104 articles from MONDAY 16.1.2023

How the last 12,000 years have shaped what humans are today

While humans have been evolving for millions of years, the past 12,000 years have been among the most dynamic and impactful for the way we live today, according to an anthropologist who organized a special journal feature on the topic in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Astronomers spot an orphaned protostar

Astronomers have performed an impressive suite of observations at multiple wavelengths of the same system, dubbed the HH 24 complex. This complex hosts stars in the process of being born and the impacts of their violent interactions with each other, including the ejection of one of their siblings.

Why food is such a powerful symbol in political protest

Food is a hot issue in today's activism. Last year, UK climate group Just Stop Oil hurled tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London. Later they smeared cake on a Madame Tussauds waxwork of King Charles. Protesters affiliated with the German group Letzte Generation (Last Generation) threw mashed potatoes on Claude Monet's Grainstacks at the Barberini Museum in...

Bringing manufacturing back to the US requires political will, but success hinges on training American workers

Supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 brought to light how interdependent nations are when it comes to manufacturing. The inability of the U.S. to produce such needed goods as test kits and personal protective equipment during the pandemic revealed our vulnerabilities as a nation. China's rise as a global production superpower has further underscored the weaknesses of American manufacturing.

Taliban ban on female NGO staff is deepening Afghanistan’s public health crisis

The Taliban’s 24 December 2022 decree barring women from working in national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is another devastating blow to women’s rights in Afghanistan. It also threatens to plunge a country beset by hunger and natural disasters even deeper into a public health crisis. The United Nations (UN) and its humanitarian...

Length of speech pauses signals speakers' willingness to do others a favor, finds study

When we ask others to do us a favor, we often judge their helpfulness by the length of the pauses before their answers. Researchers led by Theresa Matzinger from the University of Vienna have now been able to show that these pauses are rated differently for native and non-native speakers—but not for all topics. The results of the study now appear in a special issue on the topic of speech pauses...

Blocking radio waves and electromagnetic interference with the flip of a switch

Researchers in Drexel University's College of Engineering have developed a thin film device, fabricated by spray coating, that can block electromagnetic radiation with the flip of a switch. The breakthrough, enabled by versatile two-dimensional materials called MXenes, could adjust the performance of electronic devices, strengthen wireless connections and secure mobile communications against...

Study finds active galactic nuclei are even more powerful than thought

Powered by supermassive black holes swallowing matter in the centers of galaxies, active galactic nuclei are the most powerful compact steady sources of energy in the universe. The brightest active galactic nuclei have long been known to far outshine the combined light of the billions of stars in their host galaxies. A new study indicates that scientists have substantially underestimated the...