The scientists staked out dozens of the gingers night and day while the plants flowered, but no long-proboscid pollinator ever appeared. Climate change, they surmised, was responsible for the loss of this highly specialized and now, perhaps forever unknown insect.

The post With specialist pollinator absent, Himalayan gingers must adapt appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Smithsonian plant physiologist Bert Drake has studied one wetland's response to climate change for more than two decades. He gives a tour of the field experiment and explains some of the findings.

The post On the Chesapeake Bay, Smithsonian plant physiologist Bert Drake has been studying one wetland’s response to climate change for more than two decades. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new study shows that as climate change enhances tree growth in tropical forests, the resulting increase in litterfall could stimulate soil micro-organisms leading to a release of stored soil carbon.

The post Increased tropical forest growth may result in release of stored carbon in the soil appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new genetic analysis has revealed that many Amazon tree species are likely to survive human-caused climate warming in the coming century, contrary to previous findings that temperature increases would cause them to die out.

The post Warming climate unlikely to cause near-term extinction of ancient Amazon trees, study says appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

When scientists discuss global change, they often focus on the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and vegetation. But soil contains more carbon than air […]

The post Fungi may determine the future of soil carbon appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Plants are among the world’s best carbon sinks, but there’s a side to the plant-CO2 love affair that’s rarely discussed. When carbon dioxide rises, plants […]

The post The strange, controversial way plants trap CO2 appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Dead zones affect dozens of coral reefs around the world and threaten hundreds more according to a new study by Smithsonian scientists published in the […]

The post Dead Zones May Threaten Coral Reefs Worldwide appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A tiny invasive insect from Asia might have an effect on Chesapeake Bay waters. The emerald ash borer is killing millions of ash trees in […]

The post Invasive ash borer found in Smithsonian Environmental Research Center forest; ash deaths may impact Chesapeake waters appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Earth’s changing climate could cause the extinction of up to a third of its parasite species by 2070, according to a global analysis reported […]

The post Study shows parasites may be among earliest victims of climate change appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

How specific fungi interact with seeds in tropical forest soils may be the ultimate arbiter in the struggle for survival among tropical trees. “Depending on […]

The post Study reveals soil fungi has final say in survival of seeds from tropical trees appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new paper published in Behavioral Ecology finds that some ant colonies defend more gallantly than others, revealing that colonies themselves may have personalities. Trees that have […]

The post Ant colony ‘personality’ may play role in survival of its host plant appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

For many Californians, last year’s wet winter triggered a case of whiplash. After five years of drought, rain from October 2016 to February 2017 broke […]

The post In San Francisco, one wet winter can switch up Bay’s invasive species appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Camouflage is a valuable survival strategy—just ask a chameleon. Scientists have just discovered a new form of mimicry camouflage: beetles that hide by chewing beetle-shaped […]

The post For millions of years these tiny beetles have chewed their way out of sight appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The methods for X-ray crystal orientation are rapidly evolving towards versatility, fewer goniometry measurements, automation, high accuracy and precision. One method that attracts a lot of attention is energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDXRD) which is based on detecting reflections from crystallographic planes in a crystal at fixed angles of a parallel polychromatic X-ray incident beam. In theory, an EDXRD peak can move in a diffraction pattern as a function of a crystallographic plane d-spacing and its orientation relative to a fixed direction in space can change also. This is equivalent to the possibility of measuring the orientation of single crystals. The article provides a modeling for the EDXRD method whose main feature is the nonmoving crystal in the sense of traditional goniometry where the angle measurements of diffracting planes are a must. The article defines the equation of orientation for the method and shows the derivation in great detail. It is shown that the exact solutions of the equations can be obtained using the generalized reduced gradient method, a mathematical subroutine that is implemented in Excel software. The significance and scientific impact of the work are discussed along with the validated tested results.

If you try to open a text file with UTF-16 or UTF-32 encoding, the Import Tool displays a warning message stating that the encoding is not supported.  If you continue to load the file anyways, it is opened with UTF-8 encoding, and the file may not be displayed or imported as expected.This bug exists in the following release(s):
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This free report highlights the main facts, numbers and trends of the Russian ecommerce and e-payments markets in an international perspective.

The new Cross-Border Payments and Commerce Report 2019 – 2020 depicts the major trends driving growth in cross-border payments, cross-border commerce, and marketplaces.

