Top Stories

Inattentional Blindness: Why Drivers May Fail to See Motorcycles in Plain Sight

The disproportionately high number of motorcycle-related traffic accidents may be linked to the way the human brain processes—or fails to process—information, according to new research published in Human Factors, “Allocating Attention to Detect Motorcycles: The Role of Inattentional Blindness.” The study examines how the phenomenon of inattentional blindness, or a person’s failure to notice an unexpected object located in plain sight, might explain the prevalence of looked-but-failed-to-see (LBFTS) crashes, the most common type of collision involving motorcycles.

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Weighing Massive Stars in Nearby Galaxy Reveals Excess of Heavyweights

An international team of astronomers has revealed an 'astonishing' overabundance of massive stars in a neighbouring galaxy.

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The window for saving the world's coral reefs is rapidly closing

The world’s reefs are under siege from global warming, according to a novel study published today in the prestigious journal Science.

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The Ocean Is Losing Its Breath

In the past 50 years, the amount of water in the open ocean with zero oxygen has gone up more than fourfold. In coastal water bodies, including estuaries and seas, low-oxygen sites have increased more than 10-fold since 1950. Scientists expect oxygen to continue dropping even outside these zones as Earth warms.

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Overweight Children More Likely to Underestimate Their Size

Overweight children are less accurate in estimating their own body size. And the bigger their body is, the more inaccurate their guesses.

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NASA Study: First Direct Proof of Ozone Hole Recovery Due to Chemicals Ban

For the first time, scientists have shown through direct satellite observations of the ozone hole that levels of ozone-destroying chlorine are declining, resulting in less ozone depletion.

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NASA's Webb Telescope to Investigate Mysterious Brown Dwarfs

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are. Astronomers are hopeful that the powerful infrared capability of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will resolve a puzzle as fundamental as stargazing itself — what IS that dim light in the sky? Brown dwarfs muddy a clear distinction between stars and planets, throwing established understanding of those bodies, and theories of their formation, into question.

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Danforth Center Uncovers a Genetic Mechanism That Could Enhance Yield in Cereal Crops

Solving the world’s food, feed and bioenergy challenges requires integration of multiple approaches and diverse skills. Andrea Eveland, Ph.D., assistant member at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and her team identified a genetic mechanism that controls developmental traits related to grain production in cereals. The work was performed in Setaria viridis, an emerging model system for grasses that is closely related to economically important cereal crops and bioenergy feed stocks such as maize, sorghum, switchgrass and sugarcane.

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We Need One Global Net­work of 1000 Sta­tions to Build an Earth Ob­ser­vat­ory

We also need to share our data. So says world’s most prominent geoscientist, professor Markku Kulmala.

Environmental challenges, climate change, water and food security and urban air pollution, they are all interlinked, yet each is studied as such, separately. This is not a sustainable situation, for anybody anymore. To tackle this, professor Markku Kulmala calls for a continuous, comprehensive monitoring of interactions between the planet’s surface and atmosphere in his article “Build a global Earth observatory” published in Nature, January 4, 2018.

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Is Arctic Warming Influencing the UK's Extreme Weather?

Severe snowy weather in winter or extreme rains in summer in the UK might be influenced by warming trends in the Arctic, according to new findings. 

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