Top Trending Science

Most-mentioned work according to altmetrics

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Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences

Could our feline friends be spreading COVID-19? Lab research shows that SARS-CoV-2 infects cats and ferrets, raising concern that pets could be transferring the virus between households. But it’s not all bad news: the same study showed that dogs, chickens, pigs and ducks can’t be infected.
Journal: Science Subject area: Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences Publication Date: 4/8/20
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We know SARS-CoV-2 can infect cats (and even tigers), but minks emerged as a significant reservoir of the virus. Transmission of the virus was detected from humans to mink and back to humans and 68% of mink farm workers in the Netherlands tested positive for or had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.
Journal: Science Subject area: Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences Publication Date: 11/10/20
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Human exploitation of wildlife increases the risk of infectious diseases crossing from animals to humans. Hunting, trade, habitat degradation and urbanization all put people in close contact with animals, which is not only putting wildlife at risk of extinction, but also putting humans in danger of contracting new diseases.
Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Subject area: Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences Publication Date: 4/8/20
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Want to keep cows safe from predators? Paint eyes on their bums. Farmers in Botswana wanted to solve the problem of lion attacks, and working with researchers, they found that cows with eyes painted on their behinds were less likely to be attacked than those with cross marks or nothing.
Journal: Communications Biology Subject area: Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences Publication Date: 8/7/20
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Mountain gorillas are friendly…up to a point. This study showed they are friendly to familiar neighbors, unless those neighbors invade their core territory.
Journal: Journal of Animal Ecology Subject area: Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences Publication Date: 10/27/20
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Built Environment and Design

Contrary to popular belief, higher urban density is not linked to higher COVID-19 infection rates – in fact, it’s linked to lower death rates. Researchers analyzed COVID-19 infection and death rates in 913 cities in the US and found density was unrelated to infection rate.
Journal: Journal of the American Planning Association Subject area: Built Environment and Design Publication Date: 6/18/20
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As the world reopens after lockdown, sports centres are often last in line. The authors propose a "certificate of equivalence" that sports centers can earn to show they are prepared to reopen safely, and suggest that navigating out of the pandemic will require more cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Journal: Building & Environment Subject area: Built Environment and Design Publication Date: 8/1/20
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Want to be healthier? Spend more time in the garden. Research suggests that spending more time in the garden has similar links to wellbeing as living in a wealthy area: people report general good health, higher psychological wellbeing and greater physical activity levels.
Journal: Landscape & Urban Planning Subject area: Built Environment and Design Publication Date: 8/1/20
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Gardening produces as much emotional wellbeing as activities like cycling, walking and going out for dinner. Of the 15 activities studied, home gardening was the only one for which women and people with low incomes reported higher emotional wellbeing than men and people with medium and high incomes respectively.
Journal: Landscape & Urban Planning Subject area: Built Environment and Design Publication Date: 6/1/20
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As heat waves intensify, people in vulnerable communities in south LA will suffer the most because they lack access to the means to cool their homes. With compounding factors, such as COVID-19 and climate change, new solutions are needed.
Journal: Environmental Research Letters (ERL) Subject area: Built Environment and Design Publication Date: 5/18/20
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Chemical Sciences

Phosphine has been discovered on Venus, which could be an indication of microbial life on the planet. Phosphine consists of hydrogen and phosphorous, and on Earth, it is only produced industrially or by anaerobic microbes.
Journal: Nature Astronomy Subject area: Chemical Sciences Publication Date: 9/14/20
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A cocktail of enzymes can digest plastic up to six times faster than previous efforts. Engineers have connected two enzymes – PETase and MHETase – “like two Pac-men joined by a piece of string,” providing hope for tackling society’s global plastic waste problem.
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Subject area: Chemical Sciences Publication Date: 9/28/20
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An article sharing the author’s controversial views on diversity efforts in academia caused a backlash in the scientific community, and a withdrawal by the journal: “It is not only our responsibility to spread trusted knowledge, but to also stand against discrimination, injustices and inequity.”
Journal: Angewandte Chemie. International Edition Subject area: Chemical Sciences Publication Date: 6/29/20
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Nitrous oxide (N<sub>2</sub>O) – a greenhouse gas that’s three times more potent than CO<sub>2</sub> and that remains in the atmosphere for over a century – is jeopardizing global climate goals. The authors explain that N<sub>2</sub>O has risen 20% since pre-industrial levels, with the fastest growth in the last 50 years.
Journal: Nature Subject area: Chemical Sciences Publication Date: 10/7/20
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An ultra-hot planet where it rains iron has been spotted by ESO's Very Large Telescope. This article describes the exoplanet, called WASP-76b, which is about 640 light-years away from Earth in the Pisces constellation.
Journal: Nature Subject area: Chemical Sciences Publication Date: 3/11/20
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Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services