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Want to understand Brazil's 70 million e-shoppers and its payments industry? The shopping habits of Brazil’s 210 million consumers have their particularities just like other countries, since each country’s payments segment adopts its own means adapted to the local culture.

The GDC Compliance Advisory Board (CAB) provides insight into how to interpret the Strong Consumer Authentication (SCA) mandate described in PSD 2 without jeopardizing data privacy concerns protected by GDPR. 

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The backdrop of the stage with the Oscar Award is seen onstage during the 84th Academy Awards announcement held at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Jan. 24, 2012 in Los Angeles.; Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The Academy Awards have made history with breakthroughs for minorities in the past — but with this year's nominations, observers are noting how white the Oscars are, with no actors of color nominated in any of this year's acting categories.

It marks the least diverse nominations since 1998. People have been speaking out about this disconnect, with films like "Selma" being shut out of the acting nominations (though it did pick up a Best Picture nomination).

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

A Nintendo Entertainment System.; Credit: Mark Ramsay/Flickr Creative Commons

There have been plenty of video game movies over the years, but there have been far fewer actually good ones. "Ready Player One," based on the 2011 video game-inspired novel, has the chance to be a great one thanks to the announcement that Steven Spielberg has signed on to direct.

That book was inspired by classic video games, and was written using classic video game cheats to play parts of classic games and write them into his book, author Ernest Cline said in a recent talk. That got us thinking about the classic video game cheats and secrets that stuck with us from our younger days playing classic video games — here's our top 11.

1. The Konami Code

Up up down down left right left right B A start! This code became such a part of video game culture that it got its own name. It was popularized in various games made by Konami, particularly Contra, leading to it also being known as the "Contra Code" for its ability to give you 30 lives in the game. Before the Internet, it was spread through gaming magazines and word of mouth — it was so influential that there are still developers who put it in their games. (There's even an entire Wikipedia page of games, both from Konami and others, that use the Konami Code. It's even been used on some websites.)

What is the Konami Code

2. Street Figher II Turbo's turbo

The game that I actually used a code for the most as a kid, the Super Nintendo code down, R, up, L, Y, B on the second controller didn't give you any advantages — it just kicked the speed up. By default, you had a few selections for how fast the game would be, but you could multiple that several-fold with this code, letting you and your friends battle at what at the time felt unbelievably fast.

3. Super Mario Bros.'s Minus World

This one doesn't involve a code, but players managed to discover what was deemed a glitch in the game that put you into a messed up version of another level, dubbed by fans the Minus World due to just "-1" instead of a full level number appearing at the top of the screen. There was no way to escape the glitched level, no matter how hard you might try, sending you to play it over and over again until your time ran out or you were killed by enemies. Still, modern players have found that you can go on thanks to various computer emulators and the like; see some of the worlds beyond below:

Minus World video

4. Metroid and Justin Bailey

Fans early on discovered that the password JUSTIN BAILEY allowed you to start with all of the available weapons along with plenty of life and ammo. Fans didn't know whether Justin Bailey was a reference to an actual person, just a code coincidence or something else, but that didn't stop them from eagerly playing through with this code. It also removed lead character Samus Aran from her armor, allowing players to discover that the game's star was an early female lead character, even if her armor didn't clue players in before the end of the game without the code.

Justin Bailey video

5. Doom's God mode

By typing the letters iddqd in PC game Doom, players could enable God mode, making them essentially invincible and letting them power through the early first-person shooter. The code had been available in developer id's earlier game Wolfenstein, but hadn't been quite as easily accessible. So, if you ever need a power boost when you're fighting on Mars, Doom has the answer. (Unfortunately, we don't believe this provides any extra protection for NASA's Mars rovers.)

6. Mortal Kombat's Reptile

The developers of Mortal Kombat made a battle against Reptile unbelievably hard for Mortal Kombat fans, including putting some randomness into whether doing what you were supposed to do to unlock the character would even work. Still, players happily pumped in extra quarters for the chance to face off against Reptile, a character with a look that mirrored that of characters Sub-Zero and Scorpion, just with a different color. Players had to achieve a Double Flawless victory on the Pit level, finish the match using their fatality move, and there also had to be a silhouette flying past the moon in the background — which only happened every sixth game.

Mortal Kombat: Reptile

7. The Legend of Zelda's Second Quest

The Legend of Zelda was a pretty challenging early adventure game, one of the first releases for the Nintendo home video game console. When you beat the game, you were given the option to go on a "Second Quest," which was a tweaked version of the game you just played except waaaaay harder. However, if you thought you were the coolest kid on the block and were so awesome you didn't need a warmup, you could name your character "ZELDA" (in one of the more obvious cheats in video game history) and skip ahead to that Second Quest from the start. You would then likely cry from how hard it was and start another new game with a different name.

