We Cannot Fight Climate Change With Capitalism, Says Report

As access to cheap, plentiful energy dries up and the effects of climate change take hold, we are entering a new era of profound challenge ― and free market capitalism cannot dig us out. This is the conclusion of a report produced for the United Nations by Bios, an independent research institute based in Finland.

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The Future of Pointless Work

Some years ago, I had a colleague who would frequently complain that he didn’t have enough to do. He’d mention how much free time he had to our team, ask for more tasks from our boss, and bring it up at after-work drinks. He was right, of course, about the situation: Although we were hardly idle, even the most productive among us couldn’t claim to be toiling for eight (or even five, sometimes three) full hours a day.

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Study: Optimism Can Change Brain Volume, Providing Protection Against Emotional Distress

In an effort to research how certain personality traits protect against emotional distress, such as depression and anxiety, researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois examined 85 healthy college students. The study, “Neuro-Behavioral Mechanisms of Resilience against Emotional Distress: An Integrative Brain-Personality-Symptom Approach using Structural Equation Modeling,” was published in the August edition of Personality Neuroscience.

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Robot reef protector sees a new way to check Great Barrier Reef health

An underwater drone that can keep watch on reef health and accurately identify and inject the devastating crown-of-thorns starfish is ready to be put to the test on the Great Barrier Reef, as a result of a collaboration between QUT, Google and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

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Using deep-learning techniques to locate potential human activities in videos

When a police officer begins to raise a hand in traffic, human drivers realize that the officer is about to signal them to stop. But computers find it harder to work out people's next likely actions based on their current behavior. Now, a team of A*STAR researchers and colleagues has developed a detector that can successfully pick out where human actions will occur in videos, in almost real-time.

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CRISPR halts Duchenne muscular dystrophy progression in dogs

Scientists for the first time have used CRISPR gene editing to halt the progression of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in a large mammal, according to a study by UT Southwestern that provides a strong indication that a lifesaving treatment may be in the pipeline. The research published in Science documents unprecedented improvement in the muscle fibers of dogs with DMD – the most common fatal genetic disease in children, caused by a mutation that inhibits the production of dystrophin, a protein critical for muscle function.

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Sex on the Brain: Frequent Sex Might Have Cognitive Benefits

Frequent sex might enhance our performance on certain cognitive tasks. A growing body of research on both humans and animals published in the last decade points to this conclusion, including a new study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior. Here's a look at the accumulated evidence and what it suggests about how sex might benefit the brain.

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How your brain experiences time

Researchers at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Norway in have discovered a network of brain cells that expresses our sense of time within experiences and memories. "This network provides timestamps for events and keeps track of the order of events within an experience," says Professor Edvard Moser, Nobel laureate and director of the Kavli Institute, which is based at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). This area of the brain where time is experienced is located right next to the area that codes for space.

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Many young adults lack financial literacy, economic stability, study finds

Nearly a third of young adults in a recent study were found to be “financially precarious” because they had poor financial literacy and lacked money management skills and income stability. Only 22 percent of the 18- to 24-year-olds in the study sample were deemed to be financially stable, according to lead author Gaurav Sinha, a graduate student in social work at the University of Illinois.

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The Mystery of People Who Speak Dozens of Languages

What can hyperpolyglots teach the rest of us?

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Do Animals Experience Grief?

A growing body of evidence points to how animals are aware of death and will sometimes mourn for or ritualize their dead

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Should Rivers Have Rights? A Growing Movement Says It’s About Time

Inspired by indigenous views of nature, a movement to grant a form of legal “personhood” to rivers is gaining some ground — a key step, advocates say, in reversing centuries of damage inflicted upon the world’s waterways.

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This Adorable Sea Slug is a Sneaky Little Thief

Nudibranchs may look cute, squishy and defenseless ... but watch out. These brightly-colored sea slugs aren't above stealing weapons from their prey.

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Air pollution causes ‘huge’ reduction in intelligence, study reveals

Air pollution causes a “huge” reduction in intelligence, according to new research, indicating that the damage to society of toxic air is far deeper than the well-known impacts on physical health. The research was conducted in China but is relevant across the world, with 95% of the global population breathing unsafe air. It found that high pollution levels led to significant drops in test scores in language and arithmetic, with the average impact equivalent to having lost a year of the person’s education.

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Goats Like It When You Smile at Them, Extremely Heartwarming Study Says

Empirical observation told us years ago that goats were slowly becoming the new dog, and according to a new study, they are truly qualified to be man’s best friend. On Wednesday, the Royal Society released heartwarming research showing that just like humans, goats have no desire to interact with people who come off as angry or upset, and that they’re much more attracted to those with big smiles plastered across their faces.

