Does hearing about a company's charitable donations raise your opinion of their products? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, corporate social responsibility leads consumers to believe products are better quality.| phys.org
What's the real age of Norwegian stave churches?| phys.org
See-through solar materials that can be applied to windows represent a massive source of untapped energy and could harvest as much power as bigger, bulkier rooftop solar units, scientists report today in Nature Energy.| phys.org
You've probably heard it before in a meeting: "Let's touch base offline to align our bandwidth on this workflow." Corporate jargon like this is easy to laugh at—but its negative impact in the office can be serious.| phys.org
A study by Michael Gerlich at SBS Swiss Business School has found that increased reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) tools is linked to diminished critical thinking abilities. It points to cognitive offloading as a primary driver of the decline.| phys.org
At his farm in southern Spain, Francisco Campos looked worriedly at a green sea of centuries-old olive trees that he fears will face the ax to make way for a proposed solar park.| phys.org
Canadian-grown wheat, canola and peas have some of the lowest carbon footprints in the world—so low that, in some cases, they could be shipped to Europe 17 times before matching the emissions of the same crops grown there.| phys.org
A team of international scientists has discovered new fossils at a field site in Africa that indicate Australopithecus, and the oldest specimens of Homo, coexisted at the same place in Africa at the same time—between 2.6 and 2.8 million years ago. The paleoanthropologists discovered a new species of Australopithecus that has never been found anywhere.| phys.org
Geography as a school subject is under pressure. There aren't enough qualified teachers and it loses out to other subjects in school. In many countries, important aspects are left out of the curricula.| phys.org
Three NASA-funded rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, in an experiment that seeks to reveal how auroral substorms affect the behavior and composition of Earth's far upper atmosphere.| phys.org
NSF NOIRLab rings in the New Year with a glittering galaxyscape captured with the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. This ultra-deep view of the Antlia Cluster reveals a spectacular array of galaxy types among the hundreds that make up its population.| phys.org
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD), in collaboration with international partners, have developed momentum-resolved Floquet optical selection rules. They show how these symmetry-based rules determine the spectral weight distributions of photon-dressed sidebands in time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (TrARPES) experiments across different pump-probe configurations. This fundamental work has now been published in Science Advances.| phys.org
Deep beneath the ocean's surface lies Earth's largest carbon reservoir: marine sediments that have accumulated organic matter over millions of years. Long assumed to be permanently "locked away," this vast carbon pool is far more dynamic than scientists previously believed, according to a new international study.| phys.org
University of Iowa researchers have successfully tested a technique that stimulates a gene to prevent craniosynostosis, a condition that causes infants' skulls to close prematurely.| phys.org
Air pollution from oil and gas is causing 91,000 premature deaths and hundreds of thousands of health issues across the United States annually, with Black, Asian, Native American and Hispanic groups consistently the most affected, finds a major new study led by researchers at UCL and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).| phys.org
Our remarkable ability to perform complex tasks—such as thinking, observing, and touch—stems from proteins, the tiny nanometer-sized molecules in the body. Despite decades of research, our understanding of the structure and function of such molecular machines within the cellular environment remains limited.| phys.org
Methane—a potent greenhouse gas—constantly seeps from the ocean floor and can rise into the atmosphere. Now, an international team led by scientists with the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences has uncovered how tiny microorganisms work together as a living electrical network to consume some of this gas before it escapes, acting as a powerful living filter.| phys.org
Annual rates of marine mammal strandings have increased in the last 30 years, across all species of dolphins, whales and porpoise native to Scottish waters.| phys.org
The Neolithic period, considered to be the last part of the Stone Age, may have been a brutal time to be alive for many people in Europe. Archaeological studies have found evidence of massacres involving entire communities, somewhat common abductions of young females, executions and mass graves. The areas of Achenheim and Bergheim, in Northeastern France, were found to have experienced this kind of violence sometime around 4300–4150 BCE.| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
