Ants, it turns out, are extremely good at estimating the concentration of other ants in their vicinity. This ability appears to play a role in several communal activities, particularly in the voting procedure whereby an ant colony selects a new nest.
Biologists have long suspected that ants base their population-density estimates on the frequency with which they -- literally -- bump into other ants while randomly exploring their environments.
Playing action-based video games may boost players' ability to coordinate incoming visual information with their motor control, a skill critical to many real-world behaviors including driving, new research shows. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
BROOKLYN, New York -- Additive manufacturing (AM), commonly called 3D printing, is a $4 billion business set to quadruple by 2020. One day, manufacturers may print everything from cars to medicines, disrupting centuries-old production practices. The Federal Aviation Administration recently certified the first 3D-printed part for GE commercial jet engines, and companies like Ford Motor Company are using AM to build products and prototypes.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 14, 2016)- Nearly 80 percent of drivers expressed significant anger, aggression or road rage behind the wheel at least once in the past year, according to a new study released today by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The most alarming findings suggest that approximately eight million U.S. drivers engaged in extreme examples of road rage, including purposefully ramming another vehicle or getting out of the car to confront another driver.
There has been a long debate about why dinosaurs were so successful. Say dinosaur, and most people think of the great flesh-eaters such as Tyrannosaurus rex, but the most successful dinosaurs were of course the plant-eaters.
A new study from the University of Bristol, led by Masters of Palaeobiology student Eddy Strickson, has presented clear evidence about how plant-eating dinosaurs evolved.
UBC biologists are digging under vineyards to see if the Okanagan's grape industry is affecting soil quality.
Miranda Hart, an associate professor of biology at UBC's Okanagan campus, her PhD candidate Taylor Holland, along with Agriculture Canada research scientist Pat Bowen, has spent the better part of three years studying soil samples from more than 15 vineyards throughout the Okanagan.
Trying to think green when buying a car? Whether your new fuel-efficient engine helps or hurts the warming planet depends on where you live and what you're putting in the tank.
New cars aim to deliver high performance with maximum fuel efficiency, making them easier on both the environment and the wallet. To do this, auto manufacturers are adopting a smaller, more fuel-efficient engine type, called gasoline direct-injection (GDI) -- between model years 2009 to 2015, the percentage of new vehicles sold with GDI engines jumped from five to 46 per cent.
Auto industry experts predict that more than 50 percent of cars on the road by 2020 will use a relatively new type of fuel-efficient engine. This transition, however, has raised questions about its ultimate effect on the climate. A study published in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology has found that because the newer engines emit higher levels of the climate-warming pollutant black carbon than traditional engines, their impact on the climate is uncertain.
With over two-thirds of U.S. adults owning a smartphone, and the rise in miniaturized sensors and low-power body area networks that are used for remote health monitoring, mobile health (mHealth) is beginning to experience a boom.
Reciprocal food-sharing is more prevalent in stable hunter-gatherer camps, shows new UCL research that sheds light on the evolutionary roots of human cooperation.
The research explores patterns of food-sharing among the Agta, a population of Filipino hunter-gatherers. It finds that reciprocal food-sharing is more prevalent in stable camps (with fewer changes in membership over time); while in less stable camps individuals acquire resources by taking from others - known as 'demand sharing'.
WASHINGTON, July 12, 2016 -- If you have ever seen objects "glow" under a black light, you're familiar with fluorescence. But have you ever wondered why some materials fluoresce while others don't? Reactions explains how fluorescence works, along with its importance for applications in forensics, medicine and nanotech. This week, we're also throwing in a bonus video on how to grow a fluorescent flower for that special someone. It's all here in these videos:
MIAMI-A research team led by scientists at the University of California, Riverside and the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science have found that ultraviolet light is changing the structure of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil components into something more toxic, further threatening numerous commercially and ecologically important fishes.
A James Cook University researcher has been studying the help given to children with a parent deployed on active duty with the military.
JCU's Gail Macdonald interviewed teachers, parents and Defence School Transition Aides (DSTA) who are employed to help students when a parent is deployed to a war zone.
Ms Macdonald said there was a particular need for the service when parents were deployed for the first time.
AMES, Iowa - Medication can help trigger the enzyme that kick starts insulin production in the body, but the drugs don't always work for those who are obese or diabetic, and most need to regulate their glucose and insulin levels. That's why a recent discovery made by Rudy Valentine and a team of researchers holds so much promise.
Scientists have found an inexpensive way to monitor the storage of the most common greenhouse gas - carbon dioxide - deep underground.
Successful trials of their method at a site in Australia will inform the development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology, in which CO2 from power stations and industrial sources is held deep underground, to prevent emissions from contributing to climate change.