A new online platform enables users to get information about the democratic quality of a specific country with just a few clicks. The new tool has been designed by political scientists from the University of Würzburg. | Continue reading
An EPFL doctoral student has come up with methods to map out forests more effectively using aerial remote sensing, in support of on-the-ground forest inventories. | Continue reading
The closest exoplanet to us, if we include only single stars like the Sun, is the planet around Barnard's Star, Barnard's Star-b ("BSb"). (The planet Promixa Centauri-b is closer, but Proxima Cen is part of a triple-star system with Alpha and Beta Centauri, and understanding the … | Continue reading
University of Otago research investigating the impact housing plays on the financial situation of New Zealand retirees shows that non-homeowners are in a worse position financially, and action is recommended before the problem grows. | Continue reading
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have found that crystals of a recently discovered superconducting material, a layered bismuth chalcogenide with a four-fold symmetric structure, shows only two-fold symmetry in its superconductivity. The origin of superconductivity i … | Continue reading
DESI, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, will mobilize 5,000 swiveling robots – each one pointing a thin strand of fiber-optic cable – to gather the light from about 35 million galaxies. | Continue reading
Pollution from lead ammunition causes environmental health problems in Argentina, and progress is underway to find viable replacements for lead shot, according to an overview of lead pollution from hunting in the country. Argentina's pioneering awareness and attention to this pro … | Continue reading
Bacterial pathogens must acquire nutrient metals from the host to survive and cause disease. To counter infection, hosts attempt to starve bacteria by hiding metals away in a process called "nutritional immunity." Bacteria are wily foes though, and they change in order to survive … | Continue reading
G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the "inbox" of environmental messages in mammalian cells. Because of their central role in signaling pathways, mutations resulting in abnormal GPCR functions cause a wide variety of diseases. Therefore, GPCRs are the most intensively studie … | Continue reading
Scientists believe that time is continuous, not discrete—roughly speaking, they believe that it does not progress in "chunks," but rather "flows," smoothly and continuously. So they often model the dynamics of physical systems as continuous-time "Markov processes," named after ma … | Continue reading
Volkswagen is planning to release a fully-electric SUV in China which could compete with Tesla's Model X. | Continue reading
It may already have Oscars under its belt, but Netflix's acceptance by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hangs in the balance. | Continue reading
The only known female member of one of the world's rarest turtle species has died at a zoo in southern China, officials said Sunday. | Continue reading
Nearly 100 academics worldwide have expressed concern over Singapore's proposed law against "fake news", warning it could threaten academic freedom and hurt the city-state's ambition to become a global education hub. | Continue reading
Knife crime data from a 12-month period could be used to help forecast the London neighbourhoods most likely to suffer a fatal stabbing the following year, according to latest research. | Continue reading
Economists from the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have co-authored a new study that challenges conventional thinking about auctions and is applicable to real-life bidding situations including property auctions. | Continue reading
More than a decade's worth of research has revealed how politicians manipulate highly emotional incidents like shark bites to influence public sentiment and protect their own interests. | Continue reading
In years when winter conditions are especially harsh, birds that depend on conifer seeds for food are sometimes forced to leave their homes in northern forests and wander far from their normal ranges to find enough to eat. A new study published in The Auk: Ornithological Advances … | Continue reading
After watching YouTube videos of people supercooling water in a bottle and then triggering it to freeze by banging it, something about this concept solidified for Matthew M. Szydagis, an assistant professor of physics at the University at Albany, State University at New York, esp … | Continue reading
Charitable and humanitarian organizations are increasingly tapping into a $30 billion crowdfunding market, not only to raise funds but to build donors' trust by being more transparent, according to research from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. | Continue reading
American Airlines announced Sunday it would scrap some 115 flights per day in the coming months because its fleet of Boeing 737 MAX planes is being grounded until August 19. | Continue reading
The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima power plant on Monday began removing atomic fuel from inside a building housing one of the reactors that melted down in 2011. | Continue reading
