Replacing 50% of meat and milk products with plant-based alternatives by 2050 can reduce agriculture and land use related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 31% and halt the degradation of forest and natural land, according to new research in Nature Communications journal.
The REPLANT Act provides money for the US Forest Service to plant more than a billion trees in the next nine years. The World Economic Forum aims to help plant a trillion trees around the world by 2030.
A large portion of Greenland was an ice-free tundra landscape—perhaps covered by trees and roaming woolly mammoths—in the recent geologic past (about 416,000 years ago).
Right now, your smartphone—part texting device, part camera, mostly digital oracle—is collecting data. Where you go. The number of steps it takes to get there. Elevation climbed. Your phone listens for you to speak to Siri, the angel of search. Data is gathered as we traipse around the Internet, browsing and clicking and googling, inadvertently dropping cookie crumbs behind. Big data adds up. But how can it all become individually useful?
A groundbreaking data science effort to better understand and harness the power of stories has earned the University of Vermont a $20 million research capacity building award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through its Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).
Walking along a steep ridge, under large hemlock trees, ten miles outside of Burlington, Vermont—Bill Keeton is worrying about Europe’s remaining old forests. He’s so concerned, in fact, that he and some colleagues wrote a letter to the journal Science—published on May 5, 2023—calling for rapid action to protect them.
New research shows that smartphone activity actually increases during visits outdoors to city parks—a finding that contradicts popular notions. Thanks to two years of unparalleled access to 700 study participants' smartphone data, the study is the first to show that young adults now spend far more time on their smartphone screens than in nature. The study finds that people who visit forests or nature preserves experience significant declines in screen time, compared to visits to urban locations for the same duration.
The University of Vermont Cancer Center will offer a novel, highly effective form of cancer treatment called CAR T-cell therapy beginning in February. The Cancer Center will be the only healthcare institution in Vermont and northern New York to provide the treatment.
Americans are leaving many of the U.S. counties hit hardest by hurricanes and heatwaves—and moving towards dangerous wildfires and warmer temperatures, says one of the largest studies of U.S. migration and natural disasters. These results are concerning, as wildfire and rising temperatures are projected to worsen with climate change. The study was inspired by the increasing number of headlines of record-breaking natural disasters.
Scientists are ringing alarm bells about a significant new threat to U.S. water quality: as winters warm due to climate change, they are unleashing large amounts of nutrient pollution into lakes, rivers, and streams. The first-of-its-kind national study finds that previously frozen winter nutrient pollution—unlocked by rising winter temperatures and rainfall—is putting water quality at risk in 40% of the contiguous U.S., including over 40 states.
Feeling unhappy? Go find a park—the bigger the better—and try taking a walk outdoors. That’s the takeaway of a major new study measuring the happiness effects of city parks in the 25 largest U.S. cities. The happiness benefit of urban nature on users was akin to the mood spike people experience on holidays like Thanksgiving or New Year’s Day. The research is the largest study of its kind—using massive amounts of data from social media—to quantify the mood boosting benefits on urban nature. The happiest place on Twitter? The great outdoors. The study will appear March 30 at 2 pm EST in PLOS One journal.
A first-of-its-kind study shows that some ocean animals may be able evolve their way out of troubles caused by climate change—but at a high cost. By artificially evolving 23 generations of a marine copepod, Acartia tonsa, a team of scientists at the University of Vermont found that the tiny creatures could adapt to the high temperatures and carbon dioxide levels forecast for the warming oceans. But to get there, the populations had to spend a lot of their genetic flexibility—leaving them vulnerable to new stresses, like low food.
In a first-of-its-kind study, research from the University of Vermont Cancer Center has linked phthalates, commonly called the “everywhere chemical,” to higher incidence of specific childhood cancers.
A paper by a team of researchers at the University of Vermont Cancer Center highlights new colorectal cancer treatments that decrease the likelihood that patients will suffer from incontinence, sexual dysfunction and cognitive and physical decline.
Scientists at UVM, Tufts, and Harvard discovered a new form of biological reproduction—and created self-replicating living robots. Made from frog cells, these computer-designed organisms gather single cells inside a Pac-Man-shaped “mouth”—and release Xenobot “babies” that look and move like themselves.
