The Quaternary Acoculco (<2.7 my) and Los Humeros (<46 ky) calderas, located in the eastern sector of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB), are separated by a regional structure known as the Chignahuapan Horst (ChH). The tectonic and magmatic evolution of the ChH comprises four stages: 1) Upper Cretaceous-Paleocene Laramide orogeny, related to the deformation of sedimentary successions; 2) a sedimentary

Rainfall is a major component of the hydrological cycle. The lack of basic information on rainfall spatial variability is a major source of uncertainty in many fields of studies, e.g., meteorology, hydrology, and agriculture. Satellite rainfall measurements are becoming increasingly popular for their extensive database and reliable estimates. The objective of this study was to use the Tropical Rainfall

The syenitic intrusion of the Floresta Azul Alkaline Complex is characterized by the presence of intense fluid activity in late stages of crystallization, leading to the formation of sodalitites and to the genesis of REE-rich accessory minerals. Calcite is a common mineral in the nepheline syenite of the complex, its formation being derived from CO3 enrichment during fractional crystallization of phonolitic

This paper aims to better comprehend the crustal structure of the Precordillera and the Iglesia Valley. Located in the northern sector of the Pampean flat-slab (San Juan, Argentina), this region was the epicenter of the historical 1894, M > 7 earthquake (intensity IX on the modified Mercalli scale) and thus considered as a region of particularly high seismic hazard. The structure and deformation style

Identification of catastrophic events recorded as resedimented deep marine deposits can be challenging because of multiple possible triggering mechanisms. This study investigates seismo-turbidites (STs) deposited in the Ionian Sea as a consequence of major historical earthquakes related to the Calabrian Arc subduction system. Taking advantage of the available sedimentological reconstructions, we focused

High-resolution cyclostratigraphy in growth strata are used to reconstruct unsteady folding rates at the regional-scale Pico del Aguila anticline, southern Pyrenees, to evaluate deformation modulation. Magnetic polarity stratigraphy was used to calibrate cyclostratigraphy-based anhysteretic remanent magnetization intensity variations to establish precessional frequencies in the growth strata record

This study evaluates the performance of the Taiwan Earth System Model version 1 (TaiESM1) in simulating the observed climate variability in the historical simulation of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Phase 6 (CMIP6). TaiESM1 is developed on the basis of the Community Earth System Model version 1.2.2, with the inclusion of several new physical schemes and improvements in the atmosphere model. The

Lechaion's inner harbour basin was constructed in the 7th-6th c. BCE and served as Corinth's principal port for over a millennium. The harbour decline and abandonment in the 6th c. CE has been attributed to several causes: natural siltation, co-seismic uplift, coastal subsidence, and damage by tsunami impacts. A multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental study was conducted on seven cores from Lechaion's inner

Alpine lakes are natural rain gauges, and reconstructing changes in their water level is a key to understanding the regional hydrological environment, climate change and vegetation evolution. Precipitation in the northern and the southern parts of the eastern monsoon region of China exhibits a centennial-scale inverse relationship over the past 2000 years; however, there is substantial uncertainty

Cenozoic tectono-geomorphic growth processes of the Yabrai Fault (YBF) along Yabrai Mountain (YM) and their impacts on the landscape formation of Badain Jaran Desert (BJD) during the late Quaternary are still unsolved, and yet are crucial to exploring the tectonic evolution of the boundary between the northeastern Tibetan Plateau and southern Gobi Alxa block. This study addresses these issues using

Based on a morphostructural analysis of a cliff coast segment of Forkastningsfjellet, back analysis of the August 12th, 2016 rock slide situated at 78°19′10”N/15°39′52″E was carried out. This rock slide comprises a volume of 175,000 m3, and indicates a partial reactivation at the front of the ~100 million m3 large postglacial Forkastningsfjellet rock slide. We studied the controlling and triggering

The timing and location of microcracking events, their propagation and coalescence to form macrocracks, and their development by tension, shearing or mixed modes are little known but essential to understanding the fracture of intact rock by freezing and thawing. The aims of the present study are to investigate the mechanisms and transition of microcracking and macrocracking during repeated freeze-thaw