A deep sea worm that inhabits hydrothermal vents survives the high levels of toxic arsenic and sulfide in its environment by combining them in its cells to form a less hazardous mineral. Chaolun Li of the Institute of Oceanology, CAS, China, and colleagues report these findings in a study published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.| phys.org
Among the biggest culprits of plastic pollution in the ocean and along shorelines are thin plastic shopping bags, which have low recycling rates and often become litter when they blow away in the wind. Once there, they can entangle animals and break down into harmful microplastics. As awareness of this problem has grown, more than 100 countries have instituted bans or fees on plastic bags. But what effect those policies are having on the amount of plastic litter in the marine environment has ...| phys.org
A study by University of Hawaiʻi researchers is advancing how we learn the laws that govern complex systems—from predator-prey relationships to traffic patterns in cities to how populations grow and shift—using artificial intelligence (AI) and physics.| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Tree-climbing, cranes, chemical knockdown—collecting samples from the canopies used to be very time-consuming. Scientists from the UDE's working group "Aquatic Ecosystem Research" led by Prof. Dr. Florian Leese now had a brilliant idea: Shortly before a forecast downpour, they placed four rain samplers beneath oaks, beeches, pines, and larches in the Diersfordter Wald and in the Großer Veen on the Lower Rhine region.| phys.org
Tropical rainforests still represent a treasure trove of undiscovered species. While many species of plants, animals, and insects have been identified over the years, some parts of these tropical ecosystems are difficult to access and pose challenges for researchers. In particular, the high canopies of tropical forests can be hard—and often expensive—to study without causing local damage.| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
The Inuit arrived in Greenland several hundred years earlier than previously believed, according to a study that mapped the genetics of sled dogs conducted by researchers from institutions including the University of Copenhagen.| phys.org
Teenagers can seem to have their phones glued to their hands—yet they won't answer them when they ring. This scenario, which is all too familiar to many parents, can seem absurd and frustrating, or even alarming to some.| phys.org
Since 1990, more than 2.5 million people have died as a direct or indirect result of civil conflict in Africa. One of the causes of conflict, which increasingly involves clashes between predominantly Muslim herding and Christian farming communities, may well have been competition over agricultural resources, brought on by the hotter, drier conditions in the last 30 years.| phys.org
Organic chemistry, the chemistry of carbon compounds, is the basis of all life on Earth. However, metals also play a key role in many biochemical processes. When it comes to "marrying" large, heavy metal atoms with light organic compounds, nature often relies on a specific group of chemical structures: porphyrins. These molecules form an organic ring; in its center, individual metal ions such as iron, cobalt, or magnesium can be "anchored."| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
When a disease-causing virus or other organism is transmitted from one species to another, most of the time the infection sputters and dies out. On rare occasions, the infection can perpetuate transmission in the new host species and cause a pandemic. For example, scientists are keeping a close eye on H5N1, highly pathogenic avian influenza, which causes bird flu and has been found in cows and humans. But is there a way to anticipate when infections will die out on their own and when they wil...| phys.org
Electricity flows through wires to deliver power, but it loses energy as it moves, delivering less than it started with. But that energy loss isn't a given. Scientists at Penn State have found a new way to identify types of materials known as superconductors that allow power to travel without any resistance, meaning no energy is lost.| phys.org
One of the defining features of an arctic environment is permafrost, which covers almost 10% of Earth's surface and remains entirely frozen year round. With temperatures reaching more extreme levels more frequently, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded a two-year, $957,013 grant to Penn State Professor Ming Xiao, to investigate the effect on permafrost and how its melting could expose contaminants to the environment.| phys.org
Creating meaningful opportunities for students to help shape their own education isn't simply a matter of inviting them to speak up. According to new research led by Penn State College of Education Professor Dana Mitra, it requires a careful balance of teacher mindsets, relationships and practical skills—what the study terms cognitive mindsets, emotive "heartsets" and intention-building skillsets.| phys.org
Similar to humans, plants can become infected with more than one virus at a time, opening the door for more severe infections and new disease variants. But these mixed infections are often under-studied and poorly understood.| phys.org
