In 2009 in L’Aquila, a city about 60 miles northeast of Rome, a severe earthquake killed over 300 people and left 60,000 homeless. In 2011 six Italian scientists and a government official were put on trial for manslaughter, with the prosecution alleging they had not properly communicated the risk of such a major earthquake occurring. […]

The American Dream may have faded, but it is unrealistically — and perhaps detrimentally — alive and well on teenagers’ favorite TV programs, according to a report published today by UCLA’s Center for Scholars and Storytellers. The persistence in popular entertainment of that dream — that anyone, regardless of their race or socioeconomic status, can achieve success through […]

Deep sea microbes that produce elemental carbon have been discovered by researchers from the US and Germany. While bacteria that degrade elemental carbon have been known for over a century, this is the first time organisms have been found to produce it. Carbon is present in nature in a wide range of oxidation states. Elemental […]

Theoretical scientists have predicted the first stable hexavalent planar gallium structure.1 The simulated cluster maintains a flat structure due to double aromaticity and a balance of steric forces, and isn’t stable when other group 13 elements replace gallium. Under the right circumstances it’s possible to not only coax more bonds out of an atom than […]

Hydrogen has great potential as a green fuel, but several issues need to be ironed out before widespread rollout can happen. A compact hydrogen production plant developed by the Technical University (TU) of Graz and industry partners could be the answer to some of these problems. The plant uses a chemical looping method to extract […]

Brain transplants are the subject of science fiction and Gothic horror, right? One of the most famous Gothic horror stories, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus features a brain transplant, of which much is made in the various film versions. But in real life, a fantasy not a reality, or? Wrong, the American neurosurgeon Robert White (1926–2010) devoted […]

Report after report tells us that, to have a chance of keeping average warming to no more than 1.5°C, oil and gas will have to be kept in the ground. The companies producing hydrocarbons are setting net zero targets for 2050, yet none are deemed to be on track to meet their commitments. The World […]

Researchers at the University of Toronto (U of T) and Unity Health Toronto have demonstrated that repeated listening to personally meaningful music induces beneficial brain plasticity in patients with mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer’s disease. Changes in the brain’s neural pathways correlated with increased memory performance on neuropsychological tests, supporting the clinical potential of […]

Both moderate and strenuous exercise alleviate symptoms of anxiety, even when the disorder is chronic, a study led by researchers at the University of Gothenburg shows. The study, now published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, is based on 286 patients with anxiety syndrome, recruited from primary care services in Gothenburg and the northern part […]

Funding to restore mangrove forests is money well spent, according to a new meta-analysis by ecological economists at the University of Tokyo. For every dollar spent to restore mangroves, the ecosystem will yield $6.83 to $10.50 in returns over the next 20 years. The range reflects different economic projections of how much immediate costs are […]