Scientists think there are 300 million habitable planets in the Milky Way, and some may be home to intelligent life. Bruno Gilli/ESO, CC BY Chris Impey, University of Arizona If a person is lost in the wilderness, they have two options. They can search for civilization, or they could make themselves easy to spot by […]
Life
Online health and wellbeing program using singing techniques can improve quality of life and breathlessness after COVID-19
An online breathing and wellbeing programme helps improve quality of life and breathlessness for people recovering from COVID-19, according to a new study. This is one of the first clinical trials to report an effective intervention for people with post-COVID syndrome, also known as long COVID. The study is published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. The ‘ENO Breathe’ […]
FDA Takes New Steps Regarding Evaluating Public Health Importance of Additional Food Allergens
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a draft guidance that, when finalized, will outline the agency’s approach to evaluating the public health importance of food allergens that are not one of the major nine food allergens identified by law in the U.S (non-listed food allergens). Currently, the major food allergens are milk, eggs, fish, crustacean […]
From the Noggin to the Butt: Quirky Measurement Units Throughout Human History
When we talk about measurement units here at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), you’ll typically hear us rattling off the official ones — such as the meter, the second and the kilogram. These official measurements, which are part of the International System of Units (SI), have evolved from quantities that people mostly defined […]
New Dungeons & Dragons Book to Support Endangered Species Protection
PORTLAND, Ore.— The Center for Biological Diversity is partnering with Mage Hand Press and creator Lucas Zellers to resurrect the histories of extinct animals in a surprising new way: through the popular role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. A newly launched project called The Book of Extinction tells the stranger-than-fiction true stories of animals now lost, alongside game statistics […]
A history of Easter feasts and why the English breakfast might be medieval
Giles Gasper, Durham University Easter is the principal festival of the Christian year. Both Easter and its long prelude Lent have traditions associated with food. Lent is traditionally a time of giving up food, especially meat and dairy. Easter is, by contrast, a feast. Versions of simnels (high-quality bread), decorated eggs, pancakes, and roast lamb […]
How tomatoes became known for boosting health, food security and livelihoods
Whether nestled atop pizza, standing out in salads or crushed into sauces, tomatoes are a key ingredient in cooking around the world. However, it may surprise you to know that it hasn’t always been that way! The tomato originated in South America, and though eaten by the Aztecs in Mesoamerica as early as 700 A.D., […]
Keeping Communities Connected: New report spotlights creative library broadband services during the pandemic
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new report released today by the American Library Association shows the impact of broadband access through the nation’s nearly 17,000 public libraries during the pandemic, as well as the need for continued long-term investments in broadband infrastructure and digital inclusion programming. “Keeping Communities Connected: Library Broadband Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” […]
People turned to gardening for stress relief, food access during pandemic
People who turned to gardening during the COVID-19 pandemic did so to relieve stress, connect with others and grow their own food in hopes of avoiding the virus, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the University of California, Davis, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UCANR) and international partners. The survey report, “Gardening during […]
RBG Lecture on her birthday (3/15) will be by CA Supreme Court justice
Held each year on Justice Ginsburg’s birth anniversary, March 15, the National Judicial College’s RBG Lecture honors her impact on the law and our society, and we learn more about her from people who were close to her. This would have been her 89th birthday. This year’s lecturer will be Hon. Goodwin Liu, an associate […]
NASA’s Pi Day Challenge: Solve Math Problems With NASA
To celebrate Pi Day, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is serving up a series of science and engineering questions related to some of the agency’s Earth and space missions. It’s deliciously reliable, like cherry pie: Divide the circumference of any circle in the universe by its diameter, and you will always get the same number, pi, […]
UNESCO: Social media poses ‘existential threat’ to traditional, trustworthy news
The business model of the news media is ‘broken’ and with it, our fundamental right to information is at risk, a new UNESCO report examining global trends in freedom of expression warns. In the past five years, both news audiences and advertising revenues have moved in huge numbers to internet platforms, with only two companies […]
The ‘Equal-Opportunity Jerk’ Defense: Rudeness Can Obfuscate Gender Bias
March 8, 2022 – If you’re an “equal-opportunity jerk,” does that mean you can’t also be sexist? New research shows that many people think so—and consider men to be gender blind when they’re rude, condescending, and berating to women and men equally. To highlight the common view that men aren’t deemed sexist when they’re rude […]
Books: Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men – a review
Male bias pervades all areas of modern life and puts women at a serious disadvantage. Shutterstock Karen Boyle, University of Strathclyde Feminist campaigner Caroline Criado Perez’s latest book is an essential if enraging read. It might seem ironic that the central figure in Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men is […]
US counties with more civic engagement tend to have more women on local company boards of directors
Women still have a long way to go to reach parity in the boardroom. Wanlee Prachyapanaprai/iStock via Getty Images Siri Terjesen, Florida Atlantic University; Hanna Silvola, Hanken School of Economics, and Mansoor Afzali, Hanken School of Economics The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea U.S. counties where people […]
What is 3G and why is it being shut down? An electrical engineer explains
The sun is setting on 3G networks. Ted/Flickr, CC BY-NC Mai Vu, Tufts University On Feb. 22, 2022, AT&T is scheduled to turn off its 3G cellular network. T-Mobile is scheduled to turn its off on July 1, 2022, and Verizon is slated to follow suit on Dec. 31, 2022. The vast majority of cellphones […]
Our meat obsession is destroying the planet – the solution is to change how we see animals
Catherine Duxbury, University of Essex and Colin Samson, University of Essex Globally, we eat around 318 million tonnes of meat every year. By 2050, that figure is projected to reach 517 million tonnes. This rising number reflects how farming animals like pigs, chickens and cows for consumption by humans has been largely normalised as essential […]
Young people reconnecting to ancestral food systems
Mariah Gladstone’s childhood laid the perfect foundations for the work she does these days, breathing new life into Indigenous Peoples’ food traditions through her online cooking show Indigikitchen. With her approach to sustainable diets, making use of pulses and other ancestral foods, Mariah became a Champion for the World Food Forum, a youth-led initiative launched […]
Good news to start 2022: These new laws are now in place to protect animals
January 5, 2021 – We begin our work in 2022 encouraged by the knowledge that a handful of significant animal protection laws at the state level have now taken effect across the country. That makes for a great start to a year in which we hope to extend the reach of our campaigns to help […]
We made our own Pop Rocks®-style popping candy, so you don’t have to (video)
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, 2022 — Pop Rocks® is a popular brand of popping candy manufactured and sold by Zeta Espacial S.A. The candies are just sugar and carbon dioxide, but making your own version of them at home is harder than it looks. In this video, we use three different methods to try to capture […]