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Why Are Puffins Vanishing? The Hunt for Clues Goes Deep (Into Their Burrows)

Overfishing, hunting and pollution are putting pressure on the birds, but climate change may prove to be the biggest challenge.

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Recent Study Found Plant-Based Diet Decreases Environmental Impact By 42 to 84 Percent!

As the environmental, animal welfare, and human health concerns involved with eating meat, dairy, and eggs have come to light in recent years, many Americans have begun embracing a plant-based diet. However, some are still skeptical as to whether swapping out meat and dairy for plants actually does THAT much to help our Earth. They wonder, does following a plant-based diet significantly reduce environmental impact as compared to eating in the traditional, meat-centric American way?

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California becomes second US state to commit to clean energy

California is following in Hawaii's footsteps by committing to 100 percent clean energy. Lawmakers in the state have passed a bill that will see it moving entirely to clean electricity sources by 2045, CBS reported Tuesday. The vote comes as a report revealed Monday that California could lose up to two-thirds of its beaches and water supply due to climate change. Public polling showed the majority of Californians (about 72 percent) are supportive of the bill, although some business groups and utilities aren't in favour, citing job concerns.

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Scientists discover hidden deep-sea coral reef off South Carolina Coast

If you think Charleston, South Carolina, has plenty of history within its pre-Colonial grounds, just look at what’s been hiding 160 miles off the city’s coast for thousands of years: a giant deep-sea coral reef system. The chief scientist who helped make the discovery called it unbelievable.

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We Discovered Helium 150 Years Ago. Are We Running Out?

The versatile gas lies at the center of a complex, fragile global market.

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Microrobots: Bigger than they seem

Using insects as templates, researchers are buildings robots that are very small, very mobile—and very useful.

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Should evil AI research be published? Five experts weigh in.

Should you sacrifice your livelihood to save the world? Or is there a responsible way to bring your work to life?

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Miami Will Be Underwater Soon. Its Drinking Water Could Go First

“There will always be drinking water here. It’s just a question of how much you want to pay for it.”

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These Cultural Treasures Are Made of Plastic. Now They’re Falling Apart.

Museum conservators are racing to figure out how to preserve modern artworks and historical objects that are disintegrating.

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The AI that could help make limitless fusion power a reality

An AI is set to try and work out how a potentially limitless supply of energy can be used on Earth. It could finally solve the mysteries of fusion power, letting researchers capture and control the process that powers the sun and stars. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University hope to harness a massive new supercomputer to work out how the doughnut-shaped devices, known as tokamaks, can be used.

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Countering the Achievement Society

It has almost become a cliché to characterize the time in which we live as the Age of Burnout. An increasing number of books, articles, and opinion editorials are being written on the subject of “the epidemic of vital exhaustion” (see for example, The Guardian’s recent piece, “How Burnout Became a Sinister and Insidious Epidemic”). My own interest and research into fatigue stems in large part from my work and observations in a university setting, where a common complaint (or perhaps boast?) of faculty, staff, administrators, and students is how exhausted we are. But fatigue is often linked to a host of other problems...

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If You’re Bad, Here's How to Get People to Think You’re Good

Consider the protagonist Walter White from the series Breaking Bad. Throughout the series, he manufactures methamphetamine, repeatedly puts his family in danger, and commits multiple murders. And yet viewers liked him. In fact, some even defended him. How is this possible?

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The Demography of the Alt-Right

A year ago, the so-called Alt-Right (short for "alternative right" and the latest manifestation of the U.S. white nationalist movement) made international headlines in its infamous "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, VA. The rally led to dozens of serious injuries and the death of one counter-protester... By The Institute for Family Studies.

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Is the Cure for Alzheimer's Hiding Inside Us? She Thinks So

Annelise Barron is developing a way to treat Alzheimer's through the immune system.

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A new dimension to marine restoration: 3D printing coral reefs

The local fishermen looked on skeptically. From the deck of a small motorboat, scuba divers grabbed odd chunks of ceramic – which could be described as rocky brains stuck on stumpy stilts – and plunged into the aquamarine waters. The dive team assembled the pieces as a few triggerfish circled around to investigate the commotion.

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Extinct Cave Bear DNA Found in Living Bears

After roaming Europe and Asia for more than a hundred thousand years, cave bears died out some 24,000 years ago, after a millennia-long death spiral possibly spurred by hunting, natural climate change, and competition with humans for habitat.

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Critics say cigarette filters, a health and environmental scourge, must go

Environmentalists have taken aim at the targets systematically, seeking to eliminate or rein in big sources of ocean pollution — first plastic bags, then eating utensils and, most recently, drinking straws. More than a dozen coastal cities prohibited plastic straws this year. Many more are pondering bans, along with the states of California and Hawaii. Yet the No. 1 man-made contaminant in the world’s oceans is the small but ubiquitous cigarette butt — and it has mostly avoided regulation. That soon could change, if a group of committed activists has its way.