8. NBA Jam's celebrity secret characters

A variety of celebrities from sports, music, and even politics were available by putting in various initials combined with buttons on the controller. These included then-President Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Warren Moon and more. That tradition has been continued in more recent NBA Jam games, with President Obama and others available for your video gaming pleasure.

9. GoldenEye's extra modes

There were a wide variety of cheat codes for GoldenEye, widely considered one of the all-time great first-person shooters. Sure, you could use codes to unlock different levels, but the reason these codes are remembered is because it gave you all sorts of new ways to play against your friends. The game also had an actual cheat menu that would appear if you accomplished one of a variety of goals, and from that menu you could cheat extra hard by using your controller to unlock things like a paintball mode, turbo mode, modes with both giant heads and teeny-tiny James Bonds and more.

10. Sonic The Hedgehog 2's Debug Mode

The Sonic debug mode is the perfect example of why so many games included cheats back in the day: They were often for the developers to be able to more easily play the games while looking for bugs and doing other testing. Sonic 2 let you get to an actual debug mode by playing various sounds from the level select screen (1, 9, 9, 2, 1, 1, 2, 4, for your reference), then pressing start and holding the A button. Developers later put them in for fun and intended them for the players to discover, but some of the early cheat codes were just meant for developers — but players proved more intrepid than they may have anticipated.

Sonic debug mode

11. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out: Go straight to Mike Tyson

There was actually a password mode in this game — before games had the option to save, plenty of games gave you codes that let you get back to where you were before. This is one of the examples from that darker time, where whether you played through opponents like Glass Joe and Bald Bull or not, you could try your changes against Lightning Mike (at least until the video game's license ran out and he was replaced in future editions with the way less exciting "Mr. Dream"). You better have had a pen and paper ready when your friend started yelling at you 007 373 5963 for you to use on your own copy of the game — no sharing. The game is hard enough that even Mike Tyson had some trouble fighting himself:

Mike Tyson vs. Mike Tyson

Let us know in the comments the classic video games — and the classic cheat codes and secrets — that inspired you.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

File: A general view during player introductions before game one of the National League Division Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 9, 2015 in Los Angeles.; Credit: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Do you want to track the Dodgers as the new season gets underway, but either don't have cable or are at work during the game? Maybe you want to keep an eye on the boys in blue but have an office job that gives you checks in black and white, and you want to keep your bleeding red for your favorite team from sending your bank account into the red as well. Or maybe you just aren’t going to have access to a TV at the time. Here are four ways to check the Dodgers out this season.

1. Track what’s happening with MLB.com’s free Gameday service

Want to see what’s going on as if the Dodgers game was a video game? You have to pay if you want to watch video (with alternate angles!) or listen to audio with Major League Baseball's MLB.tv service — but you can watch virtual avatars simulating the game with MLB Gameday for free. Just visit MLB.com/scores, then click on the Gameday button beneath the game you want to follow. Or, you can keep it more old school by tracking scores on the scores page — alongside video highlights.

2. Follow what’s going on on Twitter

Want to keep an eye on things but don’t want to stare at a streaming video feed? You can follow what’s happening with Twitter. The Dodgers themselves tweet highlights and results at @Dodgers, plus you can do a search for “Dodgers” or track what’s happening on various popular hashtags, including #Dodgers, #ThinkBlue and #ITFDB (It’s Time For Dodgers Baseball).

3. Listen to the radio, over the air or online

The official Dodgers radio broadcaster in L.A. is AM 570 L.A. Sports. As noted above, you can also pay to listen to audio from MLB.tv — but the service isn't available for local, "in-market" games, which are blacked out as part of their contracts with local broadcasters. The Dodgers broadcasts are also available in Spanish on 1020 AM KTNQ.

4. Stream ESPN on your computer, phone or tablet

ESPN lets you watch the opening day game and others throughout the season online... well, some of you, at least. Due to various cable company deals and other red tape, you have to already be a cable subscriber — sorry, cord cutters — but most major cable company subscribers can log in and stream the Dodgers online, or using ESPN's mobile apps available on iOS and Android. That also means you can find a friend who has cable, and team up with them to watch online — or just hang out at their place for the foreseeable future.

