Technique using plant's own DNA could produce crops that are more resistant to drought and disease

How much water flows through a river has little influence over long-term changes to its course and the surrounding landscape, a study of waterfalls shows.

For nearly two decades, scientists have noted dramatic changes in arctic tundra habitat. Ankle-high grasses and sedges have given way to a sea of woody shrubs growing to waist- or neck-deep heights. This shrubification of the tundra challenges animals like caribou that are adapted to low-stature arctic vegetation.

More than 11,000 people died during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa from 2013-16, demonstrating both the deadly nature of the virus and the limitations of the medication used to fight it.

Today, when an enterprise wants to use machine learning to solve a problem, they have to call in the cavalry. Even a simple problem requires multiple data scientists, machine learning experts, and domain experts to come together to agree on priorities and exchange data and information.

This process is often inefficient, and it takes months to get results. It also only solves the problem immediate at hand. The next time something comes up, the enterprise has to do the same thing all over again.

One group of MIT researchers wondered, "What if we tried another strategy? What if we created automation tools that enable the subject matter experts to use ML, in order to solve these problems themselves?"

Diagnosis of Zika infection is complex. Molecular tests for exposure are only reliable in the first two to three weeks after infection while the virus is circulating in the bloodstream. Antibody tests are confounded by cross-reactivity of antibodies to Zika with dengue, yellow fever, and Japanese encephalitis viruses following infection or vaccination. A new blood test called ZIKV-NS2B-concat ELISA is faster, less expensive, and extends the window of accurate detection from weeks to months after the onset of infection, giving clinicians a powerful new tool to screen for Zika throughout pregnancy.

Warm, wet summers are historically unusual and could bring unexpected disruptions to ecosystems and society, according to new research from the University of British Columbia.

Magnetism and light have been combined in a test that can diagnose malaria in under two minutes without the need to take blood.

There are several ways to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C by 2100, and new research led by International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis researcher Joeri Rogelj shows under what conditions this could happen.

Researchers at KTH have successfully tested a new material that can be used for cheap and large-scale production of hydrogen – a promising alternative to fossil fuel.