Does more sleep make you less masculine? That’s the perception that’s broadly held, and it’s one that psychologists say is harming society. Twelve experiments revealed a perception that men who sleep less are more masculine. This has implications for the expectations of people of all genders working in male-dominated fields.
Journal: Journal of the Association for Consumer Research Subject area: Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services Publication Date: 9/25/20
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Short, sharp shock: stricter COVID-19 lockdowns imposed earlier have a smaller economic impact than moderate lockdowns that last longer, according to an analysis of global supply chains. The researchers suggest a cautious approach to easing restrictions could also prevent subsequent lockdowns.
Journal: Nature Human Behaviour Subject area: Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services Publication Date: 6/3/20
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Online shopping might be the only option during lockdown, but how does it compare to bricks-and-mortar shopping in terms of greenhouse gas emissions? Research shows that of three kinds of shopping, a "Bricks & Clicks" approach – online ordering and delivery by a shop – had the lowest GHG footprint.
Journal: Environmental Science & Technology Subject area: Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services Publication Date: 2/26/20
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Bullshit in the workplace can be a real problem; researchers propose the CRAP framework for dealing with it. The framework has four steps toward tackling bullshit: "Comprehend" why it exists; "Recognize" when it’s produced; know how to "Act"; and "Prevent" it from happening.
Journal: Business Horizons Subject area: Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services Publication Date: 5/1/20
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Your passion for your work might be putting you at risk of exploitation. Research shows that employees who are passionate about what they’re doing are more likely to do extra, unpaid and more demeaning work.
Journal: Journal of Personality & Social Psychology Subject area: Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services Publication Date: 1/1/20
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Earth Sciences

In 2020, human-made material, or ‘anthropogenic mass’, outweighed natural biomass on Earth. For every person on Earth, anthropogenic mass equal to their bodyweight is produced every week.
Journal: Nature Subject area: Earth Sciences Publication Date: 12/9/20
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Three more underground lakes have been discovered, bringing the total to four. Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) data revealed the lakes, located under the planet’s south pole.
Journal: Nature Astronomy Subject area: Earth Sciences Publication Date: 9/28/20
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In 2019, the world’s oceans were warmer than ever before in recorded history. The average ocean temperature in 2019 was 0.075 degrees Celsius higher than the 1981-2010 average. The authors issued a call to action, for humans to reverse climate change.
Journal: Advances in Atmospheric Sciences Subject area: Earth Sciences Publication Date: 1/27/20
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Hurricanes are getting stronger, according to an analysis of 40 years of hurricane satellite imagery. The increase in wind strength is likely due to the planet warming, though the researchers do not yet know the extent to which it is caused by human activities.
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Subject area: Earth Sciences Publication Date: 5/18/20
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Tiny shadows the size of pennies on the moon could be full of ice, according to research. The ‘cold traps’ on the moon’s surface are in a state of eternal darkness; taking these tiny shadows into account increases the potentially icy area by 10-20% to 40,000 km<sup>2</sup>.
Journal: Nature Astronomy Subject area: Earth Sciences Publication Date: 10/26/20
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Economics

Lockdowns saved more than 3 million lives in Europe in the spring of 2020. Models suggest that without lockdowns, the “death toll would have been huge.” The study analysed the impact of lockdown in 11 countries – Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
Journal: Nature Subject area: Economics Publication Date: 6/8/20
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Scientists' warning on affluence

Thomas Wiedmann et al.

