It can be easy to get sucked into social media for hours on end. Funny, cartoony science videos may be especially interesting, but not to everyone, according to a recent study from the University of Georgia.
Efforts to plant more trees in cities could be boosted thanks to a new tool for planners and community groups, published by an international group of researchers. Residents, policymakers and tree officers in Cardiff, Milton Keynes, Edinburgh, York and Camden worked with academics to develop new advice to grow trees in a way that benefits both people and nature.
Portable screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) biosensors offer a rapid, low-cost way to detect microcystin-lysine-arginine (MC-LR), an extremely potent toxin produced by cyanobacteria during harmful algal blooms in freshwater. Even at low concentrations, MC-LR can damage the liver and has been linked to an increased risk of liver and colon cancer, and the World Health Organization has set a guideline value of 1 microgram per liter for MC-LR in drinking water.
For years, we've been told a familiar story: Social scientists such as economists, management scholars and sociologists talk, and the public shrugs. The claim goes that people don't find our work interesting, that our expertise is fuzzy compared with "hard" sciences, and that journalists and readers will always prefer the crisp authority of practitioners such as CEOs, consultants or politicians. Is that really true?
Materials with magnetic nanostructures have a wide range of potential applications. One area is so-called spintronics, with devices that encode information in magnetic domains. These magnetic bits can be written, read and erased in a more energy-efficient way than bits in current semiconductor devices. Spin textures and magnetic domains in such materials can be investigated using nanoscale magnetic imaging techniques. For example, photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM), coupled with a magnetically sensitive detection mechanism.
Microsoft PowerPoint has become the default tool for presenting learning materials in classrooms, universities, corporate training programs, webinars and remote learning environments. But is it being used effectively? This question arises because learners face a major challenge. They try to listen to the speaker's explanations while simultaneously connecting them to the relevant visual elements on the slide, which can interfere with learning.
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are used in everything from household lighting and mobile phones to large display screens. Improving their efficiency could reduce energy use and enhance performance across a wide range of technologies. A new study involving researchers from the University of Liverpool and the University of Strathclyde has demonstrated a powerful way to identify tiny crystal defects that can reduce the efficiency of LED materials. The advance could help scientists better understand how these defects form and ultimately support the development of more efficient electronic and optoelectronic devices.
In drug discovery, building complex molecules quickly is the name of the game.
Tree swallows in the northern U.S. and Canada face the greatest risk from climate change despite responding to temperature the same way as tree swallows in the southern U.S., according to a new study led by Cornell researchers that analyzed nearly 95,000 nests across five decades. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveal a critical timing squeeze for tree swallows in the northern half of the United States and Canada, putting them at risk.
