Science News

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The goal of the Headwaters to Baywaters initiative is to ensure healthy lands, healthy waters, and healthy communities for the greater Houston region. The Headwaters to Baywaters initiative was launched by five partner organizations: Bayou Land Conservancy (BLC), Buffalo Bayou Partnership (BBP), Galveston Bay Foundation (GBF), Houston Audubon Society (HAS), and Katy Prairie Conservancy (KPC).

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How did people living in the Bronze Age manage their finances before money became widespread? Researchers from the Universities of Göttingen and Rome have discovered that bronze scrap found in hoards in Europe circulated as a currency.

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Computer science researchers at the University of Central Florida have developed a sarcasm detector.

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Data collected by University of Rhode Island Professor Stéphan Grilli and his colleagues will appear in Nature Communications, which is considered one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary science journals.

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They may be tiny weapons, but Brigham Young University's holography research group has figured out how to create lightsabers -- green for Yoda and red for Darth Vader, naturally -- with actual luminous beams rising from them.

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Scientists from the Faculty of Health and Sports Sciences at the University of Tsukuba used aerodynamics experiments to empirically test the flight properties of a new four-panel soccer ball adopted by the English Premier League this year.

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With the support of a three-year, $1.1 million contract from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will study flow separation on existing planes with complex three-dimensional geometries — like the jets the Air Force currently uses —and what can be improved for aircraft of the future. Through improved aerodynamics, researchers aim to increase the efficiency, range, and even the stealth of aircraft.

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As state and federal authorities decide whether to continue reimbursing for telehealth services that were suddenly adopted last spring in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a new study out of UC San Francisco has found that clinicians in the San Francisco Health Network (SFHN) overwhelmingly support using these services for outpatient primary care and specialty care visits.

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An 18.5 million-year-old fossil found in Panama provides evidence of a new species and is the oldest reliable example of a climbing woody vine known as a liana from the soapberry family. The discovery sheds light on the evolution of climbing plants.

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EviroTech LLC announced today (May 7) a $4 million investment into the company by 1701 Ventures GmbH of Göttingen, Germany, which will allow EviroTech to complete the final design, production startup and market introduction of its Ultra-Fast COVID-19 detection sensor.

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PNNL has released the first stable version of ExaGO, an open-source grid modeling software that can help grid operators perform analyses at unprecedented scale to plan ahead for extreme events.

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With a living descendant's DNA sample, a team of researchers have identified the remains of John Gregory, engineer aboard HMS Erebus

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By swiping surfaces in commercial food processing plants with specially designed rapid-testing adenosine triphospate (ATP) swabs – which produce a light similar to the glow of fireflies in the presence of microorganisms – spoilage and foodborne illness could diminish, according to a new study from Cornell University food scientists.

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The well-publicized Tar Creek Superfund Site in the Tri-State Mining District (an area that also includes portions of southeastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri) originally produced lead and zinc to make bullets during both World Wars. Toxic mining waste, containing lead, zinc and cadmium – known locally as “chat” – was left on the surface of the site when mining operations ceased in the 1970s. Cleanup of the over 30 million tons of chat continues to this day.

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Australia's 'black summer' of bushfires was depicted on the front pages of the world's media with images of wildlife and habitat destruction, caused by climate change, while in Australia the toll on ordinary people remained the visual front-page focus.

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Middle Triassic ichthyosaurs are rare, and mostly small in size. The new Besanosaurus specimens described in the peer-reviewed journal PeerJ - the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences - by Italian, Swiss, Dutch and Polish paleontologists provide new information on the anatomy of this fish-like ancient reptile, revealing its diet and exceptionally large adult size: up to 8 meters, a real record among all marine predators of this geological epoch.

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The Fermilab-hosted international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment will shoot the world’s most powerful beam of neutrinos from the Department of Energy’s Fermilab in Illinois to detectors 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) away at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. Data collected from this ambitious experiment will help scientists answer such lofty questions as how black holes form and why the universe itself exists.