We’ll need to abandon our pursuit of wealth if we want to halt climate change, scientists warn. Overconsumption is a serious problem that will need to be addressed in parallel with structural changes and technological efforts.
Journal: Nature Communications Subject area: Economics Publication Date: 6/19/20
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Without social distancing and lockdown efforts in the US in March and April 2020 – including school closures, bans on large gatherings and closure of bars and restaurants – COVID-19 infection rates would have 35 times higher than they were.
Journal: Health Affairs Subject area: Economics Publication Date: 5/14/20
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Climate policies often have higher costs – including financial – than benefits. Heading for the 2°C target, say the authors of this paper, is unrealistic and will cost the world $250 trillion. They predict that even with the climate damage forecast, human welfare will increase 434% this century.
Journal: Technological Forecasting and Social Change Subject area: Economics Publication Date: 7/1/20
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COVID-19 could make or break our climate change recovery efforts; the financial recovery plans followed could have a big impact. Economists suggest five promising approaches: clean physical infrastructure, building efficiency retrofits, investment in education and training, natural capital investment and clean R&D.
Journal: Oxford Review of Economic Policy Subject area: Economics Publication Date: 5/8/20
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Education

On average, academics in the UK are only 10.54% satisfied with their senior management. Some of the major issues identified include excessive workload, perpetual change and work and mental health.
Journal: Studies in Higher Education Subject area: Education Publication Date: 1/14/20
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Equal numbers of students with different backgrounds start a STEM undergrad degree; six years later, about twice as many white students as African American students finish their degrees. "Active learning" approaches, such as problem-solving activities, could be the key, as they disproportionately benefit underrepresented students in STEM.
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Subject area: Education Publication Date: 3/9/20
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Should students be the judges of their professors’ performance? A large-scale analysis of student evaluations of teachers showed that factors affecting a positive review included attractiveness and the student’s interest in the class and negative reviews were linked to the difficulty of the subject and the teacher’s accent.
Journal: PLoS ONE Subject area: Education Publication Date: 6/3/20
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Adolescents’ academic achievements are affected by the way they conform to certain gender roles, according to research. The authors found that by splitting students into seven groups they identified more nuanced areas of concern.
Journal: Journal of Youth & Adolescence Subject area: Education Publication Date: 7/31/20
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Teachers should use carrots, not sticks: students who are praised are 30% more focused than those who are punished, according to research. A three-year observation of 2,536 students aged 5 to 12 years showed that students focus 20-30% more when teachers focus on giving praise.
Journal: Educational Psychology Subject area: Education Publication Date: 1/29/20
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Engineering & Technology

"My mask protects you, your mask protects me": this is the concluding message of research modelling COVID-19 transmission. Two mathematical models showed that wearing facemasks could significantly reduce the spread of COVID-19 and is most effective when 100% of people wear facemasks.
Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences Subject area: Engineering & Technology Publication Date: 6/10/20
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Scientists have found the "holy grail" of condensed matter physics: a material that’s superconducting at room temperature. They created the material by compressing simple molecular solids with hydrogen at extremely high pressures.
Journal: Nature Subject area: Engineering & Technology Publication Date: 10/14/20
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The diabolical ironclad beetle has an exoskeleton that can withstand attacks from predators and even being run over by a car – it’s one of the toughest known structures in biology providing inspiration for engineers.
Journal: Nature Subject area: Engineering & Technology Publication Date: 10/21/20
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Science reveals how to pour the perfect espresso. The secret? Use less coffee at a coarser grind. Chemists, mathematicians and coffee professionals collaborated to come up with the formula for an espresso that’s not only delicious, but also sustainable and cost-effective.
Journal: Matter Subject area: Engineering & Technology Publication Date: 1/1/20
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The moon bases that space agencies are planning to build could incorporate an ingredient from the astronauts themselves. The urea in their pee could be used as a plasticizer in the concrete, softening the mixture and making it more pliable before it hardens into its structural form.
Journal: Journal of Cleaner Production Subject area: Engineering & Technology Publication Date: 2/1/20
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Environmental & Biological Sciences

