The University of Texas at Arlington’s Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Research Center, known as ARDRC, recently added Denton County’s first documented Western Diamondback rattlesnake to its extensive herpetology research collection.

Additive Engineering Solutions, an Ohio-based company that’s now a leader in large-format 3D printing, began as an idea sparked by additive manufacturing research at the Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, or MDF, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS, President Lee Ho Seong) has succeeded in having its radiosonde performance evaluation technology—used for one of the key instruments in weather and climate observation—adopted as an international standard. The ISO 8932-1 test method, newly approved as an international standard, defines detailed criteria and procedures for calibrating the measurement errors of radiosonde temperature sensors under upper-atmospheric conditions. Using this method, calibration errors can be maintained within 0.1 °C even in environments reaching altitudes of up to 40 km and temperatures as low as –85 °C.

A Bigelow Laboratory researcher is co-leading a multi-institutional effort to unravel the causes and consequences of seagrass wasting in a warming ocean, highlighting the influence of the broader ecosystem in the spread of marine diseases.

From Maine’s Acadia National Park to the wilds of Australia—and in thousands of places in-between—geological conditions exist that slow the effects of climate change on the local ecology and inhabitants. How these “climate refugia” remain relatively protected from climate change impacts over time, and how they might help local plant and animal species survive, is the focus of a special issue of the journal Conservation Science and Practice spearheaded by Toni Lyn Morelli, adjunct full professor of environmental conservation at UMass Amherst and U.S. Geological Survey research ecologist.

A team of physicists from the University of Amsterdam’s Institute of Physics has 3D-printed a Christmas tree made entirely of ice. Researchers Menno Demmenie, Stefan Kooij and Daniel Bonn used no freezing technology or refrigeration equipment—just water and a vacuum. In time-lapse videos, you can see how the Christmas tree is printed and how it melts again when the vacuum pump is turned off.

We’ve all been there, protecting our ears. The school play in the gym or community hall, where sound is distorted due to glitches in equipment.  

“And listening to live performances on the internet introduces even more glitches. Yikes,” says UBC Okanagan’s Dr. Miles Thorogood.   

But now, Dr. Thorogood and his team at UBCO’s Sonic Production, Intelligence, Research, and Applications Lab (SPIRAL) are exploring how advanced machine learning can make glitch-free network music performances possible, supporting creative collaboration and public art experiences.