Productivity and stability of forest ecosystems strongly depend on the functional diversity of plant communities. UZH researchers have developed a new method to measure and map functional diversity of forests at different scales – from individual trees to…
A strange visitor, either asteroid or comet, zipping through our solar system at a high rate of speed is giving astronomers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to examine up close an object from somewhere else in our galaxy. "It’s a really rare…
The excess positrons arriving at Earth must have a more exotic origin than nearby pulsars, report researchers. Their results are based on observations from the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory in Mexico, which detects the shower of…
Using more than half a century of observations, Japanese astronomers have discovered that the microwaves coming from the Sun at the minimums of the past five solar cycles have been the same each time, despite large differences in the maximums of the cycles. In…
Two new studies from The University of Texas at Austin have significantly improved scientists' ability to predict the strength and duration of droughts caused by La Niña – a recurrent cooling pattern in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Their findings, which…
At the base of the Transantarctic Mountains lies a geological oddity. Don Juan Pond is one of the saltiest bodies of water on the planet, filled with a dense, syrupy brine rich in calcium chloride that can remain liquid to -50 °C (-58 °F), far below the…
An international team of astronomers, including a University of Southampton expert, has discovered a new type of explosion in a distant galaxy. The explosion, called PS1-10adi, seems to prefer active galaxies that house supermassive black holes consuming the gas and…
Proposals to reduce the effects of global warming by imitating volcanic eruptions could have a devastating effect on global regions prone to either tumultuous storms or prolonged drought, new research has shown. Geoengineering – the intentional manipulation of the…
Trees in metropolitan areas have been growing faster than trees in rural areas worldwide since the 1960s. This has been confirmed for the first time by a study on the impact of the urban heat island effect on tree growth headed by the Technical University of Munich…
Researchers at LMU and TUM in Munich are up for best paper at SC17 after simulating one of the largest, most violent earthquakes in history. Just before 8:00 a.m. local time on December 26, 2004, people in southeast Asia were starting their days when the third…