In an open letter, 239 scientists from 32 countries claim the WHO is downplaying the risk of airborne transmission of COVID-19. They call for greater acknowledgement of the risk and urge governments to implement control measures.
Journal: Clinical Infectious Diseases Subject area: Environmental & Biological Sciences Publication Date: 7/6/20
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In February 2020, a team of researchers in China published an analysis of the antiviral efficiency of five approved drugs against Coronavirus. They concluded that remdesivir and chloroquine were highly effective in vitro, and recommended they be tested in human patients.
Journal: Cell Research Subject area: Environmental & Biological Sciences Publication Date: 2/4/20
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COVID-19 lockdowns around the world drastically reduced our collective carbon footprint with daily CO2 emissions decreasing by an average of 17% by early April 2020 compared to 2019. Government actions following the pandemic could affect carbon emissions for decades.
Journal: Nature Climate Change Subject area: Environmental & Biological Sciences Publication Date: 5/19/20
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Could vitamin D be key to staying healthy with COVID-19? A pilot study showed that a high dose of Calcifediol, a main metabolite of the vitamin D endocrine system, significantly reduced hospitalized COVID-19 patients’ need for ICU treatment.
Journal: The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Subject area: Environmental & Biological Sciences Publication Date: 10/1/20
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SARS-CoV-2 may have been transmitted to humans via snakes according to genetic analysis. The virus appears to be a recombinant virus – a genetic cross between the bat coronavirus and another virus of unknown origin. Its genetic similarity to snake coronavirus suggests snakes were the most recent animal reservoir before humans.
Journal: Journal of Medical Virology Subject area: Environmental & Biological Sciences Publication Date: 2/19/20
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History and Archaeology

In the traditional hunter-gatherer situation, men are usually thought to assume the role of hunter. But a new archaeological discovery turns that assumption on its head: a 9,000-year-old female hunter burial in the Andes Mountains of South America.
Journal: Science Advances Subject area: History and Archaeology Publication Date: 11/4/20
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Genetic analysis has settled a hot debate in the archaeological world: Polynesians and Native Americans did have contact before Europeans arrived. Researchers found common ancestry among living Indigenous inhabitants of several South American countries, Mexico and Polynesia dating back hundreds of years.
Journal: Nature Subject area: History and Archaeology Publication Date: 7/8/20
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Our canine companions have been around for thousands of years. Now research shows that they were more diverse than we previously thought, with at least five distinct types in existence 11,000 years ago.
Journal: Science Subject area: History and Archaeology Publication Date: 10/29/20
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Humans visited a cave in a remote part of Mexico 15,000 years earlier than previously thought. Archaeologists painstakingly excavated the cave, which is in a part of Mexico controlled by drug cartels. Analysis of tools and sediment dates the first Americans back to 25,000-30,000 years ago.
Journal: Nature Subject area: History and Archaeology Publication Date: 7/22/20
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Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of the earliest known humans in Europe, and it looks like they spent time with Neandertals. A small group of humans sheltered in Bacho Kiro Cave in what is now Bulgaria 46,000 years ago and they could have lived alongside Neandertals for 5-7,000 years.
Journal: Nature Subject area: History and Archaeology Publication Date: 5/11/20
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Information and Computing Sciences

A new smart toilet could give your number one the once-over for signs of disease, such as certain cancers, irritable bowel syndrome and kidney failure. The toilet can detect disease markers in stool and urine, helping people monitor their health.
Journal: Nature Biomedical Engineering Subject area: Information and Computing Sciences Publication Date: 4/6/20
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Array programming with NumPy

Charles R. Harris et al.

NumPy is the primary array programming library for the programming language Python. This review of how some fundamental array concepts enable the organization, exploration and analysis of scientific data across a range of fields was particularly popular on Twitter.
Journal: Nature Subject area: Information and Computing Sciences Publication Date: 9/16/20
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Tiny living, programmable robots could be used to deliver medicines to specific parts of the body, scrape plaque out of arteries or clean up microplastics in the ocean. The millimeter-wide ‘xenobots’ are built from living cells scraped from frog embryos.
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Subject area: Information and Computing Sciences Publication Date: 1/13/20
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The leap from postdoc to PI can be big. This article, which was a hit on Twitter, shared ten rules for becoming a PI, covering broader skills and behaviors. The rules include "have ideas", "publish papers" and "believe in yourself".
Journal: PLoS Computational Biology Subject area: Information and Computing Sciences Publication Date: 2/20/20
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Don’t let "day science" blind your night vision, say the authors of this article. They argue that "night science" – the creative, idea-generating side of research – can be limited by hypotheses tested during "day science". They argue that a combination of both is needed for successful research.
Journal: Genome Biology (Online Edition) Subject area: Information and Computing Sciences Publication Date: 9/3/20
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Language, Communication and Culture