Vermont's average annual temperature has warmed by nearly 2°F, and precipitation has increased by a whopping 21%, since 1900.
A promising new therapy for mesothelioma and metastatic cancer, arising from laboratory investigations at the University of Vermont Cancer Center, is about to enter a Phase I clinical trial. he approach, published in PLOS ONE, targets a universal vulnerability in cancer cells that could be exploited therapeutically.
A systematic review and meta-analysis found that using contingency management (CM) at end-of-treatment improved outcomes on six common clinical problems during medication for OUD (MOUD): psychomotor stimulant use, polysubstance use, illicit-opioid use, cigarette smoking, therapy attendance, and medication adherence.
Scientists have invented a first-of-its-kind instrument to peer deeply into billions of Twitter posts--providing an unprecedented, minute-by-minute view of popularity, from rising political movements, to K-pop, to emerging diseases. The tool--called the Storywrangler--gathers phrases across 150 different languages, analyzing the rise and fall of ideas and stories, each day, among people around the world. The Storywrangler quantifies collective attention.
More than 75% of women with Opioid Use Disorder report having had an unintended pregnancy, but they are less likely to use effective contraception compared to women who do not use drugs. Results from a multi-year trial found that a two-part intervention featuring co-located contraceptive services in opioid treatment programs and financial incentives could offer an effective solution.
Findings from an international multicenter trials showed that while a full dose of heparin didn't statistically significantly lower incidence of the primary composite of death, mechanical ventilation or ICU admission compared with low-dose heparin, therapeutic heparin did reduce the odds of all-cause death by 78 percent.
Conversations between seriously ill people, their families and palliative care specialists lead to better quality-of-life. Understanding what happens during these conversations – and how they vary by cultural, clinical, and situational contexts – is essential to guide healthcare communication improvement efforts. To gain true understanding, new methods to study conversations in large, inclusive, and multi-site epidemiological studies are required. A new computer model offers an automated and valid tool for such large-scale scientific analyses.
Study shows that scent-enhanced virtual reality technologies, or OVR, can be a safe and effective integrative approach to target anxiety, stress, and pain when combined with standard inpatient psychiatric care.
When nature vanishes, people of color and low-income Americans disproportionally lose critical environmental and health benefits--including air quality, crop productivity and disease control--a new study in Nature Communications finds.
Youth brain activation data from the largest longitudinal neuroimaging study to date provides valuable new information on the cognitive processes and brain systems that underlie adolescent development and might contribute to mental and physical health challenges in adulthood.
A new discovery finds that zinc plays a critical and underappreciated role in blood pressure regulation, offering a potential new pathway for therapies to treat hypertension.
The discovery of new possible biomarkers to predict clinical and immune responses to dengue virus infection could be critical to informing future vaccines for the mosquito-borne virus, which saw a record number of over 400 million cases in 2019.
When talking to their children about race, white parents' use of phrases like "I don't see race" can send mixed messages to their children about racial socialization and racial ideology.
Scientists found frozen plant fossils, preserved under a mile of ice on Greenland. The discovery helps confirm a new and troubling understanding that the Greenland Ice Sheet has melted entirely during recent warm periods in Earth’s history—like the one we are now creating with human-caused climate change.
New findings, reported in Nature Communications, describe the discovery of a unique dependence of cancer cells on a particular protein, which could lead to desperately needed treatment for hard-to-treat cancers.
A pioneering study of U.S nitrogen use in agriculture has identified 20 places across the country where farmers, government, and citizens should target nitrogen reduction efforts. The 20 nitrogen "hotspots of opportunity"--which appear on a striking map--represent a whopping 63% of the total surplus nitrogen balance in U.S. croplands, but only 24% of U.S. cropland area. Nitrogen inputs are so high in these areas that farmers can most likely reduce nitrogen use without hurting crop yields.
In developing therapies for hard-to-treat breast and ovarian cancers in patients with BRCA gene mutations, scientists aim to identify ways to keep cancer cells from using DNA break repair pathways. New findings demonstrate a previously-unknown capability for polymerase theta (pol theta) – a key enzyme in this repair function – that shows promise as a new avenue for treatment development.
