Connecting Research and Experts with Journalists

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With Thanksgiving almost around the corner, many Americans are looking forward to a big Turkey dinner, gatherings with family and friends, shopping for gifts and other traditions. Yet experts say... ...

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The RFK Stadium bill passed this morning by the Senate Committee on Energy and National Resources in a 17-2 vote. ...

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President-elect Trump has already announced he will nominate several members of Congress to serve within his cabinet. ...

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Brain science researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are studying how the brain perceives, processes, and remembers everyday events.

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Researchers examined the characteristics and qualifications of the STEM teacher workforce in high-need schools in the U.S. and how they have evolved over nearly 30 years of national workforce surveys. The study primarily used high-poverty schools as the lens for examining differences in STEM teacher qualifications and characteristics over time.

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For the first time, scientists can distinguish the proportion of bromoform molecules that directly break bonds (dissociate) vs. those that rearrange (isomerize). This is an important step toward understanding the formation of bromoform isomers, which had long been predicted but had not been fully experimentally confirmed. Bromoform molecules are important in part for their role in ozone degradation in the Earth’s atmosphere.

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In this week’s Physics of Fluids, researchers study how Champatis roll and bounce down inclines. The authors released a heap of the seeds down an inclined plane while a camera recorded their descent to analyze their speed and the dynamics of their movement. The grains start to spread out slowly, then decrease quickly as they move downstream, akin to rock avalanches.

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In this week’s Physics of Fluids, researchers employ machine learning to more accurately model the boundary layer wind field of tropical cyclones. Conventional approaches to storm forecasting involve large numerical simulations run on supercomputers incorporating mountains of observational data, and they still often result in inaccurate or incomplete predictions. In contrast, the author’s machine learning algorithm is equipped with atmospheric physics equations that can produce more accurate results faster and with less data.

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Up until recently, habituation — a simple form of learning — was deemed the exclusive domain of complex organisms with brains and nervous systems, such as worms, insects, birds, and mammals. But a new study, published Nov. 19 in Current Biology, offers compelling evidence that even tiny single-cell creatures such as ciliates and amoebae, as well as the cells in our own bodies, could exhibit habituation akin to that seen in more complex organisms with brains.

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Researchers have found that some coronavirus genes don’t produce a working protein, but nevertheless appear evolutionarily advantageous. Their work investigating how these mystery genes evolve could help forecast which viral variants might be more dangerous.