- Vegetation cover in California's Sonoran Desert has diminished over the past three decades as a result of droughts and warming temperatures, highlighting dryland ecosystems' vulnerability to climate change. https://academictimes.com 6 comments science
- Academic papers whose findings aren't replicable are more likely to be cited than papers whose findings are replicated in top psychology, economics & general-interest journals. Academic papers that were replicated in influential replication projects were, on average, cited 153 times less. https://academictimes.com/another-front-in-the-replication-crisis-replicated-papers-less-likely-to-be-cited/ 109 comments science
- Married people experience longer durations of a deep sleep stage known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep that helps form memories and regulate emotions, offering new clues about the potential health implications of marital status. https://academictimes.com/married-you-might-enjoy-more-rem-sleep/ 938 comments science
- Studying science isn’t what makes students less religious: College majors that focus on inquiry rather than applying knowledge are more likely to secularize students, according to a new study that breaks with the traditional claim that exposure to science leads people away from religion. https://academictimes.com/studying-science-isnt-what-makes-students-less-religious/ 2695 comments science
- [deleted by user] https://academictimes.com/the-poverty-line-is-hiding-a-lot-of-crushing-poverty/ 15 comments science
- Soccer passing patterns indicate more than just play style https://academictimes.com/soccer-passing-patterns-indicate-more-than-just-play-style/ 11 comments soccer
- A meta-analysis of 68 studies that collectively included thousands of participants found that video-based psychotherapy through Zoom, Skype and other online platforms may be as effective as traditional, in-person forms of therapy. https://academictimes.com/online-psychotherapy-just-as-effective-as-in-person-treatments-meta-analysis/ 19 comments worldnews
- Political ads might cause clinical anxiety https://academictimes.com/political-ads-might-cause-clinical-anxiety/ 7 comments science
- Researchers come one step closer to ‘insulin in a pill’, to eliminate the need for self-injections, successfully testing it in diabetic rats, using nanomaterial layers to package insulin, so that the hormone can be taken orally without being destroyed by stomach acids. https://academictimes.com/researchers-come-one-step-closer-to-insulin-in-a-pill/ 1169 comments science
- Women are perceived differently from men — even when they're robots. Female bots are perceived to have more positive human qualities, such as warmth, experience and emotion, than male bots, and this greater humanness leads consumers to prefer female artificial intelligence, a new study has found. https://academictimes.com/women-are-perceived-differently-from-men-even-when-theyre-robots/ 2854 comments science
- Far from science fiction, space elevators may be nearing deployment https://academictimes.com/far-from-science-fiction-space-elevators-may-be-nearing-deployment/ 48 comments science
- A floating "space elevator" promises to amplify our ability to explore the universe. Scientists refine design for a mechanically feasible space elevator. Instead of one cable, there should be two, to maintain opposite forces while transporting cargo in parallel. (Acta Astronautica, 17 Mar 2021) https://academictimes.com/far-from-science-fiction-space-elevators-may-be-nearing-deployment/ 11 comments space
- Plant-based energy cuts iron and steel carbon emissions by nearly half: By replacing fossil fuels and reductants with forest biomass, fossil CO2 emissions during iron- and steel-making can be reduced by 43%. (Applied Energy, 15 April 2021) https://academictimes.com/plant-based-energy-cuts-iron-and-steel-carbon-emissions-by-nearly-half/ 24 comments science
- Researchers have found that seaweed farms may help combat ocean acidification caused by global warming, and provide refuge to vulnerable marine organisms https://academictimes.com/seaweed-farms-may-help-combat-ocean-acidification/ 23 comments science
- Study finds that there's no evidence that authoritarianism has led people to increasingly back the Republican party, but instead plenty to suggest that staunch Republicans have themselves become more authoritarian, potentially in line with party leaders' shifting rhetoric https://academictimes.com/is-the-republican-party-attracting-authoritarians-new-research-suggests-it-could-be-creating-them/ 3 comments science
- An experimental COVID-19 vaccine containing gold nanoparticles and coronavirus RNA successfully triggered an immune response in mice. Researchers say the vaccine, though in early development, could create complete immunity to COVID-19, unlike current vaccines https://academictimes.com/gold-based-covid-19-vaccine-prototype-shows-promise-in-mice/ 27 comments science
- Study finds chronic stress increases body’s immune system activity https://academictimes.com/chronic-stress-directly-affects-the-bodys-immune-system/ 58 comments science
- Scientists have successfully reconstructed a 66 million-year-old shark that looked similar to modern-day manta rays, providing previously unknown insights into the morphology of cartilaginous fishes of the late Cretaceous. https://academictimes.com/bizarre-new-shark-species-had-unique-wing-like-fins/ 17 comments science
- Researchers have created the first clusters of cells that behave like embryos days after fertilization, which could be extremely helpful for research into human development and pregnancy and fertility issues https://academictimes.com/first-comprehensive-models-of-early-human-embryos-developed-for-research/ 6 comments science
- Flexible sensors could pave the way for safer sports helmets https://academictimes.com/flexible-sensors-could-pave-the-way-for-safer-sports-helmets/ 23 comments nfl
- Researchers have created new water purifier that could help remove arsenic from drinking water https://academictimes.com/new-water-purifier-could-help-remove-arsenic-from-drinking-water/ 8 comments science
