Washington, April 16 : A team of biologists is studying a tiny and diverse group of marine organisms to find how plant cells, that live in the oceans and serve as the basic food supply for many of the world's sea creatures, react to climate change.

The team, from the University of Iowa (UI), includes Debashish Bhattacharya, professor of biological sciences in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

They are studying a tiny (about one micrometer in diameter) and diverse group of organisms called picoeukaryotes.

Washington, April 16 : Scientists at Rice University, US, have uncovered a room-temperature chemical process that splits carbon nanotubes to make flat nanoribbons, which can be used to create basic elements for aircraft, flat-screen TVs, electronics and other conductive products.

The technique makes it possible to produce the ultrathin ribbons in bulk quantities.

These ribbons are straight-edged sheets of graphene, the single-layer form of common graphite found in pencils.

One would have to place thousands of them side by side to equal the width of a human hair, but tests show graphene is 200 times stronger than steel.

Washington, April 16 : In the first demonstration of its kind, researchers at the University of British Columbia have controlled the spin of electrons using a ballistic technique.

For controlling the spin of electrons, the team bounced electrons through a microscopic channel of precisely constructed, two-dimensional layer of semiconductor.

It's the first time the intrinsic properties of a semiconductor, not external electric or magnetic fields, have been used to achieve the effect.

Washington, April 16 : Scientists from the Monell Center in the US have reported that the red panda is the first non-primate mammal to display a liking for the artificial sweetener aspartame.

The research related sweet preferences to genetic analyses of sweet receptor structure in six related species.

Each of the species tested - red panda, ferret, genet, meerkat, mongoose, and lion - belongs to the Order Carnivora.

Washington, April 16 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have found climate change will lead to a devastating loss of phosphorus from soil.

The research was done by scientists from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)-funded North Wyke Research.

They found for the first time that the rate at which a dried soil is rewetted impacts on the amount of phosphorus lost from the soil into surface water and subsequently into the surrounding environment.

Washington, April 16 : A study, which is being touted as controversial, has said that fossil coral reefs at a Mexican theme park "confirm" that sea levels rose rapidly about 121,000 years ago.

Previous research on fossil reefs had shown that sea levels surged by 13 to 19 feet (4 to 6 meters) near the end of the last time period between ice ages, known as an interglacial period.

But, researchers have been unsure whether this sea-level rise happened quickly or gradually.