Crystal Quest Filter

A straight line may be the shortest path from A to B, but it’s not always the most reliable or efficient way to go. In fact, depending on what’s traveling where, the best route may run in circles, according to a new model that bucks decades of theorizing on the subject. A team of biophysicists have developed a mathematical model showing that complex sets of interconnecting loops — like the netted veins that transport water in a leaf — provide the best distribution network for supplying fluctuating loads to varying parts of the system. It also shows that such a network can best handle damage.

The barnacle, a key thread in the marine food web, was thought to be missing along rocky coasts dominated by upwelling. Now a research team has found the opposite to be true: Barnacle populations thrive in vertical upwelling zones in moderately deep waters in the Galapagos Islands.

Currently, beachgoers are informed about water quality conditions based on results from the previous day’s sample. Scientists must collect samples in the field, then return to a lab to culture them for analysis — a process that takes a minimum of 24 hours. Now, engineers have sped up the process of analyzing bacterial concentrations to under one hour, through the development of a new in-field, rapid detection method.

With concern over mercury contamination of tuna on the rise and growing information about the health effects of eating contaminated fish, scientists would like to know exactly where the pollutant is coming from and how it’s getting into open-ocean fish species.

The herbicide atrazine, one of the world’s most widely used pesticides, wreaks havoc with the sex lives of adult male frogs, emasculating three-quarters of them and turning one in 10 into females, according to a new study. These changes occur at atrazine levels below what the EPA considers safe for drinking water. The changes skew sex ratios in the frog population and could be a major cause of amphibian decline worldwide.

Tobacco might become as well known for keeping us healthy as it is for causing illness thanks to researchers from the UK. In a new study, scientists explain how they developed a genetically modified strain of tobacco that helps temper the damaging effects of toxic pond scum, scientifically known as microcystin-LR which makes water unsafe for drinking, swimming or fishing.

Pumping nutrient-rich water up from the deep ocean to boost algal growth in sunlit surface waters and draw carbon dioxide down from the atmosphere has been touted as a way of ameliorating global warming. However, a new study points out the difficulties with such an approach.

Waters from warmer latitudes — or subtropical waters — are reaching Greenland’s glaciers, driving melting and likely triggering an acceleration of ice loss, reports a team of researchers.

An analysis of newly available climate data shows that summer fog along the California coast has declined significantly in the past century, though it is unclear whether this is a natural variation or a result of human activity. The new report links summer high pressure cells above the northwest California coast to frequent fog. When the cells are weak, fog escapes inland and coastal temperatures rise. This could affect redwoods, which need high humidity.