- Scientific modeling has revealed that the oceans will stop absorbing chemicals that destroy the atmosphere's ozone layer and begin emitting them in less than 55 years, doing so in detectable amounts by 2145, and climate change will further accelerate the ocean's sink-to-source transition. https://academictimes.com/oceans-will-start-emitting-ozone-depleting-chemicals-in-a-half-century/ 755 comments science
- Study shows abortion restrictions hurt female entrepreneurs. A study of millions reveals that even going from 11 to 10 abortion clinics per million residents in a state corresponded with a 6.71% drop in the chance that a woman would start her own business. https://academictimes.com/state-abortion-restrictions-hurt-female-entrepreneurs/ 63 comments science
- The one-third of Americans who have bachelor's degrees have been living progressively longer for the past 30 years, while the two-thirds without degrees have been dying younger since 2010, according to new research by the Princeton economists who first identified 'deaths of despair.' https://academictimes.com/lifespan-now-more-associated-with-college-degree-than-race-princeton-economists/ 2375 comments science
- Research finds sea slugs decapitate themselves, leaving only the head, and regrow entire bodies https://academictimes.com/these-sea-slugs-decapitate-themselves-and-regrow-entire-bodies/ 4 comments science
- Research shows that a healthier work environment with perceived social support from colleagues and supervisors helps employees sleep better at night. https://academictimes.com/a-supportive-boss-can-help-you-sleep-at-night/ 18 comments science
- Research shows countries led by women fare better against COVID-19 https://academictimes.com/countries-led-by-women-fare-better-against-covid-19-researchers/ 166 comments science
- Decades of research reveals very little difference between male and female brains - once brain size is accounted for, any differences that remained were small and rarely consistent from one study to the next, finds three decades of data from MRI scans and postmortem brain tissue studies. https://academictimes.com/decades-of-research-reveals-very-little-difference-between-male-and-female-brains/?t=au 2786 comments science
- First vaccine to fully immunize against malaria builds on pandemic-driven RNA tech https://academictimes.com/first-vaccine-to-fully-immunize-against-malaria-builds-on-pandemic-driven-rna-tech/ 130 comments worldnews
- Mass incarceration also hurts people outside prison walls -- an increase in the number of inmates in a given jail is associated with more deaths in surrounding areas from infectious and respiratory diseases, overdoses, suicides and more, Columbia University researchers have found https://academictimes.com/increased-jail-population-linked-to-more-death-in-community/ 22 comments science
- Nature performs sanitation services worth billions for humans - Soil filters and sanitizes 42 million tons of human waste every year, and is worth $4.4 billion, finds study of 48 cities around the world, the first global calculation of value humans receive from nature’s treatment of their waste. https://academictimes.com/nature-performs-sanitation-services-worth-billions-for-humans/ 2 comments science
- Less oil use and less plastic waste: New plant-based plastics can be recycled with near-perfect efficiency https://academictimes.com/new-plant-based-plastics-can-be-chemically-recycled-with-near-perfect-efficiency/ 76 comments worldnews
- Chemists developed two sustainable plastic alternatives to polyethylene, derived from plants, that can be recycled with a recovery rate of more than 96%, as low-waste, environmentally friendly replacements to conventional fossil fuel-based plastics. (Nature, 17 Feb) https://academictimes.com/new-plant-based-plastics-can-be-chemically-recycled-with-near-perfect-efficiency/ 1126 comments science
- Humans colonizing Mars? Not so fast, NASA research says. https://academictimes.com/humans-colonizing-mars-not-so-fast-nasa-research-says/ 187 comments space
- Single-issue voters drive senators to ignore majority - US senators seeking re-election “flip-flop” on bills related to gun and environmental policies, playing to preferences of single-issue voters rather than majority, which could explain why bills don’t pass, even with overwhelming support. https://academictimes.com/single-issue-voters-may-drive-senators-away-from-majority-opinion/ 946 comments science
- People who are threatened with firearms as adolescents are 3x more likely to commit gun crimes themselves when they grow up, according to a first-of-its-kind study in which researchers spent 16 years following a group of at-risk young people in Chicago https://academictimes.com/adolescents-threatened-by-guns-three-times-as-likely-to-commit-gun-crimes-as-adults/ 177 comments science
- When corporations acquire land in developing countries, they consistently weaken local institutions and exacerbate poverty, according to a new study using data from 68 countries https://academictimes.com/corporate-land-acquisitions-are-bad-news-for-rural-communities/ 47 comments science
- Researchers uncover secrets of a shape-shifting protein https://academictimes.com/shape-shifting-protein-upends-evolutionary-theories/ 3 comments science
- New research shows that children can improve their prospective memory (a type of memory required for things such as remembering to turn in a homework assignment) when they imagine completing the task ahead of time and predict their performance. https://academictimes.com/children-can-improve-memory-by-imagining-future-tasks/ 4 comments science
- As coronavirus lockdowns last spring forced people to change their daily behavior and take part in social distancing, those who simply kept busy experienced heightened negative and positive emotions versus those who pursued meaningful activities, according to new research. https://academictimes.com/just-staying-busy-during-lockdown-can-make-you-more-emotional/ 3 comments science
- Clinical trial finds that vaping CBD-dominant cannabis doesn’t impair driving or produce significant cognitive or psychomotor impairment. Although CBD alone doesn’t lead to the feeling of euphoria, its calming effect makes it useful for treating anxiety, depression and seizures. https://academictimes.com/cbd-doesnt-impair-driving-clinical-trial-finds/ 1255 comments science