Researchers from ETH Zurich have demonstrated the positive effects of productive failure on learning outcomes. The success rate for one of ETH's largest courses was increased by 20 percent. | Continue reading
We all know the birds and the bees are important for pollination, and we often notice them in gardens and parks. But what about flies? | Continue reading
When Professor Emily Ryo was 11, she and her sister were separated from their parents for two years when the parents immigrated to the U.S. from South Korea. The experience influenced Ryo's scholarly research toward immigration law and policy. | Continue reading
You may have already downloaded to your phone a digital certificate proving you have received one or two doses of a COVID vaccine. Its dark-green color calls to mind the "Green Pass" now in use in European countries, which is required to gain access to venues such as restaurants, … | Continue reading
With no international spectators and limited domestic crowds, the importance placed on broadcasting the Paralympic Games is greater than ever before. When the Games were postponed in 2020, International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Andrew Parsons argued that the Paralympi … | Continue reading
Researchers from the Disruptive & Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) of Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT's research enterprise in Singapore and their local collaborators from Temasek L … | Continue reading
As newly reported by the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, researchers from the Graduate School of Science at Osaka City University have developed a quantum algorithm that can understand the electronic states of atomic or molecular systems by directly calculating the e … | Continue reading
If you've wandered through a forest, you've probably dodged dead, rotting branches or stumps scattered on the ground. This is "deadwood," and it plays several vital roles in forest ecosystems. | Continue reading
New Yorkers were inundated by heavy rain and flash flooding early Thursday as Storm Ida wreaked havoc on the northeast United States, forcing flight cancellations and state of emergency declarations. | Continue reading
Medieval manuscript fragments discovered in Bristol that tell part of the story of Merlin the magician, one of the most famous characters from Arthurian legend, have been identified by academics from the Universities of Bristol and Durham as some of the earliest surviving example … | Continue reading
The remnants of Hurricane Ida wreaked further havoc as it moved up the northeastern United States, causing tornadoes and significant flooding, including in New York City. | Continue reading
For over a century, Joaquin Gay de Montella Estany's family produced wine in Spain's Mediterranean region of Catalonia but the effects of climate change have pushed them to seek higher ground. | Continue reading
After two bone-dry years that sank the U.S. Southwest deeper into drought, this summer's rainy season unleashed with fury. | Continue reading
The Native Americans who occupied the area known as Poverty Point in northern Louisiana more than 3,000 years ago long have been believed to be simple hunters and gatherers. But new Washington University in St. Louis archaeological findings paint a drastically different picture o … | Continue reading
Indigenous Peoples and local communities provide the best long-term outcomes for conservation, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and partners in France. | Continue reading
New research will help mining companies better understand the negative societal and environmental impacts of mine-waste disasters, known as tailings flows, and hopefully avoid them. | Continue reading
In a discovery published in the journal Nature, an international team of researchers has described a novel molecular device with exceptional computing prowess. | Continue reading
A team, including Lancaster University academics, have taken the first crucial steps to stamp out the worldwide atrocities of witchcraft, including ritual killings, with the successful acceptance of a United Nations Resolution. | Continue reading
California grape growers in coastal areas can use less water during times of drought and cut irrigation levels without affecting crop yields or quality, according to a new study out of the University of California, Davis. | Continue reading
Decades of research have been dedicated to understanding humpback whale songs. Why do they sing? What and where is the intended audience of these songs? To help uncover the answers, many scientists have framed whale songs as something similar to bird songs: vocalizations designed … | Continue reading
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists are working on a new diagnostic capability that will provide, for the first time, the ability to make X-ray radiographic movies. | Continue reading
Nearly 20 years after the United States' invasion of Afghanistan, the cost of its global war on terror stands at $8 trillion and 900,000 deaths, according to a new report from the Costs of War project at Brown University. | Continue reading
What began as a curious survey of an insect in Florida revealed a much larger network of movement across the Caribbean basin. Haplaxius crudus, commonly known as the American palm cixiid, transmits phytoplasmas (bacteria that cause plant diseases) in palm. The American palm cixii … | Continue reading
Rice physicists have confirmed the topological origins of magnons, magnetic features they discovered three years ago in a 2D material that could prove useful for encoding information in the spins of electrons. | Continue reading
The number of fires in the Brazilian Amazon as the burning season opened in August fell slightly from 2020, but remained close to the near-decade highs seen under President Jair Bolsonaro, new data showed Wednesday. | Continue reading
University of Central Florida researchers have developed a nanoparticle-based disinfectant that can continuously kill viruses on a surface for up to seven days—a discovery that could be a powerful weapon against COVID-19 and other emerging pathogenic viruses. | Continue reading
