After a wildfire, the flames may fade, but the danger does not. A new study by UBC researchers reveals that burned landscapes remain vulnerable for years, with large areas still bare and at risk of invasion by fast-growing, fire-prone grasses.

Just before World Water Day, the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) announces it will lead the new MountAInWater project, an ambitious endeavor funded by Schmidt Sciences with a grant of USD 9.5 million. Scientists will carry out the first-ever global reanalysis of mountain water resources using high-resolution models, assessing the effects of climate change on these critical water supplies, and identifying potential tipping points in mountain environments. To achieve this, the team from six countries will make use of a unique combination of field work, physically-based modeling and AI—and also engage with affected regions and communities. Their results will be a crucial resource in managing future water security challenges.

Idaho’s Silver Valley has produced about 1.2 billion ounces of silver since the late 1800s, enough to cast a solid cube roughly as tall as a five-story building, along with huge amounts of lead and zinc. Now a new study led by Washington State University researchers helps explain how mineral deposits in the Silver Valley and other mineralized parts of the Belt Supergroup began to form more than 1.2 billion years ago. The Belt Supergroup is a massive stack of rocks stretching across eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana that also hosts the Idaho Cobalt Belt, the most significantly mineralized cobalt district in the United States.

Researchers have discovered a new species of baby dinosaur in South Korea, and have named it Doolysaurus after the iconic South Korean cartoon Dooly the Little Dinosaur. The dinosaur is the first new dinosaur species discovered in Korea in 15 years and the first Korean dinosaur fossil found with portions of its skull. The skull bones were revealed when the fossil underwent a scientific micro-CT scan at the University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography (UTCT) facility.

Salk scientists debut gene expression atlas of plant leaves across development, comparing normal versus drought conditions, revealing that drought accelerates leaf aging; pinpoints a gene that helps leaves keep growing under stress. The study clears the path to more drought-tolerant crops, which would protect yields and reduce farmer losses during mild droughts.

Using machine learning regression models, we predict porosity (measure of potential storage volume) and permeability (measure of fluid flow property in porous media) based on petrographic thin section analysis. Histogram-based Gradient Boosting algorithms successfully predict porosity (RMSE=2.23%) and permeability (RMSE=0.64 (orders of magnitude)) based on textural mineralogical properties recorded in petrographic samples. This may in the future allow to reduce the amount of resource- and time-intensive retrieval of core material in certain use cases, as the same methods can be applied to cuttings, produced as a by-product of any drilling operation worldwide.