264 articles from MONDAY 15.6.2020

What’s a coronavirus superspreader?

As we learn more about how the coronavirus spreads between people, there’s more evidence to suggest that most infections are transmitted by a select few individuals we call “superspreaders.” Here’s what a superspreader is, the role these people play in transmitting the virus, and what we’re trying to do about it.   What is a superspreader? The word is a generic term for...

Scientists introduce rating system to assess quality of evidence for policy

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical need for robust scientific evidence to support policy decisions, such as around the effectiveness of various social distancing measures and the safety of drug therapies. Yet this need arises at a time of growing misinformation and poorly vetted facts repeated by influential sources. To address this gap, a group of scientists led by Kai Ruggeri, a...

Taking a landslide's temperature to avert catastrophe

Engineers have developed a comprehensive model of deep-seated landslides and demonstrated that it can accurately recreate the dynamics of historic and current landslides occurring under varying conditions. The model points to the temperature of a thin layer of clay at the base of the landslide as critical to the potential for sudden cataclysmic failure. The approach is currently monitoring a...

No single solution helps all students complete MOOCs

In one of the largest educational field experiments ever conducted, researchers found that promising interventions to help students complete online courses were not effective on a massive scale -- suggesting that targeted solutions are needed to help students in different circumstances or locations.

A carbon sink shrinks in the Arctic

Ice melts in the Arctic Ocean were thought to be drawing large amounts of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, acting as a carbon sink and helping to mitigate greenhouse gases. But new research shows that may not be the case in all areas, particularly in the Canada Basin, where the carbon sink is shrinking, inhibiting the ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the deep...

Wounded plants: How they coordinate their healing

When we cut our fingers, blood rushes out of the wound to close it. However, the vegetable we just wanted to slice and dice, would have reacted completely differently to this injury. Scientists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) investigated how plant cells heal wounds. In their results, published in PNAS on June 15, the researchers discovered that the hormone auxin...

No single solution helps all students complete MOOCs

In one of the largest educational field experiments ever conducted, a team co-led by a Cornell researcher found that promising interventions to help students complete online courses were not effective on a massive scale—suggesting that targeted solutions are needed to help students in different circumstances or locations.

New analysis of human portraits reveals shift in culture, cognition

Throughout history, portraits featuring the human profile have evolved to reflect changing cultural norms. A new study led by Helena Miton, a Santa Fe Institute Omidyar Fellow, and co-authored by Dan Sperber of Central European University and Mikołaj Hernik, of UiT the Artic University of Norway, shows that human cognition plays a critical role in the evolution of human portraiture.

COVID-19 pandemic could decimate outdoor environmental, science education programs

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens the survival of organizations nationwide that provide critical outdoor environmental and science education to K-12 students, with an alarming 63% of such groups uncertain about their ability to ever reopen their doors, according to a study released this week by the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

The many lifetimes of plastics

Many of us have seen informational posters at parks or aquariums specifying how long plastics bags, bottles, and other products last in the environment. They're a good reminder to not litter, but where does the information on the lifetime expectancy of plastic goods come from, and how reliable is it?