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.
Video cameras continue to gain widespread use to monitor human activities for surveillance, health care, home use and more, but there are privacy and environmental limitations in how well they work. Acoustical waves, such as sounds and other forms of vibrations, are an alternative medium that may bypass those limitations. Unlike electromagnetic waves, such as … Read more
Solar power researchers have traditionally only used the power measurements from single residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to estimate the power generated within a city. But one installation isn’t a good representation of all the rooftops in the city, where the time of day, panel direction, and shade cast by trees and clouds affect power … Read more
A paper published today in the Journal of Geology makes the case: Supernovae bombarded Earth with cosmic energy starting as many as 8 million years ago, with a peak some 2.6 million years ago, initiating an avalanche of electrons in the lower atmosphere and setting off a chain of events that feasibly ended with bipedal hominins such … Read more
The multidisciplinary research programme led by the University of Kent maps the nature and diversity of ‘unbelief’ across six countries including Brazil, China, Denmark, Japan, UK and the USA The research is supported by a £2.3 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation, and is led by the University of Kent in collaboration with St … Read more
The skilled health workforce in India does not meet the minimum threshold of 22.8 skilled workers per 10,000 population recommended by the World Health Organisation, shows research published today in the online journal BMJ Open. Estimates of non-health workers engaged in the health sector and technically qualified health professionals who are not part of the current … Read more
Winters in the northern hemisphere are brutal. The harsh conditions drive some species to hibernate; bears reduce their metabolic state to conserve energy until spring. Forests also endure winter by conserving energy; they shut down photosynthesis, the process by which a green pigment called chlorophyll captures sunlight and carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce the chemical … Read more
Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study by researchers from the University of Tasmania and CSIRO found the global fishing fleet grew from 1.7 million vessels in 1950 to 3.7 million in 2015. However, despite better technology and increased motorisation, modern fishing vessels take only one fifth of the catch … Read more
Type “sea-level rise” in an internet search engine and almost all the resulting images will show flooded cities, with ample guidance on civic options for protecting urban infrastructure, from constructing seawalls to elevating roadways. But a new review article in Nature Climate Change highlights the growing recognition that sea-level rise will mostly impact rural land–much of it … Read more
Human language and communication skills are unique in the animal kingdom. How they developed in the course of evolution is being researched, among other things, using the alarm call system of vervet monkeys. East African vervet monkeys warn their conspecifics against predators with special alarm calls that mean “leopard”, “eagle” or “snake”. In a recently … Read more
The ROSETTA-Ice project, a three-year, multi-institutional data collection survey of Antarctic ice, has assembled an unprecedented view of the Ross Ice Shelf, its structure and how it has been changing over time. In a study published today in Nature Geoscience, the ROSETTA-Ice team members detail how they discovered an ancient geologic structure that restricts where ocean … Read more