Holding long-term global warming to two degrees Celsius—the fallback target of the Paris climate accord—is now "impossible," according to a stark new analysis published by leading scientists. [...]
Citrus fruit rind color has long been used as an indicator of ripeness, but for some fruits such as mandarin fruit in the Chongqing region of China, the peel and flesh do not ripen synchronously, with the flesh usually reaching maturity while the peel is still green. [...]
Imagine being summoned as a juror in a murder trial. The expert responsible for analyzing DNA traces at the crime scene has just explained that they match the defendant's profile. "Then the culprit must be them," you think. [...]
In many parts of India, a single noxious pollutant from coal-fired power stations drags down annual wheat and rice yields by 10% or more, according to a new study by Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability researchers. [...]
Researchers from Imperial College Business School and University of Leeds published a Journal of Marketing study that examines the impact of BNPL installment payments on retail sales. The study is titled "Buy Now Pay Later: Impact of Installment Payments on Customer Purchases" and is authored by Stijn Maesen and Dionysius Ang. [...]
When people think about fiber optic cables, it's usually about how they're used for telecommunications and accessing the internet. But fiber optic cables—strands of glass or plastic that allow for the transmission of light—can be used for another purpose: imaging the ground beneath our feet. [...]
A research team led by Principal Researcher Jinhyo Yoon at the Division of AI, Big data and Blockchain (ABB), Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology, has successfully identified clues regarding late capitalism in Milan, Naples and Genoa in Italy. [...]
Biochar, a charcoal-like material derived from plant biomass, has long been hailed as a promising tool for carbon dioxide removal. However, a new study by Stanford researchers highlights a critical issue: current methods for assessing biochar's carbon storage potential may significantly undervalue its true environmental benefits. [...]
How far would leaf-eating insects go to dine on their favorite food? Perhaps the other side of the world, according to researchers at Penn State who found insect damage on fossil leaves from South America that is nearly identical to what is seen today on those trees' living relatives in Australia. [...]
Computer models reveal how human-driven climate change will dramatically overhaul critical nutrient cycles in the ocean. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of California, Irvine researchers report evidence that marine nutrient cycles—essential for sustaining ocean ecosystems—are changing in unexpected ways as the planet continues to warm. [...]
A pair of physicists at the University of Crete has found that some types of biological magnetoreceptors used by various creatures to navigate, operate at or near the quantum limit. In their paper published in the journal PRX Life, I. K. Kominis and E. Gkoudinakis describe how they worked the problem of magnetic sensing in tiny animals in reverse by putting bounds on unknown quantum boundaries, and what it showed about the navigation abilities of certain animals. [...]
The appointment of activist-nominated directors is an emerging phenomenon, but they've come with increased reports of stakeholder harm. A new study published in Strategic Management Journal found that activist directors bring immediate benefits to shareholders, but they appear to impose a managerial myopia that results in executives becoming less inclined to make long-term investments. [...]
Researchers at the University of Toronto have invented a new method that uses DNA sequencing to measure metabolites. This enables rapid and precise analysis of biological compounds, such as sugars, vitamins, hormones and the hundreds of other metabolites that are critical for health. [...]
New research published in the journal Management Science demonstrates how immigrant talent drives success, both on the soccer field and beyond. The study reveals that European soccer teams with higher numbers of foreign-born players consistently perform better, winning more games and scoring more goals. But the impact of immigrant players goes deeper than individual talent. By introducing new playing styles and enhancing team coordination, immigrant players expand the strategic possibilities available to teams, ultimately improving their overall performance. [...]
Three months after its launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency's Europa Clipper has another 1.6 billion miles (2.6 billion kilometers) to go before it reaches Jupiter's orbit in 2030 to take close-up images of the icy moon Europa with science cameras. [...]
Scientists say that the two lost, but extremely important books by Apollonius, the Greek mathematician known to the ancient world as "The Great Geometer," have survived in an Arabic manuscript kept under lock and key as part of the prized possessions of the Leiden University Libraries in Holland. [...]
Cleaning up after a major oil spill is a long, expensive process, and the damage to a coastal region's ecosystem can be significant. This is especially true for the world's Arctic region, where newly opened sea lanes will expose remote shorelines to increased risks due to an anticipated rise in sea traffic. [...]
A fountain of lava was spewing from a Hawaii volcano Tuesday in the latest episode of an eruption that has paused and resumed. [...]
Recent research from the Michigan State University College of Education shows how social media provides connection and community for college students, particularly those with disabilities. Published in the Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, the study examines the nature of students' social media use and its relationship to social capital and psychological well-being. [...]
Plant-covered facades help cool urban areas and provide habitats for plants, birds, insects and other organisms. An international team of researchers has drawn this conclusion after systematically comparing green walls, bare walls, and natural cliffs. [...]
The Sudan virus, a close relative of Ebola, has a fatality rate of 50% but remains poorly understood in terms of how it infects cells. Currently, no approved treatments exist. To address this critical gap in pandemic preparedness, researchers at the University of Minnesota and the Midwest Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Center investigated how this deadly virus attaches to human cells. [...]
Managers at every company—especially big corporations—face a similar conundrum: What's the ideal way to organize employees to generate the best ideas? Is it better to work in large groups? Smaller ones? With other people who are similar or different? [...]
New, groundbreaking research shows how, at a local scale, agricultural research and development led to improved crop varieties that resulted in global benefits to the environment and food system sustainability. The Purdue University study appears in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [...]
A graduate research assistant at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama system, has published a paper in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics that builds on an earlier study to help understand why the solar corona is so hot compared to the surface of the sun itself. [...]
Across the tree of life, human activities are accelerating declines in biological species diversity, from deserts to oceans to forests. But what about the microscopic world? Scientists in UC San Diego's School of Biological Sciences recently investigated how declining biodiversity in tiny ecological systems unseen to the naked eye can carry significant consequences for the health of organisms and ecosystems. The paper is published in the journal mSystems. [...]
"No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy," observed Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen in his 1999 book "Development as Freedom." [...]
Burrowing under soil opens up a whole new world, especially when that soil is on other planets. Getting under the top layer of regolith on a world such as Mars could give access to a world still extant with life, whereas, on the moon, it could lead to discovering a water source. [...]
Imagine: You're in charge of marketing for a major automaker, and your biggest competitor just recalled thousands of vehicles. Now customers are worried about the safety of cars like yours. Do you seize the moment and ramp up advertising to steal market share? Or do you pull back on ads, fearing that customers will connect your brand with the bad press? [...]
An international team of marine biologists has documented the highest known count of deep-sea species living in methane seeps off Costa Rica's Pacific coast. [...]
With an assist from the NEID spectrograph, a team of astronomers have confirmed the existence of exoplanet Gaia-4b—one of the most massive planets known to orbit a low-mass star. Gaia-4b is also the first planet detected by the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft using the astrometric technique. [...]