What does the exclusion of Black women from physics mean for physics epistemologies? The author of this article explores the idea of “white empiricism,” looking at the way “black women physicists self-construct as scientists,” and considers the impact on the science itself.
Journal: Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society Subject area: Language, Communication and Culture Publication Date: 1/1/20
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You could easily transmit COVID-19 even when you’re asymptomatic, simply by speaking. Research shows that the aerosol particles produced by normal speech are about one micron in diameter – big enough to carry Coronavirus particles.
Journal: PLoS ONE Subject area: Language, Communication and Culture Publication Date: 1/27/20
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Engineers have come up with tech you can wear like gloves that will translate American Sign Language (ASL) into text in real-time. The gloves have thin, stretchable sensors running the length of the fingers that transmit movements to a smartphone app; the system recognizes 660 signs.
Journal: Nature Electronics Subject area: Language, Communication and Culture Publication Date: 6/29/20
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Men in same-sex couples are 12% less likely than men in different-sex couples to have completed a bachelor's degree in a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) field. This is part of the first nationwide estimate of sexual minority representation in STEM fields.
Journal: PLoS ONE Subject area: Language, Communication and Culture Publication Date: 11/18/20
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English has become the de facto language of science – and it’s a barrier for many researchers, particularly in the global south. Conferences, scientific journals and even subject-specific jargon are in English. The authors suggest science should encourage multilingualism.
Journal: PLoS ONE Subject area: Language, Communication and Culture Publication Date: 9/16/20
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Mathematical Sciences

Scientific conclusions depend on the complex methods used to reach them, and different methods can mean different conclusions. 180 researchers from 70 teams around the world analyzed the same brain images and reached significantly different conclusions. How can methodologies be improved to make results less variable?
Journal: Nature Subject area: Mathematical Sciences Publication Date: 5/20/20
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Paradise tree snakes can glide through the air because of their ‘wiggle’. Using high-speed motion capture, researchers studied the horizontal and vertical waves of the snake’s body in flight; their 3D mathematical model of ‘aerial undulation’ could provide the basis for dynamic flying robots.
Journal: Nature Physics Subject area: Mathematical Sciences Publication Date: 6/29/20
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Researchers estimate that civilization has less than 10% chance of ‘surviving itself’ in the coming decades. Humanity may be headed for collapse within 40 years unless we change our resource consumption drastically.
Journal: Scientific Reports Subject area: Mathematical Sciences Publication Date: 5/6/20
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Forget what Back to the Future taught you: paradox-free time travel is mathematically possible. Imagine you travel back in time to stop COVID-19 patient zero from being infected. Problem solved? Not quite: the mathematicians say the universe would adjust around you – which means you might become patient zero.
Journal: Classical & Quantum Gravity Subject area: Mathematical Sciences Publication Date: 9/22/20
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Black people are 3.23 times more likely than White people to be killed by police in the US. According to new models, the highest rates of fatal police violence were found in the Southwest, and lowest in the northern Midwest and Northeast, but this pattern was reversed for Black-White inequities.
Journal: PLoS ONE Subject area: Mathematical Sciences Publication Date: 6/24/20
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Medical and Health Sciences

The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2

Kristian G. Andersen et al.

The novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic was the product of natural evolution according to an analysis of public genome sequence data. Despite previous suggestions from other groups, the researchers found no evidence the virus had been engineered.
Journal: Nature Medicine Subject area: Medical and Health Sciences Publication Date: 3/17/20
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A trial in Denmark aimed to determine the impact of mask wearing on the transmission of COVID-19 in areas where measures such as social distancing were in place, but where most people didn't wear masks. Results suggest there is less protection than previously thought in that scenario.
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine Subject area: Medical and Health Sciences Publication Date: 11/18/20
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The editors of the New England Journal of Medicine call out the Trump administration for their failings in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, writing that US political leaders have shown themselves “dangerously incompetent” and calling for them not to be re-elected.
Journal: New England Journal of Medicine Subject area: Medical and Health Sciences Publication Date: 10/8/20
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SARS-CoV-2 can survive a long time outside of a human host according to research. The virus is detectable for up to three days on plastic and stainless steel, 24 hours on cardboard, four hours on copper and three hours in aerosols.
Journal: New England Journal of Medicine Subject area: Medical and Health Sciences Publication Date: 4/16/20
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The authors of a paper published in The Lancet retracted their study after they could not access data to allow a full third-party peer review. The original paper suggested that treatment with chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine had no benefit in COVID-19 patients, but this finding could not be confirmed.
Journal: The Lancet Subject area: Medical and Health Sciences Publication Date: 5/22/20
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Philosophy and Religious Studies

