When Friends Become Objects

Why do people use social media? Striving to answer this question, social psychologists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have conducted a survey with more than 500 Facebook users with regard to their personality structure and the way they use the platform. Based on the results, they have developed the first comprehensive theory of social media usage. According to that theory, self-regulation is the key: we use Facebook in a way that makes us feel good and hope to attain our objectives. The research team manned by Phillip Ozimek, Fiona Baer and Prof Dr Jens Förster published their report in the journal Heliyon on November 20, 2017.

'Lost' 99% of Ocean Microplastics to be Identified With Dye?

• Smallest microplastics in oceans – which go largely undetected - identified more effectively with innovative and cheap new method, developed by University of Warwick researchers
• New method can detect microplastics as small as the width of a human hair, using a fluorescent dye

Return of the Native Wild Turkey—Setting Sustainable Harvest Targets When Information is Limited

As American families sit down for the traditional turkey dinner this Thanksgiving, some will be giving thanks for a wild bird that is truly free range. Meleagris gallopavo, the wild turkey, has steadily gained in popularity with hunters since successful restoration efforts put it back on the table in the around the new millenium, bucking the trend of declining participation in hunting throughout the United States. The distinguished native bird is now second in popularity only to white tailed deer.

Soil Researchers Quantify an Important, Underappreciated Factor in Carbon Release to the Atmosphere

Soil plays a critical role in global carbon cycling, in part because soil organic matter stores three times more carbon than the atmosphere. Now biogeochemist Marco Keiluweit at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues elsewhere for the first time provide evidence that anaerobic microsites play a much larger role in stabilizing carbon in soils than previously thought.

Serene Sirens: USGS Sea Cow Science

A USGS video about manatees reveals that while the animals may act like the cows of the sea, they also have more than a bit of the magical siren or mermaid about them. 

Spinning Biomass into Gold

There’s a century-old adage coined by the paper industry that claims “you can make anything from lignin except a profit.”

Art Ragauskas has heard this maxim countless times during his career, and it gets him a little riled up every time he hears it. As the UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Biorefining, Ragauskas is channeling that ire into proving that the old saying’s time has come and gone.

New Delhi Smog 'Rivals 1952 London'

Pollution levels in the Indian capital this month have rivalled 1952 London, when smog killed around 4,000 people, pollution experts say. 

NUS Scientists Develop Artificial Photosynthesis Device for Greener Ethylene Production

A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a prototype device that mimics natural photosynthesis to produce ethylene gas using only sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. The novel method, which produces ethylene at room temperature and pressure using benign chemicals, could be scaled up to provide a more eco-friendly and sustainable alternative to the current method of ethylene production.  

Scientists Discover Systems of Change Behind Everything from Climate to Health

A new field of science is being developed by Lancaster researchers who are discovering the underlying mechanisms of interaction behind everything from the human body to climate change.

Earth-Air Heat Exchanger Best Way to Protect Farm Animals in Livestock Buildings Against the Effects of Climate Change

Without countermeasures, climate change will negatively impact animals in pig and poultry production. Beside the health and wellbeing of the animals, heat stress also affects performance and, as a result, profitability. As the animals are predominantly kept in confined livestock buildings equipped with mechanical ventilation systems, researchers at Vetmeduni Vienna examined the inlet air temperature of several air cooling systems. The best solution, they found, is the use of the earth for heat storage via an earth-air heat exchanger (EAHE). An EAHE cools in the summer, and warms up the inlet air during wintertime.