natureasia.com top ten research highlights
The following highlights are the top ten most viewed research highlights on the English website of natureasia.com during the past month.
28 August 2021 ～ 27 September 2021
Climate change: Strict fossil fuel extraction limits needed to meet 1.5°C warming limit
Nature, September 9, 2021
Nearly 60% of current oil and fossil methane gas, and 90% of coal reserves must stay in the ground by 2050 if we are to have at least a 50% chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, according to a modelling study published in Nature this week. Many operational and planned fossil fuel extraction projects are not conducive to meeting internationally agreed climate targets; it is estima...
doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03821-8
Energy: Grid constraints could limit equitable adoption of solar energy in California
Nature Energy, September 14, 2021
Electricity grid limits could not only constrain the future uptake of distributed energy resources in California, USA, but also exacerbate existing racial inequities linked to the adoption of solar energy, according to a study published in Nature Energy.
Potential increases in current flow — brought about by household solar photovoltaic systems — can lead to high temperatures...
doi: 10.1038/s41560-021-00887-6
Evolution: Insights into the evolutionary continuity of same-sex sexual behaviour
Nature Human Behaviour, August 24, 2021
Genetic effects associated with same-sex sexual behaviour are also associated with a mating advantage among people who engage only in opposite-sex sexual behaviour, according to a study involving participants from the United States and United Kingdom published in Nature Human Behaviour. However, the authors caution that the genetic differences studied here are small, are spread throughou...
doi: 10.1038/s41562-021-01168-8
Electronics: Wireless power scales up
Nature Electronics, August 31, 2021
A method to wirelessly power small electronic devices anywhere in a room is revealed in a paper published in Nature Electronics. The approach could potentially be used to create small charging cabinets, wireless charging rooms, or even has the potential to be scaled up to create untethered factories in which equipment is powered without cables.
Wireless power transfer technology ...
doi: 10.1038/s41928-021-00636-3
Climate change: Up to 95% of ocean surface climates may disappear by 2100
Scientific Reports, August 27, 2021
Between 35.6% and 95% of 20th century ocean surface climates — defined by surface water temperature, pH and the concentration of the mineral aragonite — may disappear by 2100, depending on how greenhouse gas emissions develop in the first half of the 21st century, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. The findings also suggest that between 10.3% and 82% of the global ...
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-94872-4
Cancer: Genetic signatures of lung cancer specific to non-smokers identified
Nature Genetics, September 7, 2021
Distinct patterns of mutations underlie lung cancer when it occurs in smokers versus non-smokers, according to a paper published in Nature Genetics. These findings have potential implications for the treatment of different lung cancers, as well as providing information about the genomic consequences of damage from internal processes leading to tumor formation.
Approximately 10–...
doi: 10.1038/s41588-021-00920-0
Sociology: Remote working affects collaboration among employees
Nature Human Behaviour, September 10, 2021
Firm-wide remote working led to workers’ collaboration network becoming more siloed and decreased real-time communication, such as scheduled meeting hours, according to a case study of about 61,000 Microsoft employees in the USA from December 2019 to June 2020 published in Nature Human Behaviour.
Work-from-home policies at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic led many firms to ra...
doi: 10.1038/s41562-021-01196-4
Sociology: COVID-19 awareness reduces demand for wildlife products in Asia
Nature Ecology & Evolution, September 7, 2021
People in certain parts of Asia with a higher self-reported awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic may be up to 24% less likely to consume wildlife products in the future, according to a survey of 5,000 individuals published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. These findings suggest that communicating disease risks — especially those associated with wildlife consumption — could have dual bene...
doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01546-5
Ecology: Deforestation and fires are shrinking Amazonian habitats
Nature, September 2, 2021
Up to 85% of species listed as threatened in the Amazon may have lost a substantial portion of their habitat owing to deforestation and fires in the past two decades, a study in Nature indicates. It is estimated that for every 10,000 km2 of forest that is burned, about 27–37 additional plant species and about 2 or 3 more vertebrate species that have more than 10% of their range in the ...
doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03876-7
Environment: Quantifying food-related global greenhouse gas emissions
Nature Food, September 14, 2021
Global food production is responsible for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions equivalent to 17,318 teragrams (17.318 billion metric tonnes) of CO2 per year — 57% of which corresponds to the production of animal-based foods and 29% to plant-based foods, estimates a study published in Nature Food. This calculation — based on data from over 200 countries circa 2010 — includes GHGs associat...
doi: 10.1038/s43016-021-00358-x
