We know a lot about how much fossil-derived carbon is emitted to the atmosphere but less about how much is stored in human-made products. Ecological economists estimate that each year, humans add around 400 million tons of fossil carbon to long-lasting products such as plastics, buildings, and human infrastructure. Although these products could be considered a 'carbon sink,' proper waste management is essential to prevent them from becoming environmental hazards.

The future of data security depends on the reliable application of quantum technology, but its widespread adoption requires rigorous verification. Researchers have developed a novel approach to verify quantum protocols, ensuring their reliability in safety- and security-critical applications. This advancement addresses the need for trustworthy quantum systems, which is essential for the secure deployment of quantum technologies in high-reliability systems.

More American cities -- even those seen as affluent -- are home to people living without running water as people are being 'squeezed' by unaffordable housing and the cost-of-living crisis, new research finds.

A new study reveals significant improvements in the health of older adults when compared to previous generations.

In a new study, participants tended to assign greater blame to artificial intelligences (AIs) involved in real-world moral transgressions when they perceived the AIs as having more human-like minds.

A researcher has defined 'kindness' and believes this could hold the key to better communication within healthcare teams and improve care for patients.

A fragment of 'lost' music found in the pages of Scotland's first full-length printed book is providing clues to what music sounded like five centuries ago. Scholars have been investigating the origins of the musical score -- which contains only 55 notes -- to cast new light on music from pre-Reformation Scotland in the early sixteenth-century. Researchers say the tantalizing discovery is a rare example of music from Scottish religious institutions 500 years ago, and is the only piece which survives from the northeast of Scotland from this period.

Language and social cognition are fundamental to human communication. But how do these capacities interact? In a review paper, researchers show how language and social cognition are integrated in real time. The authors propose a new 'mind-tracking' model of communication, in which social micro-processes play a fundamental role in language production and comprehension.

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems tend to take on human biases and amplify them, causing people who use that AI to become more biased themselves, a new study finds.

Economists looked at test scores and school attendance for Chicago-area kids before and after a bug infestation wiped out the city's ash trees. Education outcomes for low-income students went down, highlighting how the impacts of ecosystem degradation are disproportionately felt by disadvantaged communities.

The social cost of carbon -- an important figure global policymakers use to analyze the benefits of climate and energy policies -- is too low, finds a new study.

If the experience of watching a FIFA World Cup soccer final is intense, spare a thought for the players, who are competing at an ever increasing intensity, according to a new study.

Almost three quarters of adolescents in Australia experience clinically significant depression or anxiety symptoms, with most being chronic, according to a new study. And preventive strategies outside our clinics are urgently required to address this considerable public health problem facing the nation.

A new study shows that when clinicians hear a patient described with negatively biased language, they develop less empathy towards the patient and, in some cases, become less accurate in recalling the patient's critical health details.

Digital health tools, such as patient portals, treatment apps and online appointment schedulers, are increasingly common. But not everyone is equally at home using them.

A new psychological study has shown that when people know they are under surveillance it generates an automatic response of heightened awareness of being watched, with implications for public mental health.

Though research has shown that people with long COVID are more likely to be unemployed, the statistics don't reveal what patients go through before they cut their hours, stop working or lose their jobs. In a new study involving interviews of people with long COVID, researchers describe how the prolonged illness has affected not only patients' job status, but also their overall well-being.

Despite the population being almost four times larger than it was in 1982, a new study published in the journal Ecology suggests the northern muriqui monkeys remain at risk, especially in the face of ongoing habitat disturbances.

A new article sheds light on how age-related changes may affect the way we handle finances -- and how we can stay sharp as we age.

How can we ensure that as many households as possible adopt not only solar panels, but also their own battery to store solar energy, a heat pump, and an electric car? Researchers have looked into just this question.

Tsunamis can cause immense physical damage to ports, but the economic cost does not stop there. The resultant disruptions of shipping lanes result in billions of dollars in losses every day, as was seen in the 2011 tsunami that hit the Tohoku Region. To better assess the ripple effect a tsunami could cause to shipping lanes in the South China Sea, a group of international researchers carried out 104 tsunami simulations.

Wildfire smoke has long been known to exacerbate health problems like heart disease, lung conditions, and asthma, but now a new study finds that smoke from these fires can lead to poor health thousands of miles away. Researchers found that medical visits for heart and lung problems rose by nearly 20 percent during six days in June, 2023, when smoke from Western Canadian wildfires drifted across the country, leading to very poor air quality days in Baltimore and the surrounding region.

A new analysis reveals that overfishing has caused populations of chondrichthyan fishes -- sharks, rays, and chimaeras -- to decline by more than 50 per cent since 1970. To determine the consequences, a team of researchers developed an aquatic Red List Index (RLI) which shows that the risk of extinction for chondrichthyan has increased by 19 per cent. The study also highlights that the overfishing of the largest species in nearshore and pelagic habitats could eliminate up to 22 per cent of ecological functions. Chondrichthyans are an ancient and ecologically diverse group of over 1,199 fishes that are increasingly threatened by human activities. Overexploitation by target fisheries and incidental capture (bycatch), compounded by habitat degradation, climate change and pollution, has resulted in over one-third of chondrichthyans facing extinction.

The study, conducted in the US, found that mothers take on seven in ten (71%) of all household mental load tasks.

Researchers developed an AI debiasing technique that improves the fairness of a machine-learning model by boosting its performance for subgroups that are underrepresented in its training data, while maintaining its overall accuracy.