Aubrey Zerkle
@aubreyzerkle.bsky.social
Geoscientist & science writer, first-gen PhD, Editor-in-Chief @sciworthy.bsky.social, Research Scientist @bluemarblespace.bsky.social, she/her 🌍🪐🌋👽
Viruses could be a new player in the soil nitrogen cycle! #SciComm #SciNews #agroecology #plantscience #microsky sciworthy.com/viruses-help...
Viruses help plants obtain nitrogen – Sciworthy
Scientists discovered soil viruses that help legume plants convert atmospheric nitrogen into biologically available nutrients.
sciworthy.com
Scientists in Australia found that rapid cooling events driven by coastal upwelling have become more frequent and severe over the past decade, impacting marine megafauna. #SciComm #SciNews #MarineLife #ecosystems sciworthy.com/cold-shocks-...
Cold shocks in a warming ocean affect large marine animals – Sciworthy
Researchers identified trends in extreme cold events that can push migratory animals, such as bull sharks, beyond their thermal tolerance and sometimes cause death.
sciworthy.com
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Tulane University found that a specialized group of pain-sensing neurons, called TRPV1+, plays a role in detecting and fighting off parasitic worms in mice. #SciComm #SciNews #Neuroscience sciworthy.com/a-parasite-t...
A parasite that numbs your pain – Sciworthy
Researchers discovered a parasitic worm that reduces mice’s ability to feel pain by suppressing the activity of pain-sensing neurons in their skin.
sciworthy.com
#PaleoSky #earth-science #geoscience ⚒️
Sciworthy By Blue Marble Space@sciworthy.bsky.social · last mo.Researchers demonstrated that warm conditions in the south supported diverse populations of dinosaurs right up until their extinction 66 million years ago. #SciComm #SciNews sciworthy.com/were-dinosau...
New Astrobiology Revealed for AskAstrobio! Luca Tonietti on planetary aerobiomes in astrobiology: askastrobio.org/articles/ast... #astro #earth-science #geoscience #microsky
Astrobiology Revealed #34: Luca Tonietti — AskAstrobio
Luca Tonietti speaks about his recent perspective on “Planetary Aerobiomes in Dust- and Aerosol-Dominated Extraterrestrial Environments.”
askastrobio.org
Scientists from China created a new sustainable energy-harvesting device using coffee waste and biodegradable plastics. #SciComm #SciNews sciworthy.com/brewing-sust...
Brewing sustainable power from used coffee grounds – Sciworthy
Researchers developed a fully biodegradable energy-harvesting device that uses spent coffee grounds to transform motion into electricity.
sciworthy.com
Metabolically flexible microbes are the first to colonize recently deglaciated soils! #SciComm #glaciology #microsky 🦠 🧫 sciworthy.com/when-glacier...
When glaciers retreat, microbes take over – Sciworthy
Researchers demonstrated that the first microbes to colonize recently deglaciated soil can extract nutrients from air and rock.
sciworthy.com
Scientists in the US and China have developed a new biological fungicide that kills the fungus responsible for brown rot disease in stone fruit trees. #SciComm #SciNews #agriecon #plantsci #planthealth #microsky sciworthy.com/using-bacter...
Using bacteria to fight fungal brown rot – Sciworthy
Scientists compared how effective traditional chemical fungicides and newer biological fungicides are in killing the fungus responsible for brown rot disease.
sciworthy.com
Sciworthy By Blue Marble Space@sciworthy.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe evolution of land plants about 450 million years ago altered many of Earth’s geologic processes, like weathering and erosion. Now, researchers think they might have fundamentally altered rivers as well. #SciComm #SciNews sciworthy.com/how-did-plan...
Today, Mars is a big red dustball, but researchers studying Martian clay deposits think it was once warm and humid. 👇 #SciComm #SciNews sciworthy.com/clay-mineral...
Clay minerals suggest a warm, wet past for Mars – Sciworthy
Researchers studied clay deposits on Mars using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and found evidence for a warm and humid past climate.
sciworthy.com
Sciworthy By Blue Marble Space@sciworthy.bsky.social · 3mo agoAstronomers used data from the ALMA telescope and JWST’s NIRCam to study 3 galaxies that formed roughly 2 to 3 billion years after the Big Bang, during a period of rapid star formation known as "cosmic noon." #SciComm #SciNews sciworthy.com/what-were-an...
Over 20 million tons of polystyrene plastic are produced annually, yet only a small fraction is recycled worldwide. Researchers at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics recently used sulfur to break down this waste into useful chemicals. #SciComm #Chemsky sciworthy.com/upcycling-po...
Upcycling polystyrene with sunlight and sulfur – Sciworthy
Researchers developed a rapid, solar-driven process that transforms waste polystyrene and excess sulfur into chemicals used in electronics.
sciworthy.com
Sciworthy By Blue Marble Space@sciworthy.bsky.social · 3mo agoWhen continents split apart, magma from deep within the Earth travels upward through cracks to Earth’s surface, forming volcanoes. Researchers from the UK recently found that this happens on unexpectedly short timescales. #SciComm #SciNews sciworthy.com/magma-rapidl...
Sciworthy By Blue Marble Space@sciworthy.bsky.social · 3mo agoStar Wars depicts alien heroes fighting against evildoers and their planet-destroying superweapons “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” But what do scientists really know about alien planets in distant galaxies beyond our own? 👇 #SciComm #SciNews sciworthy.com/searching-fo...
This Earth Day, we're celebrating science for a sustainable planet! Read about how scientists from Italy are developing custom microbial biofertilizers to help crops withstand drought and disease. #SciComm #envecon #agriecon #envpsy #microsky 🦠 🧫 sciworthy.com/do-biofertil...
Biofertilizers change plants’ natural microbes – Sciworthy
Scientists tested how mixtures of plant-growth-promoting bacteria affect sunflower plants' microbes for use in sustainable agriculture.
sciworthy.com
Researchers from George Washington University examined how exposure to direct sunlight and experimentally increased temperatures affect the behavior of tree-dwelling tropical ants. #SciComm #SciNews #plantscience #ecology #ecosystems sciworthy.com/ants-struggl...
Ants struggle to protect host plants under rising temperatures – Sciworthy
Scientists found that ants under heat stress were less active, which left their host acacia plants vulnerable to herbivores and other environmental threats.
sciworthy.com