For his thesis, EPFL Ph.D. student Raphaël Lamotte studied rush-hour traffic congestion. He suggests implementing a system whereby commuters reserve time on a special traffic lane – like booking a seat on a flight – to help cities accommodate a growing number of car-sharing progr … | Continue reading
A QUT-led collaboration with University of Adelaide reveals that Australia's pint-sized banded hare-wallaby is the closest living relative of the giant short-faced kangaroos which roamed the continent for millions of years, but died out about 40,000 years ago. | Continue reading
Bioplastics are often promoted as an environmentally and climate-friendly alternative to conventional petroleum-based plastics. However, a recent study from the University of Bonn suggests that shifting to plant-based plastics could be less positive than expected. Specifically, i … | Continue reading
Generally speaking, magnetism and the lossless flow of electrical current ("superconductivity") are competing phenomena that cannot coexist in the same sample. However, for building supercomputers, synergetically combining both states comes with major advantages as compared to to … | Continue reading
Teams from the accelerator physics and the SRF groups at HZB are developing a superconducting linear accelerator featuring energy recovery (Energy Recovery Linac) as part of the bERLinPro project. It accelerates an intense electron beam that can be used for applications like gene … | Continue reading
The United States and Saudi Arabia rank last when it comes to curbing climate change among the 56 nations accounting for 90 percent of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, researchers said Monday. | Continue reading
Telecoms giant and technology investor SoftBank Group aims to raise over $23 billion by listing its Japanese mobile unit next week in one of the biggest tech IPOs in years. | Continue reading
Japanese prosecutors Monday formally charged Carlos Ghosn with financial misconduct for under-reporting his salary and also served a fresh warrant on separate allegations, meaning the tycoon will likely spend Christmas in a cell. | Continue reading
New York officials say their deal to land a new Amazon headquarters is a big win for the city—but the math is a little more complicated than government projections indicate. | Continue reading
Most people vastly overestimate the population of gun owners in the United States, and it potentially influences how groups approach gun policies, according to a study by two University of Kansas political scientists. | Continue reading
Consumers paid on average £75 more in the year after the EU referendum for gas and electricity, according to research by UCL. | Continue reading
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, openly derided the US Securities and Exchange Commission in an interview aired Sunday, having settled fraud charges with the regulatory agency over an errant tweet. | Continue reading
A diplomatic standoff over a single word could set the stage for a bigger showdown during the second half of this year's U.N. climate summit. | Continue reading
If Italy's fashion capital has a predominant color, it is gray—not only because of the blocks of neoclassical stone buildings for which the city is celebrated, but also due to its often-gray sky, which traps pollution. | Continue reading
General Motors is fighting to retain a valuable tax credit for electric vehicles as the nation's largest automaker tries to deal with the political fallout triggered by its plans to shutter several U.S. factories and shed thousands of workers. | Continue reading
Far out into the Indian Ocean where it is forced to be self-reliant, the island nation of Mauritius is weaning itself off fossil fuels by turning to its main cash-crop sugar cane, for electricity. | Continue reading
Turkish woman Tulay Gercek stands in front of a vending machine at a busy Istanbul metro station but instead of putting coins into a slot, she crams plastic bottles into a hole. | Continue reading
A SpaceX delivery full of Christmas goodies arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday, following a slight delay caused by a communication drop-out. | Continue reading
General Motors' planned shutdown of its Detroit-Hamtramck plant would leave only one auto assembly factory in the city known for "putting America on wheels," but the closure and job losses are not expected to stall-out Detroit's comeback since its 2014 bankruptcy exit. | Continue reading
Brazil's environmental regulator on Friday denied French oil giant Total a license to drill for crude in five blocks near the mouth of the Amazon river. | Continue reading
Dismayed by the German government's failure to meet climate protection targets, dairy farmer Heiner Luetke Schwienhorst has filed a lawsuit against Berlin to force it into action. | Continue reading
Ride-share company Uber quietly filed paperwork this week for its initial public offering, the Wall Street Journal reported late Friday. | Continue reading
A communication drop-out has delayed a Christmas delivery at the International Space Station. | Continue reading
No one would envy a life of scavenging in Kenya's biggest landfill, but Daniel Kiarie says he would never leave it. | Continue reading
China launched a rover early Saturday destined to land on the far side of the moon, a global first that would boost Beijing's ambitions to become a space superpower, state media said. | Continue reading
A newly enacted law rushed through Australia's parliament will compel technology companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google to disable encryption protections so police can better pursue terrorists and other criminals. | Continue reading
NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport InSight lander, which touched down on Mars just 10 days ago, has provided the first ever "sounds" of Martian winds on the Red Planet. A media teleconference about these sounds will be held today … | Continue reading
As on Earth, so in space. A four-satellite mission that is studying magnetic reconnection—the breaking apart and explosive reconnection of the magnetic field lines in plasma that occurs throughout the universe—has found key aspects of the process in space to be strikingly similar … | Continue reading
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have used nuclear resonance vibrational spectroscopy to probe the hydrogen bonds that modulate the chemical reactivity of enzymes, catalysts and biomimetic complexes. The technique could lead to the development of better catalysts for use … | Continue reading
Like so many targets of scientific inquiry, the class of material referred to as the kagome magnet has proven to be a source of both frustration and amazement. Further revealing the quantum properties of the kagome magnet is seen as one of the primary challenges in fundamental ph … | Continue reading
When the average cost of a cable or satellite bill is $85 to $100 a month, is it any wonder that so many are cutting the cord? | Continue reading
In a crystalline solid, the atoms form an ordered lattice. Crystalline solids respond elastically to small deformations: When the applied strain is removed, the macroscopic stress, as well as the microscopic configuration of the atomic lattice, goes back to the original state. On … | Continue reading
If getting the kids and teens in your home to disconnect from "Fortnite" feels like a battle royal, take just a little bit of comfort. Parents, you are not alone. | Continue reading
In a dimly lit corner of a bustling market in Mexico City, vendors of amulets, voodoo dolls and other mystical objects sell tiny, taxidermied hummingbirds as charms to bring luck in love. | Continue reading
The concept of an urban heat island (UHI), a phenomenon in which urban areas are significantly warmer than the surrounding rural areas, is not new. The methodology for estimating UHIs, however, is constantly changing, creating a wide array of differing data points. | Continue reading
The first book to take in 3,000 years of baby-making shows how women functioned as "vessels" in early ideas of creation, until the ancient Greeks established theories of "dual contribution—whether two seeds or two souls—that dominated beliefs about how everything multiplied for c … | Continue reading
The venom of insects such as wasps and bees is full of compounds that can kill bacteria. Unfortunately, many of these compounds are also toxic for humans, making it impossible to use them as antibiotic drugs. | Continue reading
Facebook is in crisis mode, but the company can take major steps to fix itself – and the global community it says it wants to promote. Facebook founder, CEO and majority shareholder Mark Zuckerberg need not wait for governments to impose regulations. If he and other industry lead … | Continue reading
Polymers—molecules of repeating chemicals—are the basis of many materials: plastic water bottles, rubber tires, even the keratin in your hair. When certain kinds of polymers are sensitive to changes in external stimuli such as temperature, they become helpful, particularly in bio … | Continue reading
A study by an international team of conservation scientists found that a dam built in Thailand 31 years ago has caused the local bird population to collapse. | Continue reading
When nonprofit groups coordinate large green infrastructure projects such as Chicago's 606 Trail, the risks of gentrification multiply significantly due to the fragmentation that occurs among nonprofits, government agencies and housing organizations, according to a new case study … | Continue reading
Researchers have discovered a 'blind spot' in atomic force microscopy—a powerful tool capable of measuring the force between two atoms, imaging the structure of individual cells and the motion of biomolecules. | Continue reading
When you hear the term "radioactive" you likely think "bad news," maybe along the lines of fallout from an atomic bomb. | Continue reading
Evidence is rapidly accumulating that ocean acidification and elevated temperatures will have catastrophic consequences for marine organisms and ecosystems. In fact, it is something we are already witnessing. Coral reefs are bleaching, while snails and other calcifying marine org … | Continue reading
With the UK leaving the European Union and eyeing new trade opportunities beyond the EU, it should also be looking for ways to take forward its policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One of the few advantages of Brexit might lie in being able to design policies that have … | Continue reading
Accelerometers, video cameras and GPS recorders are providing a new glimpse into penguin foraging behaviour and revealing how they react to changes in their environment. | Continue reading
"Red Dead Redemption 2" made an early impact on The Game Award's fifth annual event in Los Angeles. But "God of War" prevailed in the end. | Continue reading
Sometime in the next year or two, Nigeria will become the seventh country to reach a population of 200m or more. It is still growing considerably faster than all other nations towards the top of the list and, by 2050, the UN expects Nigeria to have the world's third-largest popul … | Continue reading