This study aims to investigate the combined effects of temperature and precipitation on the hydrological processes in a watershed with intensive agricultural land uses during the spring snowmelt period. Temperature, precipitation, soil moisture, frozen soil depth, and discharge were monitored during the freezing and thawing periods in 2014, 2015, and 2016 within the 75 km2 agricultural Heidingzi watershed

The sudden outburst of coal and gas is a complex and dynamic incident in the underground coal mines, resulting in the release of thousands of tons of coal and large amounts of gas into the working face within a short time. Due to a rise in the number of exploitations and the depth of extractions, the intensity, and frequency of explosions have increased in recent years. Consequently, these explosions

Yangguanzhai, a Middle Neolithic archaeological site (c. 5500–5000 cal year BP) in the Wei River Valley of China, contains a well-preserved record of environmental fluctuation, landscape evolution, and human–environment interaction over the Holocene. We examined eight stratigraphic profiles across the site and identified an alternating sequence of sediment and buried soils, indicative of multiple changes

A large bolide was reported at 23:23:33 UTC on December 22, 2020, at a height of ~ 35.5 km at $$31.9^\circ \mathrm{N}$$ , $$96.2^\circ \mathrm{E}$$ in Yushu, Qinghai Province, China. It is the largest fireball observed in China on record with a TNT equivalent of 9.5 kilotons. Infrasound signals were detected by a four-element infrasound array deployed in Yunnan Province, China. The parameters of this

Arlaine Sanchez explains how in situ growth chamber experiments help constrain biogeochemical conditions of hydrothermal vent systems.

Some astronomers argue the flagship observatory — successor to the Hubble Space Telescope — will memorialize discrimination. Others are waiting for more evidence.

Researchers around the world are eagerly awaiting the completion of Tiangong, to study topics from dark matter and gravitational waves to the growth of cancer and pathogenic bacteria.

PhD student Emilio Dorigatti supported three junior colleagues during their degrees.

Nearly half of researchers surveyed in the United Kingdom and elsewhere reported problems, with people from marginalized groups most likely to be mistreated.

Sulphur-crested cockatoos are the first parrots known to have complex culture centred on food-gathering.

Surveys show that people in ten low- and middle-income nations are generally more eager to receive the COVID-19 jab than people in two wealthier nations where vaccine is plentiful.

The trailblazing collaboration that first imaged a black hole turns its sights on a nearby black-hole jet.

People infected with Delta have a much higher viral load. Plus, repurposed medicines might offer hope for long COVID, and how to create a perfect protocol.

The United Kingdom allowed mass gatherings and attempted to study them, but the early results provide limited data on viral transmission.

Study of nearly 7,000 scientists also finds that more than half engage in ‘questionable research practices’.

Coastal landslides cause great economic damage to human installations along the Mediterranean shoreline. In the Alboran Sea, this phenomenon is very common and causes many problems for residential resorts and road infrastructures in coastal areas. In the last two decades, such slope instability processes were the subject of many studies, which employed multidisciplinary approaches to understand their

The exceptionally glauconite-rich Miocene strata, superbly exposed throughout the front of the nappes zone of northern Tunisia, show marked contrast in Fe-silicate authigenesis within and outside foraminifera chambers. Glauconite forms by the alteration of fecal pellet, quartz, feldspar, volcaniclastic particles, feldspar, and quartz. X-ray diffraction patterns show the characteristic peaks of the

Abstract To examine the effects of historical land-use change and static land-use state on the modeling, we established three cellular automata (CA) models using the spatial autoregressive model (SAR). The models are CASAR-Cha based on the change data, CASAR-Sta based on the start-state data, and CASAR-End based on the end-state data. The models that considered five different neighborhood sizes (from

Abstract Land degradation and desertification have recently become a critical problem in Ethiopia. Accordingly, identification of land degradation vulnerable zonation and mapping was conducted in Wabe Shebele River Basin, Ethiopia. Precipitation derived from Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GMP), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized difference vegetation index

Abstract Yellowwood or Podocarpus (spp.) holds the esteemed biodiversity status, as key forest species in the mist-belt Afromontane forests of southern Africa. The podocarps are listed as endangered species owing to extensive logging. The forest species support large communities of plants and birds, attributing to the maintenance of biodiversity. Therefore, there is a need to understand the condition