Seychelles President Danny Faure dived deep into the Indian Ocean Sunday to call for protection of "the beating blue heart of our planet." | Continue reading
Daimler confirmed Sunday it was facing a regulatory probe after a report said German authorities have uncovered a previously unknown type of pollution trickery software allegedly installed by the car giant in some of its vehicles. | Continue reading
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were temporarily down early Sunday. | Continue reading
The battle is on. Walt Disney Co. is bringing its biggest weapons to a new streaming service, including "Star Wars" and Marvel superheroes, in what is expected to be bruising war with Netflix and others for television dominance. | Continue reading
High up in the hills above Hong Kong, Yip Ki-hok uses nothing but his bare hands to remove a honey-filled nest of swarming bees—a remarkable skill he learned after the hardship of China's famine years. | Continue reading
Researchers hoping to better interpret data from the detection of gravitational waves generated by the collision of binary black holes are turning to the public for help. | Continue reading
The United States and economic partners held "productive" talks this week on the taxation of major tech giants, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Saturday. | Continue reading
Once the butt of jokes, Czech-made Skoda cars have won over Brits, but the UK's exit from the European Union could deal a heavy blow to the brand and the entire Czech economy. | Continue reading
Ikea will start renting and recycling furniture worldwide as part of an eco-friendly drive to address concerns its affordable, flat-pack business model leads to overconsumption and waste. | Continue reading
In or out? The repeated delays to Brexit are a nightmare for map makers and guidebook printers who have to decide how to depict Britain's relationship with the European Union. | Continue reading
This year's Shanghai auto show highlights the global industry's race to make electric cars Chinese drivers want to buy as Beijing winds down subsidies that promoted sales. | Continue reading
The Yupik Eskimo village of Kotlik on Alaska's northwest coast relies on a cold, hard blanket of sea ice to protect homes from vicious winter Bering Sea storms. | Continue reading
A hacker group has posted online the personal information of hundreds of federal agents and police officers apparently stolen from websites affiliated with alumni of the FBI's National Academy. | Continue reading
India's Jet Airways extended a suspension of all of its international flights until Monday, the latest blow to the debt-stricken carrier battling to stay afloat. | Continue reading
Netflix chief Reed Hastings will depart Facebook's board of directors at the end of next month, according to a Friday filing with US regulators by the leading social network. | Continue reading
An artificial intelligence research laboratory opened by Google in Ghana, the first of its kind in Africa, will take on challenges across the continent, researchers say. | Continue reading
Southwest Airlines customers relaxing on Thursday evening got an email that may mean their summer vacation could be more stressful and expensive than they planned. | Continue reading
Tesla has pulled the plug on Internet sales of its cheapest Model 3 sedan in the latest shift to the company's retail strategy. | Continue reading
Foxconn Technology Group announced Friday it was buying a six-story office building across the street from Wisconsin's state Capitol to house an off-campus research center it will run as part of a partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. | Continue reading
Federal scientists say a tiny group of Bryde's whales in the Gulf of Mexico is endangered, with threats including oil and gas exploration and development. | Continue reading
Contrary to what you may have been taught, water doesn't always freeze to ice at 32 degrees F (zero degrees C). Knowing, or controlling, at what temperature water will freeze (starting with a process called nucleation) is critically important to answering questions such as whethe … | Continue reading
An imaging technique developed at Duke University could make it possible to peer inside cells and watch dozens of different molecules in action at once—by labeling them with short strands of light-up DNA that blink on and off with their own unique rhythm. | Continue reading
In liquid crystals, molecules automatically arrange themselves in an ordered fashion. Researchers from the University of Luxembourg have discovered a method that allows an anti-ordered state, which will enable novel material properties and potentially new technical applications, … | Continue reading
A localization phenomenon boosts the accuracy of solving quantum many-body problems with quantum computers. These problems are otherwise challenging for conventional computers. This brings such digital quantum simulation within reach using quantum devices available today. | Continue reading
With more TV streaming services than ever before, from newcomers like Disney Plus to stalwarts like Netflix, consumers may feel the ideal viewing experience is finally at hand. | Continue reading
If you have ever wondered how much electric vehicle (EV) adoption actually matters for the environment, a new study provides evidence that making this switch would improve overall air quality and lower carbon emissions. | Continue reading