Lifeboat Foundation

Human influences have the potential to reduce the effectivity of communication in bees, adding further stress to struggling colonies, according to new analysis.

Scientists at the University of Bristol studying honeybees, bumblebees and stingless bees found that variations in communication strategies are explained by differences in the habitats that bees inhabit and differences in the social lifestyle such colony size and nesting habits.

The findings, published today in PNAS, reveal that anthropogenic changes, such as habitat conversion, climate change and the use of agrochemicals, are altering the world bees occupy, and it is becoming increasingly clearer that this affects communication both directly and indirectly; for example, by affecting food source availability, social interactions among nestmates and their cognitive functions.

Cactus Materials touted the emerging talent pool at local universities and the emerging ecosystem of the semiconductor industry as reasons to do business in Arizona.

The White House has designated Phoenix as a workforce hub to help meet the demand for qualified and diverse talent in semiconductors, renewable energy and electric vehicles.

Over the next five years, Cactus Materials said it intends to make further upgrades at its facility and invest up to $300 million. The company had previously been awarded grants from NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy and has applied for funding earmarked for the semiconductor sector through the CHIPS and Science Act.

A new, high-performance all-electric motorcycle just hit the streets, bringing an incredible 250-mile (400-km) NEDC range, in addition to a few tricks that may, thanks to a reported capability to self-balance and actually follow you around, according to a new webpage from Da Vinci Dynamics.

The new approach, which takes cues from NASA’s methods for sending data through deep space, could revolutionize EV infrastructures by enabling electric vehicles and autonomous factory machines to charge while driving.

They don’t need soil or sunlight | Technology Quarterly.

Just about anywhere you look, there are birds. Penguins live in Antarctica, ptarmigan in the Arctic Circle. Rüppell’s vultures soar higher than Mt. Everest. Emperor penguins dive deeper than 1,800 feet. There are birds on mountains, birds in cities, birds in deserts, birds in oceans, birds on farm fields, and birds in parking lots.

Given their ubiquity—and the enjoyment many people get from seeing and cataloging them—birds offer something that sets them apart from other creatures: an abundance of data. Birds are active year-round, they come in many shapes and colors, and they are relatively simple to identify and appealing to observe. Every year around the world, amateur birdwatchers record millions of sightings in databases that are available for analysis.

All that monitoring has revealed some sobering trends. Over the last 50 years, North America has lost a third of its birds, studies suggest, and most bird species are in decline. Because birds are indicators of environmental integrity and of how other, less scrutinized species are doing, data like these should be a call to action, says Peter Marra, a conservation biologist and dean of Georgetown University’s Earth Commons Institute. “If our birds are disappearing, then we’re cutting the legs off beneath us,” he says. “We’re destroying the environment that we depend on.”

A two-year expedition to coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean detected half a million types of microbes, the latest estimate in the quest to quantify the planet’s microbiome.

The big picture: There is intense debate among scientists about how many different types of bacteria and other microorganisms live on Earth — information that could aid conservation of species and fragile ecosystems brimming with biodiversity.

Year 2020 face_with_colon_three

A new electrode design could form part of a battery able to last more than 4,000 charge cycles.

Caltech’s recent breakthrough has moved us closer to achieving the transformative potential of space-based solar power.