Soccer could be a way to repair damaged social ties in the wake of a war. Mixing Christians and Muslims on soccer teams in post-ISIS Iraq encouraged persecuted Christians to have more open attitudes to Muslim players in the league, though the impact did not reach more widely.
Journal: Science Subject area: Philosophy and Religious Studies Publication Date: 8/13/20
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Researchers say we need to rebuild AI on the foundations of anticolonialism in order to avoid perpetuating harms like racial capitalism, class inequality and heteronormative patriarchy, all of which have roots in colonialism.
Journal: Philosophy & Technology Subject area: Philosophy and Religious Studies Publication Date: 7/12/20
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Americans have been divided over efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19. With those leaning left politically tending to be more cautious and those leaning right less so. According to this study, the biggest predictor of incautious behavior was being a Christian nationalist.
Journal: Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion Subject area: Philosophy and Religious Studies Publication Date: 7/26/20
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Degrowth may not be what you think: it’s about reducing energy and resource use according to a plan in high-income countries. The aim is to bring the economy back into balance with the environment around us, thereby reducing inequality and increasing wellbeing.
Journal: Globalizations Subject area: Philosophy and Religious Studies Publication Date: 9/4/20
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Transgender patients should be permitted to have the sex marker on their medical records amended to reflect their gender identity, according to the General Medical Council (GMC). This article looks at what sex and gender identity mean in a medical context.
Journal: The New Bioethics Subject area: Philosophy and Religious Studies Publication Date: 2/3/20
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Physical Sciences

There's water on the moon – and not just in the cold, shadowy areas. Using a telescope on a jetliner at an altitude of 14,000m, researchers detected water molecules in the sunny Clavius crater, which seems to be 100 times drier than the Sahara Desert.
Journal: Nature Astronomy Subject area: Physical Sciences Publication Date: 10/26/20
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Scientists have spotted a black hole just 1,000 light-years away – the ‘closest one to Earth’. It’s one of as many as 1 billion black holes in the Milky Way, and it’s not alone – there’s a star bigger and hotter than the sun orbiting the black hole every 40 days.
Journal: Astronomy and Astrophysics Subject area: Physical Sciences Publication Date: 5/6/20
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Periodic activity from a fast radio burst source

The CHIME/FRB Collaboration et al.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are powerful radio wave emissions that travel across galaxies. They are mostly random, but scientists have uncovered a repeating 16.35-day pattern, with FRBs arriving for five days and then radio silence for the rest of the cycle. The source is unconfirmed, but it’s not likely to be aliens.
Journal: Nature Subject area: Physical Sciences Publication Date: 6/17/20
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Planet 9, a hypothetical planet located at the edge of our solar system, might not be a planet after all, but a primordial black hole mimicking a planet.
Journal: Physical Review Letters Subject area: Physical Sciences Publication Date: 7/29/20
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For the first time, scientists have captured images of multiple planets orbiting a sun-like star. The system is about 300 light-years away from Earth, and the two planets orbiting the star are six and 14 times the size of Jupiter.
Journal: The Astrophysical Journal Letters Subject area: Physical Sciences Publication Date: 7/22/20
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Psychology and Cognitive Sciences