For seaside communities reducing their pollution, nitrogen is a prime target. Often found in agricultural runoff and human waste, nitrogen and the nitrogen-containing nitrate molecule can enter coastal waters as a critical nutrient for algae. Its abundance leads to a surplus of algal blooms, upsetting delicate balances of plant and marine life.| phys.org
For small-scale farmers up against floods, droughts and other dramatic climate events, diversifying income sources can mean financial safety—a lifeline as crop-growing conditions destabilize. But in Nepal, where natural hazards rank among the most severe in the world, how farmers perceive climate-related risks often leads them to double down on agriculture instead of exploring other livelihoods, according to a study led by a Penn State researcher.| phys.org
Corn was domesticated from its ancestor teosinte in central Mexico beginning about 9,000 years ago by humans selectively breeding the wild plant, transforming its small, hard-shelled kernels into the large, palatable ears of corn we know today. Over the centuries, root traits of corn—now the most widely planted crop in the U.S., and second globally (by acreage)—evolved in response to both changing environmental conditions and human agricultural practices.| phys.org
New computer simulations that model every atom of a protein as it folds into its final three-dimensional form support the existence of a recently identified type of protein misfolding.| phys.org
If an extraterrestrial intelligence were looking for signs of human communications, when and where should they look? In a new study, researchers at Penn State and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California analyzed when and where human deep space transmissions would be most detectable by an observer outside our solar system and suggest that the patterns they see could be used to guide our own search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Climate change is not new: temperatures have been rising for decades as a result of global warming. In South Africa's city of Pietermaritzburg, four low-income urban communities have experienced drought, heat waves, severe hailstorms, devastating flooding events that killed hundreds of people and displaced thousands, and wildfires as a result of climate change. Environmental scientist Sithabile Hlahla interviewed people in 378 homes there and found that they were not coping well with climate ...| phys.org
A public‑private partnership between Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory has led to a new artificial intelligence (AI) approach that is faster at finding what's known as "magnetic shadows" in a fusion vessel: safe havens protected from the intense heat of the plasma.| phys.org
A network analysis of more than 26,000 dogs and their health conditions helps reveal which diseases tend to go together, providing data that veterinarians and researchers can use to help treat the problems that dogs face, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS Computational Biology by Antoinette Fang from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington, U.S., and colleagues.| phys.org
Large language models (LLMs), advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models trained to analyze and generate texts in different human languages, have become increasingly widespread over the past few years. Since the release of the conversational platform ChatGPT, which relies on different versions of an LLM called GPT, these models have become widely used by individuals worldwide, while also making their way into some professional and research settings.| phys.org
Deep neural networks (DNNs), the machine learning algorithms underpinning the functioning of large language models (LLMs) and other artificial intelligence (AI) models, learn to make accurate predictions by analyzing large amounts of data. These networks are structured in layers, each of which transforms input data into 'features' that guide the analysis of the next layer.| phys.org
A belief that individual actions do make a meaningful difference is among the common factors that motivate people to voluntarily reduce their consumption of single-use plastics (SUP), a Griffith University study has discovered.| phys.org
Conservation should focus on protecting natural "processes"—not just specific species, researchers say. Current policies often focus on flagship animals, with priority given to rare and well-known species like pandas and polar bears.| phys.org
Archaeologists have analyzed more than 200 coins from the first millennium AD mainland Southeast Asia, revealing long-distance economic connections across the region which facilitated extensive trade and cultural interaction.| phys.org
A new method, which uses synthetic datasets and transfer learning to overcome data scarcity and variability, significantly outperforms conventional techniques in multi-year field trials.| phys.org
Half of U.S. adults report using at least one "major AI tool," but public attitudes about artificial intelligence regulation remain divided nationwide, according to a new survey.| phys.org
Research at Hokkaido University has revealed that elusive particles called neutrinos can interact with photons, the fundamental particles of light and other electromagnetic radiation, in ways not previously detected. The findings from Kenzo Ishikawa, Professor Emeritus at Hokkaido University, with colleague Yutaka Tobita, lecturer at Hokkaido University of Science, were published in the journal Physics Open.| phys.org