When the humidity in the atmosphere is relatively high, the particles naturally present, also known as aerosol droplets, grow to play a significant role in the chemistry and climate of Earth. These particles are produced from either clean or polluted air, after emissions of gases … | Continue reading
Climate change could increase the release of greenhouse gases from insect-driven forest decay, a new study has found. | Continue reading
An Imperial-led team of international researchers has used a special X-ray probe to gain new insights into how electrons behave at the quantum level. | Continue reading
When NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover touched down on the Red Planet, the agency's Deep Space Network (DSN) was there, enabling the mission to send and receive the data that helped make the event possible. When OSIRIS-REx took samples of asteroid Bennu this past year, the DSN … | Continue reading
In Greece, drivers cannot legally purchase custom vanity plates. However, a new study confirms an open secret: that the country has an illegal market for acquiring license plates with distinctive number patterns, perhaps as a form of "conspicuous corruption." Panos Louridas and D … | Continue reading
In the face of grave concerns about misinformation, social media networks and news organizations often employ fact-checkers to sort the real from the false. But fact-checkers can only assess a small portion of the stories floating around online. | Continue reading
Sites favored by illegal cannabis farmers on the West Coast of the United States overlap with the habitat ranges of three threatened predators, potentially exposing them to toxic pesticides, according to a study by Greta Wengert at the Integral Ecology Research Center in Californ … | Continue reading
Hurricane Ida, which slammed into the US Gulf Coast at the weekend, could become the costliest weather disaster on record, the UN said Wednesday, hailing though that prevention measures had dramatically limited casualties. | Continue reading
More than three million people have been affected by the annual monsoon deluge as torrential rains pummel eastern India, officials said Wednesday, with villagers fleeing to higher ground and wildlife sanctuaries underwater. | Continue reading
Around a third of all the world's tree species are threatened with extinction, according to a global index published Wednesday, warning that climate change could tip some forests into ecosystem collapse. | Continue reading
Dutch scientists were on Wednesday probing the mysterious deaths of dozens of harbour porpoises whose carcasses have been washing up on the country's northern beaches since last week. | Continue reading
In the early solar system, terrestrial planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are thought to have formed from planetesimals, small early planets. These early planets grew over time, through collisions and mergers, to make them the size they are today. | Continue reading
The familiar star at the center of our solar system has had billions of years to mature and ultimately provide life-giving energy to us here on Earth. But a very long time ago, our sun was just a growing baby star. What did the sun look like when it was so young? That's long been … | Continue reading
In a new paper in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, seven researchers hailing from five countries have called for greater attention to the destructive potential and recent history of disasters seen in the world's mountain ranges, including places like the Himalaya … | Continue reading
Living trees absorb a considerable amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and therefore play an important role in the protection of our climate. Little is known about the role of dead trees in the global carbon cycle, though. The decomposition of wood and the recycling of t … | Continue reading
Viruses kill millions around the world each year. "In addition to the novel coronavirus, leading viral killers include hepatitis, HIV, HPV," said Lela Vukovic, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Texas at El Paso. | Continue reading
A new study published today in the journal Environmental Science & Technology finds that exposing certain nanomaterials to light can influence their environmental transformation, fate and, ultimately, their toxicity. The discovery provides new insights into the behavior of engine … | Continue reading
Over the past few years, scientists have demonstrated how cage-like, porous structures made of silicon and oxygen and measuring only billionths of a meter in size can trap noble gasses like argon, krypton, and xenon. However, for these silica nanocages to be practically useful—fo … | Continue reading
If you have a pet—specifically a dog—then you have probably heard about kennel cough, an infection caused by bacteria or viruses that causes respiratory irritation and a deep, painful-sounding cough. In recent months, kennel cough cases have spiked nationally, forcing kennels to … | Continue reading
City dwellers seldom experience the near-reverence of watching deer walk through their yards, both for a lack of deer and, often, a lack of a yard. In cities, not everyone has the same experiences with nature. That means that the positive effects of those experiences—such as ment … | Continue reading
A new study, co-authored by University of Arizona researchers and published in the Sept. 1 issue of Nature, provides the first quantitative assessment of how environmental policies on deforestation, along with forest fires and drought, have impacted the diversity of plants and an … | Continue reading
How the cell can mend broken DNA using another DNA copy as template has puzzled researchers for years. How is it possible to find the correct sequences in the busy interior of the cell? Researchers from Uppsala university have now discovered the solution; it is easier to find a r … | Continue reading