Political rage on social media is making us cynical: Study

Political rage on social media is making us cynical: Study

Credit: AI-generated image Political anger and cynicism are rising in the United States and in many democracies worldwide, and both are associated with exposure to political attacks on social media, a new University of Michigan study shows. Americans use social media to find information and news about politics, but much of the content they see … Read more

Higher bacterial counts detected in single-serving milks

Higher bacterial counts detected in single-serving milks

Genus-level classification based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing data for isolates (n = 419) collected from carton (49 isolates), milk (218 isolates), mandrel sponge (mandrel; 141 isolates), and mandrel hub sponge (mandrel hub; 11 isolates) samples collected during a follow-up visit to each of 4 facilities and then stored at stored at 21°C for 24 … Read more

India’s water problems set to get worse as the world warms

India’s water problems set to get worse as the world warms

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Winter storms that provide crucial snow and rainfall to northern India are arriving significantly later in the year compared to 70 years ago, a new study has found, exacerbating the risk of catastrophic flooding while also reducing vital water supplies for millions of residents of India. The cyclonic storms, known as … Read more

New device acts like a superconductivity switch

New device acts like a superconductivity switch

False color scanning electron microscope image of a parallel-channel superconducting nanocryotron. Blue highlights the ground plane, gray shows the trench and nanowire gaps, green represents the effective NbN channel, and red signifies the NbN gate to choke constriction. Scale bars correspond to 2 μm. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory In particle colliders that reveal the hidden … Read more

Europe is not prepared for rapidly growing climate risks, researchers say

Europe is not prepared for rapidly growing climate risks, researchers say

Observed and projected temperature increase over European land area. Temperatures are expressed relative to pre-industrial levels. The model projections show the mean and uncertainty interval. The two scenarios assessed are SSP1-2.6: low warming, and SSP3-7.0: high warming. Credit: European climate risk assessment: Executive summary (2024). Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world and governments … Read more

Europe must do more against ‘catastrophic’ climate risks: EU

Europe must do more against ‘catastrophic’ climate risks: EU

Droughts like the one that has struck Spain are among the climate risks Europe faces. Europe could suffer “catastrophic” consequences from climate change if it fails to take urgent and decisive action to adapt to risks, a new EU analysis warned Monday. Areas in southern Europe are most at risk, the European Environment Agency (EEA) … Read more

The Great Barrier Reef’s latest bout of bleaching is the fifth in eight summers—the corals now have almost no reprieve

The Great Barrier Reef’s latest bout of bleaching is the fifth in eight summers—the corals now have almost no reprieve

Credit: The Undertow Ocean & Divers for Climate For the fifth time in just the past eight summers—2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and now 2024—huge swathes of the Great Barrier Reef are experiencing extreme heat stress that has triggered yet another episode of mass coral bleaching. Including two earlier heating episodes—in 1998 (which was at the … Read more

More precise understanding of dark energy achieved using AI

More precise understanding of dark energy achieved using AI

A matter map derived from one of the simulated universes. The lightest areas of the map show the regions where dark matter is most dense. These correspond to superclusters of galaxies. The dark, almost black patches are cosmic voids, the large empty spaces in between clusters of galaxies. Credit: Niall Jeffrey et al A UCL-led … Read more

Experts create blueprint to aid elderly people at storm flood risk

Experts create blueprint to aid elderly people at storm flood risk

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Emergency planners in Shanghai and New York City face increasing pressure to protect elderly citizens from the devastating impact of coastal flooding caused by storms and cyclones, a new study reveals. Both cities are highly exposed to storm-induced flooding and analysis shows that—with two distinct systems of emergency operation—there are significant … Read more

Three dead, four missing after floods snare cars in southern France

Three dead, four missing after floods snare cars in southern France

Most of the victims were feared to have been swept away in their cars. French rescue workers recovered three bodies on Sunday and were searching for four other people, including two children, after violent storms lashed the southeast of the country, with most believed to have been swept away in cars on flooded bridges. A … Read more