Papers concerning transcription, and its regulation at promoters, abound in the scientific literature, but reports about initiation, defined as the moment that the first 3′−5′phosphodiester bond of a new transcript is forged, are scarce. In PNAS, Skalenko et al. (1), working with the bacterial multisubunit DNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RNAP), combine high-throughput DNA base-sequencing methods with

The Bronze Age weight systems article (1) uniquely unveils Western Eurasia as a vast marketplace made by private merchants in 3000 to 1000 BC. Hypotheses spring from macroeconomic concepts such as market equilibrium, prices, and self-regulation. The demonstrated long-term spread of weighing technology from a common Mesopotamian source, beginning ca. 3000 BC, enables tracing directional trading ventures

In the Southern Hemisphere, there are two exceptionally large noncontinental landmasses with very long histories of geographical isolation—New Zealand and Madagascar. Both landmasses have unique and distinctive fauna and flora that nonetheless present a number of intriguing parallels, including the long-term preservation of distant sister lineages to otherwise globally widespread groups of animals

Life needs interaction. The current pandemic has made visible how much interaction, or lack thereof, means for the life of each and every one of us. The validity of this statement also extends to the tiny and invisible: Over the years, scientists have taken key steps to understand the interactions that are vital to life, and that take place on the molecular scale. This field of “biomolecular interactions”

In science news around the world, the Hubble Space Telescope ends a monthlong hiatus when operators successfully switched a failed control system to backup devices. The European Union and China announce plans to follow through on commitments to curb their carbon emissions, as the European Union would steeply increase the price of carbon dioxide emissions and China unveils a carbon trading scheme for

A month ago Twitter was buzzing with news of Brood X cicadas. People were eating them, posting pictures of them, requesting gifts of them for their child’s pinned insect collection, and I was wondering how far north I would have to go to see them. Brood X cicadas are amazing in many ways as I first discovered 23 y ago when I cloned microsatellite markers from Magicicada and found them to be so beautifully

Anthropogenic climate change is currently driving environmental transformation on a scale and at a pace that exceeds historical records. This represents an undeniably serious challenge to existing social, political, and economic systems. Humans have successfully faced similar challenges in the past, however. The archaeological record and Earth archives offer rare opportunities to observe the complex

Deadly flooding in northern Europe has prompted questions about how such wealthy developed countries could still be taken by surprise, despite ample flood warnings. Although recent infrastructure projects appear to have reduced damage in parts of the Netherlands, scientists point to a number of potential factors: Climate change has supercharged rainstorms in Europe, making them even more intense than

In Park et al. (1) we used a coupled climate and silicate weathering model (GEOCLIM) to make the case that emergence of the Southeast Asian islands (SEAIs) played a significant role in cooling Earth’s climate over the past 15 My. The findings were that mountains built through arc–continent collision in the warm and wet tropics enable the geologic carbon cycle to be balanced at lower steady-state pCO2

In the wake of the controversial U.S. regulatory approval of the Alzheimer's drug aducanumab, physicians expect many patients with memory problems will want to know whether they are eligible. But a definitive diagnosis is expensive and time-consuming, involving a hunt for indicators of disease, or biomarkers, in patients' spinal fluid or in positron emission tomography scans. The demand threatens to

Nanotechnology enables investigations of single biomacromolecules, but technical challenges have limited the application in liquid biopsies, for example, blood plasma. Nonetheless, tools to characterize single molecular species in such samples represent a significant unmet need with the increasing appreciation of the physiological importance of protein structural changes at nanometer scale. Mannose-binding

Abhimanyu Lele, a third-year graduate student at the University of Chicago, was one of the lucky few this spring. In a typical year, thousands of graduate students and faculty fan out across the world to tackle important research in climate change, fragile ecosystems, animal populations and more. But the pandemic shut down travel, and fieldwork can't be done via Zoom, depriving young scientists like

The lifetime of bubbles, from formation to rupture, attracts attention because bubbles are often present in natural and industrial processes, and their geometry, drainage, coarsening, and rupture strongly affect those operations. Bubble rupture happens rapidly, and it may generate a cascade of small droplets or bubbles. Once a hole is nucleated within a bubble, it opens up with a variety of shapes

