Described as “living rocks”, giant land tortoises are lumbering beasts with a reputation for being sluggish in both speed and brainpower. But new research carried out by scientists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) suggests we have greatly underestimated the intelligence of these creatures, who can not only be trained but also...
Institutional investors tend to put their money largely in public companies, persuaded that market discipline makes their accounts more reliable than private ones’ and most financial literature confirms their beliefs. A new study by scholars from University of Bolzano, Bocconi University, and Stern School of Business concludes on the contrary that, if you circumscribe the...
Shoppers’ decisions are increasingly shaped by their experience and the desire for better service. Brick-and-mortar stores that work together to provide waiting area entertainment options can obtain higher profits than they would by providing their own entertainment. With the popularity of online shopping, it’s no secret brick-and-mortar stores are fighting to stay relevant. Waiting area...
When people learn that a charitable contribution they earmarked for a specific project was used for another cause, they feel betrayed – and often punish the charity, new research from Washington State University indicates. Those donors were less likely to give money to the charity in the future or do volunteer work for the organization....
Growing up in the wild makes plants tough. Wild plants evolve to survive the whims of nature and thrive in difficult conditions, including extreme climate conditions, poor soils, and pests and disease. Their better-known descendants – the domesticated plants that are critical to a healthy diet – are often not nearly as hardy. The genes...
In 1945, the Soviet Army seized the film archive of the Third Reich, the so-called Reichfilmarchive, and brought it from Berlin to Moscow. The archive contained thousands of movies from various countries. Since then, the German, American, and a few European trophies circulated throughout the Soviet Union despite a lack of an effective distribution license....
Despite the numerous benefits associated with patients accessing their medical records, a study by a Portland State University (PSU) professor found only 10% of patients utilize the resource. Researchers expected to find inequities in use and access — in theory driven by existing digital disparities, those who don’t use English as a first-language or communities...
Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, has prevented 2.2 million children from experiencing malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found. The researchers, led by Tess Ryckman, a Stanford Health Policy graduate student, compared children’s health in 33 low- and middle-income countries in...
If you want to know how climate change and hypoxia — the related loss of oxygen in the world’s oceans — affect fish species such as the economically important Baltic cod, all you have to do is ask the fish. Those cod, at least, will tell you that hypoxia is making them smaller, scrawnier and...
Researchers from the University of Southern California, Columbia, London Business School, George Washington University, University of Colorado-Boulder, and University of California Irvine published a provocative new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines the relatively narrow impact of consumer research and suggests ways to change that situation. The study, forthcoming in the March 2020 issue of...
