Honeybees are essential pollinators for agriculture and natural ecosystems. Stressors like climate change, habitat loss and pesticide exposure threaten their ability to forage for pollen, a critical resource for colony survival. Researchers in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology demonstrate that an artificial intelligence (AI)-based monitoring system combined with a computer model can link the exposure of neonicotinoid pesticides on individual honeybees to the health of the whole colony. 

What roils beneath the Earth’s surface may feel a world away, but the activity can help forge land masses that dictate ocean circulation, climate patterns, and even animal activity and evolution. In fact, scientists believe that a plume of hot rocks that burst from the Earth’s mantle millions of years ago could be an important part in the story of human evolution.

In a paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, a team of researchers employed systematic archaeobotanical flotation and AMS radiocarbon dating at two sites in Romania: Baia-În Muchie and Dobrovăț. It provides valuable data on the chronology of millet cultivation in the SW Eastern European Plain and enhances our understanding of early East-West exchanges and their impact on human-environment interactions in critical regions.

A new study reveals that the Neolithic Revolution in the southern Levant may have been triggered by catastrophic wildfires and climate-driven soil erosion. Using charcoal records, isotopic data, and sediment analysis, the research identifies a natural tipping point around 8,200 years ago that forced early communities to adopt agriculture. Fertile soils formed in valley basins after hillslope degradation became hotspots for settlement and farming. The findings challenge the idea of a purely cultural or anthropogenic transition, pointing instead to climate-induced environmental collapse as a driving force.

Resarchers, including Dr. Michael Tice at Texas A&M University, use the sophisticated technology on NASA's Perseverance rover to analyze volcanic rocks in Mars' Jezero Crater. Their findings show that some of the same volcanic processes that led to life on Earth happened long ago on Mars, a stunning step toward finding signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.