Out of fascination and need, people have always studied other people. When scientific methods are applied to those observations, the studies help characterize and analyze our behavior, social and political institutions, family and community structures and our economies. Scientific studies of people and society help answer age-old human contemplations.
Sophie Chu is a chemical oceanographer who studies ocean acidification. Ocean acidification is changing the conditions in the ocean. Carbon dioxide from pollution combines with seawater to form an acid. Sophie Chu’s research looks at ways to quantify and measure the chemical changes in the ocean caused by ocean acidification.
21st Century Chemist Kent Kirshenbaum of New York University engineers and folds synthetic peptoids in hopes of creating “hunter-killer” molecules that can target and destroy deadly bacteria like staph (MRSA).
Florida State University ecologists look at how the fear of being eaten may make healthier coastal ecosystems.
A study headed by Dr. David Kimbro is tackling the Apalachicola Oyster Fishery crisis. In the first phase of this research initiative, small sample areas across the bay were sampled to determine the relative health of reefs in different areas within it.
Dr. Randall Hughes and Dr. David Kimbro look at how the conch affect their prey- the marsh grass eating periwinkle snail- through fear. Will the periwinkles be too scared to eat? For that answer, you may want to check your tide chart.
As disease-causing bacteria becomes increasingly resistant to antibiotics, scientists like Erin Carlson from Indiana University are turning to natural sources to find new medicines.
Infectious disease could be on the rise alongside with climate change
Along the edges of tectonic plates on the seafloor, molten rock wells up to form fresh rock. Cold seawater seeps through cracks in the rock and is heated, driving chemical reactions that transform seawater into hot, mineral-rich fluids that billow like smoke from chimney-like mineral formations called hydrothermal vents. Although out of range of the sun’s rays, these areas are teeming with organisms that derive their energy from chemicals in the vented fluid. Jill McDermott and her colleagues investigate these chemical reactions, which may hold clues to the origin of life on our planet.
Carlos Barrios tells us what it's really like to be a materials engineer
Political scientist James Fowler makes the connection between smiling profile pictures on Facebook and human evolution.
NSF Science Now series spotlights NSF science and engineering research and discoveries
"The Los Angeles Police Department is using a new tactic in their fight against crime called “predictive policing.” It's a computer program that was originally developed by a team at UCLA, including mathematician Andrea Bertozzi and anthropologist Jeff Brantingham.
A variety of UC Berkeley research on babies and young children is revealing how well and how early in life humans are able to perform complicated thinking tasks, sometimes better than computers. In fact, scientists are even trying to develop computer programs that can mimic what's going on in babies' brains.
The Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln teaches fellows about real-world policy applications in the natural resources arena and enable the transfer of knowledge in a way that is useful to policymakers in responding to the challenges created by demands for diminishing resources, and the need to maintain and build resilience in stressed watersheds.
Whether it happens among students in a classroom, or engineers in a laboratory, innovation is a process, a series of steps that begins with imagination, and results in the creation of something of value for society.
Study shows that an ape-like creature with human features exclusively consumed fruits, leaves and other forest-based foods.
Rommie Amaro tells us what it’s like to be a biophysical chemist
NSF Science Now series spotlights NSF science and engineering research and discoveries
Meet the director of the Robert. B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska.
Dr. Charles Bennnett and his 26-member team were awarded the Gruber Foundation's 2012 Cosmology Prize for their transformative study of an ancient light dating back to the infant universe.