When urban development takes place, a traffic impact assessment is often needed before a project is approved: What will happen to auto traffic if a new apartment building or business complex is constructed, or if a road is widened? On the other hand, new developments affect foot traffic as well — and yet few places […]

The first scientific analysis of images taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover has now confirmed that Mars’ Jezero crater — which today is a dry, wind-eroded depression — was once a quiet lake, fed steadily by a small river some 3.7 billion years ago. The images also reveal evidence that the crater endured flash floods. This […]

The United States must perform a careful balancing act to secure federally funded research against improper interference from China and other foreign governments without shutting down valuable international scientific research collaborations, MIT Vice President for Research Maria T. Zuber said this week in testimony before Congress. Speaking at a virtual hearing held by two subcommittees […]

Flecks of gold and redshimmer over restless seas.Incandescent gatheringsilluminating the horizonas you throw yourselfto the mercies of the wind.Your feeble frameheld aloft by crystalline wings,as memories that are not your ownlead you to the water’s edge.Skimming currents and zephyrsyou dance across the skies,casting off for distant shoresyou will never reachalone. A globe skimmer dragonfly male, […]

New analysis of ancient writings suggests that sailors from the Italian hometown of Christopher Columbus knew of America 150 years before its renowned ‘discovery’. Transcribing and detailing a, circa, 1345 document by a Milanese friar, Galvaneus Flamma, Medieval Latin literature expert Professor Paolo Chiesa has made an “astonishing” discovery of an “exceptional” passage referring to […]

A new paper explores how the opinions of an electorate may be reflected in a mathematical model ‘inspired by models of simple magnetic systems’ A study in the journal Physica A leverages concepts from physics to model how campaign strategies influence the opinions of an electorate in a two-party system. Researchers created a numerical model that describes […]

Our DNA is very similar to that of the chimpanzee, which in evolutionary terms is our closest living relative. Stem cell researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now found a previously overlooked part of our DNA, so-called non-coded DNA, that appears to contribute to a difference which, despite all our similarities, may explain why our […]

Eurypterids, normally known as sea scorpions, are an important group of Paleozoic chelicerate arthropods. They first appeared in the Ordovician, reached their peak of diversity in the Silurian, then declined, and were completely extinct by the end of the Permian. Mixopterids are a remarkable group of eurypterids characterized by extremely specialized prosomal appendages. These limbs […]

The fundamental forces of physics govern the matter comprising the Universe, yet exactly how these forces work together is still not fully understood. The existence of Hawking radiation — the particle emission from near black holes — indicates that general relativity and quantum mechanics must cooperate. But directly observing Hawking radiation from a black hole […]

A masking mandate in North Carolina schools during the early weeks of the Delta variant surge resulted in a lower rate of infection among school children and staff members than what was reported in the broader community, according to a new report from the ABC Science Collaborative. Publishing in the journal Pediatrics, the analysis includes data […]