Новости за 10.11.2022

A new office within the Environmental Protection Agency is bringing increased attention to a once-obscure concept: environmental justice.

Most parents want to help their kids get ahead. But how do you that? Should you press them to excel at academics, devote hours to sports and other extracurriculars, or get an afterschool job? Or should you dial back on such demands, to avoid causing unhealthy levels of stress?

Researcher and GRS Radioisotopes technician Jorge Rivera, from the University of Seville, has participated in an incredible discovery that is unique in Europe. After applying an optically-stimulated luminescence technique at the Center for Research, Technology and Innovation laboratories at the University of Seville (CITIUS) and at CENIEH to hominin footprints found at Matalascañas in 2020, Rivera helped to determine that the footprints are in fact 200,000 years older than previously suspected.

An improved variety of grass combined with a rotational grazing system can boost levels of soil carbon on tropical savannas by 15% compared to degraded pasture, a new study performed by the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the University of Stuttgart, and the World Bank has found.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the transportation sector accounts for approximately 27% of all greenhouse gas emissions annually in the United States, and emissions from road transportation—driven by carbon-creating internal combustion vehicles—account for a large majority of that.

A recent study by the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) investigated the accumulation of soil carbon in forest sites monitored intensively in the long term. In mature spruce- and pine-dominated forests where the growing stock volume increased, the soil acted as a carbon sink. In turn, natural damage and roundwood removals reduced soil carbon stocks.

Various applications of pulsed laser sources rely on the ability to produce a series of pulse pairs with a stepwise increasing delay between them. Implementing such optical delay scanning with high precision is demanding, in particular for long delays. Addressing this challenge, ETH physicists have developed a versatile "dual-comb" laser that combines a wide scanning range with high power, low noise, stable operation, and ease of use—thereby offering bright prospects for practical uses.

Over a half of all shorebird populations—sandpipers, plovers, avocets, oystercatchers, among others—are currently declining, according to scientific publications and reports of several Environmental NGOs, such as BirdLife International. The decline of shorebirds is a global phenomenon for which the causes are not yet fully understood.

New research published in the inaugural issue of the academic journal Collective Intelligence suggests that evolutionary forces may be fueling collective tendencies to discriminate.

The University of Barcelona is the institution with the most publications and number of bibliometric citations worldwide in research on liver cirrhosis, followed by the Virginia Commonwealth University (United States), the University College London (United Kingdom), the Mayo Clinic (United States) and the University of Padova (Italy).

Structural colors result from interactions between light and nanostructures. Engineering structural colors is a promising, rapidly emerging research field. Compared with conventional painting technology using chemical dyes, structural color has a broader range of technological applications for color management. Thanks in part to its excellent durability, structural color offers an environmentally friendly route for color printing.

On March 11, 2011, multiple catastrophes in Japan were triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake, including the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. This event, also known as the 3/11 disaster, is what is known as a compound disaster. Now that over a decade has passed since this event, researchers are investigating how to prevent the next compound disaster.

More than 100 scientists sent a letter to the World Health Organization today urging a complete overhaul or withdrawal of the organization's draft drinking water guidelines for the two most well-studied per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The letter details how WHO's draft eschews calculating health-based standards, disregarding robust evidence for the harms of PFOS and PFOA. The letter also notes the lack of transparency about the draft's authorship.

A typical gut bacterium that can spread through the body and cause a serious infection resists natural immune defenses and antibiotics by enhancing its protective outer layer, known as the cell envelope, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The finding suggests possible new ways to target these bacterial infections.

Arts education offers powerful ways to explore ethical responsibility, values, and attitudes of global citizenship by means of interdisciplinary, intersubjective and embodied participation and experience, according to the Finnish researchers in the University of the Arts Helsinki.

Today, astronomers seek to observe the faintest and most distant objects possible. Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs), with apertures in the order of several dozen meters, are the next generation facilities to do so. However, building larger telescopes is only one part of the equation. The other part is the capability of detecting the gathered photons in the most efficient way possible.

Chinese incursions across India's west and central borders are not independent, random incidents that happen by mistake. Instead, these incursions are part of a strategically planned, coordinated effort in order to gain permanent control of disputed border areas, a new study has found.

The green world that we live in would not have been possible without hidden changes to the plant body over the last 400 million years. To grow beyond just centimeters tall outside of the wettest places on land, plants had to re-arrange their water-conducting tissues to keep them safe from drought.

Trying to see through scattering media like haze and fog is often accompanied by disappointment or even difficulties in our daily lives—if you have ever experienced a sunrise-watching trip on a cloudy morning or a palm-sweating drive through dense fog. For researchers in optics and photonics, seeing through scattering media is also a long-standing challenge in a broad range of application scenarios, such as microscope imaging through biological tissues and telescopic observation through atmospheric turbulence.

The network of informal ties we build in the workplace is key to our success and performance. Yet, as researchers at ESMT Berlin found, we often build networks that hamper our performance.

Changes in climatic factors—such as higher temperatures and increased rainfall—affect the developmental, behavioral and distribution patterns of insects like mosquitoes. These changes have serious implications for the effective control of insect-borne diseases such as malaria.

When African environment ministers met in Senegal in mid-September, they made one of the most important decisions in the history of waste management in Africa.

Like many African cities, Lomé, the capital of Togo, has a pollution problem.

Racial and ethnic disparities in advanced math and science skills occur far earlier in the U.S. than previously known. Our new study finds that 13% of white students and 16% of Asian students display advanced math skills by kindergarten. The contrasting percentage for both Black and Hispanic students is 4%.

Many people are familiar with flash floods—torrents that develop quickly after heavy rainfall. But there's also such a thing as a flash drought, and these sudden, extreme dry spells are becoming a big concern for farmers and water utilities.