A new book, The Color of Culture, is the first to show with statistical rigor the much lower participation rates of Black vs. white Americans in a nine recreational and cultural activities, from golf to painting. It uses statistical techniques to show that systemic racism explains the discrepancy.
Examining more than 800,000 police stops in Vermont between 2014 to 2019, researchers confirm that Vermont authorities stop, ticket, arrest and search Black drivers at a rate far beyond their share of the state's total driving population.
A first-of-its-kind, international study of 107,000 children finds that higher temperatures are an equal or even greater contributor to child malnutrition than the traditional culprits of poverty, inadequate sanitation, and poor education. The 19-nation study is the largest investigation to date of the relationship between our changing climate and children's diet diversity. Of the six regions examined--in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America--five had significant reductions in diet diversity associated with higher temperatures.
New research shows that pesticide alter how Colorado potato beetles manage their DNA. These changes were passed down two generations suggesting that rapid resistance to pesticides may not require beetles to evolve their genetic code. Instead they may simply use existing genes to tolerate toxins already found in potatoes. The scientists were surprised that these epigenetic changes, triggered by a single tiny dose of pesticide, were maintained through multiple rounds of sexual reproduction.
What does it take to get some people to go outside and experience nature? For some urban dwellers, it took the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers say. The new study finds that 26% of people visiting parks during early months of the COVID-19 pandemic had rarely – or never – visited nature in the previous year. The study is one of the first to explore how COVID-19 has changed Americans’ relationship with nature. The research will appear in PLOS ONE journal.
One of the first studies on Americans' relationship with nature during COVID finds significant increases in outdoor activity, especially among women. Women were 1.7 (gardening) to 2.9 (walking) times more likely to report increasing their activity compared to men. In general, outdoor activities seeing the largest increases were: watching wildlife, gardening, photos or art in nature, relaxing alone outside, and walking.
Hospital-based laboratories and doctors at the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic might soon add artificial intelligence to their testing toolkit. A recent study describes the performance of Biocogniv's new AI-COVID™ software, which showed high accuracy in predicting the probability of COVID-19 infection using routine blood tests, which can help hospitals reduce the number of patients referred for scarce PCR testing.
Teachers with at least five hours allotted for weekly science instruction are more likely to implement hands-on, inquiry-oriented teaching -- a 21st century approach to science teaching lauded by science and education experts -- in their classrooms.
The pandemic is putting a hurt on the seafood industry, finds the largest study of COVID on U.S. fisheries, which suggests that American fishmongers may flounder - or go belly up - without more government aid. -Monthly fresh seafood exports declined up to 43% -Monthly imports fell up to 37% -Catches dropped 40% some months. Over the first six months of 2020: -Total U.S. seafood exports are down 20% -Imports are down 6% -Further losses are likely as restrictions increase to address COVID-19.
Can schools safely remain open or reopen during periods of significant community spread of COVID-19? According to predictions from a model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the school setting, yes – if appropriate precautions are followed both in school and in the community.
Following the presidential election, a leading group of scientists are making the case that a "rule reversal" will not be sufficient to allow the Endangered Species Act to do its job of protecting species. Instead, they're calling for deeper improvements to the rules the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service use to apply the law--aiming to make the Act more effective and to gain bipartisan and industry support in an era of accelerating climate change. The team's analysis and policy recommendations were published in the journal Science.
New research in Clinical and Translational Immunology, provides a clearer picture of the protective antibodies induced by SARS-CoV-2 and their role in serious illness and what’s needed for full protection.
Scientists at the Univ. of Vermont and Univ. of Washington have developed an accurate COVID-19 test that doesn’t use scarce reagents, paving the way for widespread testing in developing countries and industrialized nations like the United States, where reagent supplies are again in short supply.
A new study presents the first comprehensive assessment of the conservation status of primary forests in Europe—and shows that many of them are not protected and at risk of being destroyed. The researchers conclude that formal conservation of these forests should be a top priority for EU countries to meet their climate change and biodiversity goals.
A novel study showed that people who wear face coverings tend to have more contacts with others, putting them at risk of contracting COVID-19. Masking directives should accompanied by forceful messaging stressing the importance of social distancing.
New research conducted in Vermont shows that, while anti-bias police trainings resulted in small improvements in some police departments in the state, they did not by and large alter police behavior.
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