How many electric vehicles should be on the road in each state, and across the country, in 2030, 2040 and 2050 to meet climate goals? How much land will be needed for solar or wind farms? How large will the energy-sector workforce need to be?

Short growing seasons limited the possible size of hunter-gatherer societies by forcing people to rely on meat, according to a recent study by a team of international reseachers including McGill University professor Eric Galbraith. 

New research from Texas A&M University scientists could help in boosting the efficiency of nuclear power plants in the near future. By using a combination of physics-based modeling and advanced simulations, they found the key underlying factors that cause radiation damage to nuclear reactors, which could then provide insight into designing more radiation-tolerant, high-performance materials.

Thousands of alien worlds are known to orbit stars beyond our solar system. And many more worlds, possibly harboring life, lie waiting to be discovered. A new astronomical instrument called NEID, the NN-explore Exoplanet Investigations with Doppler spectroscopy, has come online in 2021 to help scientists hunt for new alien worlds.

COVID-19 has particularly negative effects on people who come from economically weaker and less educated backgrounds, especially when we look at health, job security and education—this is shown by figures and studies from recent months. How the coronavirus pandemic affects prosocial behavior, on the other hand, is still largely unknown. A group of economic researchers led by Matthias Sutter has...

The moon was exposed to a heavy bombardment of asteroids 3.9 billion years ago. The origin of this bombardment, however, was previously unclear. Planetologists at Münster University have now tested these hypotheses with very precise isotope measurements of lunar rocks. Their conclusion: The bombardment of the moon goes back to continuous impacts of asteroids left over from the main phase of the...

Sudden oak death is one of the most ecologically devastating forest diseases in North America and particularly California, where it has killed millions of oaks and tanoaks along the coast. The disease has altered species composition and impacted carbon pools and fire risk. To curb the impact of this disease, scientists need to better understand the basic biology of the causal pathogen...

Four astronauts in orbit since spring headed back to Earth on Monday, aiming for a late night splashdown off the Florida coast.

Hydrocarbons, which are an essential component of crude oil and natural gas, form under pressure and high temperatures in the deep ocean floor. In the Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California, researchers have detected hydrocarbon gas patterns that could not have been generated by known formation pathways. In their study, which has now been published in the journal Proceedings of the National...

How do you like your rice? Sticky, fluffy, brown, or white? These qualities, in addition to grain length, width, appearance, and other traits, are hugely important predictors of rice sales and consumption worldwide. And region matters. Rice preferences in Latin America, for example, are very different from those in West Africa, Japan, India, and elsewhere.

The air quality in many parts of Europe and the Netherlands does not meet the advisory values of the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the smart integration of air purification technology at polluting hotspots in public spaces can substantially reduce fine dust concentrations in cities. This is the conclusion of the Eindhoven University of Technology, ENS Clean Air, Air Liquide, and the...

The two-legged dinosaur Issi saaneq lived about 214 million years ago in what is now Greenland. It was a medium-sized, long-necked herbivore and a predecessor of the sauropods, the largest land animals ever to live. It was discovered by an international team of researchers from Portugal, Denmark and Germany, including the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). The name of the new...

Online advertisements are found frequently splashed across news websites. Clicking on these banners or links provides the news site with revenue. But these ads also often use manipulative techniques, researchers say.

All vertebrates have the same basic body plan: Head, spine, four appendages. Those appendages vary greatly in size, shape, and function, of course—from fins to wings, arms, and legs—but a new genetic analysis shows that genes that control development at the ends of the appendages share a deep evolutionary history.

A new study, co-authored by researchers at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Forestry, offers a "scorecard" for climate adaptation projects—a set of 16 criteria that can be used to evaluate climate adaptation projects and inform their design. The scientists recently published their findings in the journal Environmental Science & Policy.

Soils are home to diverse microbial communities that cycle nutrients, support agriculture, and trap carbon—an important service for climate mitigation. Globally, around 80% of Earth's terrestrial carbon stores are found in soils. Due to climate warming and other human activities that affect soil microorganisms, this important carbon sink is at risk.

Around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased demand for single-use plastics such as face masks, gloves, and face shields. The resulting waste, some of which ends up in rivers and oceans, is intensifying pressure on an already out-of-control global plastic problem. While many researchers suspect there will be a massive influx of COVID-related mismanaged plastic waste, a new study...

Poorly drained agricultural soils emit enough of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide that the resulting climate change effects could far exceed the benefits of using the same soils as a means of sequestering carbon, according to a recently published scientific study.

Something big happened to the planet about a million years ago. There was a major shift in the response of Earth's climate system to variations in our orbit around the Sun. The shift is called the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. Before the MPT, cycles between glacial (colder) and interglacial (warmer) periods happened every 41,000 years. After the MPT, glacial periods became more intense—intense...

Over the last decade, John Huntley, a paleontologist and an associate professor of geological sciences at the University of Missouri, has studied the history of parasite-host interactions. These interactions can occur either outside a host's body, such as a tick, or inside a host's body, such as a flatworm.

The rates of death and health burdens associated with air pollution are borne unequally and inequitably by people of color and those with lower household income and educational attainment in Washington, D.C., according to a new study.

The success of a global circular economy is critically dependent on effective cooperation between influential countries. A joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on circular economy, signed by China and the EU in 2018, attracted high hopes—and corresponding optimistic narratives. A research team led by Anran Luo from the Chair of Social Transformation and Circular Economy at the Institute of...

Four astronauts were preparing to leave the International Space Station and head back to Earth on Monday after spending six busy months aboard the orbital outpost.

Forty years ago, the programmers at PBS were eager to experiment, so they took a chance and started a new series on animal behavior in the wild called "Nature."