Two research groups have independently shown the atmosphere can contain detectable amounts of DNA from many kinds of animals. Their preprints, posted on bioRxiv last week, suggest sampling air may enable a faster, cheaper way to survey creatures in ecosystems. For more than a decade, researchers have analyzed disparate sources of environmental DNA (eDNA) in water to identify elusive organisms. Far

Cadherin cell–cell adhesion proteins play key roles in tissue morphogenesis and wound healing. Cadherin ectodomains bind in two conformations, X-dimers and strand-swap dimers, with different adhesive properties. However, the mechanisms by which cells regulate ectodomain conformation are unknown. Cadherin intracellular regions associate with several actin-binding proteins including vinculin, which are

The astronomy team that 2 years ago captured the first close-up of a giant black hole, lurking at the center of the galaxy Messier 87, has now zoomed in on a second, somewhat smaller giant, in the nearby active galaxy Centaurus A. The Event Horizon Telescope merges dozens of widely dispersed radio dishes, from Hawaii to France and from Greenland to the South Pole, into a huge virtual telescope. Its

Genome-wide association studies have identified the chromosome 10q26 (Chr10) locus, which contains the age-related maculopathy susceptibility 2 (ARMS2) and high temperature requirement A serine peptidase 1 (HTRA1) genes, as the strongest genetic risk factor for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) [L.G. Fritsche et al., Annu. Rev. Genomics Hum. Genet. 15, 151–171, (2014)]. To date, it has been difficult

In a sharp tightening of the diplomatic screws, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is urging China to increase its transparency about the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and allow greater access to its labs to help resolve the origin of SARS-CoV-2. Tedros also says WHO will create a new body to conduct the next phase of studies into the emergence

The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa explores surfaces using twitching motility powered by retractile extracellular filaments called type IV pili (T4P). Single cells twitch by sequential T4P extension, attachment, and retraction. How single cells coordinate T4P to efficiently navigate surfaces remains unclear. We demonstrate that P. aeruginosa actively directs twitching in the direction

Otopetrins comprise a family of proton-selective channels that are critically important for the mineralization of otoliths and statoconia in vertebrates but whose underlying cellular mechanisms remain largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that otopetrins are critically involved in the calcification process by providing an exit route for protons liberated by the formation of CaCO3. Using the sea urchin

Behind a range of medical decisions—prescriptions, specialist referrals, surgeries—lie algorithms that help doctors gauge risks. But these risk calculators often include a controversial variable: a patient's race. At a population scale, race often does correlate with medical outcomes, in part because it acts as a proxy for the influence of other socioeconomic factors on health. But in recent years

Antibody affinity maturation occurs in the germinal center (GC), a highly dynamic structure that arises upon antigen stimulation and recedes after infection is resolved. While the magnitude of the GC reaction is highly fluctuating and depends on antigens or pathological conditions, it is unclear whether GCs are assembled ad hoc in different locations or in preexisting niches within B cell follicles

Transport electrification is a key element of decarbonization strategies; thus, the design, production, manufacture, use, and disposal of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are taking center stage. The environmental, economic, and social consequences of the battery life cycle are high on political agendas, owing to exponential growth in metals extraction; the climate impacts of battery production; and uncertainties

Park et al. (1) use a global biogeochemical model (GEOCLIM) to suggest that weathering associated with emergence of mafic islands in Southeast Asia resulted in a ∼350-ppm decrease in atmospheric CO2 during the last 15 Ma. However, only matching pCO2 yields nonunique solutions that cannot be distinguished from previous hypotheses, such as increasing erosion and ensuing increased land-surface reactivity

The interior of a planet holds important clues to its origin and thermal and dynamic evolution. Exploring a planet's deeper layers can reveal how a planet accreted and differentiated into layers, whether its core sustains a geodynamo that creates a magnetic field, and what the origin is of any tectonic and volcanic activity. New clues are now uncovered for Mars. On pages 438, 434, and 443 of this issue

Quantum computers (QCs) promise to exponentially speed up a number of problems in optimization, materials science, and chemistry. The caveat is that they may not even get the chance. One outstanding issue is the coherence time, which is how long a system can remain in a quantum state. We live in the era of noisy intermediate-scale quantum processors, and the time to execute the necessary number of