Deep below the Earth’s surface lies a thick rocky layer called the mantle, which makes up the majority of our planet’s volume. While Earth’s mantle is too deep for humans to observe directly, certain meteorites can provide clues to this unreachable layer. In a study recently published in Science Advances, an international team of scientists,...
The discovery will thrill lovers of gold watches and heavy jewelry. The objects of their desire may someday become much lighter, but without losing any of their glitter. Especially in watches, a small amount of weight can make all the difference. No one wants to wear a heavy watch on their wrist, even if it’s...
The number of active users of Facebook (those people who have logged onto the site in the previous month) has reached an historic high of 2.45 billion. To put this in some context, approximately 32% of the global population now use the social media platform, and the trend line of participation is still going up....
More than half of Earth’s rivers freeze over every year. These frozen rivers support important transportation networks for communities and industries located at high latitudes. Ice cover also regulates the amount of greenhouse gasses released from rivers into Earth’s atmosphere. A new study from researchers in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department...
Tiny mealworms may hold part of the solution to our giant plastics problem. Not only are they able to consume various forms of plastic, as previous Stanford research has shown, they can eat Styrofoam containing a common toxic chemical additive and still be safely used as protein-rich feedstock for other animals, according to a new...
The survival of Earth’s life is not a battle of humans versus nature. In last week’s Science, an independent group of international experts, including one from Michigan State University (MSU), deliver a sweeping assessment of nature, concluding victory needs both humans and nature to thrive. “Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the...
Chemicals commonly used in smartphone, television, and computer displays were found to be potentially toxic and present in nearly half of dozens of samples of household dust collected by a team of toxicologists led by the University of Saskatchewan (USask). The international research team, led by USask environmental toxicologist John Giesy, is sounding the alarm...
Organisations aren’t moving quickly enough on cyber security threats linked to the drive toward using personal mobile devices in the workplace, warns a QUT privacy researcher. Dr. Kenan Degirmenci from QUT’s Science and Engineering Faculty’s School of Information Systems said workers worldwide expected to take their work with them whenever and wherever. But he warned...
Studying #BlackLivesMatter made Charlton McIlwain’s wonder about that movement’s digital predecessors. Did those 21st-century activists who turned to social media to bring attention to police brutality draw from an earlier playbook? And if so, who was the first to leverage the power of the internet in the pursuit of racial justice? The questions led McIlwain,...
A new report analyzing decades of public opinion surveys reveals that the public’s trust in scientists has remained stable and high over decades. By various measures, Americans reported that they trusted scientists more than they trusted many other institutions and professions, including journalists, judges and Congress. That trust can affect how people interpret scientific information...