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Killer robots ‘no longer the stuff of science fiction’ warns expert at UN talks

Experts from scores of countries are meeting to discuss ways to define and deal with “killer robots” — futuristic weapons systems that could conduct war without human intervention. The weeklong gathering that opened Monday is the second of its kind this year at U.N. offices in Geneva to focus on such lethal autonomous weapons systems and explore ways of possibly regulating them, among other issues.

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Flight times extended by major airlines to avoid payouts, report claims

Plane journeys are taking longer than a decade ago, according to a report that claims the change is down to airlines “padding” their schedules to create the impression passengers were reaching their destinations on time. Carriers are adding extra time to flight schedules, in some cases up to 30 minutes, to ensure they maintain punctuality and are therefore less likely to be liable for compensation payouts, the investigation by Which? Travel claimed.

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Air pollution causes ‘huge’ reduction in intelligence, study reveals

Impact of high levels of toxic air ‘is equivalent to having lost a year of education’

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1 Change Could Make Your Writing More Readable. Unfortunately, People Will Tell You You're Wrong

New research casts doubt on what's become a standard practice.

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'Ghost' black hole: Scientists claim to have found evidence of another universe

Scientists have found that the universe we live in is not the first one to ever exist. A group of leading physicists have found that eons ago, other universes existed and they had black holes, just like the current universe, the Daily Mail reported. They say that cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) – the same thing that causes white noise on TVs – is evidence of the remnants of these blackholes.

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Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem

The conventional wisdom is that morning people are high achievers, go-getters, while late risers are lazy. But what if going to bed in the wee hours is actually an advantage?

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A new quantum device defies the concepts of ‘before’ and ‘after’

Two events can happen in different orders at the same time, thanks to quantum physics.

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Everything Is Booming Except for Wages

After accounting for inflation, pay increases are negligible.

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The Nuclear Power Plant of the Future May Be Floating Near Russia

Offshore reactors could be cheaper, safer and more flexible, proponents say, making them a useful weapon against climate change. Critics are incredulous.

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How Insulin Helped Create Ant Societies

Ants, wasps, bees, and other social insects live in highly organized “eusocial” colonies where throngs of females forgo reproduction—usually viewed as the cornerstone of evolutionary fitness—to serve the needs of a few egg-laying queens and their offspring. How they got that way has been hard to explain despite more than 150 years of biologists’ efforts. Many researchers have thought the answer would come down to a complex suite of genetic changes that evolved in species-specific ways over a long time.

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NASA releases map showing the amount of aerosol particles created by the fires

The air quality looks even worse from space. Yesterday, NASA released a visualization of Earth showing all the aerosols we are currently breathing in. In order to create this image of aerosol plumes, a variety of satellites and sensors were used. According to NASA, aerosols are specks of solids and liquids that drift through the air. These particles become visible when smoke billows from a wildfire or when dust blows in the wind.

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Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling Even as Volatility Eases

Who’s using Bitcoin to buy and sell goods and services? A lot fewer people than you probably would have guessed. After peaking at $411 million in September, the amount of money the largest 17 crypto merchant-processing services received in the best-known cryptocurrency has been on a steady decline, hitting a recent low of $60 million in May, according to research that startup Chainalysis Inc. conducted for Bloomberg News.

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Single-pilot passenger planes could soon become a reality, says Boeing

Plane maker Boeing is actively working on technology that would remove the need for two pilots in the cockpits of its passenger jets. Existing European aviation rules state that passenger planes with more than 20 seats must have a minimum of two pilots in the cockpit. But Steve Nordlund, a vice president at Boeing, said autonomous technology that would allow for a reduction in on-board crew was being developed at a “good speed”.

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This Mad New Quantum Experiment Breaks The Idea of 'Before' And 'After'

For around a century it's been thought that particles don't have defined properties until we nail them down with a measurement.

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Aspirin disappoints for avoiding first heart attack, stroke

Taking a low-dose aspirin every day has long been known to cut the chances of another heart attack, stroke or other heart problem in people who already have had one, but the risks don't outweigh the benefits for most other folks, major new research finds.

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Take a Look at These Unusual Strategies for Fighting Dementia

The Netherlands is pioneering new ways to treat dementia, with sensory aids, soothing music and other tools to calm and nurture patients.

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I Worked With Richard Russell at Horizon Air, and I Understand Why He Did What He Did

I was surprised to wake up last Saturday morning to the headlines. Not completely shocked, but surprised nonetheless. By Todd Bunker.

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Cardio exercise and strength training affect hormones differently

Every day a lot of people cycle to and from work or visit the gym to lift heavy weights. Regardless of the form of training they choose, almost everyone does it to improve their health. But we actually know surprisingly little about exactly how different forms of training affect our health.

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