Vegetation, such as a patch of prairie or a forest stand, is more productive in the long run when more plant species are present, a new University of Minnesota study shows. The unprecedented long-term study of plant biodiversity found that each species plays a role in maintaining a productive ecosystem, especially when a long time…
A new University of Florida study that determined the age of skeletal remains provides evidence humans reached the Western Hemisphere during the last ice age and lived alongside giant extinct mammals. The study published online in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology addresses the century-long debate among scientists about whether human and mammal remains found at…
Time, arguably our most precious nonrenewable resource, has a slippery nature in our minds. Sometimes it flows quickly. In other situations, it trickles at an unbearably slow pace. And, to the horror of many, it speeds as we age. Why should something as reliable as a ticking clock be perceived with such inconsistency? Claudia Hammond,…
The ability of U.S. scientists to monitor changes in the planet’s climate, natural hazards, and land surface continues to deteriorate, warns a report from the U.S. National Academies’ National Research Council (NRC). Aging satellites are being replaced too slowly, the report concludes, and by 2020 the country may have only 25% of its current observing…
The editor of the world-leading scientific journal Nature says current procedures to assess and censor medical research potentially of use to terrorists need to be improved. Dr. Philip Campbell made his remarks to BBC News following the publication of controversial research into the bird flu virus H5N1. Two research papers have raised the concern of anti-terrorist…
Plants flowering 8.5 times faster than predicted; changes have knock-on effect for food chain, ecosystems
This spring, billboards sprouted across the country like cranky, God-hating daffodils. They proclaimed the bad news that God does not exist, that belief is bad for your soul, that religion enslaves — and they were met with predictable upset. Anthony Pinn reflects on the the state of the (A)theist conversation.
The human population is growing at such a staggering rate that we are organizing ourselves more like ant supercolonies, with new research finding that we have more in common now with some ants than we do with our closest living animal kingdom relatives. The new study, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology, points out that…
The South Korean health ministry announced that research into stem cells and regenerative medicine will receive a funding boost of 33 billion won (U.S. $29 million) in 2012, four times that given in 2011. Overall, six different ministries will invest 100 billion won in stem-cell research this year. Until last year, public investment in stem…
To slow climate change the world will either have to put the brakes on economic growth or change the way the world’s economies work, scientists say. A study by University of Michigan researchers assessed the effects of several factors on year-to-year changes in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. Researchers looked at two natural phenomena believed…