How do children learn to cooperate with others? A new cross-cultural study suggests that the answer depends less on universal rules and more on the social norms surrounding the child. In the study, researchers examined…
Rice U.’s one-step catalyst turns nitrates into water…
NSF-funded NEWT Center aims for catalytic converter for nitrate-polluted water [caption id="attachment_14077" align="alignnone" width="640"] Many areas of the United States are at risk of contamination of drinking water by nitrates and nitrites due to overuse…
A manifesto for designing cities
MIT professor’s new book calls for a more pluralistic, democratic vision of the city. [caption id="attachment_14072" align="alignnone" width="639"] Brent D. Ryan, an associate professor of urban design and public policy in MIT’s Department of Urban…
Decades-past logging still threatens spotted owls in national…
[caption id="attachment_14068" align="alignnone" width="775"] While California spotted owls (left, adult; right, juvenile) typically perch and roost in smaller trees like this incense cedar, their nest trees are often several feet in diameter. PHOTO: DANNY HOFSTADTER[/caption]…
Ancient jumping genes may give corals a new…
Jumping genes could make an alga, and its coral host, more tolerant to warming sea temperatures. [caption id="attachment_14062" align="alignnone" width="630"] Symbiodinium microadraticum is a unicellular alga that provides its coral host with photosynthetic products in…