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And now for some good news. The data are strangely absent from most discussions about the inadequacies of science education in the United States. But a new report from the National Science Foundation (NSF) finds that the number of Americans pursuing advanced degrees in science and engineering has risen sharply over the past decade and…
Quantum computers are still years away, but a trio of theorists has already figured out at least one talent they may have. According to the theorists, including one from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), physicists might one day use quantum computers to study the inner workings of the universe in ways that…
A University of Delaware-led research team reports an advance in the journal Science that may help astrophysicists more accurately analyze the vast molecular clouds of gas and dust where stars are born. Krzysztof Szalewicz, professor of physics and astronomy, was the principal investigator on the National Science Foundation funded research project, which solved equations of…
Gregory Paul, an independent paleontologist and researcher who examines the relationship between religion and society, writes: In recent years, there has been lots of discussion and debate about whether atheism or theism is on the rise around the world. A good deal of the answer can be found in results from the International Social Survey…
How can blue whales, the largest animals on the planet, survive by feeding on krill, shrimp-like creatures that are the size of a penny? According to UCLA life scientists, it’s all a matter of dimensions. In findings published in the journal Nature, the researchers demonstrate for the first time that the relationship between animals’ body…
Astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope to work out when precisely our Milky Way Galaxy will crash into its neighbor, Andromeda. The pair are being pulled together by their mutual gravity and the scientists expect them to begin to merge in about four billion years’ time. A further two billion years on and they…
In recent years, diseases have ravaged through bat, honeybee and amphibian populations, and now animal experts suspect that shared factors may link the deaths, which are putting many species at risk for extinction. The latest setback affects bats, given this week’s announcement that the deadly fungal disease known as white-nose syndrome has been confirmed in…
A new neural analysis suggests that our social networking tendencies most likely have their neural roots in some of our early vertebrate ancestors. The findings were published online in the journal Science. “There is ancient circuitry that appears to be involved in social behavior across all vertebrates,” Hans Hofmann, an associate professor of integrative biology…
Individual homes could soon be powered with their own solid oxide fuel cell systems, thanks to a breakthrough in performance. The new system, from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), achieves up to 57% efficiency – half as good again as previous versions of the same size. It uses methane as fuel,…
The world’s air has reached what scientists call a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant. Monitoring stations across the Arctic this spring are measuring more than 400 parts per million of the heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. The number isn’t quite a surprise, because it’s been rising at an accelerating…