ScienceDaily: Society - November 28, 2023
Top society research news
Child care centers aren't a likely source of COVID-19 spread, study says
Parents who send their children to child care can breathe a little easier. New research shows that children in daycare were not significant spreaders of COVID-19.
Tomsickova Tatyana/shutterstock.com
Extra practice blending letter sounds helps struggling readers
New research has shown that extra practice in blending printed letter sounds can help struggling beginner readers (age 4-5) learn to read.
A fifth higher: Tropical cyclones substantially raise the Social Cost of Carbon
Extreme events like tropical cyclones have immediate impacts, but also long-term implications for societies. A new study now finds: Accounting for the long-term impacts of these storms raises the global Social Cost of Carbon by more than 20 percent, compared to the estimates currently used for policy evaluations. This increase is mainly driven by the projected rise of tropical-cyclone damages to the major economies of India, USA, China, Taiwan, and Japan under global warming.
Exposure to fine particulate air pollutants from coal-fired power plants (coal PM2.5) is associated with a risk of mortality more than double that of exposure to PM2.5 from other sources, according to a new study. Examining Medicare and emissions data in the U.S. from 1999 to 2020, the researchers also found that 460,000 deaths were attributable to coal PM2.5 during the study period -- most of them occurring between 1999 and 2007, when coal PM2.5 levels were highest.
New tool to enable exploration of human-environment interactions
An international group of scientists are calling for a strengthened commitment to transdisciplinary collaboration to study past and present human-environmental interactions, which they say will advance our understanding of these complex, entangled histories. Their recommendations include the introduction of a new tool, the 'dahliagram,' to enable researchers to analyze and visualize a wide array of quantitative and qualitative knowledge from diverse sources and backgrounds.
'Not dead yet': Experts identify interventions that could rescue 1.5°C
To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and limit global heating to 1.5°C, global annual emissions will need to drop radically over the coming decades. Climate economists say that this goal could still be within our reach. They identify key 'sensitive intervention points' that could unlock significant progress towards the Paris Agreement with the least risk and highest impact.
Mind the gap: Caution needed when assessing land emissions in the COP28 Global Stocktake
The land use, land use change, and forestry sector plays a strong role in achieving global climate targets, but a gap exists between how scientists and countries account for its emissions. A new study highlights how mitigation benchmarks change when assessing IPCC scenarios from a national inventory perspective, with net-zero timings arriving up to five years earlier and cumulative emissions to net-zero being 15-18% smaller.
Apology psychology: Breaking gender stereotypes leads to more effective communication
From social media to the workplace, non-stereotypical apologies can help repair trust, according to new study.
How bloodstain 'tails' can point to significant, additional forensic details
Scientists demonstrate how bloodstains can yield valuable details by examining the protrusions that deviate from the boundaries of otherwise elliptical bloodstains. The researchers studied how these 'tails' are formed using a series of high-speed experiments with human blood droplets less than a millimeter wide impacting horizontal surfaces at various angles. They found that the tail length can reflect information about the size, impact speed, and impact angle of the blood drop that formed the stain.
Massive Antarctic ozone hole over past four years: What is to blame?
Despite public perception, the Antarctic ozone hole has been remarkably massive and long-lived over the past four years; researchers believe chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) aren't the only things to blame.
Outlook on scaling of carbon removal technologies
The research makes it clear that ensuring the sustained well-being of our planet requires a more serious commitment toward new carbon dioxide removal technologies, and a faster scale-up of their production.
Most-cited scientists: still mostly men, but the gender gap is closing
An analysis of 5.8 million authors across all scientific disciplines shows that the gender gap is closing, but there is still a long distance to go.
AI can 'lie and BS' like its maker, but still not intelligent like humans
Want better AI? Get input from a real (human) expert
Input from humans helps when deciding whether to trust the recommendations and decisions of a machine-learning system.
