Municipal wastewater treatment plants emit nearly double the amount of methane into the atmosphere than scientists previously believed, according to new research from Princeton University. And since methane warms the planet over 80 times more powerfully than carbon dioxide over 20 years, that could be a big problem.

An international team including HSE researchers has conducted the largest ever cross-cultural study of appearance-enhancing behaviors. They have found that people worldwide spend an average of four hours a day on enhancing their beauty. Caring for one's appearance does not depend on gender, and older people worry as much about looking their best as the young do. The strongest predictor of...

In a paper published Feb. 28 in the journal eLife, a team of researchers headed by Princeton's Alexander Ploss settle a debate about a key protein in hepatitis E (Hep E), which could open the way to developing treatments for a tiny virus that poses an outsized threat to public health around the globe.

A new study co-authored by a University of Central Florida researcher has found that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to an increase of people willing to cycle in the U.S.

A study by an international and interdisciplinary team headed by University of Freiburg archaeologist Dr. Ralph Araque Gonzalez from the Faculty of Humanities has proven that steel tools were already in use in Europe around 2,900 years ago.

In 2011, scientists recorded a previously unknown feeding strategy in whales around the world. Now, researchers in Australia think they may have found evidence of this behavior being described in ancient accounts of sea creatures, recorded more than 2,000 years ago.

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have repeatedly been the subject of negative news coverage. As a result, the positive aspects associated with digital platforms have been overlooked. In light of this, a recent study has explored the social media activity of a carefully selected group of individuals who use the microblogging platform Twitter.

The pace of states using preemption to control local authority has quickened and expanded in the United States around issues related to rights of student athletes who are transgender, and the ways race and racism may be taught in US classrooms, according to new data capturing preemption across 15 domains published today by the Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research with the...

Understanding how climate change and fishing pressure affect major commercial species productivity and body size is key to being able to adapt and ensure the future sustainability of the fisheries.

West Virginia officials investigating reports of a powder in the air and on some vehicles in the mid-Atlantic have determined the source: pollen.

Police in Peru have seized a mummified human, between 600 and 800 years old, from a former food delivery man who claimed to have had it at his home for three decades.

To realize true Internet of Things in future, compact monolithic integrated micro-supercapacitors (MIMSCs) with high systemic performance along with cell number density will become indispensable for powering miniaturized electronics, but their scalable production is still challenging. Several limitations stand as the barriers in their path.

Eating and being eaten is a normal process in nature. These predator–prey dynamics help to stabilize ecosystems. It ensures that individual species do not become too abundant, controls their populations, and prevents damage caused by overpopulation (e.g. browsing by deer in the forest or damage to crops by caterpillars).

A new study of New Zealand blue whales' vocalizations indicates the whales are present year-round in the South Taranaki Bight and their behavior is influenced by environmental conditions in the region.

Classical robots, such as those used for manufacturing, can lift heavy loads and repeat automated processes precisely. But they are too rigid and bulky for delicate work and interaction with humans. The research field of soft robotics works on the development of robots made of soft, organic materials and flexible technical components. Materials researchers at Kiel University have now developed a...

The nitrogen cycle, one of the most important biochemical cycles in all ecosystems, plays a key role in human survival and development. It describes the interconversion process between elementary nitrogen substances and nitrogen-containing compounds in nature. Undoubtedly, the redox reactions between these nitrogen-containing molecules maintain the balance of the nitrogen cycle. However, over the...

Cartilaginous fish have changed much more in the course of their evolutionary history than previously believed. Evidence for this thesis has been provided by new fossils of a ray-like shark, Protospinax annectans, which demonstrate that sharks were already highly evolved in the Late Jurassic. This is the result of a recent study by an international research group led by paleobiologist Patrick L....

In July 2021, unprecedented heavy rainfall occurred in Zhengzhou (east-central China) against a background of a northward shift in the western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH), which is a key atmospheric circulation system affecting the East Asian summer climate.

A study by researchers from the UPF Culture, Archaeology and Socio-Ecological Dynamics Research Group (CaSEs), recently published in the journal PLOS ONE, provides a global assessment of traditional small-scale farming practices for three of the world's most important drought-tolerant species: finger millet, pearl millet and sorghum.

For the first time, researchers develop a metabarcoding technology for brittle stars. Japanese scientists, led by Dr. Masanori Okanishi of the Hiroshima Shudo University and the University of Tokyo, analyzed environmental DNA (eDNA) released from marine invertebrates in the water, and successfully identified the species they were looking for. The study is published in Metabarcoding and...

As of December 2021, a total of 252 planetary probes have been launched around the world.

The mahogany trees Cedro and Caoba (Cedrela odorata and Swietenia macrophylla) affect the right-forewing of their unwelcome guest, the mahogany shoot borer, which could later influence its flying abilities and help with pest management, a new study shows.

High-power lasers now create record-high numbers of electron-positron pairs, opening exciting opportunities to study extreme astrophysical processes, such as black holes and gamma-ray bursts.

An updated metric for prioritizing species' conservation that incorporates scientific uncertainty and complementarity between species, in addition to extinction risk and evolutionary distinctiveness, has been published on February 28 in the open access journal PLOS Biology, authored by Rikki Gumbs from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), U.K., and colleagues.