ResearchGate pulls 200,000 files from its site, amid publisher pressure

The academic social networking site ResearchGate has removed about 200,000 files from among the research papers it publicly shares, prompted by a spate of new copyright complaints from Elsevier and the American Chemical Society (ACS). ResearchGate, which is based in Germany and has more than 20 million users, says the majority of these files were […]

Read More

An Ancient Burst of Salty Air

Muddied bricks andmelted sheets of bronzedisclose therevelation ofyour erasure.Between molten potsand shattered bonesa flash of heatscars the earth,fractured brandingimbued with the debrisof your obliterated past.Fire,brimstone,air,and salt,flicker in silent witnessthat you were everreally there. The archaeological site of Tall el-Hammam, Jordan that overlooks the Jordan Valley. Jericho is visible on the horizon and Tall Kefrein is […]

Read More

Bees’ static buzz triggers release of floral fragrance

A tiny electric charge on bees can trigger flowers to emit a fragrance, according to a UK lab study. It appears some plants use this to signal the presence of their flowers to insects to increase their chances of being pollinated. Bumblebees visiting petunia (Petunia integrifolia) flowers were found to trigger the release of benzaldehyde. Volatile […]

Read More

Marine parks harm cetacean brains

Just published in De Gruyter, a new report coauthored by PETA Foundation Supervising Wildlife Veterinarian Dr. Heather Rally exposes the neural impact that marine parks and other “impoverished environments” likely have on cetaceans, such as bottlenose dolphins. Prior to this paper’s publication, relatively little attention had been paid to the brains of cetaceans who live in cramped […]

Read More

Dental care: The best, worst and unproven tools to care for your teeth

Do probiotics prevent gum disease? Is flossing necessary? Many patients are unable to confidently answer these questions and more due to the abundance of conflicting medical information. However, new research led by the University at Buffalo aims to separate fact from fiction in determining which oral hygiene tools actually prevent gum disease. The paper, published […]

Read More

Primordial ‘hyper-eye’ discovered

An international research team has found an eye system in trilobites of the suborder Phacopina from the Devonian (390 million years B.P.) that is unique in the animal kingdom: each of the about 200 lenses of a hyper-facet eye spans a group of six normal compound-eye-facets, forming a compound eye itself. In addition to the […]

Read More

How a committed minority can change society

Over the last year, handshakes have been replaced by fist or elbow bumps as a greeting. It shows that age-old social conventions can not only change, but do so suddenly. But how does this happen? Robotic engineers and marketing scientists from the University of Groningen joined forces to study this phenomenon, combining online experiments and […]

Read More

Critical groundwater supplies may never recover from drought

Along with hurricanes and wildfires, there’s another important, but seldom-discussed effect of climate change — toxic water and sinking land made worse by groundwater drought. Water from snow and rain seeps deep into the ground between layers of soil and accumulates in sponge-like underground bathtubs, called aquifers. Farmers rely heavily on this groundwater to irrigate […]

Read More

Low-dose drug combo appears effective against SARS-CoV-2 infection

More countries with greater resources are opening up for a more normal life. But COVID-19 and the SARS-CoV-2 virus are still a significant threat in large parts of the world. The lack of medicines that are effective, easy to distribute and easy to obtain are a significant part of the problem. However, recent research on […]

Read More

Fractal brain networks support complex thought

Understanding how the human brain produces complex thought is daunting given its intricacy and scale. The brain contains approximately 100 billion neurons that coordinate activity through 100 trillion connections, and those connections are organized into networks that are often similar from one person to the next. A Dartmouth study has found a new way to […]

Read More