A single press release naming a company that has violated workplace health and safety regulations can result in a 73 percent improvement in compliance by other facilities, a Duke researcher finds.

It's become common practice for NGOs and environmental development agencies to use 'influencers' for the roll out of environmentally sustainable farming practices, but this isn't always the most effective method, say social network analysts from the University of Sydney.

Scientists have found evidence that planets form in a blink of an eye on a cosmic scale. New results, obtained using the combined power of Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Very Large Array (VLA), show that very young disks, with ages of between 0.1—0.5 million years, have more than enough pieces to assemble planetary systems.

Life depends on remarkable arrays of biochemical reactions. Understanding the workings of biomolecules involves real-time monitoring of these reactions. Happening in only tiny fractions of a millisecond, this is very difficult even with highly sensitive optical instruments. Therefore, Ph.D. researcher Yuyang Wang uses a 'plasmonic nanotorch," a single metal nanoparticle that illuminates single...

Today, large resources are used to provide vessels in the polar seas with warnings about the spread of sea ice. Artificial intelligence may make these warnings cheaper, faster, and available for everyone.

Multi-disciplinary research has led to the innovative fabrication of molecule-sized robots. Scientists are now advancing their efforts to make these robots interact and work together in the millions, explains a review in the journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials.

Researchers from the Institute of Molecular Science (ICMol) of the University of Valencia have managed to synthesize a new porous material that makes it possible to encapsulate a series of active principles of natural substances and determine their chemical structure by using X-ray diffraction. This will allow for the future characterisation of natural products, hitherto unknown, and to reveal...

Over the past few decades, computers have seen dramatic progress in processing power; however, even the most advanced computers are relatively rudimentary in comparison with the complexities and capabilities of the human brain.

Teff, an ancient grain originally from Ethiopia, is a staple crop for 50 million people in the country. It is also increasingly popular worldwide, touted as a superfood for its gluten-free, high fiber and protein, and low-sugar properties.

Pulling that final zipper closed on a stuffed suitcase or getting the tailgate of a packed car shut is a true feeling of victory at the start of any road trip. Sending supplies to the International Space Station—including on NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 test flight that launched the first astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley on SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule May 30 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center...

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope demonstrates its full range of imaging capabilities with two new images of planetary nebulae. The images depict two nearby young planetary nebulae, NGC 6302, dubbed the Butterfly Nebula, and NGC 7027. Both are among the dustiest planetary nebulae known and both contain unusually large masses of gas, which made them an interesting pair for study in parallel by a...

Given the tremendous ability of forests to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, some governments are counting on planted forests as offsets for greenhouse gas emissions—a sort of climate investment. But as with any investment, it's important to understand the risks. If a forest goes bust, researchers say, much of that stored carbon could go up in smoke.

While some STEM majors have a one-to-one male-to-female ratio, physics, engineering and computer science (PECS) majors consistently have some of the largest gender imbalances among U.S. college majors—with about four men to every woman in the major. In a new study published today in the peer-reviewed research journal, Science, NYU researchers find that this disparity is not caused by higher math...

New international research reveals the far-reaching impacts of forest cover loss on global biodiversity.

A naturally occurring injection of underground fluids drove a four-year-long earthquake swarm near Cahuilla, California, according to a new seismological study that utilizes advances in earthquake monitoring with a machine-learning algorithm. In contrast to mainshock/aftershock sequences, where a large earthquake is followed by many smaller aftershocks, swarms typically do not have a single...

Molecular switches—they are the molecular counterparts of electrical switches and play an important role in many processes in nature. Such molecules can reversibly interconvert between two or more states and thereby control molecular processes. In living organisms, for example, they play a role in muscle contraction but also our visual perception is based on the dynamics of a molecular switch in...

A simple and noninvasive treatment could become a prime post-crystallization process to optimize the optoelectronic properties of hybrid perovskite solar cell materials.

The discovery of how certain key structures in the kidneys are formed could have important implications for treating renal fibrosis (or scarring), a feature of chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to a new study by a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

A team of Brown University researchers has found a way to double the toughness of a ceramic material used to make solid-state lithium ion batteries. The strategy, described in the journal Matter, could be useful in bringing solid-state batteries to the mass market.

Newly unearthed, surprisingly well-preserved conifer fossils from Patagonia, Argentina, show that an endangered and celebrated group of tropical West Pacific trees has roots in the ancient supercontinent that once comprised Australia, Antarctica and South America, according to an international team of researchers.

Thanks to its key role in development, immunity and nutrition, the microbiome—the genetic material of all microorganisms that live in the human body—has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. The gut microbiome in particular, and how it affects overall health, has become a popular topic of scientific and medical research amid growing interest in fermented foods due to their proposed...

Researchers at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore)and clinicians at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) have developed a urine test that can, within 30 minutes, gauge pregnancy outcomes for women presenting with signs of threatened miscarriage.

Quantum computing promises to improve our ability to perform some critical computational tasks in the future. Machine learning is changing the way we use computers in our present everyday life and in science. It is natural to seek connections between these two emerging approaches to computing, in the hope of reaping multiple benefits. The search for connecting links has just started, but we are...

A Rutgers-led study finds that online misinformation, or "fake news," lowers people's trust in mainstream media across party lines. The researchers defined fake news as fabricated information that looks like news content but lacks the editorial standards and practices of legitimate journalism.