A worldwide compilation of long-term insect abundance studies shows that the number of land-dwelling insects is in decline.

A new study led by McGill University has found that tectonic plates beneath the Earth’s surface can show varying degrees of roughness and could help explain why certain earthquakes are stronger than others.

Earthquakes happen when the rocks beneath the Earth’s surface break along geological fault lines and slide past each other. The properties of these faults - such as the roughness of their surface - can have an influence on the size of seismic events, however their study has been challenging because they are buried deep beneath the Earth’s surface.

In order to have a better understanding of the characteristics of these faults, researchers from McGill University, the University of California Santa Cruz and Ruhr University Bochum in Germany used high-resolution seismic reflection data to map and measure the roughness of 350 km2 of a plate boundary fault located off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

“We already knew that the roughness of a fault was an important factor, but we did not know how rough faults in the subsurface truly are, nor how variable the roughness is for a single fault,” says James Kirkpatrick, a professor in McGill’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

Read More: McGill University

A research team led by North Carolina State University has engineered a new catalyst that can more efficiently convert ethane into ethylene, which is used in a variety of manufacturing processes.

Scientists in Texas and Pennsylvania have identified a protein sensor that restricts how much sugar and fat our cells convert into energy during periods of starvation.

Highly concentrated aqueous electrolytes, known as water-in-salt electrolytes, could be an alternative to the organic solvents used in car batteries and other electrochemical devices.

A new WCS-led study reveals that mountain-dwelling species fleeing warming temperatures by retreating to higher elevations may find refuge from reduced human pressure.

Just a few weeks ago, everyone was talking about plummeting insect numbers. Academic discourse focused on three main causes: the destruction of habitats, pesticides in agriculture and the decline of food plants for insects.

Artificial intelligence has become a focus of certain ethical concerns, but it also has some major sustainability issues. 

 A widespread transition to solar energy will depend heavily on reliable, safe, and affordable technology like batteries for energy storage and solar cells for energy conversion.

As the world reels from a global viral wildfire costing hundreds of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars, epidemiologists are turning their attention to how best to prevent the next pandemic.