Neutrinos are tiny and neutrally charged particles accounted for by the Standard Model of particle physics. While they are estimated to be some of the most abundant particles in the universe, observing them has so far proved to be highly challenging, as the probability that they will interact with other matter is low.| phys.org
Australia's First Nations history stretches back many tens of thousands of years, rich in depth and diversity. Archaeological research has revealed much about this deep past, but it has rarely captured the gestures of the ancestors—their movements, postures and physical motions. Material traces like tools and hearths tend to survive; fleeting movements usually do not.| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
New theoretical research by Michael Wondrak, Walter van Suijlekom and Heino Falcke of Radboud University has shown that Stephen Hawking was right about black holes, although not completely. Due to Hawking radiation, black holes will eventually evaporate, but the event horizon is not as crucial as had been believed. Gravity and the curvature of spacetime cause this radiation too. This means that all large objects in the universe, like the remnants of stars, will eventually evaporate.| phys.org
Two new studies find that leaders are less likely to empower followers who raise concerns about workplace decisions, even though these "challenging voice" employees play a critical role in highlighting problems and identifying solutions. The studies also outline what drives these decisions.| phys.org
What turns a democratically elected leader into an authoritarian? The process is rarely abrupt. It unfolds gradually and is often justified as a necessary reform. It is framed as what the people wanted. All this makes it difficult for citizens to recognize what is happening until it's too late.| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
A newly published study has found that males of some of our earliest known ancestors were significantly larger than females. The pronounced difference in body size present in both Australopithecus afarensis (the East African species that includes the famous fossil "Lucy") and A. africanus (a closely related southern African species) suggests the ancient hominins may have lived in social systems marked by intense competition among males, leading to the substantial size disparity among the sexes.| phys.org
The intricate functions of cellular processes have mystified scientists for decades. But with the help of tools like cryogenic electron microscopy (Cryo-EM), researchers at Penn State College of Medicine are starting to see the previously unseen.| phys.org
HP today announced that researchers from HP Labs have proven the existence of what had previously been only theorized as the fourth fundamental circuit element in electrical engineering.| phys.org
A group of scientists at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU). Lithuania have created biodegradable plastic, which decomposes in a compost bin in a couple of years. Bioplastic created at KTU is transparent and all the materials in its composition are suitable for contact with food.| phys.org
A research team led by Professor Takayuki Hoshino of Nagoya University's Graduate School of Engineering in Japan has demonstrated the world's smallest shooting game by manipulating nanoparticles in real time, resulting in a game that is played with particles approximately 1 billionth of a meter in size.| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Christian Schubert and Scott Lafontaine are fighting an old prejudice: that rice doesn't belong in beer. Now they've got the research to upend that ancient bit of brewing snobbery.| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations| phys.org
Archaeologists have analyzed ritual spaces and monumental structures across Polynesia, questioning the idea that Rapa Nui (Easter Island) developed in isolation following its initial settlement.| phys.org
The enigmatic stone alignments in the Carnac region of Brittany, France, are among the most famous megalithic monuments in Europe—alongside Stonehenge, Menga, and the megalithic temples of Malta.| phys.org
Fire is an ancient natural phenomenon that has shaped our planet for more than 400 million years. It alters habitats, affects the carbon cycle, and is closely linked to changes in climate and vegetation.| phys.org
New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) could potentially save your daily cup of coffee. The research has identified a new and quicker method to detect infections in coffee berries, which has the potential to save coffee crops around the world.| phys.org
The greenhouse effect was discovered more than 150 years ago and the first scientific paper linking carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere with climate change was published in 1896.| phys.org
What do Leonardo da Vinci, M.C. Escher and Jimi Hendrix have in common? They're just a few of the creative geniuses also known for being left-handed, helping to fuel the widespread belief that lefties are more creative.| phys.org
