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51 articles from PhysOrg

Examining ethical considerations for human remains

In 2022, the Penn Museum announced that it would rebury the skulls of dozens of Black Philadelphian individuals whose remains were unethically obtained in the mid-1800s. Some in the community of the individuals' descendants, who felt they were not consulted, filed a formal opposition to Penn Museum's plan. In 2023, a judge ruled that the community had no legal standing to decide how their dead are...

Taboo words, disability and marginalized communities

Flinders University and U.K. researchers have analyzed the use of disability-related taboo words to better understand how certain terms are used in the community and shed light on their negative and positive impact on people with disabilities.

Researcher uses artificial intelligence to discover new materials for advanced computing

A team of researchers led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Trevor David Rhone, assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, has identified novel van der Waals (vdW) magnets using cutting-edge tools in artificial intelligence (AI). In particular, the team identified transition metal halide vdW materials with large magnetic moments that are predicted to be...

New research links changes in land use to water quality and quantity

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently published a study in the journal PLOS Water that focuses on the Sudbury-Assabet and Concord watershed in eastern Massachusetts, and which links hydrological changes, including floods, drought and runoff, to changing patterns of land use.

How bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics

Bacteria can rapidly evolve resistance to antibiotics by adapting special pumps to flush them out of their cells, according to new research from the Quadram Institute and University of East Anglia. The study is published in the journal npj Antimicrobials and Resistance.

Bail reform law in New York had negligible effect on increases in crime

Across the United States, legislators and the public have debated the issue of bail reform, which aims to reduce pretrial jail populations by eliminating cash bail. New York State passed legislation in 2019 to limit the use of money bail and expand pretrial release. In a new study, researchers evaluated the effect of the law on state crime rates, considering the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic....

Saving desalination membranes from minerals and microbes

Treating seawater with selected chemicals before desalination could reduce biofouling and lengthen the lifespan of filtration membranes. Identifying the components of membrane antiscalants that cause biofouling could help make seawater desalination a more sustainable source of fresh water.

Researchers discover mechanism responsible for genome rearrangements

The goal of every dividing cell is to accurately segregate its genome into two genetically identical daughter cells. However, this process often goes awry and may be responsible for a new class of chromosomal abnormalities found in cancers and congenital disorders, UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists report in a new study. The discovery, published in Nature, sheds light on how cancer cells...

When it comes to satellite data, sometimes more is more

There are roughly 7,000 satellites whizzing around Earth, scanning our planet's surface and generating hundreds of terabytes of data every day. These satellites are operated by many different governments and commercial entities, and the data they produce are scattered across different stakeholders with different agendas, making it impossible for any single research team to leverage the full...

Report: Securing a sustainable future for kelp forests

Into the Blue: Securing a Sustainable Future for Kelp Forests global synthesis report is the most comprehensive knowledge review on kelp to date, revealing the state of science on the world's kelp forests and providing recommended actions to build the recovery of the world's kelp forests.

Study examines what drives good deeds

Every day, we face a series of opportunities to do the right thing. Sometimes we seize those moments; other times, we don't. So, why do we make these choices, and what drives some people to take the moral high ground?

Scientists discover fire records embedded within sand dunes

Knowing how the frequency and intensity of wildfires has changed over time offers scientists a glimpse into Earth's past landscapes, as well as an understanding of future climate change impacts. To reconstruct fire records, researchers rely heavily on sediment records from lake beds, but this means that fire histories from arid regions are often overlooked. Now, a new study shows that sand dunes...

New composite strategy leaves coverage questions behind, researchers report

Answers could be cloudy for researchers using Landsat images to investigate the coverage of the continental United States. The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) are useful products for scientists to understand how things like tree canopy and road coverage changes over time, but something as simple as cloud coverage can be misinterpreted in the satellite images as a significant surface coverage...

Weight discrimination linked to views on poverty

A new study has discovered that people who believe individuals are to blame for living in poverty are more likely to oppose laws aimed at preventing weight discrimination—suggesting some UK adults think the two issues are connected.

Improved microphysics modeling of clouds

Clouds are made up of individual, microscopic spheres of water, or hydrometeors, that change and interact with one another based on environmental conditions and the characteristics of the hydrometeor population, such as size and water phase: liquid, ice or vapor.