• James Cook University scientists have discovered a technique to apply natural plant extracts such as Tea Tree Oil as a coating for medical devices, a process which could prevent millions of infections every year.

  • NOAA scientists are forecasting that this summer’s Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone or ‘dead zone’ – an area of low to no oxygen that can kill fish and other marine life – will be approximately 5,780 square miles, approximately the size of Connecticut.

  • A new study puts a surprising twist—one might even say a double spiral—into our understanding of how coral reefs react to ocean warming and acidification. It also offers the possibility of an early warning system for the warmth-induced bleaching events that are increasingly harming coral reefs worldwide.

  • Plants use many of the same methods as animals to camouflage themselves, a new study shows.

    Research on plant camouflage is limited compared to the wealth of knowledge about how animals conceal themselves.

  • A new approach to killing C. difficile that silences key bacterial genes while sparing other bacteria may provide a new way to treat the most common hospital-acquired bacterial infection in the United States, according to researchers.

  • NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite saw the Eastern Pacific Ocean’s first tropical storm coming together. 

  • Tropical Depression 05W briefly reached tropical storm status overnight on June 5 into June 6, and then weakened back to a depression at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC). Once 05W reached tropical storm status it was named “Ewiniar.” NASA’s Aqua satellite captured infrared imagery that provided clues that the storm would strengthen.

  • Outside Asia, no country produces as much rice as does Brazil. It is the ninth largest rice producer in the world. Average annual yields are close to 15 million tons.

  • Humans can perform a vast array of mental operations and adjust their behavioral responses based on external instructions and internal beliefs. For example, to tap your feet to a musical beat, your brain has to process the incoming sound and also use your internal knowledge of how the song goes.

    MIT neuroscientists have now identified a strategy that the brain uses to rapidly select and flexibly perform different mental operations. To make this discovery, they applied a mathematical framework known as dynamical systems analysis to understand the logic that governs the evolution of neural activity across large populations of neurons.

  • British Columbia’s premier shellfish farming region is heavily contaminated with microplastics, according to a new Simon Fraser University study.