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Cosmologists have found a way to double the accuracy of measuring distances to supernova explosions – one of their tried-and-true tools for studying the mysterious dark energy that is making the universe expand faster and faster.

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Each year, many shark species migrate hundreds of miles, traversing ocean waters to return to the same spot year after year. Now, Florida State University researchers have found that sharks likely use the Earth’s magnetic fields to help guide them on these long-distance journeys.

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Sergei Kalinin, a scientist and inventor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elected a Fellow of the Microscopy Society of America professional society.

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Five prizes were awarded in the fourth annual Morgridge Institute for Research Ethics Cartooning Competition, addressing the social impacts of scientific research, like issues on public health and communication during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The new technique is capable of printing organ models containing live cells in minutes instead of hours— a major step in the quest to create 3D-printed replacement organs.

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It is now well known that carbon dioxide is the biggest contributor to climate change and originates primarily from burning of fossil fuels.

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Scientists at PPPL have been awarded three grants from NASA totaling over $2 million to conduct research that could help predict the potentially damaging effects of blasts of subatomic particles from the sun.

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The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) today announced the recipient of the Ludwig von Sallmann Clinician-Scientist Award. The award, which recognizes Ludwig von Sallmann, MD, honors awardees with a $1,250 honorarium, an inscribed award and invitations to several special events at the ARVO Annual Meeting. The 2021 recipient of the award is Sai Chavala, MD, of Texas Christian University (TCU) and The University of Northern Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) School of Medicine in Fort Worth, Texas.

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The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) today announced the recipient of the Oberdorfer Award in Low Vision Research. The award, which honors Michael D. Oberdorfer, PhD, recognizes a recipient with a $1,250 honorarium, an inscribed award and invitations to several special events at the ARVO Annual Meeting. The 2021 recipient of the award is Caroline Klaver, MD, PhD of Erasmus Medical Center, Radboud University Medical Center, and the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB).

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Solar-power developers need to explore using lower-quality agricultural land for solar energy, incentivize dual-use (combined agriculture and solar) options, avoid concentrated solar development and engage communities early to achieve New York’s green energy goals, according to forthcoming Cornell University research.

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Five new innovators will be joining Chain Reaction Innovations, the entrepreneurship program at Argonne National Laboratory, as part of the elite program’s fifth cohort to develop clean energy startups that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase U.S. competitiveness in emerging energy technologies.

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Transitioning to a hydrogen economy will require massive production of cheap, clean hydrogen gas for fuel and chemical feedstocks. New tools allow scientists to zoom in on a catalytic reaction that’s been a bottleneck in efforts to generate hydrogen from water more efficiently.

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Researchers at the University of New Hampshire found that to live in hotter more desert-like surroundings, and exist without water, there is more than one genetic mechanism allowing animals to adapt. This is important not only for their survival but may also provide important biomedical groundwork to develop gene therapies to treat human dehydration related illnesses, like kidney disease.

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A massive collaborative research project covered in the journal Nature this week offers projections to the year 2100 of future sea-level rise from all sources of land ice, offering the most complete projections created to date.

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Engineers and scientists from MIT and Georgia Tech are enabling near real-time modeling of wheels, treads, and desert animals traveling at high speeds across sandy terrains. “Dynamic Resistive Force Theory,” or DRFT, provides a path to speedier granular modeling — and help in designing optimal rough terrain vehicles, like Mars and lunar rovers.

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University of Delaware’s Swati Singh is among a small group of researchers across the dark matter community that have begun to wonder if they are looking for the right type of dark matter. Singh, Jack Manley, a UD doctoral student, and collaborators at the University of Arizona and Haverford College, have proposed a new way to look for the particles that might make up dark matter by repurposing existing tabletop sensor technology.

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Bats' "supersense" of time

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The United States-Mexico border traverses through large expanses of unspoiled land in North America, including a newly discovered worldwide hotspot of bee diversity.

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A recent study from the University of Helsinki monitors the breakthrough progresses in the development of microneedles for immunotherapy and discusses the challenges regarding their production.