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.
Scientists have observed how the human brain represents a familiar piece of music, according to research published in JNeurosci. Their results suggest that listening to and remembering music involve different cognitive processes. Previous research has pinpointed areas of the brain – primarily on the right side – that are activated by music. However, less is known … Read more
Imagine that you are watching a crowded hang-gliding competition, keeping track of a red and orange glider’s skillful movements. Our brain uses separate circuits to achieve such outstanding tracking ability, one specialized to process color information and the other specialized for processing directions of motion. This allows for optimal perceptual performance, but how do we … Read more
The eighth annual Golden Goose Award ceremony will recognize three teams of scientists whose silly-sounding research has returned serious benefits to society. Led by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the award committee includes a bipartisan group of Congressional supporters and several science and higher education organizations. The 2019 Golden Goose Award … Read more
The scent of a lemon could help people feel better about their body image, new findings from University of Sussex research has revealed. In a new study from the university’s Sussex Computer-Human Interaction (SCHI) Lab, people feel thinner and lighter when they experienced the scent of a lemon. The research, carried out in collaboration with … Read more
Electoral gerrymandering, in which political districts are drawn to favor one party, has attracted renewed attention of late. The centuries-old practice operates to bias the outcome of elections. Now researchers led by Penn biologist Joshua B. Plotkin and the University of Houston’s Alexander J. Stewart have identified another impediment to democratic decision making, one that … Read more
DNA is a long chemical sequence that carries genetic information. Inspired by this biological system, in recent years many research teams have been exploring how to store and then decode information within synthetic macromolecules, also called polymers*. In a leap forward in this field, researchers at the Institut Charles Sadron (CNRS) and the Institut de … Read more
Interest rates should remain at the new record low rate of 1 per cent, according to The Australian National University’s RBA Shadow Board. The conviction that rates should remain unchanged has strengthened to 71 per cent, up from 68 per cent last month. The Shadow Board’s vote comes ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s … Read more
Attempts such as the U.S. ‘Green New Deal’ to create a more environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable world face a major challenge – people are sceptical you can achieve all three. And they believe that targeting environmental outcomes like climate change and pollution comes at a cost to efforts to improve their quality of life. … Read more
Despite its portrayal as a network that “champions free speech,” users of the social media platform Gab display more extreme social hierarchy and elitism when compared to Twitter users, according to a new study published in the September edition of the online journal “First Monday.” Researchers found a small number of Gab users hold a … Read more
New research from The Australian National University (ANU) shows Twitter data can be used to give more accurate profit forecasts for companies in the consumer sector. The findings challenge the traditional view from experts that social media chatter is just ‘noise’ that is of no value to financial analysts. The study used positive and negative … Read more