'Paleo' sleep? Sorry, pre-modern people don't get more Zzzzs than we do
London, UK (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
It's tempting to believe that people these days aren't getting enough sleep, living as we do in our well-lit houses with TVs blaring, cell phones buzzing, and a well-used coffee maker in every kitchen.
But new evidence reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology shows that three ancient groups of hunter-gatherers--living in different parts of the world without any of those trappings ...
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Ocean protection gaining momentum, but still lags progress made on land
Corvallis OR (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
Extraordinary progress in the past decade has brought 1.6 percent of the world's ocean to a category of "strongly protected," researchers say in a new analysis, but the accomplishments are still far behind those that have been achieved on land, and those that are urgently needed.
In a report published in the journal Science, researchers from Oregon State University point out that numerous ...
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Sentinel-3A shows off
Paris (ESA) Oct 16, 2015 -
Before the latest satellite for Copernicus is packed up and shipped to the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Russia for launch at the end of the year, the media and specialists were given the chance to see this next-generation mission centre-stage in the cleanroom.
Carrying a suite of state-of-the-art instruments, Sentinel-3 is set to play a key role in the world's largest environmental monitoring pr ...
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China reports less pollution from burning straw
Beijing (XNA) Oct 16, 2015 -
China saw an "overall improvement" regarding air pollution from burning straw this summer, the Ministry of Environmental Protection reported Friday.
Northern farmers traditionally burn straw after harvest and plough to bury the ashes in the ground, which they believe fertilizes farmland.
Citing satellite data, the ministry observed 1,158 burning sites between May 20 and July 31, a 45 ...
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Could contaminated land actually be good for trees
Montreal, Canada (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
The very act of tolerating some forms of soil pollution may give trees an advantage in the natural world, says University of Montreal plant biologists. Their findings were published this week in BMC Plant Biology.
High chemical tolerant plants can be used to rehabilitate land contaminated with heavy metals or petroleum by-products - some 30,000 such sites exist in Canada and 342,000 sites ...
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Energy researchers discover new structure for bimetallic catalysts
Newark, DE (SPX) Oct 08, 2015 -
In the world of catalytic science and technology, the hunt is always on for catalysts that are inexpensive, highly active, and environmentally friendly. Recent efforts have focused on combining two metals, often in a structure where a core of one metal is surrounded by an atom-thick layer of a second one.
The properties and performance of these so-called bimetallic core-shell catalysts can ...
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Graphene teams up with 2D crystals for faster data communications
Madrid, Spain (SPX) Oct 07, 2015 -
Ultra-fast detection of light lies at the heart of optical communication systems nowadays. Driven by the internet of things and 5G, data communication bandwidth is growing exponentially, thus requiring even faster optical detectors that can be integrated into photonic circuits.
In the recent work published today in Nature Nanotechnology, the research group led by Prof at ICFO Frank Koppens ...
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