Many other Dodgers games throughout the season will be on SportsNet L.A., but you have to subscribe to Charter Spectrum, Time Warner, or Bright House in the L.A. area to get this channel. However, five of the games this season will be shown on KTLA, expanding your options for potentially checking the Dodgers out. You can find out more in the SportsNet L.A. FAQ.

How are you tracking the Dodgers? Let us know in the comments or by tweeting us at @KPCC.

This story has been updated; it was originally published in 2013.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

A method is described for indexing grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction data of epitaxially grown thin films comprising various crystal orientations and/or polymorphs by measuring reciprocal-lattice vectors.

A new type of X-ray LLL interferometer, a `hard' interferometer, which has both a base and a `ceiling', is tested for experimental investigations. The tested interferometer has no preliminary uncontrollable moiré and can be used for object and deformation investigations.

The inversion of X-ray reflectivity to reveal the topography of a one-dimensional interface is evaluated through model calculations.

The analytical solution of the problem of X-ray spherical-wave Laue diffraction in a single crystal with a linear change of thickness on the exit surface is derived. General equations are applied to a specific case of plane-wave Laue diffraction in a thick crystal under the conditions of the Borrmann effect.

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After 16 years of dedicated planning and engineering, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have completed a 3.2 gigapixel sensor array for the camera that will be used in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), a massive telescope that will observe the universe like never before. The digital sensor array is composed of about 200 16-megapixel sensors, divided into 21 modules called "rafts." Each raft can function on its own, but when combined, they will view an area of sky that can fit more than 40 full moons in a single image. Researchers will stitch these images together to create a time-lapse movie of the complete visible universe accessible from Chile. Currently under construction on a mountaintop in Chile, LSST is designed to capture the most complete images of our universe that have ever been achieved. The project to build the telescope facility and camera is a collaborative effort among more than 30 institutions from around the world, and it is primarily funded by DOE's Office of Science and the National Science Foundation.

Image credit: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

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The Maya of Central America are thought to have been a kinder, gentler civilization, especially compared to the Aztecs of Mexico. At the peak of Mayan culture some 1,500 years ago, warfare seemed ritualistic, designed to extort ransom for captive royalty or to subjugate rival dynasties, with limited impact on the surrounding population. Only later, archeologists thought, did increasing drought and climate change lead to total warfare -- cities and dynasties were wiped off the map in so-called termination events -- and the collapse of the lowland Maya civilization around 1,000 A.D. (or C.E., current era). New evidence unearthed by National Science Foundation-funded researchers call all this into question, suggesting that the Maya engaged in scorched-earth military campaigns -- a strategy that aims to destroy anything of use, including cropland -- even at the height of their civilization, a time of prosperity and artistic sophistication. The finding also indicates that this increase in warfare, possibly associated with climate change and resource scarcity, was not the cause of the disintegration of the lowland Maya civilization.

Image credit: Francisco Estrada-Belli/Tulane

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Bridges make travel faster and more convenient, but, in an earthquake, these structures are subject to forces that can cause extensive damage and make them unsafe. Now civil and environmental engineer Petros Sideris of Texas A&M University is leading a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research project to investigate the performance of hybrid sliding-rocking (HSR) columns. HSR columns provide the same support as conventional bridge infrastructure columns but are more earthquake-resistant. HSR columns are a series of individual concrete segments held together by steel cables that allow for controlled sliding and rocking. This allows the columns to shift without damage, while post-tensioning strands ensure that at the end of an earthquake the columns are pushed back to their original position. Conventional bridges are cast-in-place monolithic concrete elements that are strong but inflexible. Structural damage in these bridge columns, typically caused by a natural disaster, often forces a bridge to close until repairs are completed. But bridges with HSR columns can withstand large earthquakes with minimal damage and require minor repairs, likely without bridge closures. Such infrastructure helps with post-disaster response and recovery and can save thousands in taxpayer dollars. In an earthquake, HSR columns provide "multiple advantages to the public," Sideris said. "By preventing bridge damage, we can maintain access to affected areas immediately after an event for response teams to be easily deployed, and help affected communities recover faster. In mitigating losses related to post-event bridge repairs and bridge closures, more funds can be potentially directed to supporting the recovery of the affected communities." According to Joy Pauschke, NSF program director for natural hazards engineering, "NSF invests in fundamental engineering research so that, in the future, the nation's infrastructure can be more resilient to earthquakes, hurricanes, and other forces of nature."

Image credit: Texas A&M University