Climate change and habitat loss are two huge threats to animal and plant survival, but a new study shows how managing both factors could help prevent extinctions. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions and protecting more tropical land could reduce the probability of species blinking out, called extinction risk, by more than half, the research found. Scientists […]
CERN has taken a major step towards building a 100-kilometre circular super-collider to push the frontier of high-energy physics. The decision was unanimously endorsed by the CERN Council on 19 June, following the plan’s approval by an independent panel in March. Europe’s preeminent particle-physics organization will need global help to fund the project, which is […]
In late April Democrat Kweisi Mfume of Maryland won a special election for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in a landslide victory against his Republican rival. More remarkable than his win, which garnered three quarters of the vote, however, was that more than 110,000 Baltimoreans in the district cast their ballot by […]
Just as restaurants, clothing stores and offices around the world have had to close their doors to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, so have zoos, aquariums and animal sanctuaries. Some zoos have followed other industries by using online technology to keep life going. Many of them livestream animal activity to viewers, post behind-the-scenes […]
Municipal water can be contaminated by electronic waste and other sources of heavy metals—but collecting, chemically preserving and transporting samples to laboratories for testing is challenging for remote communities. To streamline the process, Emily Hanhauser, a mechanical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her colleagues created a low-tech sample-collection device that costs less […]
“Bye, Buddy. I hope you find your dad.” “Thanks, Mr. Narwhal.” In real life, narwhals don’t speak English, like the one bidding farewell to Will Ferrell’s character in the movie Elf. Instead, they sound more like this: WHISTLES AUDIO CLIP That’s an audio clip recorded by scientists last summer under the icy waters of Northwest […]
Before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the United States, Chris Trondsen felt his life was finally in control. As someone who has battled obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and other mental health issues since early childhood, it’s been a long journey. “I’ve been doing really, really well,” Trondsen said. “I felt like most of it was […]
Originally published in July 1914 Credit: Scientific American Advertisement “A French manufacturer makes its car bodies by a novel process of plastering—or maybe we should say modeling, because it requires more skill than that of the common plasterer. The framework of the car is made of wood, on which wire netting is tacked. Then the […]
The accuracy of screening tests is highly dependent on the infection rate A healthcare worker holds vials of blood samples while performing lab tests which detect immunoglobulin class G (IgG) antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 virus at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Care in Moscow, Russia, on May 29, 2020. Credit: Sergei Karpukhin Getty Images Advertisement […]
How do humans and other animals distinguish between the smell of rotting seafood or the enticing allure of a ripe banana? New research at New York University Langone Health uses artificially created odors to help reveal the intricate chain of events that allow one odor to be distinguished from another. The results were published today […]