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.
Bakers have been crafting bread for more than 6,000 years with four simple ingredients: flour, salt, water and yeast. Apart from using high-quality ingredients, the kneading process and amount of time the dough is given to rise ultimately determine the bread’s quality. During kneading, air is incorporated into the dough matrix, which develops the gluten … Read more
Mathematicians have successfully applied a new, pictorial approach to answer complex questions that puzzle analysts, such as, do media stories on firearm legislation influence gun sales? Cause-and-effect queries like this pop up in various fields, from finance to neuroscience, and objective methods are needed to deliver reliable answers. Maurizio Porfiri, at the New York University, … Read more
Oil spills in the ocean can cause devastation to wildlife, so effective cleanup is a top priority. One method to clean up oil spills is by burning, which only works if the oil is heavily concentrated in one area. Research from Johns Hopkins University shows the effects of chemical herders, which are agents that may be used … Read more
Wind energy holds great promise as a source of renewable energy, but some have wondered if measures taken to address climate change have taken precedence over conservation of biodiversity. Wind turbines, for example, kill some birds, and the fatality rate for bats is even higher. Since bats are a crucial part of the ecosystem, helping … Read more
Fog harvesting is a potential practical source of fresh water in foggy coastal deserts, and current solutions rely on meter scale nets/meshes. The mesh geometry, however, presents a physiologically inappropriate shape for millimeter scale bulk bodies, like insects. Fan Kiat Chan, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, offers biomimetic fog-gathering technologies based on Namib … Read more
A procedure that applies pulses of focused ultrasound to the brain is safe and effective for reducing tremors and improving quality of life in people with essential tremor (ET) or Parkinson’s disease (PD) tremor, according to a new study being presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). … Read more
A Queen’s University Belfast researcher has developed a low cost technique to convert left over barley from alcohol breweries into carbon, which could be used as a renewable fuel for homes in winter, charcoal for summer barbecues or water filters in developing countries. Breweries in the EU throw out around 3.4 million tons of unspent … Read more
Traditionally, socio-environmental synthesis has involved using quantitative, or numerical, data to inform its findings. In a new Nature Sustainability article, however, researchers from the University of Maryland’s National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), make the case for why including qualitative data in socio-environmental (S-E) synthesis could benefit sustainability science, policy, and practice. [ad_336] The article, titled … Read more
Extreme drought’s impact on plants will become more dominant under future climate change, as noted in a paper out today in the journal Nature Climate Change. Analysis shows that not only will droughts become more frequent under future climates, but more of those events will be extreme, adding to the reduction of plant production essential … Read more
Fire ants build living rafts to survive floods and rainy seasons. Georgia Tech scientists are studying if a fire ant colony’s ability to respond to changes in their environment during a flood is an instinctual behavior and how fluid forces make them respond. Hungtang Ko and David Hu will present the science behind this insect behavior, focusing … Read more