Windblown dust from the shrinking Salton Sea harms the respiratory health of children living nearby, triggering asthma, coughing, wheezing and disrupted sleep, USC research shows. The problem is likely to intensify in a hotter climate, with evaporation exposing more and more of the lake bed, or playa, leading to more...
Exposure to particular sources of air pollution is harmful to children’s learning and memory
A new study involving 8,500 children from across the United States has revealed that a form of air pollution, largely the product of agricultural emissions, is linked to poor learning and memory performance in 9- and 10-year-olds. The specific pollutant, ammonium nitrate, is also implicated in Alzheimer's and dementia risk...
Evolutionary paths vastly differ for birds, bats
New research has found that, unlike birds, the evolution of bats' wings and legs is tightly coupled, which may have prevented them from filling as many ecological niches as birds.
The reasons flowers wilt could explain how plants spend (and save) their energy
Wilting flowers might not signal poor flower or plant health, but rather the effects of a sophisticated resource management strategy in plants, millions of years in the making.
Trees cool better than reflective roofs in vulnerable Houston neighborhoods
As heatwaves become more intense, cities are looking for strategies that can help keep neighborhoods cooler. A new tool has already helped identify potential solutions in Houston, a city where the impact of heat can vary significantly in different communities.
More resources needed to protect birds in Germany
Researchers developed citizen science platforms as a new data source to evaluate the effectiveness of the 742 protected areas for birds across Germany. This research shows that although these areas are well placed, their effectiveness varies greatly.
Immune system review provides insight into more effective biotechnology
As critical responders, macrophages can perceive helpful biotechnology as threats. If not created with the right materials or mechanical forces, these devices can trigger an immune response that can cause inflammation, scar tissue or device failure.
How fruit flies achieve accurate visual behavior despite changing light conditions
When light conditions rapidly change, our eyes have to respond to this change in fractions of a second to maintain stable visual processing. This is necessary when, for example, we drive through a forest and thus move through alternating stretches of shadows and clear sunlight. In situations like these, a...
New methods for whale tracking and rendezvous using autonomous robots
Today, a research team has proposed a new reinforcement learning framework with autonomous drones to find sperm whales and predict where they will surface.
How life began on earth: modeling Earth’s ancient atmosphere
This model reveals how vastly different the atmosphere was on ancient Earth, and how life may have first emerged.