One of nature’s most disliked creatures may very well unlock a breakthrough in disaster response. A multidisciplinary Purdue University research team is recreating mosquito antennae to better study their sensitivity to vibrations.

After a cyber attack or natural disaster, a backup network of decentralized devices — like residential solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and water heaters — could restore electricity or relieve stress on the grid, MIT engineers find. 

Scientists know that natural disasters have negative health effects on survivors, but long-term observations are lacking. To help fill this gap, a Japanese research team has investigated the connection between the degree of housing damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) and all-cause mortality, using the data from a cohort study conducted by the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project. Using long-term observation periods, this research project shows no significant relationship between the degree of house damage and all-cause mortality.

The successful development of sustainable georesources for the energy transition is a key challenge for humankind in the 21st century. Hydrogen gas (H₂) has great potential to replace current fossil fuels while simultaneously eliminating the associated emission of CO₂ and other pollutants. However, a major obstacle is that H₂ must be produced first. Current synthetic hydrogen production is at best based on renewable energies but it can also be polluting if fossil energy is used.

The solution may be found in nature, since various geological processes can generate hydrogen. Yet, until now it has remained unclear where we should be looking for potentially large-scale natural H₂ accumulations.

A team of researchers led by Dr Frank Zwaan, a scientist in the Geodynamic Modelling section at GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, present an answer to this question: using plate tectonic modelling, they found that mountain ranges in which originally deep mantle rocks are found near the surface represent potential natural hydrogen hotspots. Such mountain ranges may not only be ideal geological environments for large-scale natural H₂ generation, but also for forming large-scale H₂ accumulations that can be drilled for H₂ production. The results of this research have now been published in the journal Science Advances.

Groundbreaking research published today in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology has unveiled a landmark discovery – fossils of the world’s oldest known megaraptorid and the first evidence of carcharodontosaurs in Australia. These finds rewrite the evolutionary history of theropod dinosaurs, uncovering a predator hierarchy unique to Cretaceous Australia.

A new publication by researchers from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford shows that the relationship between water temperature and the main biological mechanism by which the ocean captures atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) is far more complicated than previously thought.

Drawing on long-term time-series data from oceanographic stations such as the Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series, the research highlights how the quality of currently available data limits our understanding of this critical mechanism in the carbon cycle.