https://phys.org/science-news/sci-other en-us The latest news on chemistry, math, archaeology, biology, chemistry, mathematics and science technologies. Linguists have long known that sign languages are as grammatically and logically sophisticated as spoken languages—and also make greater use of "iconicity," the property by which some words refer to things by resembling them. For instance, the sound of an English "bang" iconically resembles a sharp noise, and a meow resembles the crying sound of a cat. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-language-visual-advantage.html Other Social Sciences Tue, 24 Sep 2024 16:08:59 EDT news646412929 "Stranger churches"—Protestant congregations that welcomed speakers of certain languages other than English—in early modern London had "eyes everywhere" to hear, spread and dispel gossip in multiple languages, according to new research. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-churches-multilingual-gossip-elizabethan-london.html Other Social Sciences Tue, 24 Sep 2024 15:32:03 EDT news646410721 When scientists make important discoveries, both big and small, they typically publish their findings in scientific journals for others to read. This sharing of knowledge helps to advance science: it can, in turn, lead to more important discoveries. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-publish-perish-mentality-fueling-paper.html Other Tue, 24 Sep 2024 12:10:01 EDT news646394579 Housing, climate, cost of living, health—the multitude of interconnected crises the world is facing has spawned a new term: "polycrisis." https://phys.org/news/2024-09-global-crises-science-decision-makers.html Other Mon, 23 Sep 2024 13:20:01 EDT news646314861 Peter Neff understands the allure of the world's fifth-largest continent. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-scientists-source-tiktok-instagram.html Other Mon, 23 Sep 2024 08:00:02 EDT news646295449 This week, researchers reported an effective way to protect working dogs from heat stress: training them to dunk their heads in cool water. A new computational technique provided a breakthrough in understanding the so-called "pseudogap" in quantum physics, a development that could lead to room-temperature superconductivity. And a bunch of scientists agree: Evidence now supports global action to combat microplastics. And a few other things happened, too. Among them: https://phys.org/news/2024-09-saturday-citations-football-metaphors-physics.html Other Sat, 21 Sep 2024 07:30:02 EDT news646053484 From the swimming habits of dead trout to the revelation that some mammals can breathe through their backsides, a group of leading leftfield scientists have been taking their bows at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the 34th annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Not to be confused with the actual Nobel prizes, the Ig Nobels recognize scientific discoveries that "make people laugh, then think." https://phys.org/news/2024-09-extreme-human-aging-rotten-ig.html Other Mon, 16 Sep 2024 12:50:01 EDT news645709116 Front-line communities, those in regions most severely and immediately affected by increasing weather hazards and climate extremes, can benefit from partnerships between local organizations and academic researchers. However, such coproduction efforts—or collaboration between multiple entities to create solutions-focused knowledge and services—are not always equitable. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-funded-partnerships-nonprofit.html Other Mon, 16 Sep 2024 12:30:01 EDT news645708192 Mammals that can breathe through their backsides, homing pigeons that can guide missiles and sober worms that outpace drunk ones: these are some of the strange scientific discoveries that won this year's Ig Nobels, the quirky alternative to the Nobel prizes. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-backside-pigeon-bombers-ig-nobel.html Other Sat, 14 Sep 2024 09:00:01 EDT news645506841 This week, a billionaire made a spacewalk, archaeologists found a new, isolated Neanderthal lineage and the James Webb Space Telescope revealed the extreme outskirts of the Milky Way. And a few other things happened: https://phys.org/news/2024-09-saturday-citations-permian-triassic-mystery.html Other Sat, 14 Sep 2024 08:50:01 EDT news645449751 A study that explores the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and one that looks at the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners Thursday of this year's Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-pigeon-missiles-abilities-dead-fish.html Other Fri, 13 Sep 2024 04:12:04 EDT news645419479 If you have read The Lord of the Rings, there is a good chance that you skipped over one or more of the 75 songs and poems in J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epic. Yet long before he was the "father of modern fantasy", Tolkien's great ambition was to be a poet. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-jrr-tolkien-poems-insights-author.html Other Education Tue, 10 Sep 2024 15:47:03 EDT news645202021 An Australian criminologist specializing in restorative justice and a U.S. scientist whose work helps address the climate crisis are among the winners of this year's Balzan Prize announced Monday. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-year-balzan-prizes-awarded-aging.html Other Mon, 09 Sep 2024 10:53:09 EDT news645097985 If you're not susceptible to urban myths and misinformation, there's a new study from the World Health Organization that will ease your 2010s-era anxieties about cell phones. There were a lot of other developments this week, including the return of Boeing's trouble-plagued Starliner capsule to Earth with a surprising number of astronauts ( https://phys.org/news/2024-09-saturday-citations-teen-photobomb-site.html Other Sat, 07 Sep 2024 09:00:01 EDT news644848648 A mural honoring ancient and modern figures in medicine that has hung in the lobby of Pfizer's original New York City headquarters for more than 60 years could soon end up in pieces if conservationists can't find a new home for it in the next few weeks. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-mural-honoring-scientists-hung-pfizer.html Other Sat, 07 Sep 2024 05:20:22 EDT news644905215 Understanding disinformation has emerged as a lightning rod in the United States ahead of the November election, with academics and think-tanks facing lawsuits by right-wing groups and subpoenas from a Republican-led congressional committee. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-disinformation-laments-incredible-witch.html Other Political science Thu, 05 Sep 2024 04:30:01 EDT news644728366 In an article published in the International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies, a multi-center research team discusses how they hope to fill a significant gap in the documentation and sharing of research data by focusing on "contextual metadata." https://phys.org/news/2024-09-framework-contextual-metadata.html Other Social Sciences Tue, 03 Sep 2024 13:05:02 EDT news644587501 Last year, more than 1,200 people died in road crashes across Australia. But not all Australians face the same level of risk on our roads. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-nations-people-die-road-australia.html Other Tue, 03 Sep 2024 10:00:01 EDT news644575720 It's the last day of August, which means that in the Northern Hemisphere, tomorrow will be 50 degrees and cloudy; conditions are expected to be hot and humid south of the equator. In science news this week, we reported on nanoplastic contamination, spacetime dragging, corn sweat and an AI technique to read ancient papyrus scrolls nondestructively. Take your pick: https://phys.org/news/2024-08-saturday-citations-corn-nanoplastics-massive.html Other Sat, 31 Aug 2024 08:00:02 EDT news644237928 Rio de Janeiro—already notorious for street muggings, corrupt politicians, ruthless militias and Kalashnikov-toting drug traffickers—has a new public enemy: plushies. Or, more specifically, the joystick-controlled claw machines that dispense them. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-claw-machine-games-rio-de.html Other Fri, 30 Aug 2024 01:40:20 EDT news644200811 It was an interesting week for the study of human behavior as a team of cognitive scientists at MIT found what they believe is the reason that laws are written in an incomprehensible style—because it confers what they describe as a "special kind of authority" and because legislators feel compelled to follow tradition. And a team of archaeologists at the University of California, Berkeley, dispelled the myth of groups of early human hunters flinging spears at mammoths to bring them down—they found evidence that the large beasts were instead brought down by spikes planted into the ground at angles. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-week-humans-mammoths-ai-smarter.html Other Mon, 26 Aug 2024 10:50:01 EDT news643884073 So much science news this week. It's like a torrential deluge of information bursting explosively through a levee of ignorance. Who built that levee, anyway? How did they get that through the legislature? Anyway, of the hundreds of stories we reported this week, here are capsules of three interesting ones. Two of them involve bugs. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-saturday-citations-tarantulas-homies-mosquitoes.html Other Sat, 24 Aug 2024 07:30:02 EDT news643631506 A massive 2,492-carat diamond—the second largest in the world—has been discovered in Botswana, the Canadian mining company that found the stone announced Thursday. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-world-largest-diamond-botswana.html Other Thu, 22 Aug 2024 21:50:02 EDT news643560281 Statistical analysis of classic literature has shown that the way punctuation breaks up text obeys certain universal mathematical relationships. James Joyce's tome "Finnegans Wake," however, famously breaks the rules of normal prose through its unusual, dreamlike stream of consciousness. New work in chaos theory, published in the journal Chaos, takes a closer look at how Joyce's challenging novel stands out, mathematically. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-finnegans-spacing-punctuation.html Mathematics Other Tue, 20 Aug 2024 11:00:01 EDT news643302781 Good morning! Here are a few of this week's most interesting science stories to read while you're settling into the couch with your cup of General Foods International French Vanilla Cafe. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-saturday-citations-citizen-scientists-fast.html Other Sat, 17 Aug 2024 09:00:02 EDT news643028349 Creativity is the art of combining diverse ideas, making meaningful connections between concepts, and remaining focused to produce innovative ideas and useful solutions. Expansive and remote associations drive the generation of new ideas, while inhibition enables refining these ideas into practical solutions. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-creative.html Other Social Sciences Thu, 15 Aug 2024 12:20:17 EDT news642943216 This week's headlines include the extended sleepover for astronauts in the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, insight into our imitative behaviors, and the Olympic form of mice. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-saturday-citations-rare-misstep-boeing.html Other Sat, 10 Aug 2024 08:30:01 EDT news642422417 An infographic of a rat with a preposterously large penis. Another showing human legs with way too many bones. An introduction that starts: "Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic". https://phys.org/news/2024-08-junk-ai-scientific-publishing.html Other Sat, 10 Aug 2024 02:41:07 EDT news642476460 There are busy times ahead for the Norwegian rescue services, as for many other rescue services across the Northern Hemisphere. The summer holidays can often involve up to dozens of calls each day from members of the public who have lost their way or need help in the Norwegian outdoors—and many result in rescue missions. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-lost-outdoor-hike.html Other Fri, 09 Aug 2024 10:28:22 EDT news642418096 Flying can be a nerve-wracking experience for many people—but a new study out Thursday finds commercial air travel keeps getting safer, with the risk of death halving every decade. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-flying-safer-mit.html Other Thu, 08 Aug 2024 14:00:01 EDT news642343693