SciGlow | All Science News In One Place
SciGlow is a newsletter of science stories from the major research labs. Headlines link to in-depth articles and editorials. SciGlow keeps scientists and others up-to-date on current research.
A team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, have discovered a new method that could be used to build quantum sensors with ultra-high precision. When individual atoms emit light, they do so in discrete packets called photons. When this light is measured, this discrete or ‘granular’ nature leads to especially low fluctuations in … Read more
Gorillas have more complex social structures than previously thought, from lifetime bonds forged between distant relations, to “social tiers” with striking parallels to traditional human societies, according to a new study. The findings suggest that the origins of our own social systems stretch back to the common ancestor of humans and gorillas, rather than arising … Read more
Most dog and cat owners are not aware of pet blood donation schemes and animal blood banks, finds a survey of pet owners published in Vet Record. However, the majority of owners in this study said they would be willing to allow their pets to donate blood, suggesting that just like human blood donation, raising awareness … Read more
Wandering through the Harvard campus one day in 2015, graduate student Andrew Yegian recalls how something unusual caught his eye. ‘I noticed a person running with straight arms’, he explains. This really stood out for Yegian, as runners usually bend the elbow, while walkers keep their arms straight, which made him wonder: ‘If straight arms … Read more
The most extensive and systematic insect monitoring program ever undertaken in North America shows that butterfly abundance in Ohio declined yearly by 2%, resulting in an overall 33% drop for the 21 years of the program. Though the study was limited to one group of the insect class and one geographic area, the findings provide … Read more
Rising temperatures in the tundra of the Earth’s northern latitudes could affect microbial communities in ways likely to increase their production of greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide, a new study of experimentally warmed Alaskan soil suggests. About half of the world’s total underground carbon is stored in the soils of these frigid, northern latitudes. … Read more
Images of vanishing Arctic ice and mountain glaciers are jarring, but their potential contributions to sea level rise are no match for Antarctica’s, even if receding southern ice is less eye-catching. Now, a study says that instability hidden within Antarctic ice is likely to accelerate its flow into the ocean and push sea level up … Read more
How do plants and animals acquire their microbiota? Are hosts colonized by microbes from their surroundings or do parents transmit microbes to offspring? Understanding how animals acquire their microbiomes, especially microbial symbionts, is necessary to learn how environments shape host phenotypes via host-microbe interactions and whether hosts and their microbiomes represent an important unit of … Read more
A team of researchers from Iran and the UK have obtained the first 3D map of the Local Bubble through a survey of diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs), a mysterious absorption feature seen in the stellar spectra, using two telescopes in the northern and southern hemispheres. The solar systems is located in a very hot and … Read more
New research from Northwestern University could upend the approach to sales forecasting for industries from cell phones to cars. Data analysis published today, July 8, in Nature Human Behavior shows that products that are considered to be substitutive in nature have a very different growth trajectory from predictions by traditional models, where product growth is … Read more