When a family is infected with COVID-19, it’s rarely because of the children. In 79% of cases analysed in Sweden, the parents had suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 before the children, showing that children are usually infected from within the family.
Journal: Pediatrics Subject area: Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Publication Date: 7/31/20
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Social psychologists came under fire after they used facial features in European portraits from 1500-2000 to analyze social "trustworthiness" across time. The study has been compared to the pseudosciences phrenology and physiognomy.
Journal: Nature Communications Subject area: Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Publication Date: 9/22/20
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Interventions like banning small gatherings, closing schools and non-essential shops and restricting borders have been most effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19. Researchers suggest some less restrictive alternatives, including information campaigns urging people to stay at home and distance voluntarily.
Journal: Nature Human Behaviour Subject area: Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Publication Date: 11/16/20
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A psychoanalyst calls for political discourse around gender dysphoria to be separated from medical care and decisions and shares an unsubstantiated claim that "rapid-onset gender dysphoria", which is not an official diagnosis, is widespread. The paper was widely criticized as being full of "misinformation".
Journal: BJPsych Bulletin Subject area: Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Publication Date: 7/21/20
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If you want your feline friend to love you back, do the "cat smile" – a slow blink that make humans more attractive to cats. According to the study of the role eye movements play in interactions between cats and their humans, eye narrowing plays a similar role in both species.
Journal: Scientific Reports Subject area: Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Publication Date: 10/5/20
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Studies in Creative Arts and Writing

Your dancing style is unique, whatever the music you’re moving to – and computers can recognize you by your groove. Researchers used motion capture technology to study people dancing to eight genres of music, and found that the computer could identify who was dancing 94% of the time.
Journal: Journal of New Music Research Subject area: Studies in Creative Arts and Writing Publication Date: 1/13/20
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Decolonizing Art History

Catherine Grant et al.

There are increasing calls to decolonize art history. But how can everyone involved, including art historians, collectors and artists respond? A range of art historians, curators and artists answer questions on the topic.
Journal: Art History Subject area: Studies in Creative Arts and Writing Publication Date: 1/22/20
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Beethoven might have made a mistake that has meant his music has been played too fast for centuries. It seems the composer may have been reading his metronome incorrectly and the finding could settle a long-time controversy about the annotations Beethoven made on tempo.
Journal: PLoS ONE Subject area: Studies in Creative Arts and Writing Publication Date: 12/16/20
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On-the-ground reports of protests across the US follow a long history of grassroots documentary filming dating back to the 1960s. Back then, a collective, collaborative media-production unit called Videofreex was operating in Upstate New York. This article includes interviews with some of them.
Journal: Afterimage Subject area: Studies in Creative Arts and Writing Publication Date: 3/1/20
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From vintage family photo album to viral clickbait: this article traces the journey of a 1963 photograph from pre-revolutionary Iran to our inboxes, as something that is “anonymous, symbolic, weaponized and monetized.”
Journal: International Journal of Cultural Studies Subject area: Studies in Creative Arts and Writing Publication Date: 9/12/20
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Studies in Human Society

What impact does the mentor-protégé relationship have on an academic career? A retracted paper that suggested a link between an increase in the proportion of female mentors and a reduction in the post-mentorship impact of female protégés was criticized on Twitter for undermining the value of female mentors.
Journal: Nature Communications Subject area: Studies in Human Society Publication Date: 11/17/20
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School closures have little impact on the spread of COVID-19, according to an analysis of 16 studies. School closures may slow the spread of flu, but not Coronavirus; COVID-19 models predict school closures would prevent only 2-4% of deaths.
Journal: The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health Subject area: Studies in Human Society Publication Date: 5/1/20
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An "overtly racist" paper was unpublished after hundreds of scientists and advocates signed petitions for its retraction from the journal Society. The paper claimed that poverty among Black and Hispanic people in the US was the fault of people in those communities for leading “unproductive lives.”
Journal: Society Subject area: Studies in Human Society Publication Date: 7/21/20
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The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting the careers of scientists with young children at home, according to research. Scientists with childcare responsibilities are having to reduce the amount of time they spend on research, which could have a long-term impact on their careers.
Journal: Nature Human Behaviour Subject area: Studies in Human Society Publication Date: 7/15/20
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Protests of the 1960s shed light on what’s happening today – something one researcher has called "agenda seeding". An evaluation of black-led protests between 1960 and1972 shows that nonviolent activism drives media coverage, congressional speech, and public opinion on civil rights – especially when it’s met with vigilante repression.
Journal: American Political Science Review Subject area: Studies in Human Society Publication Date: 5/21/20
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