Humans managed shellfish and their predators for millennia, study finds
Due to their protected status, sea otter populations have rebounded across the Pacific Northwest Coast following their near elimination during the historic maritime fur trade. But the recovery of these shellfish predators and the federal laws now protecting them challenge local Indigenous communities who hold constitutionally protected rights to harvest those same shellfish but who are legally...
Pair of rare albino alligators hatched in Florida
It's believed that there are fewer than 200 albino alligators in the world, and a pair recently hatched at Wild Florida, a gator and wildlife safari park.
Study: Attractiveness pays off at work, but there's a trick to leveling the playing field
Beautiful people are more likely to get hired, receive better performance evaluations and get paid more—but it's not just because of their good looks, according to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management.
Future pandemic response needs to consider cultural context, research says
Strategies that not only conform to science but also consider the cultural context of countries are key to fighting future pandemics, according to researchers from Simon Fraser University and two U.S. universities.
New research analyzes investor reaction to robo-advisors: Some investors miss opportunities
Believe it nor not, more and more lending companies are turning to human-robot interaction to help with investment advice. But how do people react and what's the result of an investment decision when robots use algorithms to make suggestions? New research in the INFORMS journal Information Systems Research finds that investors who could benefit most from robo-advisors (RAs) aren't using them. And...
Smartphone cameras offer smallholder farmers promising new access to soil health knowledge
The lack of adequate access to effective soil fertility testing in India, and much of the subtropical and tropical world, has led a group of scientists to explore how a smartphone camera might be transformed into a powerful and readily available alternative. Recently published in the Elsevier journal Biosystems Engineering, the research team describes important advances in the area of image-based...
New framework could help teachers personalize their professional learning
Digital badges used as emblems to indicate an accomplishment or skill is a concept familiar to online learners seeking advanced knowledge in their profession. For many learners, digital badges have been used as a motivation to continue along a prescribed path—often through workshop attendance or completion of required online learning modules.
Receiving threatening or obscene messages from a partner and mental health
Threatening or obscene messaging includes repeated, unwanted texts, emails, letters or cards experienced by the recipient as threatening or obscene, and causing fear, alarm or distress. It is a rarely examined aspect of intimate partner violence.
Small satellites have a role in assessing atmospheric particulates, research shows
Small commercial satellites have a role in atmospheric particulates investigations, according to recently published thesis research by a research associate with the Earth System Science Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of the University of Alabama System.
School can be scary in a pandemic. A new app helps teachers know how kids are feeling
Two Johns Hopkins University researchers who study classroom stress and the emotional well-being of students and teachers have released an app that allows teachers to get daily reports about how their students are feeling.
'Triangle singularity' is responsible for transformation in the particle zoo
An international study led by the University of Bonn has found evidence of a long-sought effect in accelerator data. The so-called "triangle singularity" describes how particles can change their identities by exchanging quarks, thereby mimicking a new particle. The mechanism also provides new insights into a mystery that has long puzzled particle physicists: Protons, neutrons and many other...
An emberometer could gauge the threat of wildfire-spreading embers
As wildfire fronts advance through landscapes or communities on the ground, they also attack from above, launching volleys of glowing embers into the air. Also known as firebrands, these specks of burning debris can glide for up to 40 kilometers (approximately 24 miles) before landing and can cause up to 90% of home and business fires during wildfires.
Protecting largest, most prolific fish may boost productivity of fisheries, new research finds
Management of many of the largest fisheries in the world assumes incorrectly that many small fish reproduce as well as fewer large ones with similar total masses, a new analysis has found. That can lead to overharvesting the largest, most prolific fish that can contribute the most to the population.
Grace upgraded to hurricane, heads for Mexico
Tropical storm Grace strengthened to a hurricane on Wednesday as it barreled toward Mexico's Caribbean coast, threatening to bring heavy rain, flash flooding and large waves, meteorologists said.
'Shadow waveguide' casts complex acoustic patterns to control particles
Engineers at Duke University have devised a new approach to using sound waves to manipulate tiny particles suspended in liquid in complex ways. Dubbed a "shadow waveguide," the technique uses only two sound sources to create a tightly confined, spatially complex acoustic field inside a chamber without requiring any interior structure. The technology offers a new suite of features to the...
Mystery of the seadragon solved
Seadragons (Phyllopetryx taeniolatus) live off the coast in western and southern Australia. An international team involving evolutionary biologist Axel Meyer from the University of Konstanz has now found the genetic basis for some external characteristics of the seadragon, like its lack of teeth and its distinct leaf-like appendages. The team also localized the sex-determination gene in the...
The fewer forests, the more space giant anteaters need
Giant anteaters living in less forested habitats make use of larger home ranges, according to a study by Aline Giroux at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul and colleagues, publishing August 18 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. This behavior may allow them to incorporate forest patches into their territory, the authors say.
What if our history was written in our grammar?
Humans have been always on the move, creating a complex history of languages and cultural traditions dispersed over the globe. An international team under UZH's lead has now traced families of related languages over more than 10,000 years by combining data from genetics, linguistics and musicology using novel digital methods. Their findings: grammar reflects best the common prehistory of a...
Experimental confirmation of wave-particle duality
The 21st century has undoubtedly been the era of quantum science. Quantum mechanics was born in the early 20th century and has been used to develop unprecedented technologies which include quantum information, quantum communication, quantum metrology, quantum imaging, and quantum sensing. However, in quantum science, there are still unresolved and even inapprehensible issues like wave-particle...
New research shows pandemic good for recreational fishing due to 'social fishtancing'
Recreational fishing in the U.S. is largely a personal hobby that scales up to a multibillion-dollar economic activity. More than 44 million people in the U.S. identify as recreational anglers making this hobby second only to jogging in terms of popular outdoor activities.
Parents remain concerned about safety of in-person instruction
A gap remains between white parents and Black and Hispanic parents in their preferences for in-person schooling, but it has narrowed since May. The RAND Corporation survey, funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, details parents' responses concerning school hesitancy and preferences for COVID-19 safety practices in U.S. schools in fall 2021.
Devastating wildfires advancing through Northern California
Northern California wildfires that incinerated two mountain communities continued marching through the Sierra Nevada on Wednesday while a utility purposely blacked out as many as 51,000 customers to prevent new blazes.
Mapping the universe's earliest structures with COSMOS-webb
When NASA's James Webb Space Telescope begins science operations in 2022, one of its first tasks will be an ambitious program to map the earliest structures in the universe. Called COSMOS-Webb, this wide and deep survey of half a million galaxies is the largest project Webb will undertake during its first year.
Exploring how tantalum behaves at high pressures and temperatures
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have explored high-pressure behavior of shock-compressed tantalum at the Omega Laser Facility at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE). The work showed tantalum did not follow the predicted phase changes at high pressure and instead maintained the body-centered cubic (BCC) phase until melt.
Yucatan climate past informs the global climate present
New research shows changes in tides and hurricane activity played a part in upending the Maya civilization centuries ago.