based hybrid inorganic/organic light-emitting diode (LED) that exhibits white-blue electroluminescence has been created. A hybrid LED is expected to be a next-generation illumination device for producing flexible lighting and display, and this is achieved for the Si QD-based white-blue LED. The Si QD hybrid LED was developed using a simple method; almost all processes were solution-based and conducted at ambient temperature and pressure. Conductive polymer solutions and a colloidal Si QD solution were deposited on the glass substrate. The current and optical power densities of the LED are, respectively, 280 and 350 times greater than those reported previously for such a device at the same voltage (6 V).