Opinion: We should ban all new oil and gas fields
As a professor of geophysics, I have spent 36 years training young geologists destined to work in the fossil fuel industry how to look for oil and gas. But now I believe it's time to stop fossil-fuel exploration and halt the development of all new oi.....»»
Africa"s ice is disappearing: Tropical ice fields demonstrate speed of climate change
The few glaciers in Africa have long since become an important indicator of how rapidly and severely climate change is changing our planet. The ice on the high summits of the continent is rapidly disappearing, and Africa may lose its white peaks by t.....»»
Engineers use AI to wrangle fusion power for the grid
In the blink of an eye, the unruly, superheated plasma that drives a fusion reaction can lose its stability and escape the strong magnetic fields confining it within the donut-shaped fusion reactor. These getaways frequently spell the end of the reac.....»»
Do AI-driven chemistry labs actually work? New metrics promise answers
The fields of chemistry and materials science are seeing a surge of interest in "self-driving labs," which make use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automated systems to expedite research and discovery. Researchers are now proposing a suite of def.....»»
Scientists map the largest magnetic fields in galaxy clusters using synchrotron intensity gradient
In a new study, scientists have mapped magnetic fields in galaxy clusters, revealing the impact of galactic mergers on magnetic-field structures and challenging previous assumptions about the efficiency of turbulent dynamo processes in the amplificat.....»»
Groundwater upsurge floods homes in Libyan coastal town
Much of Libya is bone-dry desert but one Mediterranean coastal town is suffering the opposite problem—its houses and fields have been inundated by a mysterious upsurge of groundwater......»»
Changing the color of commonly used agricultural nets lessens insect damage to Kujo leek fields
Red nets are better at keeping away a common agricultural insect pest than typical black or white nets, according to a new study. Researchers have experimented with the effect of red, white, black and combination-colored nets on deterring onion thrip.....»»
Optical invention mirrors the image processing power of a human eye
On a cold, sunny day, you're driving on a rural road, surrounded by snow-covered fields. In an instant, your eyes process the scene, picking out individual objects to focus on—a stop sign, a barn—while the rest of the scene blurs in the periphery.....»»
Breakthrough in predicting chaotic outcomes in three-body systems
A new study has unveiled a significant advancement in chaos theory, introducing a flux-based statistical theory that predicts chaotic outcomes in non-hierarchical three-body systems. This breakthrough holds practical implications for fields such as c.....»»
Helium droplets capture double water structure
An elusive structure involving two water molecules, which had been predicted but never observed, has been isolated by RIKEN chemists. This finding could have implications for a wide range of fields ranging from astrochemistry to corrosion of metals......»»
Opinion: Smartphones mean we"re always available to our bosses. "Right to disconnect" laws are a necessary fix
Australian workers are set to have the right to disconnect from their workplaces once they clock off for the day......»»
High-profile incidents of police brutality sway public opinion more than performance of local law enforcement: Study
National media coverage of police brutality influences public perceptions of law enforcement more than the performance of people's local police departments, according to data analysis from NYU Tandon School of Engineering, challenging the assumption.....»»
Opinion: Peer review isn"t perfect—I teach others how to do it and I"ve seen firsthand how it comes up short
When I teach research methods, a major focus is peer review. As a process, peer review evaluates academic papers for their quality, integrity and impact on a field, largely shaping what scientists accept as "knowledge." By instinct, any academic foll.....»»
Silent fields: A cocktail of pesticides is stunting bumblebee colonies across Europe
The European Parliament voted against a proposal to curb the use of agricultural pesticides in November 2023. These chemicals, designed to protect crop yield from pest insects and other organisms, can contaminate the water and air and threaten the pe.....»»
New literature review on "crisis of confidence" due to lack of reproducibility in academic research
In light of recent cases of plagiarism and academic fraud at institutions across the country, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor's new study provides a timely review of the current state of research findings in academia, especially fields r.....»»
The right bacteria turn farms into carbon sinks
A company works with farmers to treat fields with bacteria that sequester carbon. Some of the microbes that make carbon sequestration work. (credit: Andes Ag, Inc) In 2022, humans emitted a staggering 36 gigatons of carb.....»»
A lead isotopic standard for instrument calibration
Stable isotope analysis is an important interdisciplinary tool used by numerous fields such as nuclear and homeland security, forensics, medicine and pharmaceuticals, human health and nutrition, and climate science. Achieving reliable metrology and t.....»»
Team shows how uranium ditelluride continues superconducting even in high magnetic fields
Superconductivity is well understood in so-called "conventional" superconductors. More recent, however, are unconventional superconductors, and it is as yet unclear how they work......»»
How simple changes can open up Britain"s green spaces so everyone can benefit from them
A typical British countryside walk may conjure up images of vast green fields, heather-topped moorlands, and of course, countless stiles providing access throughout the right-of-way network. However, while stiles connect trails and public pathways, t.....»»
Silica may influence microbial communities in hydrothermal fields
In recent years, the hydrothermal alteration of olivine has attracted the attention of geologists, biologists, and chemists. It significantly influences the physical and chemical properties of the oceanic lithosphere, and it plays an important role f.....»»
Opinion: The Australia-Tuvalu deal shows why we need a global framework for climate relocations
The recent climate migration deal signed by Australia and Tuvalu in November 2023 has been touted as providing a "lifeline" to the people of the South Pacific nation who face existential threats from rising sea levels and climate change......»»