The world’s oceans could harbor an unpleasant surprise for global warming, based on new research that shows how naturally occurring carbon gases trapped in reservoirs atop the seafloor escaped to superheat the planet in prehistory. These undersea carbon reservoirs have caused global warming before — and it could happen again, according to research by an international team of scientists led by the University of South Carolina.

In research on zebrafish, Örebro scientists have identified a gene that is essential for producing sperm. Results show that fewer and poorer quality sperm are produced when the gene was turned off with the Crispr/Cas9 technique. The next step is to test whether the same is true in humans.

MIT researchers have observed a seemingly implausible mode of heat transport, known as “second sound,” in a rather commonplace material: graphite — the stuff of pencil lead. At temperatures of -153°C, they saw clear signs that heat can travel through graphite in a wavelike motion.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, recently unveiled a promising breakthrough for lithium sulphur batteries, using a catholyte with the help of a graphene sponge. Their development results in a higher utilization of sulphur and more environmentally friendly batteries.

Process analysis technology permeates every aspect of pharmaceutical production — Improved process understanding, higher process reliability, and fewer rejects: PAT techniques can achieve all this and more.

Researchers from the University of Granada announced progress in Chagas disease research. The disease affects over 8 million people worldwide and there is currently no treatment. Their findings may prove invaluable in designing new drugs to tackle this disease.

To clarify whether and when a handgun was fired, forensic scientists search for and analyze Gunshot Residue (GSR) deposits. One highly interesting aspect of GSR is the presence of volatile organic chemical residues, which can offer clues as to when a weapon was fired. An innovative extraction technique based on Headspace Sorptive Extraction (HSSE) and Gerstel Twister has now been shown to extract additional information from spent cartridges.

Life sciences laboratories are another area in which plastic waste can be reduced. Approximately 5.5 million tons of plastic waste are produced every year in life sciences laboratories alone, including items like pipette tips, nitrile gloves, cell culture flasks. In the age of global waste pollution and the ubiquity of plastic in the world around us, this is definitely too much. It can’t all be changed, but improvements are possible in some areas.

Many people suffer from a vitamin D deficiency. This can result in brittle bones and an increased risk of respiratory diseases. Chicken eggs are a natural source of vitamin D and one way to, at least partially, compensate for this deficiency. A team of nutritionists and agricultural scientists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) has found a new way to further increase the vitamin D content of eggs: by exposing chickens to UV light.

For the first time, researchers have solved the structure of viral anti-Crispr proteins attached to a bacterial Crispr surveillance complex, revealing precisely how viruses incapacitate the bacterial defense system.