Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain At a time when America needs volunteers more than ever, to tackle social problems from homelessness to disaster recovery, fewer people have been volunteering. The number of volunteers for nonprofit and community-based organizations declined recently for the first time in decades, from 30% of the population in 2019 to 23% in … Read more
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Are family challenges distracting you at work, making your job feel demanding and stressful? You’re not alone. But for people who use their working memory, which helps them manage distractions, they can reduce the impact of family problems at work, according to a new study. Research by Oscar Ybarra, professor emeritus … Read more
The ULLYSES program studied two types of young stars: super-hot, massive, blue stars and cooler, redder, less massive stars than our Sun. The top panel is a Hubble Space Telescope image of a star-forming region containing massive, young, blue stars in 30 Doradus, the Tarantula Nebula. Located within the Large Magellanic Cloud, this is one … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Everyone indulges in wishful thinking now and again. But when is that most likely to happen, and when could it actually be harmful? A new study led by the University of Amsterdam (UvA) demonstrates unequivocally that the greater the insecurity and anxiety of a situation, the more likely people are to … Read more
Headshot of a Formica cinerea queen. Credit: Giulia Scarparo/UCR An ant colony is sustained through complex social dynamics, with each member—the queen, males and workers (sterile females)—contributing to the greater community. Some species add complexity to this dynamic with the addition of rather small queens. Researchers at UC Riverside tackled why these additional queens are … Read more
Emissions of SF6 in China. Credit: Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46084-3 To achieve the aspirational goal of the Paris Agreement on climate change—limiting the increase in global average surface temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels—will require its 196 signatories to dramatically reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Those greenhouse gases differ widely in … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A new analysis of adolescent TV and films on Netflix suggests that too often, it shows misleading depictions of pain, portraying pain as something arising only through a violent act or injury. Instead of trivializing the experience, it could do more to educate young people about much more common, everyday pain. … Read more
Cnemaspis vangoghi sp. nov., in life A adult male (holotype, NRC-AA-8342). Credit: Photos by Akshay Khandekar, ZooKeys (2024). DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1196.117947 You’ve probably seen nature depicted in art, but how often do you see an artwork hiding in nature? When they saw the back of a lizard in the Southern Western Ghats, a group of scientists … Read more
Bovine tuberculosis is an infectious disease of cattle that results in large economic costs and health impacts across the world. Credit: Jacqueline Garget Vaccination not only reduces the severity of TB in infected cattle, but reduces its spread in dairy herds by 89%, research finds. The research, led by the University of Cambridge and Penn … Read more
Based on a small amount of basic information about a crystal’s structure, the Oldenburg researchers’ program calculates the properties of complex new materials. Credit: University of Oldenburg / EST group Computer-based methods are becoming an increasingly powerful tool in the search for new materials for key technologies such as photovoltaics, batteries, and data transmission. Prof. … Read more
